Printer agents disappear from NDPS Manager

(Last modified: 07Jan2003)

This document (10063846) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

fact

Novell NetWare 6.0

NetWare 5.1

NDPS

Cluster Services

NDPS in a clustered environment

symptom

Printer agents disappear from NDPS Manager

Recently added printers do not show in console, NDPS Manager, Printer Agent list.NDPS Manager screen  list when viewing from console, NDPS Manager, Printer Agent list.

Double clicking on printer object brings up details page with all values blank/greyed out.

Users can not print to the printer that is missing from list.

change

New printers were added to the NDPS manager.

cause

When loaded from a cluster script, the NDPS manager is loaded from directory services.   This can potentiall result in a loss of data if changes have not been bascked up to directory services.

When a printer agent is created, the changes are immediately made to the NDPS manager database file, PSMDB.DAT on the local file server.  This file is in the NDPS\xxxxxxxx.PSM directory, off the root of the server.
This file (with changes) is by default copied (backed up) to the directory services database made every night at 1:00am.

If the cluster volume fails over if prior to the 1:00AM backup, ndpsm will be unloaded from one cluster server and loaded on another.  Again, when the NDPS manager is loaded through a cluster load script, it is always loaded from directory sercvices.  The NDPS manager database is read from DS, and the PSMDB.DAT file is recreated  from the info found in DS.  This info will not reflect the changes made since the previous 1:00am backup.

fix

In order to make sure all printer agents are maintained, the manually backup the database after creating new printer agents.  This is done through the NDPS manager console screen.  Select NDPS Manager Status and Control, Database Options make sure Backup Database to NDS is set to YES.  Then select Backup Database Files.

document

Document Title:	Printer agents disappear from NDPS Manager
Document ID:	10063846
Solution ID:	NOVL54324
Creation Date:	30Jul2001
Modified Date:	07Jan2003
Novell Product Class:	NetWare

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