Printer toner tracking

[localzuk]

Does anyone know if there is some form of system for tracking when toners are replaced in network printers? So, for example, it keeps track of the SNMP messages and spots the 'replace toner' messages and logs them and the page counts?

[OutToLunch]

Mine involves a permanent marker, a notebook and writing the date I installed the toner on the cartridge and going "Arrrrrrrrrrrgh! When I come to replace it 2 weeks later"...

[plexer]

Not that I know of, GLPI will track it but it's a manual process.

 

Nagios can monitor the printer and tell you the toner status so you could build on that.

 

Ben

[localzuk]

Nagios can monitor the printer and tell you the toner status so you could build on that.

 

That's what I'm currently looking at. It'd be a lot easier if I had the SNMP MIB for each make of printer though.

[plexer]

A lot of printers use the same id for their toners, do you have a particularly eclectic mix?

 

Ben

[localzuk]

A lot of printers use the same id for their toners, do you have a particularly eclectic mix?

 

Ben

 

Yup We've got HP, Ricoh, Brother, Oki, and Epson. So, I just need to know what they report back when questioned by my nagios scripts, as I can then parse that and stick it in MySQL.

[plexer]

Ok, not sure what nagios checks you're using a the moment but a quick search shows this one:

 

Nagios Exchange - check_printer - All in one printer check suitable for most devices

 

Supposed to support multiple manafacturers from one check.

 

Ben

[localzuk]

It does appear that works with the printers i've checked so far... Onwards an upwards.

[steve]

If you have HP printers, how about:

 

HP Web Jetadmin software

[localzuk]

If you have HP printers, how about:

 

HP Web Jetadmin software

 

I run it already, but it has several issues, such as poor support for non-HP printers (out of the 15 in school only a handful are HP), it doesn't automatically log when toners are changed as far as I know.

 

So its great for monitoring things, but is limited.

[mac_shinobi]

I run it already, but it has several issues, such as poor support for non-HP printers (out of the 15 in school only a handful are HP), it doesn't automatically log when toners are changed as far as I know.

 

So its great for monitoring things, but is limited.

 

Not sure reference support for Non ( Make ) support here but Ricoh has Smart Device Monitor for admins and Client ( its the admins one you want )

 

Download | Ricoh Support Europe

 

scroll to bottom of downloads page under MFP Management / Printer Management and its

 

the link that literally says

 

Smart Device Monitor for Admins

 

Click that

 

Click on Download file from external website - when new page loads scroll down about half way down and make sure its Smart Device Monitor Version 8.x.x.x which is aprox 55mb, its a self extracting exe, so extract into a folder and run setup.exe and install that

 

On launch it will prompt ref what version of SNMP to use, I tried both and I think Version 3 gave me better results, if it prompts for login credentials for Ricoh's as defaults ( for most of the Devices )

 

username = admin

password is blank ie ignore password field

 

Click ok / login

 

It will broadcast the network and then come back and populate a listview, find the relevant Copier and right click on it and go to User Management Tool - it will take a little while but it should come up with a window and a weird progress bar and then come up with a window where at the top right you can select type of counters you are after ie

 

Printer

Copier

Scanner

Fax

etc

etc

 

Select what type of counters you are after and assuming you have user codes programmed on each Ricoh device it will come back in a tabular format where you can view what each user ( shown as a user code ) has printed / copied or done for the type of counter you select ie

 

If you select Printer then it will show what B&W and what Colour print jobs users have done ie

 

---User --- B & W | Colour

1234 | 219 | 563

5678 | 121 | 329

 

etc

 

the same for Copier , Scanner, etc

 

You can export results into an excel spreadsheet ( either xls or csv format ) cant remember which.

 

As above not sure if it supports Non Ricoh devices so would be something you will have to try.

 

Other then that the nagios thing mentioned above is one way to go - would be good to know if thats better and if so any chance of a quick guide on how to set that up ?