SUMMARY [setting up a printserver]

From: Amol Karnik (amol@memcad.com)
Date: Mon Mar 02 1998 - 17:06:03 CST


hi all,

finally! the reason behind the delay in posting a summary is the
inordinate amount of time i need to figure out how to do things right,
and set up a printserver in a heterogeneous environment.

i received a lot of replies from people, whose names appear at the end
of this email.

here's my original question:
-------------START QUESTION ---------------------------

> its me again, back to hound you all! this time i
> would like to setup a printserver and am interested in knowing
> how people are doing it on their networks, and what
> are the sources of info for doing this.
>
> i went through the "unix sys admin handbook" - Nementh, Snyder etc
> and a few websites, but am still as much in the dark about this,
> as earlier.
>
> we have a network here of a few sun ultras (solaris 2.5.1 & solaris 2.6)
> hp's with hp-ux 10.20 and a sgi irix 6.2, plus a few pc's.
>
> we have two postscript printers, and hp color deskjet and a
> hp laserjet, both with network cards attached to them (jetadmin).
> what would one recommend as the best method for setting up a
> print server on a Solaris2.5.1 machine?
>
> currently, each of the individual workstations has a printer defined
> via admintool, and prints directly to the network printers.
> however, from the sun's, one can only print postscript files to the
> printers, not ascii. ascii files are printed out indented line by line,
> hence unreadable. i would like to know how to resolve this problem.
> after doing this, i would like to setup a printserver so that
> i dont have manage the printers onall the machines. also,
> do these printers have to be connected to a particular machine
> physically?
> both of them have an ip address assigned to them.
>
> thanks in advance for any tips/pointers/suggestions that you may have on
> this.
>
> regards,
>
> amol

--------------- END QUESTION ---------------------

well, the most popular response was to install jetadmin on the
printserver. jetadmin is available from www.hp.com. just follow the
links to the printers. some ppl suggested using Sun Soft print client
but i think you have to buy it, i couldnt find anyplace on the sun
website where i could download it from. i wonder why sun wont make their
printing services easier.

here's how my network is setup now

2 hp network printers.
solaris 2.5.1 and 2.6 machine.
hpux 10.20 machines.
sgi irix6.2 machines.

i installed the hpnp jetadmin package on a sun ultra5 running
solaris2.5.1.
Then i configured jetadmin to talk to the two network printers, and set
up the appropriate print queues. This is very easy, once you've
installed
jetadmin using the pkgadd command.

the server setup is still not complete. Solaris makes you go through
some port configuring stuff, which i have no idea of, but
Leo Crombach <lcrombach@tropel.com> was most kind enough to
send me a script which does the setup for you. This script is from
the sys admin answerbook cd. (which ofcourse i didnt have.)
Here's the script :

================================================================================
#!/bin/sh
# This script will configure a Solaris 2.X machine as a print server.
The follo
# wing commands were taken from the example on page 925 of the
Answerbook System
# Administration Guide, Volume II.

u_addr=`/usr/sbin/lpsystem -A`
sacadm -a -p tcp -t listen -c "/usr/lib/saf/listen tcp" -v `nlsadmin -V`
-n 999
pmadm -a -p tcp -s lp -i root -m `nlsadmin -o
/var/spool/lp/fifos/listenS5` -v `
nlsadmin -V`
pmadm -a -p tcp -s lpd -i root -m `nlsadmin -o
/var/spool/lp/fifos/listenBSD -A
"\\x${u_addr}"` -v `nlsadmin -V`
new_addr=`lpsystem -A | cut -b1-4`
tail=`lpsystem -A | awk '{pos = index($0, "0203")+4
print substr($0, pos, length($0)-pos+1)}'`
new_addr=`echo ${new_addr}0ACE${tail}`
pmadm -a -p tcp -s 0 -i root -m `nlsadmin -c /usr/lib/saf/nlps_server -A
"\\x${n
ew_addr}"` -v `nlsadmin -V`
================================================================================
 
note that the lines with pmadm are one line, wrapped into two lines. use
a
text editor to correct this, if you use it.

run this script and it sets up the listen service on your server which
forwards lp requests to the right daemon (probably to hpnpd).

edit the /etc/lp/Systems and make sure that you allow connections
from all the hosts which you want to print from. I hadnt done this,
and had a hard time figuring out why the bloody jobs were being refused.

there! your printserver is now setup and ready to go.

if you want to set up a solaris client to spool to this
printserver, then add the printers using admintool on that
client. next run the same script, as above, without running the
line which configures the nlps_server. That sets up the solaris client
for you.

on hp's its real easy. just add the printer, using sam.

Now, instead of using a solaris machine as a printserver , you decide
to use a HP instead, you dont need to do any such wierd configuration
steps at all! just install jetadmin and you are done. Its that simple.
I only wish i had a HP machine to spare.

So there you go. Once you've done it, its not that tough really. thanks
to all
the help from this list!

thanks many many times to
Leo Crombach <lcrombach@tropel.com>
Birger Wathne <birger@sdata.no>
Dan Lowe <dan@rtfm.iagnet.net>
Auteria Wally Winzer Jr. <wally.winzer@ChampUSA.COM>
Karl Vogel <vogelke@c17mis.region2.wpafb.af.mil>
Mark.Spooner <mark.spooner@Central.Sun.COM>
Mariel Feder <mfeder@central.meralco.com.ph>
David Thorburn-Gundlach <david@bae.uga.edu>
Cathy Smith" <csmith@dalsemi.com>
Jim Robertori <jimr@lucent.com>
Phillips Nguyen <nguyep@buzzeo.com>
Mike Salehi <mrs@cadem.mc.xerox.com>

if you've any questions, mail me and i'll try to help as best as i can.

regards,

amol

-----------------------------------------------------
Amol Karnik
Development Engineer amol@memcad.com
Microcosm Technologies, Inc. (617) 225-0094 x248
215 First St., Suite #2D (617) 621-7838 FAX
Cambridge MA, 02142 http://www.memcad.com
-----------------------------------------------------



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