A Samba print server is basically a member server that shares printers in addition to files. Any member server can be set up to be a print server. Because I use very small KVM domains (read Virtual Machines) and for redundancy purposes, I prefer to use an additional machine to do the printing.
A good name for a print server is PS1
First things first: A print server is a Member server.
# Printing options in [global] section of smb.conf printing = CUPS spoolss: architecture = Windows x64 load printers = yes [printers] path = /var/tmp/ printable = yes [print$] path = /var/lib/samba/printer_drivers/ read only = no
This is needed to manage printers from Windows.
apt-get update && apt-get install --no-install-recommends cups
# Listen for connections from on port 631 # Listen localhost:631 Listen /run/cups/cups.sock Port 631 # (DO not) Show other shared printers on the local network. Browsing No BrowseLocalProtocols dnssd # Default authentication type, when authentication is required... DefaultAuthType Basic # Web interface setting... WebInterface Yes # Timeout after cupsd exits if idle (applied only if cupsd runs on-demand - with -l) IdleExitTimeout 60 # Restrict access to the server... # Allow samba to talk to cups (localhost and 127.0.0.1), else, ask for password. <Location /> Order allow,deny Allow from 127.0.0.1 Allow from localhost # If you want password-less access from your LAN to the CUPS interface, # then uncomment the following line: # Allow from 192.168.0.0/24 AuthType Default Require valid-user Satisfy any </Location>
Please note, if you ever need to replace / rebuild your printer server, all CUPS configurations are in /etc/cups/cupsd.conf and /etc/cups/printers.conf. These can be copied to the new server and it will be ready to run with same config.
Please note this is beyond the scope of this article, but it should be pretty straight forward from the CUPS web interface, it should be at http://ip-of-your-printserve:631
Also be aware there is no need to install any driver in CUPS for Windows printing, just use “raw” driver when asked. Windows clients will have their own drivers.
Once the printer has been added to CUPS, it will show on the shares resources of the print server when you access \\PS1
You can now continue to setting up automatic driver download for Windows clients.
Caponato's Samba notebook. Start here or else Main menu