Windows Server 2003 printing without Samba to CUPS

[John A. Murdie]

Kurt Pfeifle wrote:
> Forgot to insert an important sentence here: "However, the original
> question had mentioned a 'without going through Samba'-condition."  :-)

If it's just a matter of the Solaris CUPS server joining the domain as an "AD member server" then the data won't actually go "through" Samba, I presume - I was worried about the extra spooling step involved.

> > The other alternative (like Mike explained) is to install the native
> > Windows drivers onto the Windows server, and let the queue's "port
> > monitor" (that is roughly analogous to what on CUPS is called "backend")
> > point to each URL "http://cups-server-name:631/printers/printername"
> > (don't forget the "631").
>
> "This indeed does do the job without Samba (but requires to not need
> any authentication for submitting jobs to CUPS)."

The problem with this, again I presume, is that the Windows Server has to be updated manually each time a new printer is added to or removed from the Solaris CUPS server.

It seems that using Samba might be the way forward, if I understand, though as Mike (Sweet) pointed out, it'll still be necessary to add the Windows printer drivers by hand, because "CUPS doesn't (yet) support the undocumented Microsoft IPP extension for driver download, but that works with Win2k, WinXP, and Win2k3".

All a new area to me - an old Unix hand.

John A. Murdie