xprint 8.0c mystats manual - fujitsumanuals.ts.fujitsu.com/file/8187/xprint80c-mst-en-02b.pdfthis...

Xprint 8.0C MyStats manual

Edition September 2009

OSL-Xpr in t80C-MST-En-02 2

Copyright © Océ Software Laboratories Namur S.A. 2009

All rights reserved. Delivery subject to availability; right of technical modifications reserved.

All hardware and software names used are trademarks of their respective manufacturers.


Table of Contents

PREFACE.................................................................................................................................................................... 4 SUMMARY OF CONTENTS............................................................................................................................................ 4 TARGET GROUPS ........................................................................................................................................................ 4 OTHER PUBLICATIONS IN THIS SET ............................................................................................................................. 4

1 P U R P O S E ............................................................................................................................................................ 6

2 A R C H I T E C T U R E ........................................................................................................................................... 7

3 I N T E R F A C E ................................................................................................................................................... 10 COLLECT ACCOUNTING INFORMATION .................................................................................................................... 11 LAUNCH CONVERSION ............................................................................................................................................. 12 REPORT.................................................................................................................................................................... 14

4 U S A G E M O D E L ............................................................................................................................................ 19 4.1 CONFIGURATION ................................................................................................................................................ 19 4.2 USE CASE DESCRIPTION...................................................................................................................................... 21

RELATED PUBLICATIONS.................................................................................................................................. 22


Preface

Summary of contents The purpose of this manual is to describe the new feature MyStats introduced in Xprint 8.0C.

Xprint V8 is the output management system developed by Océ Software Laboratories Namur S.A. for use in heterogeneous networks. It is available for many open system platforms (UNIX and Linux), for Microsoft Windows 2003® and Windows 2000®. It can also interact with systems such as MS-DOS®/MS Windows, BSD UNIX, and BS2000, the mainframe operating system from Fujitsu.

This manual must be considered as an add on to the Xprint 8.0A / 8.0B manuals. Please refer to the section “Related publications” on page 22 for the complete list of available manuals.

Target groups This add-on manual is written for the following target groups:

• System administrators

This documentation contains information for the system administrators on how to install and configure the MyStats package locally on their UNIX, Linux and Windows systems.

• Xprint administrators

Guidelines for the usage of the MyStats feature are provided along with different use cases..

Other publications in this set • Xprint V8.0 - User’s and Administrator’s Guide

This manual describes the methods that can be used to handle Xprint objects. It serves as an introduction to printing with Xprint and administering the Xprint system, describing the tasks that can be executed using Xprint and the required procedures. The information in the User’s and Administrator’s Guide is complemented by that contained in the reference manual.

• Xprint V8.0 - Application Programming Interface (API) This manual is written for application programmers with a sound knowledge of the C programming language who also have a basic knowledge of the administration and general operation of Xprint V8.0. API (Application Programming Interface) allows the programmer access to the functions of the Xprint V8.0 system via a programming interface. This manual contains information on the C functions and C data structures comprising the API.

• Xprint V8.0 - Reference Manual This manual serves primarily as a reference book. It contains detailed information on commands and the corresponding options.

• Xprint V8.0 - Graphical User Interface Mercator is the graphical user interface for Xprint. This manual gives an introduction to the product and an overview of the functions available.

• Xprint V8.0 - Getting Started This getting started guide provides a stepwise description of the basics for installing and operating Xprint.

• Xprint V8.0 - Domain Monitoring GUI Description of the graphical interface, operations, and troubleshooting of the domain monitoring GUI. This GUI is especially well suited for the help desk and administrator who have to monitor and control the activities in the overall Xprint domain.

• Xprint V8.0B – Add-on Manual The purpose of this manual is to describe all the new features introduced in Xprint 8.0B.

• Xprint V8.0C – Add-on Manual - MyDocs


This manual describes the new feature MyDocs introduced in Xprint 8.0C.

• Wprint 4.0 - User Guide This document describes the installation, configuration and operation of Wprint V4.0, the Xprint client for Windows.


1 Purpose

The purpose of the MyStats feature is to provide the IT managers with information on the usage of the printing resources that are controlled by Xprint.

To that aim, the tool collects in a database all the events related to print jobs in an Xprint domain and offers different statistical reports: distribution of jobs per device, per user, per date, per media and so on.

The benefit of this tool is a better knowledge of the printing needs and means in an organization.

The MyStats tool allows the product administrators to centrally collect all the accounting information produced by the various components within the Xprint domain. This collection is performed from a web interface (Intelligent Accounting Tool or IAT in short) that is independent of the already existing Domain Monitoring GUI interface.

The collected accounting information is “viewable“ by means of a reporting function that may deliver statistical reports in the form of pieplot, barplot or text.

The reports can also be exported in CSV format.


