How does CUPS determine server destination?

[angelb at bugarin.us]

> > Hi all.
> >
> > I have two servers, Server A and Server B, having the same
> > printers and both server are running concurrently.
> >
> > A client is setup to Server A as its default server and at
> > the same time a BrowsePoll is set to query Server B.
>
> How are you setting the default server?  If via client.conf, then
> the BrowsePoll stuff will never be used...

The default server is set in the client.conf using the ServerName. It
appears I may have misunderstood the documentation. It states that when
using two or more server that you need to use the BrowsePoll directives.
That's clear to me, however, my thought was that you always need to
point the client to a "default" server, hence ServerName, then
BrowsePoll for additional servers.

Is it correct to say then that when configuring two or more servers, for
the client to see/poll all servers, the client.conf is no longer needed
but use the BrowsePoll directive instead?

>
> > When the client system sends a print job, does it send its
> > job directly to the default server or does the scheduler
> > somehow employs an algorithm that will select a server based
> > on certain criteria? If so, how does scheduler determine
> > which server and what are the criteria?
>
> If you have the ServerName set in client.conf, then the job is
> sent to that server all the time.
>

> If you use BrowsePoll in cupsd.conf, then the local cupsd will
> alternate between the servers.

It alternates the servers but how does the local scheduler determine
which server it will send a client request to first, say if you just
started cupsd?

Thanks!
Angel