Printers
/printers. Needs module.printers and the SNMP printers
connector.
A live view of the fleet, polled over SNMP.
What you see
Section titled “What you see”For each printer:
| Toner and consumable levels | Per cartridge, as a percentage |
| Online or offline | |
| Error conditions | Paper jam, tray empty, cover open |
| Model and name | As the printer reports itself |
Why it earns a page
Section titled “Why it earns a page”Because the alternative is finding out from a user, and by then somebody has already had a bad morning.
Catch a printer at four percent cyan on a Thursday and the cartridge arrives before Friday’s newsletter. A printer offline since Tuesday goes unreported, because everyone walked to the one down the corridor.
Setting it up
Section titled “Setting it up”Configure the SNMP printers connector with a list of printer addresses and your community string.
The connector ships with demo mode on, so this page shows a sample fleet until you turn it off. The page is more use with something on it while you are still compiling a list of IP addresses.
Building the host list
Section titled “Building the host list”A large school has more printers than anyone remembers. Rather than typing them from memory:
- Export the device list from your print management system if you run one.
- Or scan the printer VLAN for anything answering on port 9100 or 631.
Start with the ones that matter and add the rest.
Reserve the addresses
Section titled “Reserve the addresses”A printer that changes IP disappears from this page, and the gap shows up only when somebody asks why the fleet is smaller. Use DHCP reservations or static addresses.
Toner readings
Section titled “Toner readings”Most printers report a percentage. Some report remaining pages, and some report a level that stays at 100 until it drops to 10.
If a reading looks wrong, cross-check against the printer’s own panel before concluding the connector is broken. Printer firmware varies more than it should.
Print management
Section titled “Print management”This page covers the hardware. Balances, page counts, credit and card release are PaperCut, a separate connector answering a different question.
Schools running PaperCut usually want both.
Raising work from it
Section titled “Raising work from it”A printer with a problem is work. Raise a ticket for it, so it sits in the same queue as everything else rather than in somebody’s memory.
Permissions
Section titled “Permissions”Covered by the printers module. See roles and permissions.