Redundant Print Server OR Quickly switch users printers to another print server

  • Thread starter Thread starter Greg Saunders
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Greg Saunders

Let's say I have a 2000/2003 domain with a print server on SERVER1 which
serves 100 users.

Then either SERVER1 goes down due to failure or we must schedule hardware
service on that server for an extended period of time (several hours).

We need a way to allow these 100 users to continue printing WITHOUT using
clustering or setting up every printer manually on each computer.

My thought was to duplicate the printers and shares on another server...
say SERVER2. And then have a utility that could be ran that would switch
all of the users printers that are on SERVER1 over to SERVER2.

I am in the investigative phase so I don't know if this is possible, but
we need to find a way to avoid bringing down 100 users' ability to print.

Thank you.
 
Greg said:
Let's say I have a 2000/2003 domain with a print server on SERVER1 which
serves 100 users.

Then either SERVER1 goes down due to failure or we must schedule hardware
service on that server for an extended period of time (several hours).

We need a way to allow these 100 users to continue printing WITHOUT using
clustering or setting up every printer manually on each computer.

My thought was to duplicate the printers and shares on another server...
say SERVER2. And then have a utility that could be ran that would switch
all of the users printers that are on SERVER1 over to SERVER2.

I am in the investigative phase so I don't know if this is possible, but
we need to find a way to avoid bringing down 100 users' ability to print.
Click to expand...

I always recommend per-machine printers.

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/49741/
 
Windows Vista makes this easy:

Set up Server1 and Server2 (primary, and backup server)
Install all the printers you need on Server1
Use the Print Management Console, and add Server1 and Server2
Rightclick on Server1, and export the queues/drivers to a file, using our
new printer export tool
Rightclick on Server2, and import all the queues/drivers from the file

Server1 and Server2 now have identical configurations

Use Group Policy Editor (User-Windows Settings-Deployed Printers) to deploy
printers from Server1 to GPO1, and link GPO1 to an OU that contains the
users in your org - the printers will get auto-installed at the next Group
Policy refresh (less than 90 minutes), for all the users under that OU (if
they are running Windows Vista).

(Remember to update the schema on your Active Directory controller; Use
pushprinterconnections.exe if your users are running Windows XP; see
http://technet2.microsoft.com/Windo...9b35-4e3e-a344-90d7799927231033.mspx?mfr=true
..)

Use Group Policy Editor (User-Windows Settings-Deployed Printers) to deploy
(a similar list of)printers from Server2 to GPO2. Link GPO2 to the same OU
as GPO1, but don't enable the link (the printers won't get auto-installed)

When Server1 goes down, disable the link to GPO1, and enable the link to
GPO2. Your users will be switched over to the printers on Server 2 in under
90 minutes.

When you get a new Server1 set up, import the queues/drivers from your
printer export file and switch the GPOs back.
 
I am looking at something similar to enable redundancy across 2 servers
(manual failover).

I was investigating combining the Microsoft printmig.exe (3.1) utility
to do the bulk of the work and then following up with the bits not
supported (not sure why ?) such as Forms, Port Monitors. I was looking
at the Microsoft supplied CLONE.VBS script for this but have yet to
understand all the caveats.

Has anyone else attempted this ???

Regards

Eddie Priest
 
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