Printer errors
As an IT practitioner, you manage a large number of printers. You need to be able to quickly identify errors across all printers in your environment.
Data required
Microsoft: Windows event logs
Procedure
- Verify that you deployed the Splunk Add-on for Microsoft Windows to the search heads and Splunk Universal Forwarders on the monitored systems. For more information, see About installing Splunk add-ons.
- Enable the
WinPrintMon://jobinput. - Run the following search. You can optimize it by specifying an index and adjusting the time range.
eventtype=printmon_windows status="printing,error" | table _time, user, status, document, total_pages, size_bytes, host, printer
Search explanation
The table provides an explanation of what each part of this search achieves. You can adjust this query based on the specifics of your environment.
| Splunk Search | Explanation |
|---|---|
eventtype=printmon_windows status="printing,error" |
Search for printer errors. |
| table _time, user, status, document, total_pages, size_bytes, host, printer |
Display the results in a table with columns in the order shown. |
Next steps
Bringing printer data into the Splunk platform lets you answer questions such as how many print servers and printers are in my environment? What is my current spooling load? How many jobs are having issues? For additional analysis capabilities, you can also enable the following inputs:
WinPrintMon://printerWinPrintMon://driverWinPrintMon://port
Finally, you might want to look at additional searches in Managing printers in a Windows environment.