How to recover iPrint data after an accidental Print Manager deletion

When deleting the Print Manager object using iManager, more than the Print Manager object is deleted.  Also deleted are:

• Each Printer Agent object in eDirectory which belonged to the Print Manager
• The Printer Driver Profile data associated with that Print Manager
• All of the Printer Agent information held in the psmdb.dat
• Printer IP addresses
• Access Control List information
• Record of which users, groups, and OUs have what access to which printers
• Printer driver assignments to each printer agent
• The printer driver files are not deleted.
• Miscellaneous printer attributes
• SSL enabled, iPrint Direct Enabled, Auto Driver Update enabled, Accounting load string, etc.
• The deleted printer list
• A record of which printers have been deleted.
• The entire /var/opt/novell/iprint/<print manager name and context>.psm directory
• This includes:
• audit information
• backups of the print manager and printer agent information
• padbtxt.xml files
• several historical iterations of the XML files are maintained in the .psm directory
• ndpsmmon.log file

How can this information be recovered?

As of May of 2018, code is introduced that will make a backup of the most recent padbtxt.xml file.  (/var/opt/novell/iprint/<print manager name and context>.psm/padbtxt.xml). The back up is saved to the server's /tmp directory.

1. Find the backup XML
• iPrint Appliance and OES 2015
• The XML file will reside within the /tmp directory. The file will be named:
• Syntax:
• <Print Manager name>.<Context>.<Year-Month-Date>__<HR:MN:SEC>
• Example:
• iPrintnew.iPrintAppliance_2018-02-16__22:58:48
• Note: A bug has reported that the above file name should actually have an extension of XML.  The lack of the XML extension doesn't change the efficacy of the file, but it is more intuitive to have the extension.
• OES 2018
• OES 2018 differs only in the location of the backup file. The location is:
• Syntax:
• /tmp/systemd-private-<HEX Value>-apache2.service-<Characters>/tmp
• Example:
• /tmp/systemd-private-ac0dbc6a87f24f2f940484c10937a5f0-apache2.service-WePGnZ/tmp
2. Create the Print Manager Object
• When creating the print manager, refer to the back up XML to ensure you are using the same information:
• Print Manager Name = first part of the <dn> within the XML
• Container Name = latter part of the <dn> within the XML
• eDir Server name = <dserver> part of the XML, however, browse to the object.  Don't use the network address.
• Driver Store Name = <ids> part of the XML
• iPrint Service = <hostname> of the XML.  It is very important this part is identical. Changing this value could result in all workstations auto removing and auto re-installing all printers installed to workstations.
3. Shutdown the Print Manager
• rcnovell-ipsmd stop
4. Import the data from the backup XML file:
• Syntax:
• /opt/novell/iprint/bin/ipsmd -x /tmp/systemd-private-<HEX Value>-apache2.service-<Characters>/tmp/<Print Manager name>.<Context>.<Year-Month-Date>__<HR:MN:SEC> -u cn=<eDir admin name>,o=<OrganizationName>
• Example:
• /opt/novell/iprint/bin/ipsmd -x /tmp/systemd-private-ac0dbc6a87f24f2f940484c10937a5f0-apache2.service-WePGnZ/tmp/iPrintnew.iPrintAppliance_2018-02-16__22:58:48 -u cn=admin,o=MyContainer
• Provide the admin password
5. Start the print manager after the XML has completed importing
• rcnovell-ipsmd start