Move to client/server environment loses previous
mainframe-based centralized control over print spooling
IT Infrastructure
ICIS Customer information system
Oracle Financials
Engarde Asset Management
9 x IBM eServer pSeries server
35 IBM AIX servers
Windows NT servers
Oracle RDBMS
BMC Software's PATROL
Realized Benefits
COSprint enables centralized control over print spooling
in client/server environment
Users continue to enjoy high levels of support on print
services
"COSprint gives us the ideal combination of simplicity,
resilience and scalability."
Malcolm Beckwith, IT Data Centre Manager
OSM Products
COSprint
(COSbatch, COSduty and COSuser are also installed. More
information via OSM)
OSM Services
Professional Services used to integrate COSprint with
the HACMP high availability environment
NWL recognizes need for centralized print
management of client/server-based applications
COSprint proves to be the right solution,
ensuring excellent print services to users while minimizing
Support overheads
Northumbrian Water and Essex & Suffolk
Water form both parts of the company Northumbrian Water Limited
(NWL) - the largest independent water company in the United Kingdom.
The water and sewerage company invests
millions of pounds every year on improvements to the service
they provide to their customers and on environmental
improvements.
NWL provides water and waste water services to
2.6 million customers in the North East of England and water
services to 1.7 million customers in the South East of England.
Their customer information system is at the heart of their
customer service and billing operations, and enables the company
to provide a responsive and efficient service through its 2,000-plus employees.
When NWL decided to replace their mainframe-based
customer information system with a client/server-based system
they realised that they would need systems management tools to
ensure the smooth-running of the system. One aspect of this was
to ensure quality print services to users without increasing
support costs, so NWL set out to look for an output management
tool.
Malcolm Beckwith, Datacentre Manager at NWL,
explained their quest: "Our initial investigations were focused
on finding tools that matched and exceeded our mainframe
functionality."
NWL chose COSprint, a module within the COSMOS
systems management suite it selected from OSM. It quickly
realized its benefits. The customer information system, ICIS,
produces an enormous number of documents and these are targeted
to over 500 printers and other output devices across the
country. Staff generate in excess of 10,000 print jobs per day
and it is imperative that each reaches its destination quickly
and reliably.
The NWL datacentre now consists of nine large IBM eServer pSeries
servers, approximately 35 smaller IBM AIX
servers, and an even larger number of Windows NT systems. These
large eServers replace a previous investment in IBM SP systems.
They run the Oracle RDBMS, the company's main applications for
customer billing (ICIS), Oracle Financials, asset management and
data warehousing. The company has a major investment in GIS
systems, and has moved to thin client and Citrix servers in many
areas. The department provides high availability wherever
possible, using HACMP in the datacentre, and failover hardware
and systems software on their Windows and Citrix systems. The
company also uses an off-site facility for disaster recovery.
The reliability of their systems is paramount and the systems
management software had to live up to that, providing a robust
environment.
The production COSprint domain consists of a
single server configured for approximately 500 printer queues,
each with a single associated printer, across a country-wide
WAN. All printers are network devices. Availability is ensured
using a combination of the COSprint FailOver module and the
COSprint KM for PATROL.
The backup COSprint domain, configured using the
COSprint FailOver module, is not used during normal operation.
Periodically, the COSprint database on the backup server is
automatically populated with data from the production COSprint
server and COSprint is restarted. In the event of a failure of
the production server the backup server is already running
COSprint.
Printing on all other nodes is achieved using the
COSprint Client, which is a cut-down version of COSprint
designed for efficiency and scalability. In brief summary, the
COSprint Client allows NWL to print jobs, cancel jobs and view
user queues from those nodes running the software, without the
use of lpd.
The COSprint Client solution has three
significant benefits for NWL. The first is that COSprint
provides centralized control of spool queues enabling effective
management of the process. Secondly, no print data is held
locally on the client node so there is no need to synchronize
data with the COSprint Server - which could otherwise be a
significant overhead in a large print domain. Finally, the
COSprint Client's "rank" system defines which COSprint Servers
should be used to satisfy the print request so that, if the
print request fails via the first chosen server, the client can
automatically attempt the request via the backup server.
"COSprint gives us the ideal combination of
simplicity, resilience and scalability." said Beckwith.
To further ensure the integrity of its document distribution
via COSprint, NWL has licensed the COSprint Knowledge
Module (KM) for PATROL from OSM, along with a significant investment
in PATROL itself. The PATROL product was licensed from OSM, the
world's longest standing reseller of this technology owned by BMC
Software. The COSprint KM allows NWL to propagate any alarm
states generated by COSprint to the PATROL desktop. Help
desk users can then drill down into COSprint from within
PATROL, to identify and correct the problems causing the alarms.
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