Establishing A PaperCut Remote Server Within A Separate Directory Service Domain Or Kerberos Realm

The campus-wide PaperCut distributed printing system (called uPrint to the users) has the concept of a remote server. Such PaperCut servers support printing from domains (kerberos realms) which are apart from the domain which manages the main PaperCut environment - managed by Retail Services. Remote client print jobs are sent to the remote server which then forwards them to the main PaperCut servers for final printing. At the University of Waterloo all of the PaperCut printing servers are members of the IST sponsored NEXUS domain. Where as all undergraduate users and computers in the School of Computer Science (SCS) are members of the school's CS-TEACHING domain - within SCS's CSCF Directory Services forest.

To support PaperCut printing within CS-TEACHING, we created a new virtual Windows Server 2012 system for the role of PaperCut remote server. This server - named lydia.student.cs.uwaterloo.ca - was made a member of the CS-TEACHING domain. On lydia the PaperCut support software (it's actually a service) was installed and made a member of the PaperCut cluster by support staff in IST.

We then created shared print queues on lydia for CS printing. These queues were defined as local TCP/IP printers utilizing TCP/IP network ports. The port names were defined as the FQDN names of the networked PaperCut printers. Our client systems in CS-TEACHING will then print (as in the File -> Print... menu option) to the shared queues on lydia (for example to \\lydia.student.cs.uwaterloo.ca\<print_queue_share_name>) as opposed to the established PaperCut server(s) in the NEXUS domain. At the present time there are six shared queues created for printing to five networked PaperCut printers wihtin the Math and Computer building (MC). Their lydia share names are as follows.

• rs-public-mc1052 printing to rs-public-mc1052.prt.uwaterloo.ca.
  • This printer is actually placed in the hallway out front of the IST CHIP Office (MC 1052). It is also equipped with a WatCard swipe terminal.
• rs-public-mc2061 printing to rs-public-mc2061.prt.uwaterloo.ca
• rs-public-mc3006 printing to rs-public-mc3006.prt.uwaterloo.ca
• rs-public-mc3008 printing to rs-public-mc3008.prt.uwaterloo.ca
• rs-public-mc3009-bw printing to rs-public-mc3009.prt.uwaterloo.ca
• rs-public-mc3009-colour printing to rs-public-mc3009.prt.uwaterloo.ca

When each queue is created, a set of CREATOR-OWNER permissions are assigned to it by default. IST recommends the removal of these particular permissions on the PaperCut remote server. All of these printers are Xerox WorkCentre models and all used the same smart driver which IST provided and is also obtainable from the Xerox web site.

Enforcing Monochrome Printing Queues

Most PaperCut printers print in monochrome only but the printer in MC 3009 (rs-public-mc3009.prt.uwaterloo.ca) is a colour printer. It is the policy of Retail Services that all colour printers have two shared queues. This allows a user to print to it in monochrome (using the rs-public-mc3009-bw queue) and only be billed for monochrome printing. When a user desires colour printing then they may select the rs-public-mc3009-colour queue and be billed accordingly. To ensure that a designated monochrome print queue on a colour printers prints only in monochrome an administrator must utilize the following PaperCut Admin Console portal.

https://printuw.private.uwaterloo.ca:9192/admin

Under the Printers tab, select the print queue which should be set to monochrome. Remember, in the PaperCut Admin Console all CS print queues will appear twice, once for the CS-TEACHING PaperCut server (lydia) and once for the NEXUS PaperCut server (mediaprint2) . You will need to select the lydia print queue. Select the Convert to Grayscale option for All Users under the Filters and Restrictions tab for the print queue in question.

-- ClaytonTucker - 2014-10-14