Before being able to use PyKota, you have of course to install it first. But before installing, you must carefully plan your installation. First you have to determine which machine will be the PyKota Storage Server. The Storage Server is the host responsible for keeping a centralized database of print usage for all your printers, users and groups. Then you have to list all the Print Servers for which you plan to use print quota facilities. Now we will see what has to be done on these servers. Of course, depending on the size of your network, you may very well use the same machine as both a Print Server and a Storage Server. This is especially the case if you've got only one server. Depending on PyKota's version number, different types of storage backends may be supported, so we will see for each one of them how to configure it. PostgreSQL is an Object Relationnal DataBase Management System distributed under a Free Software license from the http://www.postgresql.org web site. It certainely is the free RDBMS which has the most advanced features, and is widely used all over the world. To configure your Storage Server, you must have PostgreSQL already working. The complete installation of PostgreSQL is not covered by the present manual, please refer to your system's documentation or to http://www.postgresql.org for details. One thing you have to check, though, is that every Print Server on which you want to install the print quota mechanism, i.e. the print servers, must be able to connect to the PostgreSQL server. In the default installation of PostgreSQL this may not be the case for security reasons, except if both servers are in fact the same machine. In any case, it is recommended that you check the /etc/postgresql/pg_hba.conf and modify it if needed. This file is self documented and its modification is straightforward. You also have to make sure that PostgreSQL accepts TCP/IP connections. To do so you either have to launch it with the -i option or modify the /etc/postgresql/postgresql.conf, which is self documented and easy to modify too. Don't forget to restart PostgreSQL if you modify any of its configuration files, in order for the changes to take effect. Be careful, you may be unable to connect from a Print Server to the PostgreSQL server even if the configuration is correct. Sometimes your connections may be blocked by one or more network firewalls along the route from one machine to the other. If this is the case, then the best thing you can do is to ask your Network Administrator to not filter the IP port used by PostgreSQL, which is usually port 5432/tcp. The TCP/IP network port used by PostgreSQL may be different. When in doubt, ask your System Administrator for the correct value. TODO. A MySQL Storage Backend is planned, but it actually doesn't exist. An LDAP Storage Backend is planned, but it actually doesn't exist. Some people may already be working on this, though. A Berkeley DB Storage Backend is planned, but it actually doesn't exist. It seems that remote storage won't be possible with such a backend, so in other terms this means that you will have a different quota database on each print server. This may still prove to be useful for small configurations. For each Print Server on which you plan to implement the print quota mechanism, you have, of course, to have an already working printing environment. Currently PyKota only works with the CUPS environment, but more may be added in the future. TODO