Deploying Pharos printers through Casper Policies

[wculver]

I was wondering if anyone has had any experience deploying the Pharos Popup client and Pharos Mapped printers through Casper Policies? I remember a gentleman in my CCA class stating that they did this at the university he works at, but he didn't go in to any detail as to how they accomplished it.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

[wculver · Accepted solution]

Never mind. I figured it out myself.

[mscottblake]

Even though you say you figured it out, to answer your original question, yes. I currently deploy the Pharos popup client and Pharos printers using Casper. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to help.

[pvillave]

Aha, it'd be nice to see a kool walkthrough on this one. I'm getting different/inconsistent results with Pharos Popup & Notify 8.1 or the new 8.3.3. Our backend server is 8.1 along with an account server to deduct money from the student accounts for each print job. Any info would be great! ....for the included instructions and the Knowledge base articles aren't getting the job done.

Thank You in advance!

[mscottblake]

Let me preface by saying another department handles the Pharos system itself. I know the client side aspects of it.

First of all, Fast User Switching must be disabled if you are using the Pharos popup client. It runs on the first user to login, so if User B logs in and tries to print, it pops up on User A's desktop instead.

My package for the popup is a snapshot. I installed the software, then set it up in the login items and packaged that all up together. This way I know that if the package is installed, it is also launching on login.

As for the printers themselves, there is no difference between a pharos printer and any other in the JSS. You just have to add the printer to the machine using the popup:// protocol.

Hope this helps!

[farverk]

I'm currently trying to set this up on OSX 10.9.2. I've captured the Pharos Popup 8.3.2 using composer in a snapshot and I have that installing. I also have printers setup that install successfully but I never get the pop up for username/job-name after I choose one of the Pharos printers. Any ideas? When I install the package that I made manually everything works fine. I'm still in the process of testing some things so any help is appreciated.

[mscottblake]

@farverk Sorry for the late reply.

My first guess would be that the snapshot you created does not include the startup item for the popup client.

Also, Pharos does not work with Fast User Switching enabled. The popup will show on the first user to login every time and other users will be unable to see it.

[jumccormick]

I posted a separate discussion with my solution to this if it helps anyone.
https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=14384