officejet 8600 query ink level with SNMP

[tseeling]

Hallo,

our office uses an HP Officejet Pro 8600 N911a and I'd like to query the ink levels with SNMP.

I can see all of the values when I'm using snmpwalk, but drilling down with snmpget I receive an error message at querying .4

# snmpwalk -v1 -c xxx 192.168.nnn.yyy 1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.9.0

SNMPv2-SMI::mib-2.43.11.1.1.9.0.1 = INTEGER: 231
SNMPv2-SMI::mib-2.43.11.1.1.9.0.2 = INTEGER: 94
SNMPv2-SMI::mib-2.43.11.1.1.9.0.3 = INTEGER: 210
SNMPv2-SMI::mib-2.43.11.1.1.9.0.4 = INTEGER: 174

# snmpget -v1 -c xxx 192.168.nnn.yyy 1.3.6.1.2.1.43.11.1.1.9.0.4

Error in packet
Reason: (noSuchName) There is no such variable name in this MIB.
Failed object: SNMPv2-SMI::mib-2.43.11.1.1.9.0.4

I have browsed the german and english forums for other posts about SNMP, but found ambiguous information. Some posts say that .4 would be magenta. Anyway: the ink levels do not resemble the numbers I get with snmpwalk.

How do I have to interpret or recalculate the numbers?

For the above numbers the ink levels were approx. (from the display)

M 75%

C 90%

Y 30%

K 25%

Are the values a percentage of 255? Is there some other more complex formula?

Please don't suggest using the webinterface. I tried it and it is awkward. The current 8600 web interface is a mess of JS code unlike the earlier G95 and L7780 which I could handle quite fine with wget queries. I want to automate the ink monitoring with Nagios, and I really need snmpget working.

Thanks,

Tschau...Thomas

[John_Getzke]

SNMP is fun isnt it?

Problem with SNMP with HP products is that every model is not as standardized as we developers would like.  That means that the MIB for one printer model may not directly apply to a different printer model.  Even basic information like the cartridge status levels can get moved around from model to model.

What you really need is the MIB for this printer model.  I normally refer to a old link that shows the LaserJet MIBs:

http://spp.austin.hp.com/spp/Public/Sdk/SdkPublicDownload.aspx

If you snoop around that area you can pull up a few MIBs in a text editor to see how HP tried to plan everything out.  However what you will most likely have to do is contact HP directly and request the MIB for your printer model directly.  Only with the MIB can you be sure you are querying the correct values in SNMP.  Otherwise you are looking at spending a lot of trial and error time troubleshooting the SNMP directories on this printer model.  Most of the time I end up getting lucky and find what I need.

What you posted here does not sound like toner cartridge levels.  It must be some other metric that the printer keeps track of.  I see a lot of mention of Nagios out in Reddit but am not familiar with that system. 

If you dont like using the WebUI to extract information then you can always script something with AutoIT too.  There should not be a need to authenticate into the printer to return the HTML with the toner levels.  Return the page as a raw HTML object and parse through it line by line until you find something like : <p class="data percentage">40%*</p>.  Then find a way to upload the value to your Nagios system.  Have Nagios kick off the script for you or run the script from a scheduled task to dump its findings in a place that Nagios can read from.

[MikeHamster]

Hey Thomas!

Did you manage to solve the problem?

I'm trying to snmp-get ink levels from hp 8100 and it is behaving the same way as your printer.