Advanced Configuration

Overriding cost and filter settings

The default (and recommended) setup is to have the filter and cost settings applied to the virtual queue, for example the global "find-me-queue" as explained in the examples. This ensures that you have a common cost and access policy across all printers associated with that queue - a model that your end-users can easily understand. There may however be some special cases where you may wish to instead apply cost and filter settings based on the target queue/printer selected:

The settings are overridden by the option Cost and filter settings are overridden by the target queue. Please use this option with care and careful consideration.

Important

If used incorrectly, the Cost and filter settings are overridden by the target queue option can be very confusing to end-users. For example, the cost that is displayed in the release station and/or client popup will be as calculated by the virtual queue settings. If, after the job is redirected, the cost changes, the user may become confused. As a general rule, don't override the cost, or if it must be overridden, communicate this situation to your users beforehand.

Cross-Server Job Redirection

PaperCut ChargeBack supports redirecting print jobs across print servers, but due to technical limitations the print servers must be running the same operating system (e.g. Windows to Windows, Mac to Mac, etc.).

Cross-Server Job Redirection On Windows

To enable redirection of print jobs from one Windows print server to another some additional configuration is required. This section covers the steps necessary to set it up.

The PaperCut ChargeBack Print Provider service is the Windows service responsible for interaction with print queues. For security reasons this service, as for most other Windows services, runs as the Local System account. This account does not have the privileges required to access another system and place a print job in one of its queues. Therefore to enable this functionality the privileges of the PaperCut ChargeBack Print Provider service must be escalated.

The recommended way to escalate the privileges of the PaperCut Print Provider service to the required level is as follows. First a service account is created with permission to create new print jobs:

  1. On each print server create a new domain user called papercut_service (or something suitably descriptive).

  2. Ensure this user has the rights to print on all printers. It's not a requirement that it be an Administrator level user.

  3. Ensure that the Password never expires option is enabled.

Next the PaperCut Print Provider service on each print server is configured to run as the new service account (changed from default SYSTEM to papercut_service):

  1. Open the Windows Services list.

  2. Stop the service PaperCut Print Provider.

  3. Right-click the PaperCut Print Provider service and select Properties.

  4. Select the Log On tab.

  5. Select the option This account.

  6. Enter the username and password of the newly created service account.

  7. Press OK.

  8. Start the PaperCut Print Provider service.

Now PaperCut ChargeBack should have the ability to redirect jobs to the remote print queues it has been provided access to. Test by setting up a simple job redirection scenario, such as that described in the section called “Example 1: Simple Load Balancing”.