Secure Global Desktop Administration Guide > Printing > Printing from a UNIX application server

Printing from a UNIX application server

To print from a UNIX application server, you have to configure a Secure Global Desktop printer on the UNIX server. You do this by running the Secure Global Desktop printer installation script. If your application server and Secure Global Desktop server are the same server, you don't need to configure a printer as Secure Global Desktop Setup will have already created a printer. This topic covers:

How to configure a Secure Global Desktop printer on a UNIX application server.
How to print using the Secure Global Desktop replacement lp and lpr scripts.

Configuring a Secure Global Desktop printer on a UNIX application server

You configure a Secure Global Desktop printer on the application server that you want to print from by running the Secure Global Desktop prtinstall.en.sh script.

By default, prtinstall.en.sh creates a printer named tta_printer. This redirects print jobs from the application server to the printer created by Setup on the Secure Global Desktop server (this is also named tta_printer).

The prtinstall.en.sh script also installs the Secure Global Desktop lp and lpr replacement scripts, which you use to print.

Configuring a printer in a single-server array

If your array consists of a single Secure Global Desktop server, you run the printer installation script as follows:

Copy /opt/tarantella/bin/scripts/prtinstall.en.sh from a Secure Global Desktop server to a temporary directory on the application server.
Log in to the application server as root.
Change to the temporary directory.
Run the script by typing:
```
sh prtinstall.en.sh
```
When prompted, type the full DNS name of the Secure Global Desktop server.

Configuring a printer in a multiple-server array

If you have an array which consists of two or more Secure Global Desktop servers, you have to install a printer for each member of the array. To do this:

Copy /opt/tarantella/bin/scripts/prtinstall.en.sh from a Secure Global Desktop server to a temporary directory on the application server.
Log in to the application server as root.
Change to the temporary directory.

Run the script by typing:

sh prtinstall.en.sh --ttahost Secure Global Desktop_server_DNS_name --appprinter printer name

Repeat step 4 for each server in the array. The name of each printer (as specified by the --appprinter argument) can be anything you like but it must be unique.

Upgrading from previous versions of Secure Global Desktop

If you are upgrading from Secure Global Desktop version 3.20 or earlier, your existing configuration will be preserved. These versions of Secure Global Desktop do not use distributed printing and so all print jobs are directed through the primary server in the array. If you have more than one Secure Global Desktop server in your array and you want to take advantage of distributed printing, you must carry out the configuration described above.

Using the Secure Global Desktop lp or lpr scripts

When users print from a UNIX application they use the Secure Global Desktop replacement lp or lpr scripts. They can select which printer they print to by using:

a -d printer argument with the lp script, or
a -P printer argument with the lpr script.

If you do not use the -d and -P arguments when printing, the output goes to the client's default printer.

How you specify the printer depends on whether the client device is using Windows or UNIX.

Printing to UNIX clients

When printing to a UNIX client, you specify the printer by using the name of the printer as it is known to the UNIX lp or lpr system.

The following are examples of print commands for a UNIX client:

/opt/tarantella/bin/lp -d A4-printer filename
/opt/tarantella/bin/lpr -P color-printer filename

To be able to specify a printer in this way, you must configure printing for UNIX clients.

Printing to Windows clients

When printing to a Windows client, you specify the printer by using either:

the universal naming convention (UNC) name by which the printer is known to the client (for example, \\PRTSERVER\HPLJ5),
a "user-friendly" name such as "label-printer", or
the port name.

The following are examples of print commands for a Windows client:

/opt/tarantella/bin/lp -d '\\\\PRTSERVER\\HPLJ5' filename
/opt/tarantella/bin/lp -d __PRTSERVER_HPLJ5 filename
/opt/tarantella/bin/lpr -P label-printer filename
/opt/tarantella/bin/lpr -P LPT1: filename

To use a UNC name you must enclose the printer name in quotes and escape every backslash with an extra backslash (see the example above). However, because different UNIX shells process backslashes differently, you may need to experiment with the number of backslashes. For this reason, we recommend that you do not use UNC printer names. By using underscores instead of backslashes (see the example above), you can avoid having to use quotes or escape characters. However, this only works if the first two characters of the printer name are underscores.

Using "user-friendly" names avoids any problems with UNC names. To be able to use the "user-friendly name" option, you must edit the file /opt/tarantella/etc/data/printernamemap.txt using a text editor. This text file contains entries that map "user-friendly" names to printers, for example:

"label-printer"="\\PRTSERVER\HPLJ5"

In the printernamemap.txt file you use the UNC name of the printer without having to backslash escape the backslashes.

You can also use Secure Global Desktop PDF printing when printing from a UNIX application server.

Next steps in configuring Secure Global Desktop printing

Configure another application server:
Configure the Secure Global Desktop server to accept remote print requests.
Configure printing if you use the Common UNIX Printing System™ (CUPS).
Configure printing for UNIX clients.
Configure Secure Global Desktop PDF printing.
Configure Secure Global Desktop print job conversion.
Test that printing works. If you have trouble printing, follow the steps in the printing troubleshooter.

Related topics
Introducing Secure Global Desktop printing The tarantella print command The prtinstall.en.sh script