Does OS X Server have a print server?

So, the answer to this is no. But a more round-about answer is sort of (as far as driver delivery and config), depending on your infrastructure.

Ok, base answer. There is no "print server" in OS X Server any more. Instead, you can add printers to the server and share them using system preferences. But if they are network printers (or AirPrint printers) they are already broadcasting on the network so resharing them will only result in multiple broadcast queues. Likewise, OS X and Server alone can not "deliver" print drivers to devices.

Now, there are products that can accomplish this. For example, you can look at something as simple as Apple Remote Desktop. Now, the process would still be manual in that you would have to push the drivers to the device and you would have to have credentials for the device. So if these are not devices owned by you that is likely not going to work. If you have a fleet of devices, JAMF is a great solution as all software can be delivered dynamically and transparently to the end user. But, that is really for environments over 50 devices.

But, all that said, if you have a device that is not configured to the printer and you select the printer, is the device able to find the driver in Apple's software repository? For small deployments where you may not control the individual systems, that is likely the easiest way.

Or, you can place the drivers and a configuration script on a file share.

Reid

Apple Consultants Network

Author "Yosemite Server – Foundation Services" :: Exclusively available in Apple's iBooks Store

Author "Mavericks Server – Foundation Services" :: Exclusively available in Apple's iBooks Store

Author "Mavericks Server – Control and Collaboration" :: Exclusively available in Apple's iBooks Store

OS X - the client version, allows you to share a printer to other client Macs. It no longer allows you to share a printer to PCs.

Apple's Server.app server software has no printer sharing capabilities at all any more but remember it is running on top of standard OS X so standard OS X can still share a printer to other Macs. As Strontium90 says sharing a network printer to Macs has little benefit since the Macs can print directly - which is probably what Apple think you should do anyway. There is a small amount of benefit in a Mac accessing a network printer via another Mac in that the settings such as number of paper trays etc. can be configured once and shared.

In terms of a full-blown printer server this is an area that - gasp! - Microsoft have for many, many years been the leaders so much so that even today I see corporate sites using a solitary Windows server for print serving even if they otherwise are a non-Windows site. Windows server can even push both settings and the printer driver itself to Windows clients.

While Apple do not really provide any solution to do this for Macs - at least one worth mentioning there are some third-party solutions for Macs but none as good as Microsoft's Windows offering.

Firstly there is JAMF Casper Suite, this is not free but can push settings and drivers to Macs and can even automatically push or remove a different set of drivers and settings depending on where your Mac is located e.g. a different floor in a building. They even recently added the ability to use Bluetooth iBeacons to more accurately detect a Macs location for this. This level of automation is what Apple should have provided themselves.

Other than Casper Suite it generally involves a lot more hard work on the part of a network administrator but there are some free tools.

Munki based solution - https://code.google.com/p/munki/wiki/ManagingPrintersWithMunki

DeployStudio imaging and post imaging script - http://www.deploystudio.com/Forums/viewtopic.php?id=5917

Printer-Setup uses CUPS and installer packages - https://github.com/henri/printer-setup

Note: It would be quite possible to combine Printer-Setup with Munki, or DeployStudio or even Casper Suite. If you used Printer-Setup with Munki you could make it a self-service solution to both add and remove queues but frankly your average user cannot be relied on to do this - not even something as simple as a single click. Casper Suite can completely and totally automate this based on the location of the computer so there is no need to involve hands on IT configuration and no need to rely of the dubious abilities of a mere user. 😉

By the way, what I do to simplify things is specifically install all the printer drivers I need as part of imaging new computers via DeployStudio. I don't - yet, automate adding printer queues and settings. I can then manually just add a network printer without being nagged to first install the driver. If a new version of a printer driver comes out then either it is provided by Apple Software Update Server, or pushed by my Munki setup. As mentioned I have not yet setup pushing queues and settings.