Rename 2008 DC and Safety of Print Management?

[burgemaster]

Hi all,

 

We have recently added a new 64bit 2008 DC to our 2003 forest, it is named DC3 and it was going to be purely an extra DC... but

 

After having setting up a Vista ICT Suite, i have had to installed the print management console onto it to deploy them printers (long storey!)

 

Firstly, is there any danger installing the PMC on a DC ? Would it be better is the DC was a RODC ?

 

Secondly, my plan is to migrate all the current xp/2003 printers from our 2003 print server, onto this 64bit 2008 server... Would it be possible to firstly rename DC3 to PRINT and then install all the xp printers/drivers onto it.

 

Are there any problems running xp/2k3/32bit drivers on a 64bit 2008 print server ?

 

Thanks in advance

[ricki]

HI

 

I would not make a dc into a print server as they need rebooting more often. Keep the print servers on a separate server and then when printer drivers crash or have problems it does not affect the network as must.

 

Richard

[IanT]

I always tend to run my Print Services on the File Server, I also always have at least 1 DC running just domain services just incase.

[burgemaster]

Thanks for the replies,

If we have 3 DC`s then if DC3 did ever need a reboot, wouldnt this mean that DC1/2 would take over?

 

Also, we have never (that i can remember) had to reboot our current print server due to print problems, in maybe 4 years. Only have to restart the spooler service ?

 

Any one please know if a Read only DC would be better in this case or whether 64bit Print Management is back compatable with all print drivers?

 

Cheer

[IanT]

Its not recommend you rename a DC, if you wanted to rename DC3, best thing I would do is MAKE SURE you haven't got any FSMO roles on DC3, if not then demote the server back to a member server, rename it.

 

If you had to reboot DC3 then the other servers wouldn't take over the print services.

 

Most cases restarting the Print Spooler fixes any problems.

 

Ian.

[SYNACK]

Printer drivers can be a large difficulty with 64bit as the drivers are scarce for some brands. They need to be installed as 64bit on the server and then use the 32bit drivers on the hosts.

 

As you have windows 2008 on the box you have virtualisation rights for one virtual copy on that box, why not use Hyper-V to install an additional 32bit version of 2008 that you can call print and will handle the printng seporately without displacing anything else. Print drivers and queues are notoriously unstable and this would be the solution that I would suggest.

[burgemaster]

Printer drivers can be a large difficulty with 64bit as the drivers are scarce for some brands. They need to be installed as 64bit on the server and then use the 32bit drivers on the hosts.

 

As you have windows 2008 on the box you have virtualisation rights for one virtual copy on that box, why not use Hyper-V to install an additional 32bit version of 2008 that you can call print and will handle the printng seporately without displacing anything else. Print drivers and queues are notoriously unstable and this would be the solution that I would suggest.

 

 

Thanks for the input, doesnt the 2008 print management console support the install of all x86 & 64drivers?

http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/askperf/WindowsLiveWriter/InstallingWindowsVistaPrintDriversonWind_7714/PrintDrivers004_140f51e1-7ee9-46a4-9b6e-e8651da1cf5d.jpg

 

Good idea about the hyper-v

 

Thanks

[SYNACK]

Yes but that is for the benifit of the clients not the servers. If it is shareing out the printer itself it must be able to talk to it directly using locally installed drivers which if you are on 64bit must be 64bit drivers.

 

The pannel for other architectures is just a place to load in different drivers that can be shared out to clients so they can install them if they do not have them already.