Musings on the printing problem

By SysAdmin1138 on
Novell is rewriting the print-pooling code, so this is sort of moot. But I just got a second good network-capture of what The Problem looks like at the wire-level. At 1:22:05pm today, PRHH245-1 suffered the problem. And I got a sniff. Wohoo!

Normal traffic (as far as I can figure):
(S = Print server, P = Printer)
[handshake]
  1. S -> P: LPR Print-queue name
  2. P -> S: OK
  3. S -> P: Control-File name will be...
  4. P -> S: OK
  5. S -> P: Control-file transmission (includes header info like the filename, job owner, print-server)
  6. P -> S: OK
  7. S -> P: Data-File name will be...
  8. P -> S: OK
  9. S -> P: Data-file transmission
  10. P -> S: OK
  11. [session teardown]
When the problem happens, it steps in at step 9. When it happens, instead of step 9, you get session-teardown instead. What is also telling to me is that there are two print-jobs attempting to print essentially simultaneously. The difference between the two print-jobs at the wire-level is about 150ms. As I page through the capture, I don't see that sort of occurrence happening anywhere else.

So, looks like software is tripping up, rather than something strange happening on the wire. At least, that's what my two datapoints tell me so far.