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Quick install: Novell OES Linux (iPrint)

Important:

The following section assumes the reader has knowledge of general Novell OES Linux system management including using the command-line, creating users, editing configuration files and understanding file permissions.

Step 1 - System requirements & printer setup

Before proceeding with the installation the SysAdmin should take a few moments to verify system requirements.

Important:

iPrint and the print queues must be configured and confirmed to work before progressing to step 2.

Step 2 - Create the host user account and firewall settings

PaperCut MF runs and installs under a non-privileged user account called "papercut". The papercut user's home directory location is the application install location. /home/papercut is recommended, however, Administrators might choose an alternate install location depending on personal preference. Alternatives include:

  • /usr/local/papercut

  • /opt/papercut

The host user account is not an eDirectory account but a local system account. One way to create the "papercut" account on OES Linux is:
  1. Open YaST Control Panel; then select User Management under Security and Users.

  2. Click Add to create a new user.

  3. On the User Data tab, enter a username of papercut and assign a secret password.

  4. On the Details tab, select Empty Home with permissions 755 and change the Home Directory path to define an alternate install location.

  5. Click Accept to create the account.

    Important:

    This quick start guide assumes the install location is /home/papercut. If an alternate home location is defined, some of the paths listed in subsequent sections will require modification.

A default OES Linux installation imposes strict resource usage limits on user accounts (ulimit). The papercut account is a special account used for hosting an application so needs to be granted satisfactory resource limits such as the ability to open many files. Larger sites should consider adding the following line to /etc/security/limits.conf:

papercut - nofile 65535

Novell OES Linux has a strict default firewall policy. PaperCut MF uses ports 9191 (for HTTP) and ports 9192 (for HTTPS/SSLSecure Sockets Layer (SSL) is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private and integral. The protocol uses a third party, a Certificate Authority (CA), to identify one end or both end of the transactions. To be able to create an SSL connection a web server requires an SSL certificate. When you choose to activate SSL on your web server you will be prompted to complete a number of questions about the identity of your website and your company. Your web server then creates two cryptographic keys - a Private Key and a Public Key.) and these ports must be open. To open these ports:

  1. Open YaST Control Panel; then select Firewall under Security and Users.

  2. Select Allowed Services, then click Advanced.

  3. Add ports 9191 and 9192 to the TCP Ports list (separated by spaces).

  4. Click OK, Next, then Accept to apply the changes.

Step 3 - Download and installing

PaperCut MF is supplied as a self-extracting and self-installing archive. The installation is performed under the rights of the newly created papercut account and temporary root access is required. Make sure the root password is handy. (Administrators who are after a detailed explanation of the install process should also consult the background information in PaperCut MF on Linux).

Log on as the newly created papercut user and download and execute the installer from the command prompt. Here is an example using wget to fetch the installer:

shell> su - papercut

shell> wget [download url from PaperCut Software website]

shell> sh ./pcmf-setup-novell-oes-linux.sh

Follow the installation instructions and enter the root password when requested.

Important:

Ensure you login as the user papercut so that the user's environment is sourced and the home directory (install location) is correctly defined.

The installation process takes between two and five minutes depending on the speed of the system. A system restart is not required but administrators are advised to perform installation on live production systems during periods of low activity - for example, not during backup operations or other administration activities.

Step 4 - Configuration wizard

After installation, you are prompted to open a web browser at http://[server-name]:9191/admin to complete configuration. The configuration stages are explained below:

  1. Administrative password

    1. Complete the following fields:
      • Password—enter the master password for the main in-built admin account. This password is independent of the operating system or domain passwords. The password must be at least six characters. Keep this password secure.

        Tip:

        Treat this password the same as your router/modem management passwords. It is independent of your domain accounts and needs to be kept secure.

        If you forget your password, you can reset it. For more information, see Resetting the Admin Password.

      • Verify password—re-enter the password.
      • Location—select the system's physical location and language.
    2. Click Next.
  2. Organization type

    The Organization type screen is displayed.

    This selection determines which system defaults are used on setup. For example, in a Professional (Client Billing) organization, where it is useful to charge-back printing to customers, an advanced client popup is provided with additional features useful for dealing with large numbers of client (shared) accounts. You can change these default settings chosen for an organization type after installation.

