Cisco's free, Linux-based print system

Some enterprise users may be timid about using open-source software as an everyday part of their networks. One open-source tool may change this attitude, and it comes with a name that most IT professionals know and trust: Cisco Enterprise Print System.

CEPS is software written by network managers at Cisco to manage the company's network printing system. The system runs on Linux servers and supports more than 1,600 printers and more than 10,000 employee workstations worldwide running Windows 95 and Unix in Cisco's network.

I don't need to tell you how fast Cisco has grown over the years, and that has created a challenge for Cisco's information systems staff to manage a network that doubles in size every year. Given the fact that multiprotocol, cross-platform network printing always has had a bit of confusion (even technical voodoo) associated with it, this only compounded matters for the folks at Cisco. Because speed, efficiency and cost savings were of the essence (how do you think they make such great profit margins every year?), the company went with Linux and developed its own print server system.

The core components of CPES include: a console tool (called "pradmin") used to add and remove printers from the network; a Simple Distributed Database (developed at Cisco, and called SDDB) used to manage and track active printers, drivers and other data on network printers; a set of configuration and troubleshooting tools that let users log on to remote print servers and perform other tasks; printer scripts for automating tasks such as installations and driver downloads; and a print daemon, based on FreeBSD, to execute jobs. Samba is also used to allow CEPS print servers to communicate with multiple platforms.

One of the keys to CEPS is the SDDB, which was created solely for this system. The SDDB keeps track of where every printer is on the network, which clients are attached to which printers, and what drivers network clients have. This is sort of like a Novell Directory Services for print servers. The database resides on a "master" print server in the system, and is replicated to "slave" servers through the enterprise. Print servers running CEPS can distribute jobs among themselves, in case a certain printer gets bogged down with too many jobs. Because all print servers know the location of all network printers - and who's attached to them - jobs that are sent are always output to the correct printer. This provides a very scalable and fault-tolerant network-printing environment.

CEPS replaces the traditional methods of network printing, where clients set up printers attached directly to them, or PCs print to a print server where jobs are spooled and executed away from the local machine. CEPS allows users to easily set clients up to print to multiple printers in a network. Because each print server in the CEPS network is also a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol and Bootp server, the servers can dynamically distribute network addresses to added printers and download configuration files via trivial file transport protocol. This allows users to easily move printers around in a network.

CEPS was developed internally at Cisco for use in its own network, but the company authorized the release of the software for free under the GNU General Public License to help relieve printing headaches for net administrators everywhere. (Besides, Cisco has enough products it can make money on.)

Phil Hochmuth is a Network World Senior Writer and a former systems integrator. You can reach him at phochmut@nww.com.

Linux in the Enterprise archive
Past newsletters.

CPESS download

A how-to for installing CEPS

Archive of Network World on Linux newsletters