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.

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