Using microsoft print servers_BUT_keeping data local ???

[nogood boyo]

Hey Folks,

- we have many remote sites with printers
- currently printers are printing direct IP locally at said remote sites (so there's no traffic on the WAN)
- we cant put a print server on each site
- we want the benefit of managing print queues, drivers etc.. centrally
- we do not want to load the network with extra traffic

Question: doesn't Microsoft Print Services already have a configuration that matches the requirement above?

i.e.

So essentially it would be the print server model, except the print jobs don't actually get passed through the print server, they are just processed locally on the computers and sent directly to the printer via direct IP.

[rthonpm]

Re: Using microsoft print servers_BUT_keeping data local ???

No such animal exists. Overall, a print server doesn't need to be a true server: all you need is a spare client on the local LAN set not to go into standby or sleep all that shares its connections to the printer(s). Just be sure if you have a mix of 32-bit and 64-bit systems to install drivers for each on the machine. From outside of the WAN you could just set up RDP for remote management.

[nogood boyo]

Re: Using microsoft print servers_BUT_keeping data local ???

No such animal exists. Overall, a print server doesn't need to be a true server: all you need is a spare client on the local LAN set not to go into standby or sleep all that shares its connections to the printer(s). Just be sure if you have a mix of 32-bit and 64-bit systems to install drivers for each on the machine. From outside of the WAN you could just set up RDP for remote management.

Yeah i was afraid of that. Unfortunately we have waaaayyyy to many field sites for that to be a viable option at this point.

The major concern is, with the topology of the field sites and the network architecture, adding about 100 new printers to the existing print servers might oversaturate the admittedly limited bandwidth.

Have of our network team inst overly concerned, doesn't think it would make much of an impact at all... but there are a couple of guys who really don't think its a good idea, concerned about piling on traffic. My thoughts are that the upgrading of available bandwidth is inevitable, and we shouldn't be restricting business functionality based on adding a few printers...



Follow up question: Short of installing a sniffer at specific points, if we were to set up... say twenty printers on our servers, is there a way to accurately (not just total data, but times and peaks) track data transfer coming to and from printers on a server?

[rthonpm]

Re: Using microsoft print servers_BUT_keeping data local ???

Printing is very consistent. RAW printing uses port 9100 or 10001, LPD uses 515. Any kind of network monitor could be set up to track any kind of traffic coming from one of the end point locations all the way to the print server.

Overall, the amount of data you're looking at it is trivial: email or even web browsing will put a bigger load on the network than print jobs ever will.

[nogood boyo]

Re: Using microsoft print servers_BUT_keeping data local ???

Printing is very consistent. RAW printing uses port 9100 or 10001, LPD uses 515. Any kind of network monitor could be set up to track any kind of traffic coming from one of the end point locations all the way to the print server.

Overall, the amount of data you're looking at it is trivial: email or even web browsing will put a bigger load on the network than print jobs ever will.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj134156.aspx

Any body reading this thread who's been interested in what we are talking about, this is exactly what i was king about.



there are other pretty kick ass options available:

Eliminate Print Servers | PrinterLogic

I think this is the route we are going to attempt to pursue. Now i just get someone to pay for it