Solaris Print Manager Features

Features of Solaris Print Manager include:

• Java-based GUI tool for managing local and remote printer access.

• Support for the following name services: NIS, NIS+ with Federated Naming Service (FNS), and files.

• Support for lp command display. Underlying lp commands invoked by Solaris Print Manager can be displayed by the Show Command-Line Console option. Select this option when troubleshooting print-system problems.

Determining Which Tools to Use for Managing 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 or NIS+ 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 1-1 Solaris Printing Component Features

Component	Available ...	Graphical User Interface?	Configures Network Printers?	Manages Print Clients and Servers?	Uses NIS or NIS+?
Solaris Print Manager	Solaris Easy Access Server 3.0	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Admintool	Solaris 7 and compatible versions	Yes	No	Yes	No
lp commands	Solaris 7 and compatible versions	No	Yes	Yes	Yes

After using the table above to determine which printing tool is best for your network environment, use the following table to determine where to go to find information on setting up your printers.

Table 1-2 Where to Find Printer Setup Information

For Information on Setting Up Printers Using ...	See ...
Admintool	System Administration Guide, Volume II
Solaris Print Manager with or without using a name service	"Setting Up Printing Task Map"
lp commands	System Administration Guide, Volume II

Solaris Print Manager Interoperability Issues

The new 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 the new Solaris Print Manager as long as the print clients are running either the Solaris 2.6 or Solaris 7 release.

Using Solaris Print Manager With a Name Service

See the following sections if you will be using Solaris Print Manager with either NIS+ with FNS or NIS.

NIS+ With FNS Considerations

Solaris Print Manager can manage printer information if you are running NIS+ with FNS using the NIS+ table, fns.ctx_dir.<domain>, if the table was created when FNS was set up.

Additional NIS+ with FNS considerations include:

• Solaris Print Manager, like Solstice AdminSuite Printer Manager, can only manage printer information in the Federated Naming context, thisorgunit/service/printer.

• Solaris Print Manager cannot manage printer information that was added to other contexts or subcontexts using the /usr/bin/fncreate_printer command.

• Before you can use Solaris Print Manager to update the fns.ctx_dir.<domain> file, you may need to:

  • Add the system that runs Solaris Print Manager to the NIS+ admin group that is authorized to update the fns.ctx_dir.<domain> file.

    See fns_nis+(5) and nisgrpadm(1) for more information about FNS and NIS+ credentials.

  • Start the tool as superuser. Depending on your NIS+ configuration, you may also need to run the /usr/bin/keylogin command. See keylogin(1) for more information.

NIS+ Running in NIS Compatibility Mode Considerations

Solaris Print Manager is not able to update a NIS+ master name server running in NIS (yp) compatability mode from a system running the NIS name service.

The NIS+ daemon running in NIS-compatability mode only responds to requests for a limited set of NIS maps that does not include printers.conf.byname.

The only name service choice available in this scenario is files.

See rpc.nisd(1M) for information about NIS compatiblity (the -Y option).

NIS Considerations

Keep the following in mind if you are using Solaris Print Manager to update printer information in the NIS name service:

• The /etc/printers.conf must be the source file for creating the NIS map, printers.conf.byname. If you have modified the NIS makefile to use another source file for the printer information, then you cannot use Solaris Print Manager to manage printer information in the NIS name service.

• If your network is set up with NIS master and slave servers, the NIS slaves may not see the updated printer information until the NIS slaves are updated. See ypmake(1M) for more information.

• If your NIS servers are running Solaris 2.5 and compatible versions, you must have explicit permissions on the NIS master server to update the maps. This means an entry for your system name must reside in root's .rhosts file on the NIS master server.

Default Printer Considerations

You can use Solaris Print Manager to define a default printer when setting up local or remote printer access. A default printer is the printer your print requests are sent to if you do not specify a printer destination.

Refer to the following table when setting up a default printer in a name service environment because the default printer designation varies depending on the name service selected and whether the printer is local or remote.

If Your Name Service Is ...	And The Printer Is ...	Then ...
NIS or NIS+ (xfn)	Remote	The default printer is set in the name service only. The default printer is not set for the local system.
NIS or NIS+ (xfn)	Attached to the local system	The default printer is set in both the name service and for the local system.
files	N/A	The default printer is set for the local system as expected.

See "Setting Up a .printers File" for information on setting a default printer on per-user basis.