Redundancy in Print Servers

[soveryapt]

Good afternoon all

 

Right, have a new server (delayed summer project) being delivered on Friday for setting up in our domain which will take over as PDC and I'll use our existing PDC in its demoted state as a redundancy plan. So, I can manage the whole DHCP, DNS thing, but I'm just wondering, is there a way to make it act as a failover for printers too?

 

Currently, all our printers are shared on one server and deployed using \\server.name\printer.name, whereas I'd prefer (if it's possible) to use \\domain.name\printer.name, like you can with DFS shares for files etc.

 

Is this possible in 2008R2 at all? Or does anyone know of a solution to do such a thing?

 

Thanks all

Andy T

[ricki]

Hi

 

You could set up the printers on the server and duplicate all the settings from the old machine like the name,etc

 

Then if the print server failed you could change the script to load the printer from the other server

 

Richard

[Domino]

Not really...

 

They do have a printer export tool they recommend for kind of a manual failover... High Availability Printing with the Print Management Console

[soveryapt]

Hi

 

You could set up the printers on the server and duplicate all the settings from the old machine like the name,etc

 

Then if the print server failed you could change the script to load the printer from the other server

 

Richard

 

Yeah, think I'm going to go down this route possibly as I use GP Pref for deployment, so I could just change it over from in there then.

[soveryapt]

Not really...

 

They do have a printer export tool they recommend for kind of a manual failover... High Availability Printing with the Print Management Console

 

and that looks even easier than how I was thinking .. lol ..

[ricki]

HI

 

Have a look at this Failover Cluster Step-by-Step Guide: Configuring a Two-Node Print Server Failover Cluster

 

Richard

[soveryapt]

HI

 

Have a look at this Failover Cluster Step-by-Step Guide: Configuring a Two-Node Print Server Failover Cluster

 

Richard

 

Thanks, but:

Note

The failover cluster feature is not available in Windows Web Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 Standard.

 

And we have standard ..

[Geoff]

I have this script for that. I got it from a website years ago...

 

'--------------------------------------------
' Author: Isaac G
' Date: 4/29/2008
' Script to update users installed printers to
' use secondary print server
'

Option Explicit

Dim PF, StrHostPrintsrv1
Set PF = New PrinterFailover

StrHostPrintsrv1 = "YOURPRIMARYPRINTSERVERNAME"
If Ping(StrHostPrintsrv1) = False Then
PF.PS_PROD = "YOURPRIMARYPRINTSERVERNAME"
PF.PS_BACKUP = "YOURSECONDARYPRINTSERVERNAME"
Else
PF.PS_PROD = "YOURSECONDARYPRINTSERVERNAME"
PF.PS_BACKUP = "YOURPRIMARYPRINTSERVERNAME"
End If	
Public Function Ping(strHost)

   		Dim objPing, objRetStatus

   		set objPing = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}").ExecQuery _
     		("select * from Win32_PingStatus where address = '" & strHost & "'")

   		for each objRetStatus in objPing
       		if IsNull(objRetStatus.StatusCode) or objRetStatus.StatusCode<>0 then
   			Ping = False
           		'WScript.Echo "Status code is " & objRetStatus.StatusCode
       		else
           		Ping = True
           		'Wscript.Echo "Bytes = " & vbTab & objRetStatus.BufferSize
           		'Wscript.Echo "Time (ms) = " & vbTab & objRetStatus.ResponseTime
          	 	'Wscript.Echo "TTL (s) = " & vbTab & objRetStatus.ResponseTimeToLive
       		end if
   		next
End Function 	

PF.UpdatePrinters

WScript.Quit


Class PrinterFailover


'Public

Public PS_PROD
Public PS_BACKUP

' Private

Private oShell
Private HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Private HKCU_DEFAULT_PRINTER

Private Sub Class_Terminate()
	Set oShell = Nothing
End Sub

Private Sub Class_Initialize()
	Set oShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
	HKEY_CURRENT_USER = &H80000001	

	' Rev2
	HKCU_DEFAULT_PRINTER = "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\Device"
	' end rev2

End Sub

Public Function UpdatePrinters()

	Dim v, ar, i, j

	ar = arPrinters()

