Configuring Printers in Open Directory

Mac OS X supports discovery of LPR print services via directory services. Any Mac OS X Server that is acting as an Open Directory master can be configured to maintain a list of shared printers. You can configure any printer information you wish in Open Directory, regardless of print server settings. In other words, Open Directory doesn't care where the shared or network printers reside. You use Open Directory to maintain a list of printers that your client computers can easily discover through directory services. Obviously, in order for client computers to discover printers via directory services, they must be configured to access your directory server. See Chapter 3, "Open Directory," for more information about directory services.

To configure a printer in Open Directory:

1.	Launch the Workgroup Manager tool located in /Applications/Server, and authenticate as the administrator (Figures 7.13 and 7.14). Figure 7.13. Authenticate as an administrator to use Workgroup Manager. Figure 7.14. The All Records tab is enabled in Workgroup Manager's main view. You can find detailed instructions for this step in Chapter 2, "Server Tools."
2.	If you haven't already enabled the All Records and Inspector tabs, do so now. Detailed instructions for this step can also be found in Chapter 2.
3.	Click the Accounts icon on the Toolbar and the All Records button on the account types tab (Figure 7.15). Figure 7.15. Click the Accounts icon and the All Records button in Workgroup Manager.
4.	Click the Directory Authentication icon beneath the Toolbar , and choose LDAPv3/127.0.0.1 if it isn't already selected (Figure 7.16). Figure 7.16. Choose the LDAPv3 directory if it isn't already selected.
5.	Below the All Records icon is a record selector pop-up menu. Click this pop-up menu, and you'll be presented with a large list of record types to choose from (Figure 7.17). Figure 7.17. Choose the Printers record from the All Records list in Workgroup Manager. For the purposes of this task, choose Printers.
6.	Click the New Record button to add a new printer record initially called untitled_1.
7.	The Inspector frame displays the attributes and values for this new printer record (Figure 7.18). Figure 7.18. The Inspector frame shows the default attributes of a new printer record. Double-click the first instance of the printer record's name in the Value column to edit the printer record's name (Figure 7.19). Figure 7.19. Change the RecordName value of the new printer record.
8.	Click the New Attribute button , and the attribute-editing dialog drops from the title bar (Figure 7.20). Figure 7.20. Open the attribute-editing window of the newly created printer record. From the Attribute Name pop-up menu, choose PrinterLPRHost, and then enter the network address of the printer in the Text field (Figure 7.21). Click OK to close the dialog. Figure 7.21. Add the PrinterLPRHost attribute IP address for the new printer record.
9.	If the default queue for the printer is acceptable, then you can skip this step. However, if you need to define a specific queue, click New Attribute . Choose PrinterLPRQueue from the Attribute Name pop-up menu, and then enter the queue name in the Text field (Figure 7.22). When you're done, click OK. Figure 7.22. Add the PrinterLPRQueue attribute for the new printer record.
10.	To specify the printer model driver to use, add another attribute and choose PrinterType from the Attribute Name pop-up menu. The text you enter here must exactly match the model name used by the PPD (Figure 7.23). When you're done, click OK. Figure 7.23. Add the PrinterType attribute for the new printer record.
11.	When you've finished making changes, click the Save button . Workgroup Manager will automatically duplicate your settings for directory service compatibility. Your printer record should match that shown in Figure 7.24. Figure 7.24. The completed printer record looks like this.

Tips

• You can delete a printer record by selecting it and clicking the Delete button .

• Click the Options button to adjust how the attribute list is presented.