** CUPS Adding a New Printer **

Banner prints are processed when: 

1. A user or process submits a Banner job. 

2. The gurjobs process (service) retrieves the submitted job from a database table. 

3. Gurjobs takes the job parameters and calls the gjajobs.shl script. 

4. The gjajobs.shl script creates (using job parameters) a temporary script that: 

   1. Runs the requested Banner job  
   2. Redirects the output to a job output file. 
   3. Optionally stores the output in a database table. 
   4. Executes the lp command to send the output to a printer. 

Printers are named in this form 

Campus-Building-Room-Format 

For example: c-ss-131b-ld 

This printer is on the Catonsville campus in the Student Services building rom 131b. The Format is a code: 

Printers are defined in two places.  First, GTVPRNT table has the printer definition for Banner. This definition is just a printer name.  Second, the CUPS server has the same printer definition but also includes details such as printing protocol, address, and printer driver.  

Printer Addition is performed in three steps: 

1. Define printer in Banner 

2. Define printer(s) depending on printer requirements. 

3. Run Ansible playbook cupsclient.yml 

GTVPRNT Banner Form 

Define Printer In CUPS 

1. Navigate to https://colcups.ccbcmd.edu:631 

2. Sign in using user id “printeradmin”, password is in PW Safe 

3. Starting from CUPS Home Page

   

4. Click on Administration Tab

   

5. Click on Add Printer Button ( you might be re-prompted for login)

   

    

Note on Network printer types: 

• Try using IPP/IPPS first 

• Try opening a browser to the printer, see what it’s home page says it can do. 

• Nmap can also be used to see what ports are open. 

6. After Continue, we define the Connection

   

    

For instance, “ipp://10.20.250.44/q1” 

7. Next, name and location. Remember to click “Share this Printer”

   

8. Now define the driver.  The default list is somewhat limited depending on what Oracle releases  with it’s distribution. A more complete set of printer drivers can be found at http://colcups.ccbcmd.edu/ppd/ . Any driver there can be downloaded and used with the “Choose File” button. 

   

9. Next is

   

Usually default options work well. 

10. Test – the purpose here is to test the driver and printer connectivity. Click on any printer under the Printers tab, and use the Maintenance dropdown to print a test page.

    

11. For most cases, create the printer with each of the suffixes (ps,pd,ls,ld). 

The “cupsclient.yml” playbook runs the cupsclient role which configures a Linux server to use CUPS for printing.  In addition, it gets the current CUPS printer list and assigns options according to the printer suffix. 

According to the Ansible Runbook, edit the cupsclient.yml to update the hosts. Note there is a banner_cups_clients group defined. 

#- hosts: banner_cups_clients 

• hosts:  

• cljobspprd.ccbcmd.edu 

• cljobshrpp.ccbcmd.edu roles: 

• cupsclient 

roles: 

- cupsclient 

play cupsclient.yml per Ansible Runbook. 

Unusual Procedures Manual LPOptions Setting 

If for some reason Ansible is unable to configure the LP options, sign into each cupclient server. Enter this command for each printer with each printer suffix, note the printer name is specified by –p. An example of each set of options 

/usr/bin/lpoptions -po-om-402c-ld -o landscape=true -o sides=two-sided-short-edge -o page-left=18.0 -o page-right=36.0 -o page-top=36.0 -o page-bottom=36.0 -o cpi=13.0 -o lpi=8.0 -o nowrap 

/usr/bin/lpoptions -po-om-402c-ls -o landscape=true -o sides=one-sided-short-edge -o page-left=18.0 -o page-right=36.0 -o page-top=36.0 -o page-bottom=36.0 -o cpi=13.0 -o lpi=8.0 -o nowrap 

/usr/bin/lpoptions -po-om-402c-pd -o portrait=true -o sides=two-sided-long-edge -o page-left=18.0 -o page-right=36.0 -o page-top=36.0 -o page-bottom=36.0 -o cpi=12.0 -o lpi=8.0 -o nowrap 

/usr/bin/lpoptions -po-om-402c-ps -o portrait=true -o sides=one -o page-left=18.0 -o page-right=36.0 -o page-top=36.0 -o page-bottom=36.0 -o cpi=12.0 -o lpi=8.0 -o nowrap 

Transform is a 3rd party software that receives text Banner reports and formats them into pretty documents.  For example, Purchase Orders. Transform does this by using a server pretending to be a LPD printer. Each different "transform" is controlled by a different queue name on the server.

Quick Configuration Notes for Transform:

1. Transform tech support creates the print queue on the Transform server. In cups parlance the path would be "lpd://10.21.66.37/PurchaseOrder"
2. Define the printer in CUPS using the above methods but for the driver select Raw as the manufacturer and raw queue as the driver.
3. If there are line spacing problems, this raw setting is likely the issue.