	Dim retValueNames
	Dim retValueTypes
	
	Dim sKeyPath: sKeyPath = "Printers\Connections\"
	
	Dim RegFullKeyPath
	
	Dim arRegVal()
	
	Dim nName : nName = 0
	Dim nType : nType = 1
	Dim nVal  : nVal  = 2
	
	' rev2
	Dim PrintersUpdated: PrintersUpdated = False	
	Dim DefPrinter: DefPrinter = DefaultPrinter()
	' End rev 2

	For i = 0 to UBound(ar, 1)

		If InStr(ar(i), PS_PROD) > 0 Then
		
			'WScript.Echo "Updating printer key: " &  ar(i)
			
			' rev2
			PrintersUpdated = True
			' end rev2

			RegFullKeyPath = sKeyPath & ar(i)
			
			Call EnumRegVals(RegFullKeyPath, _ 
			                 retValueNames, _
			                 retValueTypes)
			
			ReDim arRegVal(3, UBound(retValueNames))
			
			For j = 0 To UBound(retValueNames) 
			  '  WScript.Echo "Value Name: " & retValueNames(j)  & " : " & oShell.RegRead("HKCU\" & RegFullKeyPath & "\" & retValueNames(j) )
			    
			    arRegVal(nName, j) = retValueNames(j)
			    
			    arRegVal(nType, j) = RegTypeNameFromVal(retValueTypes(j))
			    
			    arRegVal(nVal,  j) = oShell.RegRead("HKCU\" & RegFullKeyPath & "\" & retValueNames(j))
			    
			Next
			
			oShell.RegDelete "HKCU\" & RegFullKeyPath & "\"
			
			For j = 0 to UBound(arRegVal, 2)
				oShell.RegWrite Replace("HKCU\" & RegFullKeyPath & "\" & arRegVal(nName, j), PS_PROD, PS_BACKUP), _
				Replace(arRegVal(nVal, j),PS_PROD, PS_BACKUP), _
				arRegVal(nType, j)
			Next
		
		End If
	Next
	
	' rev2
	' Only update the default printer if we failed over something
	If PrintersUpdated Then
		UpdateDefaultPrinter(DefPrinter)
	End If
	'end rev2
	
End Function


Public Sub EnumRegVals(ByVal sKeyPath, _
		       ByRef retValueNames, _
		       ByRef retValueTypes)

' WMI reference

' http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa390387(VS.85).aspx

	Dim sComp: sComp = "."
	Dim i, oReg
	
	Set oReg=GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" &_ 
	   sComp & "\root\default:StdRegProv")


	oReg.EnumValues HKEY_CURRENT_USER, sKeyPath,_
	   retValueNames, retValueTypes
		
End Sub


Private Function RegTypeNameFromVal(RegType)
	const REG_SZ = 1
	const REG_EXPAND_SZ = 2
	const REG_BINARY = 3
	const REG_DWORD = 4
	const REG_MULTI_SZ = 7
	
	Dim s
	
	Select Case RegType
	Case REG_SZ
	   s =  "REG_SZ"
	Case REG_EXPAND_SZ
	   s = "REG_EXPAND_SZ"
	Case REG_BINARY
	   s = "REG_BINARY"
	Case REG_DWORD
	   s = "REG_DWORD"
	Case REG_MULTI_SZ
	   s = "REG_MULTI_SZ" ' Even though RegWrite won't suppor this type
	End Select
	
	RegTypeNameFromVal = s
	
End Function

Private Function arPrinters()

	Dim sComp: sComp = "."
	Dim sKeyPath : sKeyPath = "Printers\Connections"
	Dim ar, subkey, oReg

	Set oReg=GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" &_ 
	sComp & "\root\default:StdRegProv")

	oReg.EnumKey HKEY_CURRENT_USER, sKeyPath, ar
	
	arPrinters = ar	
End Function

' rev2
Private Function DefaultPrinter()
	Dim s
	s = oShell.RegRead(HKCU_DEFAULT_PRINTER)
	DefaultPrinter = s
End Function

Private Sub UpdateDefaultPrinter(DefPrinter)
	oShell.RegWrite HKCU_DEFAULT_PRINTER, Replace(DefPrinter, PS_PROD, PS_BACKUP)
End Sub

' end rev2

End Class