8.1 Chapter Objectives

• Present methods for configuring and naming print and batch queues

• Focus on the centralized queue manager

• Provide guidelines for configuring queues and the queue manager to ensure proper fail-over

• Discuss procedures for defining forms and device control libraries

8.2 Introduction

Many changes have been made to the queue-management subsystem over the last several years, and it can be difficult to remember what features are available in each OpenVMS version. To clarify this, table 8.1 summarizes queue-management changes that have occurred between VMS/VAX 5.4 and OpenVMS 6.0.

The first set of queue-management changes was introduced in VAX/ VMS v5.5. At the same time, Digital provided a vA5.5 that was equivalent to v5.5, less the queue-management changes. This was to provide a smoother migration path for sites that needed v5.5 functionality, but required additional time to make changes to queue configurations. In terms of queue management, VMS/VAX v5.4 and earlier and A5.5 are identical. Since this changeover is more than 10 years old, version-specific features are not discussed further in this chapter. Only post-v6 features are described.

8.3 Queue Types

The OpenVMS queue-management subsystem allows printers and computer resources to be shared using two types of queues.