PaperCutMF & Jamf

[nick_conway]

Does anyone here currently utilize PaperCutMF within their workspace? I am looking to hear how people are using it to hopefully improve our current setup. At this time, we're using MobilityPrint because macOS Big Sur made it difficult to take advantage of PrintDeploy in an environment that is split between Big Sur and Catalina. We're now left asking our user base to follow lengthy instructions to be able to print and am praying theres a better way.

Thanks!

[dlondon]

We use it but I don't run the client - just print to the windows based print queue as we used to before papercut.  There was a time that the client popup showing student balance really increased the logon time so we removed it and haven't felt the need to try it again.  It works fine across multiple OS's including Big Sur and Catalina.  We have a Global Print queue that all users print to and then they release the job from their nearest printer.  We have a printer environment that consists of printers all from the same family so the print driver covers all of them.

Mobility print is in the works and that will let people use their byod devices but has not yet landed in my lap.  I've only seen it demonstrated once but it looked straight forward to use

Not sure if that helps.

[fredmin]

We have our student laptops all printing to an authenticated global print queue. They use the PCClient app and it works quite well for us.  If our students run into printing issues, it's mostly from being on the wrong wireless VLAN.  Otherwise, this has been a 'set it and forget it' system.  I've not found there to be hardly any lag when using the PCCLient app.

I rollout the app, the printer driver and set the printer all from one policy.  The driver install is done using a script as we have to deploy across laptops running 10.13 through 11.x and both Intel and M1 processors.  TBH, I've not given MobilityPrint much more than a cursory look as the current methodology has been rock solid.

As for instructions, we send them step-by-step explanations for printing, scanning and copying.  Printing could be boiled down to 'print to this printer, authenticate when the window pops up on your screen, then then authenticate at the MFD of your choosing to release your print job(s).'

[mainelysteve]

We do a variation of the above. Faculty and staff machines(Intel & M1 MacBook Air's and some Intel Mac mini's) currently print to SMB or LPD queues that get installed from Self Service. Students use iPads so they print to a Mobility Print Queue and use their Google Workspace credentials for auth. What student MacBooks we do have also use Mobility Print Queues. 

Those running 11.x and above that has installed a printer queue using terminal or a script knows that CUPS will not support drivers in the future so that cursory look into the Mobility Print Service should happen sooner than later. I've chosen to continue on under those OSes using scripts to install queues, but am also constantly testing deployment methods for when driverless printing becomes a reality.

[lehmanp00]

We have been using Papercut with JAMF for years now. We have the Papecut Client deployed to Macbooks and iMacs so the users can see their balance. Printers are LPD pointing to Windows Print Queues. 99% of the issues are authentication issues with staff because they never logout/reboot and their AD credentials expire. 

We have deployed Mobility Print for ipads and Macs too. Mobility Print is just easier and more reliable and therefore rapidly taking over from LPD queues as the primary print mode for us. 

[wwhite36]

Has anyone had issues getting the Papercut Client app to install? I have tried packaging through Composer and it installs but its as if there's no content in file. example 

[mainelysteve]

@wwhite36 Considering you used Composer how did you get the client on that machine originally? Did you use the apple script installer or did you drag and drop the client app into /Applications? If so have you checked the permissions on that file in Composer?

[wwhite36]

@mainelysteve Pulled the folder from our Papercut Server, but I drag and drop client app into applications. Sorry new to certain things in Jamf how do you check permissions in Composer?

[mainelysteve]

@wwhite36 Check out this thread. Essentially you need to locate the PCClient file in Composer and ensure it's highlighted. Change the permissions and also ensure to click the gear to apply those permissions to the contents in the .app bundle.

Can I ask why you're deploying the client? I've only installed it once on a Windoze laptop not owned by us. Everything else does without as it's semi redundant unless your user(s) on the machine don't match the user in PaperCut. 

[wwhite36]

@mainelysteve In our environment we use Papercut Client to notify users of how much printing cost to make a determination to print or go to our Print services office. Trust me I know what you thinking but (laughing) decision is out of my control let me just say that. Let me look over the link you sent.  

[wwhite36]

@mainelysteve Thank you for sending link, I need to do better by looking at threads even if older. Its working now. I appreciate your help. 

[mainelysteve]

No worries. Glad I could help. 

[dgeiler]

We currently use the papercut web print and we are currently adding their LDP print service. Our web print service is working great, it has been our workaround due to the windows server SMB issue. I will be asking if anyone has made a self-service LDP print queue add yet?

https://kb.unca.edu/help/printing/papercut/webprint this is a public web print document. 

[dgeiler]

Deploy print queues using Jamf and Print Deploy

This topic explains how to deploy the PaperCutPrint Deploy client to a macOS client managed by Jamf Pro .

At a high level, the Print Deploy client is provided as a ‘.pkg’, deployed by Jamf that will be configured via a .plist to communicate with the PaperCut Application Server to deploy the appropriate print queues with appropriate print drivers.

Before you start

This topic is for the following minimum software versions:

• Jamf Pro: 10.12.0

• PaperCut NG/MF: 19.1.0

• macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) or higher

You need to be a Jamf Pro administrator (or have relevant permissions), and should have already:

• macOS clients managed by Jamf Pro

• existing, and appropriate groups in Jamf Pro.

