Deploying Suse Linux Enterprise Server

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Configuring the Samba Server

Sharing Printers Through Samba

One of the most problematic functions within a Windows Network is printing. From dealing with the installation of different drivers, dealing with the vulnerability of the Windows Print Queue, or simply trying to figure out how to completely remove print jobs on the server, managing a Printer Server can quickly become a full time job on a larger network. Most of these problems can be minimized by deploying Samba Servers for your Windows network printing needs.

Samba Server Confguration for Printer Support

A few years ago it was somewhat difficult to configure Samba to allow Windows Clients to print to it (simply for the fact that different Unixes handled printing in their own way). Fortunately, over time most Unixes standardized on utilizing the CUPS print server for their printing needs. This allowed the Samba developers to focus on communicating with the CUPS server for printing support. The results have made configuring printing on your Samba Servers extremely easy.

The first step to configure your server to share it's printers is to enable CUPS support within your smb.conf file. To do this simply add the following to the "Global Section".

        printing = cups
        printcap name = cups
        printcap cache time = 750
        cups options = raw

Then you must add a "printers" share and a "print$" share for the printer drivers within your samba configuration file. Something similar to the following should suffice.

[printers]
        comment = All Printers
        path = /var/tmp
        printable = Yes
        create mask = 0600
        browseable = No
[print$]
        comment = Printer Drivers
        path = /var/lib/samba/drivers
        write list = @ntadmins root
        force group = ntadmins
        create mask = 0664
        directory mask = 0775

Now, once samba "re-reads" it's configuration it should automatically add printer shares for every printer configured within your CUPS printer server. It can't get much easier than that.

Note - The print$ share will need to be "prepped" before you start installing printer drivers on your server - most GNU/Linux Distributions do this for you, but if not check the appropriate documentation at Samba's Website.

Adding Windows Printer Drivers to the Server

When sharing printers to Microsoft Windows clients, you have the ability to "install" the printer's drivers onto the server to alleviate the need to install the drivers locally on every computer. This has the advantage of allowing your users to easily add printers to their computer, as well as having a single driver installation on your network to allow for easy driver updates.

There are multiple ways to add the printer's driver to the server, the method I use utilizes the "Printer Properties Page" on the Windows Client and adds the drivers to the server using the "Add Printer Wizard". This method is listed below.

First you must "prep" the Drivers Directory on the Server to ensure that the Printers$ Share has appropriate permissions within the Samba config file as well as correct Unix Permissions set. Also ensure that your Domain Administrator group (or equivalent) has the SePrintOperatorPrivilege set. Finally, simply follow these steps to add the printer drivers to your Samba server:
Browse to the Server through "Network Neighborhood" and Open the "Printers and Faxes Folder".
Right Click on Printer Icon and select Properties - If it asks if you want to install a driver hit NO
Go to Advanced and Select a Driver from the Dropdown menu or hit New Driver. Follow the Add Printer Wizard and it should install the Driver to the Server.
Go to the "Sharing" tab and add any "Additional Drivers" that you may need for that printer.
Finally, rename the Printer to something meaningful for your enviornment.

Adding Network Printers to a Windows Client

There really are two ways to add a network printer to a Microsoft Windows Client. Each one has it's own drawbacks and it will basically boil down to whether or not your Users jump from machine to machine on your network, or if your workstations are used by more than one user.

The most popular way is to simply add a "Network Printer" during the "Add Printer Wizard" and browse to the printer and hit install. This gives you the advantage of having the client computer use the Printer Drivers that are located on the server. However, when this procedure is used, the printer is only installed within the User's Profile, not on the machine, so when that user logs out and another user logs in, the printer that was installed previously is not present for the new user. This can have a detrimental effect if you have a large number of users using the same machine (such as a school setting), or if your users jump from machine to machine on the network.

The second way, which may be more advantageous in certain circumstances, is that you add a "Local Printer" during the "Add Printer Wizard". When the wizard asks for a printer port, hit "New" and type in the name of the Printer Share on the server as the name of the printer port (an example printer port name would be "\\Server\Printername"). When adding a printer in this way, the printer is actually installed "on the machine" instead of "within the User's Profile", which means that any user that logs into the computer will be able to print to the printer. The downside of this method is that it requires you to install the Printer Driver locally on the computer, which means that if you need to update the driver, you must update it on every computer instead of just on the server.

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