2 Architecture

Xprint domain

Host 1

Host2

Host3

DFCdaemon

DFCdaemon

DFCdaemon

DMG Server host

DFCServer for

IAT

IAT

Web client

Web client

Web client

IAT

SQ

LD

B

1 Collect AccountingInfo

2. Convert

3. Reporting

Intelligent Accounting Tool: global architecture

Some explanations:

- The Dialog File Collector (DFC) Daemon is the daemon installed on each machine where Xprint is running. Its role is to send accounting files and “event files” (.xml files) to the DFC Server for IAT

- The DFC Server for IAT is responsible for centralizing the accounting and .xml files and for sending them to the IAT Web Server

- The DFC Server for IAT is available from any web browser as web client and is part of the Intelligent Accounting Tool Server package.

- IAT: Web clients are able to collect accounting info and to ask and receive statistical reports.


IAT dynamic architecture

Product domain

Collect Accounting

Info

Execution of the DFC Server

for IAT(IAT Transfer Daemon)

Connection to the

DFC Daemon

get accounting info from the product host

accounting Files

collected

Files content sent

back to the DFC

Server for IAT

Files stored in a folder by the

IAT Server (IAT Transfer Daemon)

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Convert

Execution of the DFC Server

for IAT

Convert the accounting

Info into IAT DB records

(Conversion module)

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Reporting

Prepare the asked reporting

view (reporting module)

Product host Web application Web client DFC Server for IAT DFC Daemon

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12


1. The accounting collection request is initiated by a Intelligent Accounting Tool web client

2. The IAT Web application handles the request and executes the DFC server for IAT (via exec on the same host) to start the file transfer. It’s the responsibility of the Transfer Daemon to start the file transfer.

3. The DFC Server for IAT connects to the DFC Daemon via TCP/IP in order to receive the accounting files for the specific host.

4. The file collection on the target host is performed by the DFC Daemon

5. The files have been collected by the DFC Daemon

6. The DFC Daemon sends the file content to the DFC server for IAT via TCP/IP

7. The DFC server for IAT (Transfer daemon) receives the files and stores them in a dedicated folder under the IAT Server root. The files are now available for other operations.

8. Conversion function is initiated by the IAT Web client

9. The IAT Server handles the request and executes the DFC server for IAT (via exec on the same host) to convert the files under the IAT server root directory into IAT DB records.

10. The files used for the conversion are deleted

11. Reporting function is initiated by the IAT Web client

12. IAT prepares the reporting (following the selected criteria: kind of reporting, format, date, time intervals, ...) on the base of the IAT DB records.


3 Interface

The web browser is the interface used to call all the possible actions offered by MyStats feature:

• collect accounting information

• convert the accounting information

• produce the reports

• get help

After connection to the MyStats web interface by means of the URL

http://<ServerName>/IntAccTool/index.php

you first receive the following screen:

This page contains different links that bring you to the different operations described hereafter.


Collect Accounting Information

Once you have clicked on the link Collect Accounting Information, you receive a logging of the different operations performed.


Launch Conversion

With this conversion operation, the accounting information is converted and stored in the MyStats database.

In this page, the answer “Yes“ leads to the accounting data files conversion; the content of the MyStats database is completely erased and filled with the newly converted accounting data.

The “Cancel” button is available in the case the conversion has been invoked by mistake.


Once the conversion is made you receive a report about the different files that have been processed:


Report Once the conversion operation is completed, different reports can be requested as shown in the following screens.

Here is the list of possible report types:

List of possible time slicing values:


List of possible report formats:

Text: the computed results are reported in text format

Bar Plot: the results are presented in the form of bar chart

Pie Plot: the results are presented in the form of pie chart

CSV: Produce report in CSV (Comma Separated Values) format.

When selecting CSV, the results are produced in a file in CSV format that is stored in the directory <IAT_Installation_Path>/CSV on the Web server machine. The file name for this CSV report is always of the form <Report_Type>_<TimeStamp>.csv

A link to this file is presented in the Web page. The user can directly open the file to see the data, or save the target data file for possible processing with tools that support the CSV format.

Note: when selecting CSV File, all the existing CSV reports older than 24 hours are automatically removed from <IAT_Installation_Path>/CSV directory.

Hereafter, some examples of report for which the type of report is “Job Size Distribution (number of jobs)”, and the time slicing is “none”

Text format


Barchart format

Piechart format


CSV format

If you click on the link, you will see the content of the file in CSV format:


Using a “right-click” on the link, you will get different action possibilities :

If you select “save link as”, the file can be downloaded and saved onto your system disk.


4 Usage Model

In this chapter, different usage models are presented.

4.1 Configuration

Hereafter you may find some examples of configurations where the MyStats can be used

The different components that are involved with the MyStats feature are:

1. At least one Xprint standalone host, or several Xprint hosts organized in a domain

2. One DMG server

3. The IAT tool installed

XPRINTXPRINT

DFCServer for

IATIAT

Web client

Web client

Web client

IAT

SQ

PL

DB

1 CollectAccounting Info

2. Convert 3. Reporting

XPRINT

DFCDaemon

Note that statistics will only be provided for the hosts where the accounting and/or the DMG is started and for which a monitoring by the IAT has been requested by means of the IAT configuration file (see further in this document)

How and when collecting info ?