    1. Select your organization type.
    2. Click Next.
  3. Default cost for printing

    The Default costs for printing screen is displayed.

    You can change this setting on a per-printer basis after installation. Choosing a sensible cost now helps minimize future setup. For example, in the USA, a value of $0.10 would be appropriate for many standard black & white printers.

    1. Complete the following fields:
      • Color (cost per page)—enter the default cost per page for color printing on all printers.
      • Grayscale (cost per page)—enter the default cost per page for grayscale printing on all printers.
    2. Click Next.
  4. Initial user credit (Education organization type only)

    If you selected Education as the organization type, the Initial user credit screen is displayed.

    If you selected Small/Medium Enterprise (SME) or Corporate) or Professional (Client Billing) as the organization type, go to step 5.

    1. Complete the following fields:

      • Initial user credit—enter the amount of credit each/quota each user will receive when the system is first enabled. You can change these settings after setup.
      • Deny access when users run out of credit/quota—select this check box to prevent users from printing when they run out of credit/quota.

        Tip:

        If you are evaluating PaperCut MF it might be appropriate not to disable printing when a users funds run out. This way you can be assured that user printing is not disrupted during the evaluation.

    2. Click Next.

  5. User/Group Synchronization

    PaperCut MF extracts user information out of the System or Domain. The options presented here vary depending on the Operating System and its environment. During evaluation, most sites import all users from the system/domain into PaperCut MF. An option also exists to import a subset of users from a given group. This option is useful when only a subset of users will use the printers.

    PaperCut MF has native support for eDirectory LDAPThe Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a directory service protocol that runs on a layer above the TCP/IP stack. It provides a mechanism used to connect to, search, and modify Internet directories. The LDAP directory service is based on a client-server model. schemas. This is the default user import option for most sites.

    PaperCut MF does it's best to auto-discover LDAP settings, but some knowledge of eDirectory and/or LDAP is required. More information on LDAP is available in Using LDAP for user synchronization.

  6. User Client options (Professional (Client Billing) organization type only)

    If you selected Professional (Client Billing), as the organization type, the User client options screen is displayed.

    If you selected Education or Small/Medium Enterprise (SME) or Corporate, go to step 7.

    The User client allows users to allocate print jobs to client (shared) accounts. The process works by:

    • Pausing all jobs that enter the print queues.

    • Displaying a popup on the user's workstation asking them to allocate the print job to an account. This is done by selecting the account from a list.

    • After the user has responded to the popup, the job is released to the printer.

    For more information about the account selection process and shared accounts, see Shared accounts.

    The account selection popup option is enabled at the user level. Once the option is enabled, the user must run the client software. If the client software is not running, the popup cannot display, and the job remains paused in the print queueA print queue displays information about documents that are waiting to be printed, such as, the printing status, document owner, and number of pages to print. You can use the print queue to view, pause, resume, restart, and cancel print jobs.. This option is considered high impact. You are presented with two strategies that allow you to choose the implementation approach that best suits your needs.

    1. Select the account implementation strategy:

      • Minimal impact (Initial single user testing)—the account popup is enabled only for a single user for testing purposes. You need to nominate the testing account; this can be an existing system/domain account used for testing purposes or your own user account. The username should be in the format used to log in to the domain/system (usually the short form).

        The minimal impact strategy allows you to test the popup with the nominated test system/domain user account, after which you can enable thepopup for other users as appropriate.

      • Immediate implementation (Enable for all users)—enables the account selection popup for all users. Once the client has been deployed, the system is operational. If this option is selected, install the client software on user desktops immediately to prevent disruption of user printing services.

        If in doubt, select the minimal impact strategy. This ensures the impact is isolated to only the nominated test account.

    2. Click Next.

  7. Verify setup options

    The Verify setup options screen is displayed.

    1. Check the settings you have entered. If you want to change anything, you can return to any of the configuration screens to alter the options.
    2. Click Finish.

  8. Setup complete

    After completing the configuration wizard you are presented with a user synchronization status screen, showing the progress and results of the setup.