You’re also a PaperCut NG/MF administrator (or have relevant permissions), and should have already:

• made sure that the PaperCut NG/MF Application Server is accessible via TCP 9191, 9192, 9174 from the targeted client machines—preferably by a FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) rather than an IP address

• set up your PaperCut Print Deploy Reference computer

• deployed and manually tested at least one print queue.

You are working from your ‘Documents’ folder on your macOS machine.

Steps

To deploy the Print Deploy client using Jamf:

1. (Optional) Customize the user login popup

2. Create a .plist configuration file

3. Add your .plist to Jamf Pro

4. Download and extract the Print Deploy client

5. Add your .pkg to Jamf Pro

6. Deploy the PaperCut Print Deploy client

7. Verify your deployment

Step 1: (Optional) Customize the user login popup

Depending on the method you’ve chosen to determine the user’s identity, users might be presented with a one-off user login popup for authentication. For details on how to customize the branding and text on the popup, go to Customize the Print Deploy user login popup branding and text.

Step 2: Create a .plist configuration file

The PaperCut Print Deploy Client use the .plist file to bootstrap itself.

1. Open a terminal and issue the following command:

    

   defaults write ~/Documents/com.papercut.printdeploy.client server_host hostname

2. Replace the hostname with the FQDN from the ‘.dmg’, for example, print-server.company.lan

3. Convert the .plist file with the following command:

    

   /usr/bin/plutil -convert xml1 ~/Documents/com.papercut.printdeploy.client.plist

    

   This prevents an error in Jamf ‘Problem uploading file. Plist files must be in XML format’.

4. Verify the contents of the new .plist with the following command:

    

   defaults read ~/Documents/com.papercut.printdeploy.client.plist

    

   The output should be:

    

   macOS:Documents localadmin$ defaults read ~/Documents/com.papercut.printdeploy.client.plist    
   {
   "server\_host" = "print-server.company.lan";
   }
   macOS:Documents localadmin$

Step 3: Add your .plist to Jamf Pro

1. Log in to your Jamf Pro instance, for example, https://your-company.jamfcloud.com

2. Click Computers > Configuration Profiles; then click + New.

3. Type the display name and description.

4. On the left, scroll down to Custom Settings; then click Configure.

5. Click Upload PLIST file and navigate to the .plist file.

6. Click the Scope tab and deploy the file to the appropriate computers.

7. Click Save.

Note

During testing, ensure that the filename and path is exactly this: /Library/Managed Preferences/com.papercut.printdeploy.client.plist

In some rare situations the filename is deployed with .plist.plist which will not work.

TIP

If you are using different device management products, you can create your own .plist and deploy it to your workstations. Make sure the file is created in: /Library/Managed Preferences/com.papercut.printdeploy.client.plist

Step 4: Download and extract the Print Deploy client

TIP

If you are installing the Print Deploy client manually, you don’t need to extract the ‘.pkg’ from the downloaded ‘.dmg’.

1. Log in to your PaperCut NG/MF server, for example, https://print-server.company.lan:9192/admin

2. Click Enable Printing > Print Deploy. The Print Deploy page is displayed.

3. At the bottom of the page, next to Download clients click the macOS button.

4. Save the .dmg file to your Documents folder.

5. Look at the filename and check that the hostname between the square brackets is correct, for example, ‘pc-print-deploy-client[print-server.company.lan].dmg’

6. Double-click the .dmg file and copy PaperCut Print Deploy Client.pkg to the Desktop.

Step 5: Add your .pkg to Jamf Pro

1. Log in to your Jamf Pro instance, for example, https://your-company.jamfcloud.com

2. Click All Settings > Packages; then click New.

3. Leave the Display Name as is for now.

4. Click Choose File; then navigate to the downloaded Print Deploy client on the Desktop (extracted from the ‘.dmg’ in the previous step).

5. Rename the Display Name, for example, remove .pkg.

6. Click Save.

Step 6: Deploy the PaperCut Print Deploy client

1. Log in to your Jamf Pro instance, for example, https://your-company.jamfcloud.com

2. Click the Computers tab > Policies ; then click + New.

3. Type the Display Name.

4. Set the appropriate triggers.

5. Click Packages ; then click Configure.

6. Next to the recently uploaded ‘PaperCut Print Deploy Client’ package, click Add.

7. Click the Scope tab and deploy to the appropriate computers.

8. Click Save.

Step 7: Verify your deployment

Depending on your Jamf environment, you should be able to trigger the deployment of your new PaperCut Print Deploy client via the following command in Terminal (requires sudo access): sudo jamf policy

After you issue the command the Print Deploy client is deployed to the computer along with the bootstraping .plist file.

Print queues are then installed as required. You can see them in System Preferences > Print & Scan (or if enabled, the CUPS web interface).

Some environments will present the logged in user with a username and password prompt.

Note

A note about the Default printer

As of v1.3 of Print Deploy, you can now set one print queue in each zone as the default by selecting “Set as default” on the print queue’s options button (⋯) within the zone.

Prior to v1.3 or if there is no default print queue set in a zone, the Print Deploy client sets the default print queue based on if a print queue name is a Find me queue (or variation of, with spaces/hyphens in between).

However, if Windows has been set up to manage the default printer for users, then the client honors this setting. Disable this setting if you intend the client to honor the default print queue from the server.