B
Bruce Lautenschlager
I'm looking to increase the reliability of my print server. I have 287 HP
printers installed on my Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard, SP2 (fully
patched), print server. It has 4 GB of RAM, a single 3.2 Ghz Xeon CPU (it's
an IBM 8843/HS20 Blade server), with a single 36 GB mirrored volume. The
only 3rd party software installed on it is VNC and Network Associates Virus
Scan 8.5i (the corporate version, not the craptacular retail client). I have
24 of these blades in that same config, and I find them VERY stable,
typically.
The print servers connected to the physical printers are all Intel (various
models) or HP JetDirects (none internal to the printers). The workstations
are 95% Windows 2000 SP4, the remaining are a mix of XP SP2, or printing
from my Citrix Farm (CPS 4.0, using WI).
All the printer drivers are either the canned print drivers for Windows
(usually in the case of the older HP LaserJet 4's and 5's), or the driver
available from the HP site sometime between January and March of this year.
The models of HP B&W laser printer drivers installed are 4, 5, 5si, 1200,
1320, P2015, 4000, 4050, 4100, 4200, 4250, 8100, 8150, 9050.
The models of HP color laser printer drivers installed are 2550, 2800, 3800,
4005, 4650.
The models of HP DeskJet printer drivers installed are 1600, 6122, and a
DesignJet 650c.
The realtime virus scanning excludes the spool folder, but I've turned it
off entirely, and it doesn't seem to make a difference. I've set the spooler
service to recover if it fails, and lately, it would seem to go into
recovery once a week or so (Event ID 7031 - The Print Spooler servuce
terminated unexpectedly). It usually recovers, but sometimes it doesn't, and
I have to reboot the whole server.
I don't have the worst print server in the world, but I'm looking to make it
more stable. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. I have one enterprise
application (for surgical suites) that gets really hosed if it can't print,
so any downtime can make it dicey.
I thought about setting this up on a cluster, like my file server, but I
thought splitting off all printing on a dedicated print server would be
reliable enough, plus some people indicate print server clusters aren't the
greatest, either. But now I'm wondering.
In my smaller facilities, I combine the printing on my file servers and have
zero issues, but those are hosting 10-12 printers and 50 users, not 287
printer and 1000 users.
Thanks in advance,
Bruce Lautenschlager
printers installed on my Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard, SP2 (fully
patched), print server. It has 4 GB of RAM, a single 3.2 Ghz Xeon CPU (it's
an IBM 8843/HS20 Blade server), with a single 36 GB mirrored volume. The
only 3rd party software installed on it is VNC and Network Associates Virus
Scan 8.5i (the corporate version, not the craptacular retail client). I have
24 of these blades in that same config, and I find them VERY stable,
typically.
The print servers connected to the physical printers are all Intel (various
models) or HP JetDirects (none internal to the printers). The workstations
are 95% Windows 2000 SP4, the remaining are a mix of XP SP2, or printing
from my Citrix Farm (CPS 4.0, using WI).
All the printer drivers are either the canned print drivers for Windows
(usually in the case of the older HP LaserJet 4's and 5's), or the driver
available from the HP site sometime between January and March of this year.
The models of HP B&W laser printer drivers installed are 4, 5, 5si, 1200,
1320, P2015, 4000, 4050, 4100, 4200, 4250, 8100, 8150, 9050.
The models of HP color laser printer drivers installed are 2550, 2800, 3800,
4005, 4650.
The models of HP DeskJet printer drivers installed are 1600, 6122, and a
DesignJet 650c.
The realtime virus scanning excludes the spool folder, but I've turned it
off entirely, and it doesn't seem to make a difference. I've set the spooler
service to recover if it fails, and lately, it would seem to go into
recovery once a week or so (Event ID 7031 - The Print Spooler servuce
terminated unexpectedly). It usually recovers, but sometimes it doesn't, and
I have to reboot the whole server.
I don't have the worst print server in the world, but I'm looking to make it
more stable. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. I have one enterprise
application (for surgical suites) that gets really hosed if it can't print,
so any downtime can make it dicey.
I thought about setting this up on a cluster, like my file server, but I
thought splitting off all printing on a dedicated print server would be
reliable enough, plus some people indicate print server clusters aren't the
greatest, either. But now I'm wondering.
In my smaller facilities, I combine the printing on my file servers and have
zero issues, but those are hosting 10-12 printers and 50 users, not 287
printer and 1000 users.
Thanks in advance,
Bruce Lautenschlager