Before defining anything, a special attention has to be paid to:

• what the client wants to have as reports

• the frequency of those reports (each week, each month, each year, ...)


• the manipulations to make in order to have coherent information in the reports.

In order to have correct information in the reports (no gap, no overlap), the collection of data must be made at a judicious time and following some rules.

The collected information is of 2 types:

• the accounting file

The accounting file is a unique file that grows following the printing activities. It contains all information necessary to make statistics about the printed jobs, the printed pages, the used devices, the used forms, ...

If an accounting file must be closed to start a new one, then use the command

mv <accfile> <accfile_backup>

and a new accounting file will be created with new data; all the old accounting data are now available in the file named <accfile_backup> (<accfile> is the name of the accounting file as defined in the Xprint system configuration (use the command xpshow -sys -diLONG ); <accfile_backup> can be freely chosen).

• the IAT xml file (event collection file) containing info about the printers activity:

This file informs about the printers activity (devices errors, paper end, ...).

The name of this file is parameterized in a file named „config“ in the /var/spool/DomMonGui/relay directory (Unix) and C:\Program Files\DomMonGui\Relay (Windows).

Hereafter an example of configuration file on Unix:

LOGFNBR="10"

LOGFNAME="/var/spool/DomMonGui/Relay/Collector"

LOGFSIZE="1000"

LOGFIAT="YES"

LOGFCURRENT="1"

In order to keep all the devices errors that occur during the printing activities, the IAT xml file must be present. To create it, the parameter LOGFIAT has to be set to “YES".

With this, a file prefixed by < LOGFNAME > and suffixed by “IAT.xml” (in our example: / var/spool/DomMonGui/Relay/CollectorIAT.xml) will be created and filled with all the eventual devices errors

IAT configuration file definition

To have some statistics results on Intelligent Accounting Tool interface, the database must be initiated with accounting and / or DMG xml files. The transfer of these files is under the responsibility of the “Intelligent Accounting Tool Transfer Daemon”. This daemon contacts the Diagnose Collection File Daemon” with the help of a configuration file: the “TransfertConfig.config” file.

Hereafter the description of this file.

Location:

The configuration file “TransfertConfig.config” is located in <DMG_Server_Installation_directory>/Server/IntAccTool/Server

Format:

The configuration file “TransfertConfig.config” is an ascii file. Each line refers to a host and files to be downloaded from this host; each line begins by the ‘|’ character, each field is separated by the ‘||’ character and each line ends by ‘|;’ characters:


|Host_name||Accouting_File_Path_Name||XML_Files_Path_Name|;

Example:

|d241vm02||/var/spool/Xprint/config/accounting_file||/var/spool/Xprint/DomMonGui/Relay/*IAT.xml|;

|d241s067||/var/spool/Xprint/config/accounting_file||/var/spool/Xprint/DomMonGui/Relay/*IAT.xml|;

So, the file“TransfertConfig.config” must be updated in order to contain files (accounting files and event collection files) to be downloaded from the different hosts to be monitored.

4.2 Use case description

Let’s assume that the printing system is made of several hosts running Xprint with several printers. Accounting information is produced on each host and device error information is generated on the host where the DMG Collector is running.

After a given period of time, the customer can ask to collect these accounting and error information files for recording in the database and production of the different reports.

If at a moment, the past accounting information present in the different hosts is not necessary anymore, then the accounting files must be changed on the different hosts (see the mv command described before).


Related publications

• Xprint V8.0 - User’s and Administrator’s Guide This manual describes the methods that can be used to handle Xprint objects. It serves as an introduction to printing with Xprint and administering the Xprint system, describing the tasks that can be executed using Xprint and the required procedures. The information in the User’s and Administrator’s Guide is complemented by that contained in the reference manual.

• Xprint V8.0 - Application Programming Interface (API) This manual is written for application programmers with a sound knowledge of the C programming language who also have a basic knowledge of the administration and general operation of Xprint V8.0. API (Application Programming Interface) allows the programmer access to the functions of the Xprint V8.0 system via a programming interface. This manual contains information on the C functions and C data structures comprising the API.

• Xprint V8.0 - Reference Manual This manual serves primarily as a reference book. It contains detailed information on commands and the corresponding options.

• Xprint V8.0 - Graphical User Interface Mercator is the graphical user interface for Xprint. This manual gives an introduction to the product and an overview of the functions available.

• Xprint V8.0 - Getting Started This getting started guide provides a stepwise description of the basics for installing and operating Xprint.

• Xprint V8.0 - Domain Monitoring GUI Description of the graphical interface, operations, and troubleshooting of the domain monitoring GUI. This GUI is especially well suited for the help desk and administrator who have to monitor and control the activities in the overall Xprint domain.

• Xprint V8.0B – Add-on Manual The purpose of this manual is to describe all the new features introduced in Xprint 8.0B.

• Xprint V8.0C – Add-on Manual - MyDocs This manual describes the new feature MyDocs introduced in Xprint 8.0C.

• Wprint 4.0 - User Guide This document describes the installation, configuration and operation of Wprint V4.0, the Xprint client for Windows.

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