options on print servers

Hi Josh,

There are several ways of having print servers set up, but the problem is finding the most cost effective way for your company. When you say the server failed, was it a software issue that simply required a reboot, or a hardware failure that required an engineer/replacement parts to be sent to site?

Is the server your print queues are set up on a dedicated print server, or does it have many functions? A dedicated print server will improve reliability a lot, considering there's a lot less to go wrong if the servers only carrying out 1 task... The more you load onto a server, the more possible points of failure you introduce should any of the apps cause the server to crash.

I've worked at companies that have their F&P servers in a cluster too, so that if one fails the other takes the active role immediately, but that was more due to the files serving side than anything else, as it was critical for the users to have access to these files (not least the fact that their roaming profiles were there too!).

Can you give me a little more detail regarding my comments?

Pete

It was a dedicated server that had 18 printers on it. The network controllers died making it unable to print campus wide. No cluster in place yet. Have found links to vb scripts any thoughts. I would need something that installed all printers localy with TCP ports by clicking on 1 link. Taking the Print serverout of the loop.