Printer pushed by Configuration Profile missing Options

[alybarta_bwbmn]

I gave deploying printers via the Configuration Profile payload a try. Most of the printers had no issue deploying, but I ran into issues with deploying our more complicated printers.

We run Ricoh C6502 MFCs for our follow-me printing and these by standard have a large capacity tray and finisher. We print from the Macs via PostScript.

When uploading via Jamf Admin and deploying via Policies, the large capacity tray and finisher options are preserved.

When attempting to deploy these printers via Configuration Profile, the tray and finisher settings are not preserved, which causes options for trays, stapling, and other finishing operations to not be present.

Wondering if anyone else came across this in their testing or if my printer settings in question have issues. I tried this across Ventura 13.4 and Sonoma 14 Beta 4 and submitted feedback on the latter version.

Looking in the /etc/cups/printers.conf, does not appear to be a difference between the Policies and Configuration Profiles installs.

[mainelysteve · Accepted solution]

Configuration profile delivered printers don't really have any nuances. It more or less creates the printer object for you and changes the default printer option, that's it. Finishers and finishing options can really only be set either by Jamf Admin or in a script using lpadmin and using -o to set your options. 

I'd probably relegate config profile printers to desktop lasers or inkjets.

[alybarta_bwbmn]

TL;DR That's looking like the current solution for complex printers.

Long version: Looking into the cupsd service, looks like there might be a way to set these settings from printers.conf (which is currently the method the Printers (mcx) payload is using to set printers) using OpsProfile but currently there is no method supported by the apple Printers configuration profile to set options. Might stick to setting the simpler printers via configuration profile and the complex printer (which there is thankfully only one of) via policy/script.