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The key to a successful move to NDPS lies in understanding both what you are starting with and what you want when you have completed your move. As part of this understanding process, you should also anticipate the critical issues and decisions you will need to deal with as you implement the transition.
Establishing your planning base consists of the following tasks:
Beginning with NetWare® 5, NDPS became the default and preferred print system while still offering compatibility with Novell's legacy, queue-based print system. Because both printing systems are supported, your users can continue printing as they always have until you complete the transition to NDPS.
For information about the differences between queue-based print services and NDPS, see Understanding Novell Distributed Print Services.
Your first planning task should be to determine what kind of printing system you currently have. You can then begin narrowing down your options for how to proceed. In nearly all cases, your system will consist of one or more of the following:
NetWare Legacy (Queue-Based) Printing System---If your current printing solution is based on the NetWare legacy, queue-based system, you will find information on upgrading to NDPS in Migrating from Queue-Based Printing to NDPS.
NetWare 3.x Printing System---If you currently have a NetWare 3.1x server bindery and file system and you are using a relatively small number of printers, you should consider implementing your NDPS system from scratch and then deleting all of your legacy printing objects. However if your system is large and you do not want to create your NDPS printing system from scratch, you can implement an NDPS printing system on your network using the process described in Migrating from Queue-Based Printing to NDPS.
NetWare for UNIX or NFS Printing SystemSeveral scenarios can be used to incorporate NDPS into environments that use NFS* Print Services:
Migrating any of these configurations to NDPS will result in simpler and more reliable printing, in addition to the benefits inherent in using NDPS. Non-NetWare SystemIf you are implementing a new Novell network from scratch, or if you are changing over from a different networking system altogether (such as Windows* NT*, Windows 2000, 3COM*, or LAN Manager*), you should implement NDPS as your printing solution. If any of your current printers or print clients require queues, the backward compatibility of NDPS allows you to integrate those printers and clients into your system. In all other cases, we recommend that you use an all-NDPS printing setup.
The transition to your new printing system will go much more smoothly if you have identified the major issues involved before you begin the process. The following items provide a starting point for accomplishing this. We suggest that you develop your own checklist of issues, using the following as a starting point.
A prominent feature of NetWare is support for IP-based communication and system technologies. Selecting the protocol family (IP, IPX, or both) to be used by a network has a direct impact on the way you must configure your printers for NDPS. NetWare provides a rich variety of print configurations so that one or more print systems and one or more protocol families may be employed to best accomplish the goals of a system.
In NetWare, NetWare Core ProtocolTM (NCPTM) communication can travel on top of IPX or on top of IP in a configuration referred to as Pure IP (the IP NCPs are no longer IPX packets encapsulated inside IP). All applications that use NCP and do not interface directly with IPX or SPXTM can operate as Pure IP applications.
NetWare also supports existing applications that directly access IPX-based protocols (make IPX/SPX or SAP calls) through its Compatibility Mode (CMD). Compatibility Mode is implemented as a set of system components that allow IPX client or server applications to locate and communicate with their IPX counterparts without IPX packets being visible on the wire. Compatibility Mode components translate SAP advertise and query requests into their SLP equivalents, allowing IPX applications to dynamically advertise and/or discover without generating IPX traffic on the wire.
All NDPS components are IP-aware and IPX-aware, so they do not rely on Compatibility Mode to implement IP-based communication.
If you have a fairly large number of workstation clients, you might find it inconvenient to try to upgrade them to NDPS all at once. Because NDPS allows you to implement all of the server management components while allowing your workstation users to continue to print to queues just as they always have, you can upgrade these clients at a pace that suits your needs while you take advantage of the management benefits NDPS provides immediately. See Making the Transition Gradually for more information.
NDPS is tightly integrated with eDirectoryTM to maximize both the security and ease-of-management that eDirectory provides. The level of security you desire for each of your printers can be as flexible as you want it to be, ranging from total public access to tightly controlled access. Printer security for controlled access printers is ensured through the assignment of the Manager, Operator, and User access control roles. For more information, see Managing Printing Security.
While the distribution of your Brokers is not a critical issue initially, you will probably want to give some thought to this issue as you do your preliminary planning. You will not need to create a Broker on all of your servers, but you will want your Brokers sufficiently well distributed so that your brokered services (Service Registry Service, Event Notification Service, and Resource Management Service) will be readily available on the system when needed. As you gain experience with your new system, you may want to add or delete Brokers to optimize the efficiency of your system or to store your brokered resources (maintained in the Resource Management database) where you want them.
For guidelines on when and where to enable various brokered services, see Managing the Broker.
As a final planning step, before you begin the implementation process, you should create a written record of all the network resources and components that will be incorporated into your new printing system (printers, servers, workstation clients, routers, etc.). Then, you should draw a diagram of how these components will fit together in your modified eDirectory tree.
The steps to designing your NDPS system are described below:
Write a list that you can refer to as you make a diagram of your eDirectory tree. This record helps you to include all of the printing resources you need for your network when you start to create the eDirectory objects.
For example, you might record that you have two printers for one location on your network. One will be used for everyone in the office, and the other is used only by the production team. This information can guide you in creating your diagram.
We recommend that you create a diagram of the printing layout you want to implement in your new system. The diagram will help you simplify and reorganize your setup. The diagram you create can take a variety of forms. Drawing a tree diagram is the most common. You can also create a list that includes all the objects that will be in the tree. Or you might prefer to create an organization chart with responsibilities and resources listed by each name. The diagram should be centered on the printers and the NDPS Manager. (Keep in mind that only one NDPS Manager can be loaded on a server.) Although there are other items that might be included in the diagram, such as the NDPS Broker; printer users, managers, and Operators; or printer configuration information, the printers and the NDPS Manager are all that is necessary at this stage. Place the printers in the appropriate areas. Place an NDPS Manager on the server that you want to handle the Printer Agents that correspond with those printers.
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