Patent ID: 8264723

Claim:
A printing apparatus that performs a printing process for a printing job including at least one print data and a series of process commands from a host apparatus, the printing apparatus comprising: a session setup unit that sets up a session with the host apparatus and an other printing apparatus; a status obtaining unit that obtains an apparatus status of the other printing apparatus that is in session with the printing apparatus; and a job synchronizing unit that maintains, upon performing the print process, a synchronization of the print job with the other printing apparatus that is in session with the printing apparatus, wherein the status obtaining unit includes a determining unit that determines whether to include a status obtaining code in control data regarding the print job from either one of an upper-level printing apparatus and the host apparatus, which is control data of a protocol other than a simple network management protocol generally used in status obtaining processing; a converting unit that, when the determining unit determines to include the status obtaining code in the control data, converts the status obtaining code of the protocol other than the simple network management protocol into a status obtaining code of the simple network management protocol; an obtaining unit that obtains management information base information representing the apparatus status based on the status obtaining code of the simple network management protocol; and an inverse-conversion processing unit that performs an inverse conversion of the management information base information into a response code of the protocol other than the simple network management protocol.