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Goal: To make a print queue available on a print server, subsequently allowing a user to select the print queue, establishing all attributes and components necessary to make the print queue discoverable and accessible to a print client.
Context of Use: Prior to a user being able to select a shared print queue to which to send a print job, an administrator is required to use an administrative tool to create and share a print queue on a print server. In Windows, this tool is the Print Management console. This shared print queue corresponds to a printer. In addition to creating the print queue, attributes and components of the print queue are defined, such as the port, to which the printer is connected, and the printer driver and print processor components that convert the print job data to drawing commands that the printer uses. After an administrator provisions the print queue with the necessary information, a user by using a print client, can send a print job to the printer via an application or the operating system.
Direct Actor: The direct actor is the administrative client.
Primary Actor: The primary actor is an administrator.
Supporting Actors: The supporting actors are the print server and the Active Directory system.
Stakeholders and Interests:
Administrative client: The administrative client is used by an administrator to participate in this use case to add the necessary information to a print server for allowing a printer to be shared by multiple print clients.
Administrator: An administrator participates in this use case by using an administrative client to configure a print server to share a printer among multiple users.
Print server: A print server is configured by this use case so that a printer connected to the print server can be shared among multiple users via a queue located on the print server.
Active Directory system: The Active Directory system is updated by this use case so that a listing of the print queue is available via a print client when a user attempts to locate a print queue to which to send a print job.
Preconditions: The print server and the administrative client are connected by using a network connection, and both are members of the domain. The print spooler service is operational on the print server and the administrative client. The Active Directory system is available and operational.
Minimal Guarantee: The administrative client is denied access, and no provisioning operations occur.
Success Guarantee: A print queue corresponding to a printer is established on a print server, and the Active Directory system is updated so that multiple print clients can locate and share the printer.
Trigger: An administrator initiates the process of provisioning a print queue by using an administrative tool to add a new print queue to a print server.
Main Success Scenario:
By using the SMB protocol family, the administrative client copies the files for the printer driver to a directory on the print server that is accessible via an SMB share.
The administrative client uses the Print System Remote Protocol [MS-RPRN] to install the printer driver on the print server. The driver is associated with a print queue in a later step of this use case. In a network of print clients having different architectures, different versions of the same driver are uploaded and installed by the administrative client, allowing the print server to provide printer drivers to print clients whose architecture differs from the print server's architecture.
The administrative client ensures that an executable module for a port monitor is present on the print server (copying it there by using the SMB protocol family, if necessary), and then installs the port monitor on the print server by using the Print System Remote Protocol. A port monitor implements and exports the methods that the print server calls locally to interface with a port to which a printer is connected. Ports for the port type that is implemented by the port monitor can only be added to the print server after the port monitor is added.
The administrator provides information about the port that connects the printer to the administrative client, which then uses the Print System Remote Protocol to direct the print server to add a specified printer port. A port is either a physical hardware port such as a parallel or USB port, or a network port such as a WSD or TCP/IP port. The port is assigned to the print queue in a following step.
If the printer supports custom paper formats, called "forms", the administrative client can use the Print System Remote Protocol to add definitions for those custom forms to the print server. When added, such forms can be made available for use with the print queue.
The administrative client uses the Print System Remote Protocol to create a print queue on the print server. The administrator uses the administrative client to assign a printer driver, a printer port, and a print processor to the print queue during this step, and also sets access permissions, metadata, including name of printer, physical location, and comments, time of availability, name under which the printer is shared, separator page settings, and processing priority.
The administrative client uses the Print System Remote Protocol to direct the print server to publish the print queue to the Active Directory system, which the print server satisfies by using LDAP [RFC4511] to create a directory object for the print queue, supplying the UNC name (server name plus share name) of the print queue. Print clients can then use LDAP to discover the print queue.
Extension (a) - Install a print processor on the print server: Between steps 4 and 5 previously described, if the installed printer driver does not contain a print processor, the administrative client can use the Print System Remote Protocol to install a print processor on the print server.
Extension (b) – Enable Branch Office Print Mode: Between steps 6 and 7 previously described, the administrative client can use the Print System Remote Protocol to set properties on the print queue that control the Branch Office Print mode.
Variation (a) - Performing the use case using the protocol described in [MS-PAR]: All details are identical to the use case described in this section except that the Print System Asynchronous Remote Protocol [MS-PAR] is used to locate and establish the connection to the print queue.