The Solaris printing software provides an environment for setting up and managing client access to printers on a network.
The Solaris printing software contains these components:
Solaris Print Manager, a graphic user interface, provides the ability to manage printing configuration on a local system or in a name service.
The LP print service commands, a command line interface used to set up and manage printers on a local system or in a name service. They also provide functionality above and beyond the other print management tools.
Even if you do use Solaris Print Manager to set up printing, you will have to use some of the LP commands to completely manage printing in the Solaris environment. For more information, see Chapter 5, Administering Printers (Tasks).
The Solaris print software limitations include the following:
No support for print servers defined as s5 (the System V print protocol) in previous Solaris releases.
No print filtering on print clients.
Solaris Print Manager is a Java-based graphical user interface that enables you to manage local and remote printer configuration. This tool can be used in the following name service environments: NIS, NIS+, NIS+ with Federated Naming Service (xfn), and files. You must be logged in as superuser to use this tool.
Using Solaris Printer Manager is the preferred method for managing printer configuration information. It is preferred over Admintool: Printers because it centralizes printer information when used in conjunction with a name service. Using a name service for storing printer configuration information is desirable because it makes printer information available to all systems on the network, making printing administration easier.
Solaris Print Manager recognizes existing printer information on the printer servers, print clients, and in the name service databases. There are no conversion tasks required to use Solaris Print Manager as long as the print clients are running either the Solaris 2.6, Solaris 7, Solaris 8, or Solaris 9 releases.
The Solaris Print Manager package is SUNWppm.
For step-by-step instructions on setting up new printers with Solaris Print Manager, see Chapter 4, Setting Up Printers (Tasks).
The printers database in /etc/nsswitch.conf, the name service switch file, provides centralized printer configuration information to print clients on the network.
By including the printers database and corresponding sources of information in the name service switch file, print clients automatically have access to printer configuration information without having to add it to their own systems.
The default printers entry in the /etc/nsswitch.conf file for files, LDAP, NIS, and NIS+ environments are described in the following table. The nisplus keyword represents the printers.org_dir table. The xfn keyword represents the FNS printer contexts.
Name Service Type |
Default printers Entry |
---|---|
files |
printers: user files |
ldap |
printers: user files ldap |
nis |
printers: user files nis |
nis+ |
printers: user nisplus files xfn |
For example, if your name service is NIS, printer configuration information on print clients is looked in the following sources in this order:
user - Represents the user's $HOME/.printers file
files - Represents the /etc/printers.conf file
nis - Represents the printers.conf.byname table
For more information, see nsswitch.conf(4) and System Administration Guide: Naming and Directory Services (DNS, NIS, and LDAP).
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.
Name Service Configuration |
Actions to Centralize Printer Information |
---|---|
Use a name service |
Adding the printer to the LDAP, 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 |
Availability |
Graphical User Interface? |
Configures Network Printers? |
Manages Print Clients and Servers? |
Uses LDAP, NIS, NIS+, or NIS+ (xfn)? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Solaris Print Manager |
Solaris 9 and compatible versions and Solaris Easy Access Server 3.0 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Admintool |
Solaris 9 and compatible versions |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
No |
LP commands |
Solaris 9 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. Performing printing administration tasks with LP commands are described in Chapter 5, Administering Printers (Tasks).