[Samba] Advantages to using CUPS printing on a PDC

[Nico Kadel-Garcia]

On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 5:45 AM, Miguel Medalha <miguelmedalha at sapo.pt> wrote:
>
>> I'd like to know the advantages out there in the field, using CUPS to
>> print
>> from the PDC. To me it sounds like just adding another single point of
>> failure in the network, perhaps I am being blinded by windows printing
>> issues to see the advantage in running all the prints via a PDC box?
>
> Centralized management of printers? Print job accounting? Network printing
> to printers without a network interface?
> These examples can be important in some environments.

In particular, the ability for an admin to lock the printing to a
single server, or pair of servers, on a dedicated VLAN and provide a
single point of *management* for print queues. There's nothing like
having to find the idiot who's been sending their 300 page print jobs
to the wrong printer, and resent it 10 times because it kept not
coming out, and get the jobs killed from their laptop. And no, they
won't accept the bill for $1/page because it's the color printer: it's
IT's problem to make this not happen, even when it's the same idiot
who won't permit IT to *label the printers visibly* because it
detracts from the ambience of the office used for presentations.

Been there, had some idiot printing dozens of resumes for handing out
to a poster printer. We got suspicious and pulled the plug on the
printer when we heard it churning that long.