How do you push out printers?

[Carter]

I was using WGM up until this past summer with the move to PM but so far finding PM to be unreliable. What are others using to push out Printers?

[6Foot2]

Group Policy Preferences. Edited October 27, 2015 by 6Foot2

[sparkeh]

Group Policy Preferences.

For Macs?

[6Foot2]

For Macs?

 

Ah. Didn't notice which forum I was replying in. Oops.

[AntonioRocco]

Hi Carter

 

Not teaching granny to suck eggs and I'm probably confirming what you already do or have done, but I generally configure one mac with the required printers then copy the relevant files to the rest using ARD or DeployStudio. Usually done at the outset (or during school breaks) as part of a deploy studio deployment workflow or as and when using ARD. Tends to work well for me with little or no fuss.

 

Antonio Rocco (ACN)

[Carter]

Ah. Didn't notice which forum I was replying in. Oops.

haha well made me laugh.

Apple's Profile Manager has a bigger GUI that Windows GP but IMO not as good.

[Carter]

Hi Carter

 

Not teaching granny to suck eggs and I'm probably confirming what you already do or have done, but I generally configure one mac with the required printers then copy the relevant files to the rest using ARD or DeployStudio. Usually done at the outset (or during school breaks) as part of a deploy studio deployment workflow or as and when using ARD. Tends to work well for me with little or no fuss.

 

Antonio Rocco (ACN)

I've tried this before but seems to be more hands on to push out the Printers. I like PM and it can be smooth but it can also be a royal pain in the ..... when it for some reason doesn't want to push settings. Something similar to GP as in a centralized script may work but haven't had much luck with that.

[AntonioRocco]

"Something similar to GP as in a centralised script . . ."

 

If I've understood correctly that's what I kind of do. I create a script that when ran installs the relevant files and reboots the workstations. Either 'baked-in' from the beginning or 'pushed' out using ARD or DeployStudio. In theory PM should do the 'pushing' reliably but as you've discovered it's not. Maybe the next update to El Capitan will introduce the reliability and robustness we expect? Otherwise we wait until this time next year for next OS.

 

IMHO Apple are 'dumbing' down their Server product more and more and as a consequence it's becoming less and less 'enterprise'. Unless there's a change in direction at Apple I can't see it improving any time soon.

 

Antonio Rocco (ACN)

[Arreks]

I tend to try and push them out the window of the top floor, but that's just me.

[Carter]

IMHO Apple are 'dumbing' down their Server product more and more and as a consequence it's becoming less and less 'enterprise'. Unless there's a change in direction at Apple I can't see it improving any time soon.

 

Certainly not just you opinion! Apple is dumbing down their Server aspect of OS X in General. Apple had a solid program and that was Workgroup Manager. What they needed to do is just update WGM with new options and maybe add a web interface similar to PM but keep WGM.

 

For a large institution PM doesn't cut it. I've had to create my own backup solution because PM has no backups and it's not near as smooth or useful as WGM.

[slancaster]

ensure printer drivers are on the client - Mac servers won't push the drivers down.

Then add printer to mac server (our printers are hosted on a windows server), and then push printer via profile manager.

Works fine for us - just need to make sure the drivers are on the client first though...