Jefferson Lab Printing System

Sherman White Jr.

Jefferson Lab Print Services

~200-250 printers >1500 systems (Unix+Windows) 2 Windows print servers 1 Unix print server

History: Different print servers for Unix and

Windows platforms Unix printing primitive by modern

standards Incompatibilities found between

Unix vendor client/server software: All options not recognized by all client/server combinations.

Old configuration (Windows):

Windows Client Print Server

Formatted Data (Client)

Old Configuration (Unix)

Unix Client Print Server

Formatted Data (Client)

Old Configuration (Overview)

Windows Systems: Smart print client software knows printer details and pre-formats data allowing for simplified handling by dumb printer server.

Unix Systems: Dumb print client relies on smart printer server to know printer details and to pre-format data prior to printing job.

New Configuration

Print Server

Formatted Data (Client)

Windows Client

Unix Client

New Configuration (Overview)

Windows Systems: Smart client software pre-formats data for simplified handling by a dumb print server.

Unix Systems: Smart client software pre-formats data allowing intelligence to be moved away from the print server.

New Configuration (Software) Samba: Available for Linux as well as

other Unix platforms, the software supports the Windows networking protocol SMB.

PDQ: (Print Don’t Queue) This software provides a simplified client side user interface for printing.

LprNG: Print server software available for Linux and other Unix platforms

New Configuration (Cont’d) Ppdfilt: Client side software used to

provide access to printer specific features. Integrated into PDQ print drivers.

GlibC: Link library needed to build public domain packages and to provide compatibility lair between CUE platforms (HP, Linux, Solaris).

Gtk: Public domain X widget library, used to compile Xpdq- the graphical version of pdq.

New Configuration (Cont’d) Perl- Used to write scripts and to tie

various packages together including application start up and device driver interfaces.

Printtool – Redhat tool for remotely administering printers. Comes with Redhat. (optional)

Sambatool – Public domain tool for remotely managing Samba configuration (optional)

Advantages:

One place to manage the addition and configuration of printers for both Windows and Unix.

Remotely manageable. Flexible design allows print services

to be easily moved to another system if needed.

Highly backward compatible for both Windows and Unix users.

Advantages (Cont’d)

Scripting capabilities of Unix allow for creation of intelligent management programs.

Open Source- allows for easy customization.

PPD support makes for easy addition of new printer models.

Currently Unimplemented

Failover Load balancing Accounting/Reporting*

*Supported via LprNG

Example: Adding a Printer.

Add printer to /etc/printcap of server (automatically exported via Samba)

Add printer to client-side printrc (may be added using ‘vi’ or by GUI as root)

Upload Windows device driver using Microsoft Add Printer Wizard. (Same as updating Windows Print Servers)

Screen Shots:

Samba/Windows Network Neighborhood

Screen Shots:

Xpdq printer selection window

Screen Shots:

Xpdq printer feature selection menu (driver options)

Screen Shots:

Xpdq print job status window

Jefferson Labs

http://cc.jlab.org/products