Important issues in interoperating environment

Before you set up an interoperating environment, consider these issues.

Which system should contain the namespace?

The namespace does not contain large volumes of data (so it does not have to reside on the system with the most disk space) and it does not move a lot of data across the network. However, because all of the other servers will rely on the namespace server, it must be available and reliable. Put the namespace on the system that is the most available (always running) and most reliable (does not have to be rebooted often).

How can I share the namespace across servers?

There are two methods to share the namespace from the primary server, which depends on what operating system the secondary server is. You can do that using Network File Sharing (NFS) when the secondary server is located on the AIX or Linux operating system, or Samba when the secondary system is a Windows operating system. When NFS is used, the exported namespace filesystem by the primary system is mounted by  secondary server using the hostname. Samba is used to export namespaces from the primary AIX or Linux server to a Windows secondary server. It is also used for the additional /ipdata sharing required by Submit Express job preflight.

Primary vs. Secondary server platform	Namespace Share Method	Namespace Share User	/ipdata Share Method	/ipdata Share User
AIX (primary) - AIX (secondary)	NFS	ipm1 (UID must match)	NFS	ipm1 (UID must match)
AIX (primary) - Linux (secondary)	NFS	ipm1 (UID must match)	NFS	ipm1 (UID must match)
Linux (primary) - AIX (secondary)	NFS	ipm1 (UID must match)	NFS	ipm1 (UID must match)
Linux (primary) - Linux (secondary)	NFS	ipm1 (UID must match)	NFS	ipm1 (UID must match)
AIX (primary) - Windows (secondary)	Samba	ipm1	Samba	ipm1
Linux (primary) - Windows (secondary)	Samba	ipm1	Samba	ipm1
Windows (primary) - Windows (secondary)	Windows Share	Windows Domain User	Windows Share	ipm1

Important: Interoperating multiple InfoPrint Manager Windows servers is supported only when running under Windows Domain controlled environments.

InfoPrint Manager Security

All of the information that InfoPrint Manager Security uses to protect your printing system (groups and Access Control Lists (ACLs)) is stored in the namespace. When you share the namespace, the groups and ACLs that you set on the namespace server apply to all of the servers; the groups and ACLs that you set on the other servers before they joined the common namespace disappear. As a result, you should wait until you have the interoperating environment set up before you set up any security on the systems.

Note: If the Pull Print Feature is installed on one of the servers that share the namespace, you have to recreate the groups and the ACL used by these features.

Printer drivers

If you are setting up an interoperating environment with mixed versions of operating systems , make sure that the printer drivers you choose work correctly in all Windows versions.