OS X Mountain Lion Server For Dummies

Setting Up Shared Printing

This section describes how to set up print service in OS X Mountain Lion by using System Preferences and then how to configure print sharing by using the CUPS web interface. This section includes balancing the printers’ workload by creating printer pools and by managing printers and print jobs. I also describe how to use System Preferences and Workgroup Manager to restrict access to specific printers and to specify which printers show up in a user’s list of printers.

Setting up your printers

Before you configure print services in OS X Server, make sure that your printers are connected to the network or plugged into the server. For network printers, it’s a good idea to configure them by using a static IP address so that they have a consistent location on the network.

Some printers have print serving or spooling features built in. Turn off these features if you want your users to go through the OS X Server. Using two print queues (one in the printer and one on the OS X Server) can cause users to wait longer before their documents are printed.

Some printers also come with protocols that can advertise the printer over the network, such as SMB and Bonjour. You may consider turning off these features in these printers to prevent users from directly accessing the printers and avoiding the server-hosted print queues.

A good idea is to test print to the printer ...