Windows 7 Driver Upload Methodology

As far as I know there is no quick and dirty way to upload a Windows driver
to the Broker. It is easy with Linux/Mac drivers since they are just text
files (ppd's). Windows drivers are much more complicated and the Broker
creates a zipped package of files that are need by Windows when a driver is
installed.

> must we handle each printer individually, both 32bit and 64bit?

What you must do is both better and worse than is implied in this question
;-). Better: you only need to upload the driver to the Broker ONCE for each
MODEL of printer for each PLATFORM (32 bit, 64 bit), not for each and every
printer. You probably know that.

Worse: after you upload the driver you then need to assign the driver for
each and every printer agent.

So, if you have 10 models of printer then you will be uploading 20 drivers
to the Broker (10 x 32-bit plus 10 x 64-bit). No big deal, eh? Then for your
800 printer agents you will need to assign the two new drivers (32-bit and
64-bit). That is where the real work is. But there is hope! This part of the
process can be done much faster than through iManager.

There is a tool that Novell makes called PAGen.exe - Printer Agent
Generator. This is a Windows command-line utility that takes a csv file as
input and can create both the eDir Print Agent object and the ndps manager
agent. I haven't tried this idea but feel free to test it out : modify the
csv file that ndps manager creates as a backup of the ndps database. The
modification that I am thinking of is to add the info for each printer agent
that would link the printer agent to the new Win7 32-bit and 64-bit drivers
that are stored in the Broker. After modifying the csv you can then run
pagen.exe to recreate the database.

Of course you will want to test this on a non-production system first. I'd
also suggest that you first do a normal Printer Agent driver assignment for
the new Win7 drivers via iManager for just one Printer Agent. Then you will
have a csv file that has all the right formatting/info that you can use as a
template.

The tool pagen.exe can be obtained here:
http://download.novell.com/Download?...d=0moHD6Yyr1g~

> I guess a second question is in order. Is there a way to have users
> provide their own drivers instead of pushing them down from the print
> broker itself?

Yes, but I have only done this on WinXP so the procedure may not be the same
on Win7...also there are a couple of paths you can take in Windows as far as
setting up the port (eg local vs network). Have a look at this TID 7003442
for an example of using the Add Printer Wizard to set up network port using
IPP. Another wrinkle in using the non-iPrint-client approach is introduced
by whether or not your printers are Secure (Require SSL/TLS), whether or not
you support LPR clients, whether or not you have job accounting set up (eg
PCounter or PaperCut). Bottom line is that it is far far easier to use the
iPrint client than not. Also do you want to troubleshoot a small handfull of
drivers over which you have complete control, or do you want to let all
users set up any driver that they want in any fashion that they want?
Personally I much prefer the former and I'll bet you will too.

Cheers,

Ron
UBC Okanagan