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System Administration Guide, Volume 2

Choosing a Method to Manage Printers

Adding printer information to a name service makes access to printers available to all systems on the network and generally makes printer administration easier because all the information about printers is centralized.

If You ... 

To Centralize Printer Information, Then ... 

Use a name service 

Adding the printer to the NIS, NIS+, or NIS+ (xfn) database makes the printer available to all systems on the network. 

Don't use a name service 

Adding the printer adds the printer information to the printer server's configuration files only. Print clients will not know about the printer automatically. 

You will have to add the printer information to every print client that needs to use the printer. 

The following table describes the major printer-related tasks and the tools available to perform the printing tasks.

Table 2-1 Solaris Printing Component Features

Component 

Available In ... 

Graphical User Interface? 

Configures Network Printers? 

Manages Print Clients and Servers? 

Uses NIS, NIS+, or NIS+ (xfn)? 

Solaris Print Manager 

Solaris 8 and Solaris Easy Access Server 3.0 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

Admintool 

Solaris 8 and compatible versions 

Yes 

No 

Yes 

No 

LP commands  

Solaris 8 and compatible versions 

No 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

After using the table above to determine which printing tool is best for your network environment, see Chapter 4, Setting Up Printers (Tasks) for printer setup information.

Most printing configuration tasks can be accomplished with Solaris Print Manager. However, if you have special needs, such as writing interface scripts or adding your own filters, you can use the LP print service commands, which underlie Solaris Print Manager and Admintool directly. Performing printing administration tasks with LP commands are described in Chapter 5, Administering Printers (Tasks).