Knowledge Base

Installing PaperCut in a heterogenous environment

PaperCut NG is designed to work in a mixed Operating System environment has is currently in use in sites running combinations of:

  • desktops running platforms ranging from Windows, Mac, Linux and Unix.
  • multi-server environments ranging from Windows, Mac and Linux.

PaperCut NG is designed to as a cross-platform solution both on the desktop/client and also on the server. Networks can be configured so operating systems of different types can communicate via XML Web Services and share a single central data source.

There are a number of possible options to support different desktop/client types:

Option 1) Run a single server (can be either Windows, Mac or Linux) and expose the print queues using the required protocoled (ie. HTTP printing, LPR, Samba, etc)
Option 2) Run multiple operating systems as print servers and set up the servers in primary/secondary(s) relationships. This allows each server to talk back to a single database all working as one. For example, set up a Windows print server for Windows clients, and a Mac server for Mac clients, and so on.

Option 2 is recommended at larger sites. It is the most reliable method as clients talk to a "native" server.

More information on configuring PaperCut NG in a multi-server enviornment is explained in the user manual in Chapter 12. A preview is available here.

Note: We recommend PaperCut NG on multi-platform networks. PaperCut Quota is primarily aimed at smaller Windows-only networks.

Categories: Implementation, Architecture

Page last modified on March 20, 2007, at 11:53 PM