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Installing Printers via Intranet Portal

  • December 31, 2014
  • 2 replies
  • 21 views
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We currently have a intranet portal that is used by our Windows users to install printers and would like this functionality for Mac as well. Our Mac users currently install printers via Casper self service. Ideally, we are looking for a way to launch the self service printer installation from the intranet portal. I found a similar feature request from a couple years ago that was under review but there weren't any further posts.

https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/featureRequest.html?id=714

Has anyone else done this? Thanks in advance!

    2 replies

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    • HCSTech
    • Valued Contributor
    • December 31, 2014

    Have you checked out Acronis ExtremeZ-IP (Zidget)
    http://www.acronis.com/en-us/mobility/mac-windows-compatibility/#section_print-features

    mscottblake
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    • mscottblake
    • Honored Contributor
    • January 1, 2015

    The biggest hurdle you are going to face is the fact that Casper uses pull methodologies (meaning the client initiates connections, not the server), so whatever solution you come up with, it will likely not be a smooth as the Windows solution that you already have in place.

    Off the top of my head, I have 4 different strategies that I would look into. I've listed them in the order I would prefer to implement if I were you.
    1. Scope the printers via AD/OD group and then utilize the Intranet portal to add/remove your client computers from those groups. If you have them being pushed from Configuration Profiles, they will be installed rather quickly, otherwise you will need to wait for the next recurring check-in.
    1. Setup an Extension Attribute that gets modified via JSS API. This EA can be used by the recurring checkin to fire off a custom trigger that performs the printer installation on the client. Again, you're waiting on the recurring checkin to actually do the magic.
    1. Create Configuration Profiles for each printer, then Download them and host them from the Intranet Portal. The users will need privileges to perform the installations and you will lose the ability to have them removed if they fall out of scope.
    1. Intranet Portal SSHs into client machine directly and initiates a custom triggered policy. (not recommended for security purposes).

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