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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
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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): Formatted Data (Client) Windows Client Print Server
Old Configuration (Unix) Formatted Data (Client) Unix Client Print Server
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 Formatted Data (Client) Windows Client Print Server 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