Master Slave Setup, Caldera SnapRIP+, VisualRIP and GrandRIP

Master/Slave Setup

Introduction:

The purpose of this document is to simplify the understanding and configuration of the Caldera mas-
ter/slave concept.

The Caldera master serves as the primary RIP and the slave as the secondary RIP processing files to
the printers local to that slave server.

The picture below shows an example of a network with one master RIP and two slave RIP’s. This
document continues to explain how this network will have to be configured.
It’s assumed that the Caldera RIP’s are configured to work in a TCP/IP network, share a license (see
Caldera KeyServer setup) and are able to drive the printers when operated stand alone.

Client/Server with VNC and Master/Slave example

Client 1 with VNC client Client 2 with VNC client Client 3 with VNC client

Master server accessible by client 1 to 3 by using VNC and Master driving printers on Slave 1 and Slave 2

Server ip 192.168.0.104

Slave 1 Slave 2

Server ip 192.168.0.105 Server ip 192.168.0.106

Summa Cutter Epson Stylus Pro 7900

Durst Rho-800 HP DJ L25500 Roland XC540

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The Master

The master will have all the printers installed but only the printers which are local to the master will
have to be fully configured in the Server Admin. The printers serviced by the slaves will have to be
configured on the Server Admin of the slave.

This is how the user interface on the master would

look. It has all the printer drivers installed. Only
the Epson 7900 is local to the master or in other
words the images for this printer will be ripped on
the master.

So the only printer to be configured in the master

Server Admin is the Epson 7900.

In the Config of the master server configure the

host name or ip address of the slave server which
services the specific printer. In this case the Durst
Rho-800 is attached to slave 192.168.0.105. So
change localhost to 192.168.0.105

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The Master continued

In the Config of the master server configure the host name or ip address of the slave server which
services the specific printer.

In this case the HP-DJ-L25500 and the Roland XC540 which are attached to slave 192.168.0.106. So
change localhost to 192.168.0.106

The Epson 7900 will stay at the default host name: localhost

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Slave 1

Slave 1 with ip address 192.168.0.105 rips files for the Rho-800. The Rho-800 will have to be config-
ured in the Server Admin but nothing special has to be done related to the master/slave configuration.
Make sure that the media ICC profiles are present on the master and the slave.

In the Config of the slave the Rho-

800 host name will be set to local-
host. If there was another Rho-800
on the same slave then the Server
name will have to match the Server
name on the master.

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Slave 2

Slave 2 with ip address 192.168.0.106 rips files for the Roland XC540 and the HP-DJ-L25500. Both
printers will have to be configured in the Server Admin. Again make sure that the media ICC profiles
are present on the master and the slave.
A backup of the media profiles can be made through the Build Patch option in the EasyMedia (Light)
project window. In the same window the Install Patch button allows you to install the media profiles.

Both printers are to be set to localhost (default setting)

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Master/Slave considerations:

1) Make sure that all Caldera servers communicate which each other through the first Ethernet con-
troller (usually eth0 on Linux or en0 under Mac OSX). Incorrect configuration could lead to RPC Con-
nection failures and failures to initialize the printer module.

2) It would be advantageous to install all printers on all Caldera servers. In case of a failure of one of
the Caldera servers, the printing can continue after changing a few ip addresses. One quick way to
achieve this is to fully configure the master server and then use the Caldera save all script and the
restore all script (details on how to do this can be found in the How to use the backup procedures
document). Caldera backup/restore will not work cross platform.

3) Maintain backups of all media profiles as the media profiles will have to be present on the master
and the slave. Exception to this is when the master is used to profile the printer connected to a slave.

4) Power up sequence. It’s advised to have the printers, cutters and network shares active before
starting the Caldera Rip with the keyserver. After the keyserver is up and running start the remote
Caldera rips.

5) When on all three Caldera RIP’s the graphical user interface (image bar and application bar) is run-
ning then you would need a total of 3 visual users.
However the two slaves can run with only the spooler which doesn’t require a visual user.
So in that case the master/slave setup can run with one visual user which is supplied by default if you
purchase the Caldera Visual/GrandRip.

How to disable Caldera GUI auto start, when there’s no need for the Caldera graphical user
interface on the slave:

Kubuntu:

remove the autostart script (named StartAuto) from the following location:

/home/caldera/.kde/Autostart/

You can use Caldera Tools (Konqueror with admin rights) and make sure to enable hidden files under
the view pulldown menu as the .kde folder is a hidden folder.

In order to have the Spooler automatically appear after a startup one can drag and drop the Spooler
icon from the Caldera desktop in the /home/caldera/.kde/Autostart/ folder.

Mac OSX:

System Preferences > Accounts > Select User > Login Items

Remove Caldera and add the Spooler under the Login Items section.

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7) VisualCut queue. If one cutter is shared by multiple Caldera rips the following applies:

The cut queue needs to be accessible by all Caldera rips and the cut name under the cutter param-
eters needs to match the name of the Caldera RIP which drives the cutter.

In the following example we have a Summa cutter installed on a Linux based Caldera RIP.
The remote Caldera RIP is a Mac OSX install. The Linux based install has the cut queue configured
in the local directory /home/public/Summa_PostNet.

Linux Caldera RIP configuration with physical connection to the Summa cutter.

Open Caldera > Settings Tab > Config > create

a new cutter or edit an existing Visual cut based
cutter.

The name under Module Parameters can be any-

thing. In this example Summa_Postnet.

Configure > highlight the cutter > Edit to open the

Cutter Parameter window. The name in this win-
dow is important as it specific to this cutter, Sum-
ma_1 and needs to match the remotely configured
cutter.

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Mac OSX Caldera RIP configuration with remote connection to the Summa cutter.

Open Caldera > Settings Tab > Config > create new cutter or edit an existing Visual cut based cutter.

The name under Module Parameters can be anything. In this example Summa_Remote

Configure > highlight the cutter > Edit to open the Cutter Parameter window.
The name in this window is important as it’s specific to the remote cutter we like to drive (Summa_1)
which is configured on the Linux based Caldera install where the cutter is physically connected. Also
the queue needs to be pointed to the shared directory of the Linux based Caldera install.

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