Cool Solution - Printer assignment

Knowledge Base Cool Solutions
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Overview

The univention-printer-assignment package lets you control which printers appear for Windows clients in your domain.

  • You can assign specific printers to selected groups or individual computers.
  • Clients in those groups will only see the assigned printers.
  • If no printers are assigned to a group, all domain printers are made available, and users can choose their own default printer.

Prerequisites

  • Windows clients already joined to the domain.
  • Printer drivers pre-installed on Windows clients.

:warning: Without drivers, Windows cannot connect to the printer.

  • Optional: Configure Microsoft Point-and-Print Group Policy to allow users to install drivers locally. See Microsoft Point-and-Print documentation here.

Installation

To enable printer assignment in your environment, install the univention-printer-assignment package along with its accompanying schema package on the DC Master. First, make sure the Cool Solution repository is enabled.

univention-install univention-printer-assignment univention-printer-assignment-schema

After installation, run the provided join script:

univention-run-join-scripts

Configuration

You can assign printers to groups that contain Windows clients, as well as to individual computer objects.

If a computer belongs to a group that has assigned printers, it will receive those printers in addition to any printers assigned directly to that computer object. This allows you to combine group-based printer access with specific individual assignments when needed.

All printers added here will be included in a VBS script that is executed later on the Windows client.

The example below shows the printer assignment dialog for a single computer object but the same interface is used for groups as well.

Figure 1: Assigning printers to a computer object in UMC.
Figure 1: Assigning printers to a computer object in UMC.1352×916 51.5 KB

Reminder: See Prerequisites for driver and Point-and-Print requirements.

Note: If you experience difficulties you might also want to check out this update from Microsoft which may cause problems with network printing.

Netlogon scripts

Samba 4

Add the following line to your logon script:

call %LOGONSERVER%\sysvol\<YOUR DOMAIN>\scripts\printerassignment\%COMPUTERNAME%.vbs
Samba 3

If you are running Samba 3, use this line instead:

call %LOGONSERVER%\netlogon\printerassignment\%COMPUTERNAME%.vbs

Hint: Adjust the values according to your setting.

UCR variables

To list all UCR variables provided by the package and their possible values, run:

ucr search --verbose printer/assignment

Create a pdf printer server

Example setup for a PDF printer server in a computer room:

  1. Install Print server (CUPS) from the App Center.
  2. See Generating PDF documents from print jobs
  • Install the package univention-printserver-pdf
  • Create a Generic CUPS-PDF Printer (e.g., pdf) as described in the documentation.
  1. Follow the Configuration section above:
  • Create a computer room group (e.g., room01).
  • Attach the PDF printer.
  • Add an already joined Windows client to the group.
  1. See Mounting of print shares in Windows clients and follow the steps very carefully. Incorrect FQDN or missing drivers will prevent the printer from connecting.
  • Run printmanagement.msc as a Domain Administrator.
  • Add the printer server using its FQDN (important due to Microsoft Update MS16-087).
  • When prompted to add a driver, choose Generic → MS Publisher Color Printer.
  1. Follow the Netlogon scripts section above or run the .vbs file from the Samba share manually on the Windows client to add the PDF printer.

Use a logonscript

A short example is described here, on how to create a simple logonscript:

  • in sysvol share inside the “scripts” directory create a file user.bat
  • copy the call-command from “Netlogon scripts” into the new file and replace “<YOUR DOMAIN>”
  • Modifiy a user and set scriptpath to the file user.bat

Testing & troubleshooting

After assigning printers:

  • Restart the Windows client to trigger the logon script or navigate to the Samba share and run the generated .vbs script manually to confirm the printers are connected.
  • You can also browse to the domain share to confirm that printer shares are visible:

Figure 2: Network share view of the UCS server () from a Windows client.
Figure 2: Network share view of the UCS server () from a Windows client.1280×830 158 KB

If printers do not appear:

  • Check that the printer drivers are installed on the Windows client.
  • Verify that the correct printers are assigned in UCS.
  • Confirm the .vbs file exists in the sysvol/printerassignment folder.
  • Review Windows Event Viewer and UCS/Samba logs for errors.