Printing Questions

[eusdhelpdesk]

Hi,

What is the best way to add printers into Casper? I have my policies and smart groups scoped out correctly..

1. Can the same PPD file be used on multiple printers? If so, which PPD file is to be used?
2. What is the PPD folder on the Casper server used for?
3. Can the CUPS Name field be modified, will probably require a refresh of the policy?

Right now, I have a folder of PPDs from the the Apple bundle that when I create a printer, I just grab a PPD from the folder I created, from the un-gzipped files from the bundle.

I create printers on a Mac with the driver bundle installed. I add the printer to the mac via hostname, let the Mac figure out what driver needs to be configured, and then give the printer a name. I then upload the printer through Casper Admin and then uncheck the "Use generic PPD file" when looking at the printer in Management Settings. That's seemed to work so far, but I get a corrupted printer and I have to re-do the entire queue. Not sure if that's just how it is.. would like to be able to just specify the PPD file, if thats how it works.

[davidacland]

If it's just direct printing (no pull printing etc), I add the printer to a Mac, launch Casper Admin and add it.

If extra drivers are needed I normally deploy that either at imaging time or as soon as I know I might need them on the Macs.

[eusdhelpdesk]

What about adding the PPD files? Can I just uncheck and Casper will take care of it, since it know what model it is?

[davidacland]

When I've used Casper Admin I haven't had to do anything extra with PPD files. It's only the drivers that need deploying if they aren't on the target Macs.

[pblake]

I usually package up my drivers as part of my configuration, so when I map printers later, the drivers are already there.

You could package them up and deploy it separately in advance of any printer deployment.

[jduvalmtb]

You can specify the PPD using lpadmin scripts - I had to since using Casper Admin wasn't getting the settings I needed. I used this as reference. Still required having an initial policy to deploy the print drivers and knowing where the PPDs are. At least in my case, each printer has its own PPD, though I did experiment with using the same PPD for different (but similar) printers with success.

[Chris_Hafner]

I'll jump on that bandwagon as well. We pre-load known printer drivers at imaging time and then add the printers configuration via Casper Admin. That said, I am probably going to move over to using lpadmin as we're implementing PaperCut. In my limited testing I've found many funny things happening when I'm trying to capture a SMB printer que for distribution, via Casper Admin.