    1. Close the Setup Complete screen.

Step 5 - Printer/iPrint configuration

PaperCut MF works by directly integrating with the Novell iPrint Print Manager. iPrint must, however, be configured to use PaperCut MF as an accounting control source. In the current release, this configuration is done manually at the individual print queue level:

  1. Log in to iManager, expand iPrint; then select Manage Printer Manager.

  2. Select the Printer Manager associated with one of your print queues.

  3. Click the Manage health monitor link. A list of all your printers is displayed.

  4. Select a Printer Agent from the list.

  5. Click Configuration Options.

  6. Enter papercut under the Accounting Autoload Command. Take care to write this all in lower case with no spaces.

  7. Click Apply.

  8. Click Back, then Back and repeat steps 4 through 7 for all printers you want monitored/controlled by PaperCut MF

  9. In line with best practice, backup the new printer configuration (padbtxt.xml) as follows:

    1. In iManager open up the active Print Manager.

    2. Select Manager health monitor > Advanced iPrint Manager Information > iPrint Manager Internal

    3. Click Backup Database.

  10. Finally restart the Printer Manager in iManager by clicking Shutdown then Startup. After this, all jobs on the queues are tracked.

Step 6 - Sharing User Client software

The PaperCut MF client software is located in the local directory:

/home/papercut/client

This software needs to be shared over the network so workstations can access/install the client application. Novell iManager provides a number of file sharing options. One simple solution is to add a read-only NCP or SambaSamba is a Windows interoperability suite of programs for Linux and Unix. It is used to integrate Linux/Unix servers and desktops into Active Directory environments. It can function as both a domain controller or as a regular domain member. share called PCClient pointing to /home/papercut/client. Established networks will benefit from ensuring the client files are available in their Distributed Files Services. The deployment of the client software (e.g. zero-install deployment) is covered in User Client.

Step 7 - Deployment for a Professional (Client Billing) installation

Note:

This step is a requirement for a Professional (Client Billing) installation.

Now that the system is tested and working, it is time to deploy the client software and enable the account popup for their use. It is important to deploy the client software before enabling the popup, otherwise users' printing is stopped/paused.

Deploy the client software

As discussed earlier in the section the client can be run directly from a network share (which is automatically configured on Windows). There is also the option to install the software locally on each workstation, however, this is not usually recommended because it makes the process of updating the client software more complicated.

For more information about client deployment options, see User Client deployment. Follow those instructions to deploy the client software, and then enable the popup as described below.

Enable the advanced client popup

Once the client software is deployed on user workstations, you can set the Account Selection. In a Professional (Client Billing) configuration, users who print jobs for clients are often given the Advanced account selection popup, however, other Account Selection options might be better suited for some users based on their job function. You can enable the popup on one user at a time or update for all users in bulk. Use the User Details page to enable the popup for a single user. To enable the popup for all users in bulk:

  1. Click the Users tab.

    The User List page is displayed.

  2. In the Actions menu, click Bulk user actions.

    The Bulk User Operations page is displayed.

  3. In Perform operations on users, select the target group. To enable for all users select the [All Users] group.

  4. In the Change setting area, select the Change account selection setting check box.

  5. Select Show the advanced account selection popupThe advanced account selection popup is a mode for the desktop client that caters for professional businesses with a large number of accounts. It provides powerful features that allow users to quickly assign printing to accounts selected from a large list of clients or projects, such as, keyword search, recently selected accounts, and preferred accounts. You can also apply cost adjustments to a print job at time of print. option from the list.

  6. If you do not want to allow users to charge printing to their personal account, clear the Allow user to charge to their personal account check box.

  7. Click OK.

  8. A confirmation window is displayed.

  9. Click OK.

  10. Once completed, the account popup is enabled for the selected users.

When the popup is enabled for all users, perform some testing from users' desktops. To test, log in to the user workstation, perform a print, and check that the account popup is displayed and the job is logged as expected.

Step 8 - Testing

Following a fresh installation, it is highly recommended to test core features of the system. For further details, see Testing the installation.

What next?

Take some time to explore the features of PaperCut MF before continuing reading at Implementation by example or Tour. Business users might be interested in trying the popup client software as covered in Client software. If desired, the client software should also be deployed to other workstations. This procedure is detailed in User Client.