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Printer status monitoring via SNMP to Excel

Problem:

All modern printers with a TCP/IP port allow monitoring of the printer's status using the SNMP interface. There is a wide range of values (e.g. color and tray level, uptime, statuses, etc.), but each manufacturer may implement the limited and necessary set of values.

This 'how to' shows how to automate data reading from several printers and collect data in Excel in real-time, where one row in Excel contains all values for one printer. The program overwrites values in that row with the latest values. You can see the resulting XLSX file example for color Canon printers.

FYI: We use a data example from Canon or Zebra printers in this article.

Preliminary requirements:

  1. SNMP Data Logger. License type: Professional, Enterprise, or a trial version
  2. Expressions plugin (it comes with the regular installation above).
  3. Direct Excel Connection plugin (it comes with the regular installation above).

Solution:

Configuring SNMP data source

1. Click the "Plus" button in the main window and add separate data sources for each printer type:

  • 1.1. You can combine several printers in one data source (fig. 3).
  • 1.2. You can combine different models that can provide the same data set of SNMP values.
  • 1.3. You need to create a separate SNMP group for each printer (fig. 1). To simplify this process for many printers, you can export one group to a text file using the "Actions" button, search and replace an IP address, and append a new group from the edited text file.

2. When you add a new group for SNMP printer values, you should use the following settings:

  1. Update rate - as you want.
  2. Active - On.
  3. Export date/time stamp - On.
  4. Export whole group - On.
  5. Export at fixed interval - On.
  6. Wait till items are updated - Off.
  7. Add server name - Off.
  8. Export one row for all items - On.
  9. Do not export NULL values - On.

Canon printer values
Fig. 1: Canon printer values

Zebra printer values
Fig. 2: Zebra printer values

SNMP Data Logger main window
Fig. 3: Main window

Preparing SNMP data

2. We should always write data for a specific printer to one fixed row. Therefore, we should have some rules to define a start cell in Excel. We can use the Expressions plugin for this task and use a printer's IP address to distinguish data rows for different printers.

Select a data filter plugin
Fig. 4: Select a data query plugin

Defining rules in the Expressions plugin
Fig. 5: Defining rules in the Expressions plugin

Exporting SNMP printer data to Excel

3. Enable the "Direct Excel Connection" plugin and configure destination file options. This example uses a template with column headers for all new files.

Enabling the data export plugin
Fig. 6: Enabling the data export plugin

Excel connection settings
Fig. 7: Excel connection settings

Excel file settings
Fig. 8: Excel file settings

Excel file settings
Fig. 8: Excel sheet settings

4. Bind SNMP printer status values to Excel columns.

Here, you can assign SNMP printer values to the necessary column. The start cell for the first value is defined as a placeholder for the calculated value from the Expressions plugin. For all other values, we use relational positions by selecting "Last write cell+NNN" as "Left top cell".

Binding SNMP printer values to Excel columns
Fig. 9: Binding SNMP printer values to Excel columns

8. Finally, you download a configuration example (load it in the File menu in the main window), or visit the following tutorials about exporting parsed data to other targets like a database, OPC, CSV, DDE.

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