CENTRALIZED DEPARTMENTAL PRINTING

Transcription

1 Dec 10 th, 2003 CENTRALIZED DEPARTMENTAL PRINTING Malik S. Khan UNISYS Scholar 2003/04 Rutgers University Mechanical Engineering

2 Outline Motivation for Project Present System Analysis Proposed System / Solution Steps to Solution - Selecting software, Setting up server, BootP server on Printers etc. Summary

3 Motivation Demand for a better system! - Present system is out-dated as per the needs of ECS (Engineering Computing Services) - No Administration / Moderation capabilities. - Out cry of the Engineering faculty and staff! Desire to learn more about Network / System Administration, setting up Secure Printer Servers and playing an active role at Rutgers University

4 Present System Analysis Open to anyone on the private Rutgers network - Someone at the Rutgers - Camden/Newark campuses (1 hr drive away) can print documents in the Engineering computer labs! De-centralized - Every printer take its jobs directly from the client - Diverse makes and models of printers, all performing in their own individual capacity - No user-levels No Admin / Moderation capabilities - Once a job has been sent, it is extremely hard to cancel the job if you did not send it - No limitation(s) on who can print what and how much No log keeping of any sort It s a Mess! Sign in the EIT lab. Ironic!

5 Present System Cont d Printing from other non-engineering sources i.e. remote printing leads to long Waiting periods and messes for Engineering Students using the lab Every Client / Computer is able to connect to any printer in the current system directly, using TCP/IP and submit print-jobs Estimated 20-25% of printing budget goes to unnecessary / accidental print jobs that can be prevented with proper admin. Client Printer 1 Printer 2 Printer 3

6 Proposed New System Features: Centralized! Allows printing from different operating systems (OS) Printing by users in the Engineering building ONLY Access Control List User levels with different privilege(s) and/or limitation(s) Print queue means fast, reliable printing Log keeping Filter print-jobs I.e. will not print postscript or junk files such as binary files Will print to the correct printer I.e. printer located closest (physically) Secure print server Post print queues on a website for live viewing and administration by users and admin. respectively Other UNISYS SCHOLAR working on this part of the Project!

7 New System Cont d Print Server A print queue system has already been installed in many non- Engineering computers labs. Such as this one at the College Ave. Campus.

8 Steps For New System Selecting Software Allow all the required features LPRng, CUPS Printing Software Samba / lpd for compatibility UNIX/ Linux & Windows Software selection will be based on: Cost, Availability, Ease of use, Compatibility with current software / hardware etc. Print Server Samba allows this! lpd- allows Unix, Win, Mac works on tcp/515 Samba allows Unix and Win works on tcp/137 lpd Samba Print Server

9 Steps Cont d Setting up BootP server on Printers Configuring printers Access Control List Collaboration with the other UNISYS scholar A laptop could be used to go around and setup BootP servers on each printer and configure it for the print server If all goes well, then finally implement the system

10 Conclusion Creating a server for centralized departmental printing Print server software: try LPRng and CUPS Monitoring printer status and Accounting Samba for printing from Windows clients Server security Access control list for accepting jobs only from the server s IP address. May require configuration of a BootP server on a laptop to set up each printer individually

11 Project Progress Chart Week1 Week 2 Week 3 Week4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 14 Week 15 Week 16 Week 17 5-Jan 12-Jan 19-Jan 26-Jan 2-Feb 9-Feb 16-Feb 23-Feb 1-Mar 8-Mar 15-Mar 22-Mar 29-Mar 5-Apr 12-Apr 19-Apr Further learning Linux / Unix systems Analysisof Current system Designing New System Evaluating software capabilitiesand selecting software Playing with software to learn how it works Start creating a prototype of the new system and test for functionability Further testing and optimizing of the prototype system Start creating the real system Malik S. Khan UNISYS Scholar 2003/2004 Project: Centralized Departmental Printing Implement system

12 Acknowledgement Thanks to: Dr. David Gardiner - UNISYS Corporation Dr. Alexei Kotelnikov Rutgers University Dr. Doyle Knight Rutgers University Amit Freeman And all other UNISYS Scholars

13 References