Using the Operator Console to gather diagnostics

Operator Console

If you have trouble operating Barr Enterprise Print Server and contact Barr Technical Support, a support analyst may request that you run the Diagnostics Utility and send the resulting diagnostic file to Barr Systems.

In many cases it is helpful to include an Operator Console trace with the other diagnostic files. This topic describes how to generate a useful Operator Console trace and include it with the other diagnostic files.

To create an Operator Console trace, complete the following steps.

  1. Open the Operator Console utility.

  2. On the menu bar, select File | New to create a new Operator Console log file. Two log files, Error.bdb and LogFile.bdb, are automatically created by Operator Console. The purpose of creating a new file is to record a limited amount of information specific to certain operations or modules.

  1. On the menu bar, select Tools | Options. The Options dialog box displays.

    Options Dialog Box

  2. Under Modules, select the modules and module-specific options to display trace messages. For example, to trace activity that occurs when a file is input to the spool using Print Utility and output to Print390, select the Print Utility, PRINT390 Port, and PLC options.

  3. To select all modules, click Enable All.

  4. To clear all modules, click Disable All.

  5. To select module-specific options, click the module folder's check box.

  1. Set the priority level of each module to Technical trace. There are several ways to set the module's priority level.

  2. To set a module's priority, select a module, and then right-click and select a priority level or select the priority level from the Priority drop-down list.

  3. To set a selected module and its module-specific options to the same priority level, select a module folder, and then right-click and select a priority level or select the priority level from the Priority drop-down list.

  4. To set all modules and their module-specific options to the same priority level, select the desired priority level from the drop-down list, and then click Set All.

  1. Conduct the actions or procedures that you want to trace.

  2. On the menu bar, select File | Save to save the trace data to a log file. Select a name and folder for the file.

  3. Set the Operator Console priorities back to their standard operational levels and clear the check boxes for the modules you no longer need to trace.

Performance tuning: Setting the priority higher than Informational can cause performance degradation. Because the Operator Console continues to process information after you close the utility, you must check the priority setting before you exit. If you experience any problems, we recommend changing the priority setting to Informational.

  1. Include the Operator Console log file with the diagnostics sent to Technical Support using the Diagnostics Utility.

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