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Now that you have done some initial information-gathering, identified the major issues you will face, and created a diagram of the new eDirectory layout you want to implement, you can now consider your strategy for implementing your new or upgraded NDPS system.
If you have not already done so, be sure to read Understanding Novell Distributed Print Services in the before you proceed.
The following topics are discussed in this section:
The following guidelines generically apply to any transition scenario and should expedite your decision process.
This transitional configuration would look this way:
See Maintaining Your Queues during the Transition for more details on this printing configuration. Eventually, only a few queues serviced by NDPS Printer Agents will remain to support your DOS and Windows DOS-box printing needs, while most printing will be through the following basic NDPS configuration and its variations, which will be explained in Using Legacy Printers and NDPS Gateways.
If you are using a queue-based printing system, you can continue to use your existing system without modification. Because of the advantages provided by NDPS, however, we recommend that you begin the transition as soon as it becomes convenient.
In general, we suggest you make the move gradually, and begin by implementing the NDPS server components and management features. This strategy allows you to set up your new printers and optimize the distribution of your brokered resources while your end users continue printing through the same queues they always have. Then, when you are satisfied that your NDPS printing components are set up and configured the way you want them, you can begin upgrading your end users to the new system gradually.
If you will be implementing iPrint, the Novell Client 32TM is not required. Instead, users install a browser plug-in that allows them to install printers and print drivers to their workstations.
NDPS Printer Agents, either embedded into printers or running as part of an NDPS Manager, can be configured to retrieve jobs from queues in addition to accepting jobs from NDPS users.
Maintaining your queues allows you to gradually migrate users to NDPS because users' workstations can continue to print to existing queues and be moved to NDPS as time permits. Workstations can even be configured to print to both queues and NDPS printers.
In addition to allowing for a gradual transition to NDPS, this configuration is also the only support currently available for DOS and Windows DOS-box printing and for handling printing requests from other systems such as UNIX or Macintosh*. It also allows Novell clients to submit jobs to NetWare queues, providing these clients with access to NDPS-managed printers.
After you have created NDPS Printer objects to represent the printers that are still servicing queues, you can delete your legacy Print Server and Printer objects (but not your Queue objects) if you want, reducing the number of objects in your tree you need to manage.
In most cases, you will want to upgrade your administrator workstations to NDPS first because NDPS allows administrators to quickly benefit from its advanced capabilities such as automatic printer driver download, extended job management, and event notification.
Administrators can accomplish much of the migration remotely by removing the CAPTURE statements from users' login scripts and installing NDPS printers on their workstations using the NDPS Remote Printer Management functionality. For more information, see Understanding Novell Distributed Print Services.
Possible scenarios for printing with NetWare range from maintaining a legacy queue-based system (available only for IPX-based systems), to integrating NDPS into a heterogeneous print system, to implementing a pure NDPS printing system in a Pure IP environment. A wide range of heterogeneous configurations exist between all IPX and Pure IP systems, and between all-queue-based and all-NDPS systems. However, becoming one hundred percent Pure IP and utilizing the most advanced printing features of NetWare implies full deployment of NDPS.
Keep in mind that there is no requirement to modify current NetWare printing configurations immediately, and any modifications you make may be implemented gradually (see Making the Transition Gradually).
Your available implementation options are described in the following sections:
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