outq jobs stuck in snd status block the whole queue

I have an issue that occurs where print jobs get stuck in the SND status in an outq. Any subsequent jobs fail to print until I hold the offending job. After I hold the job the reaminder of the docs print. Then I release the offending job and it will print.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to identify what would cause this and/or if there are any tools used to monitor output queues for these stuck jobs?

Thanks in advance.

Printing from JDE World and OneWorld XE on the AS/400.

Sounds like it might be an IP issue in that the printer disconnects from the host but the iSeries does not know that. Do you shut down IP at all and then restart? Check the device description for time-out related parms.

What type of printers are having this problem?

Also, Help Systems sells products for monitoring and responding to messages. Further, IBM's management central in Navigator includes some tools for monitoring messages.

-Ethan

Article on using Management Central - http://ibmsystemsmag.blogs.com/i_can/2010/01/i-can-automate-monitoring-with-watches.html

Thanks for the replies. It doesn't appear to be related to the type of printer since it occurs for the HP laserjets as well as Zebra label printers... I have noticed it occur only one time when there was a hardware error on a Zebra. The label jammed and it the printer errored out. When I cleared the jam and tried to reprint, I found that the previous job was stuck in SND status and prevented the reprint from processing.

Thanks for the reply. I looked into the management central and wasn't able to find anything that monitors the queues for jobs stuck at snd status. If I cannot determine the root cause, I would like to at least be able to automatically hold the offending job so the remainder of the docs would be able to print....

It looks like your printers are setup as devices on the as400. Change it to a remote outque. We had similar issues and after changing our printers from devices to remote outqueues we've not had this issue.

The root of the issue is how printer devices on the as400 handle hardware errors on the printer. If there is an error on the printer or perhaps the printer went into standby mode and stops accepting connections from the as/400, the as400 in reacts by shutting down the writer that is associated to the outqueue that is attached to the printer device. When this happens print jobs queue up in the outqueue and sit there with a *SND status..until the writer is either started manually or the some other action is taken to start the writer. Once that happens, things begin printing again.

Benefit of changing printer devices to remote outqueues is that if the as400 encounters the same scenario described above, it does not automatically stop the writer associated with the remote outqueue. The writer remains active and the system continues to try to send output. Once the error on the actual printer is resolved and communication is reestablished, the jobs start printing again because the writer is still active.


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Thanks for the reply. I looked into the management central and wasn't able to find anything that monitors the queues for jobs stuck at snd status. If I cannot determine the root cause, I would like to at least be able to automatically hold the offending job so the remainder of the docs would be able to print....

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You are correct that this may fix this problem but the downside is that the control of the output is severely reduced. For example, with a remote output queue you will not be able to use copies, formtype, page range printing, etc. The host will simply dump the output to the printer. If you want 5 copies... too bad, you will get 1 only. Make sure the spool file attributes are set to SAVE after printing in case you do need multiple copies.