Module 13: Designing Print Services in Windows Server 2008

Module Overview
Overview of a Print Services Design Windows Server 2008 Printing Features

Designing Print Services

Lesson 1: Overview of a Print Services Design

Considerations for a Print Services Design Local Printing

Direct IP Printing
Server-based Printing Considerations for Selecting Printers

Considerations for a Print Services Design

Considerations for a print services design are:

Ease of administration

Ease of access for users

Cost High availability

Local Printing
A local printer is attached directly to a computer

Characteristics are: Secure Difficult to administer Typically low performance

Typically high cost

Convenient for the user

Direct IP Printing
Direct IP printing sends print jobs directly from a workstation to a network printer

Characteristics are:
No central bottleneck Lower cost than local printing Easier to manage than local printing No centralized queuing of print jobs Not scalable by adding additional printers
No centralized method for configuration of workstations

Server-based Printing
Server-based printing sends all print jobs through a print server

Characteristics are:
Centralized queuing of print jobs

Scalable by adding additional printers Centralized configuration of workstations Can control printer usage, based on user or group
Failure of print server affects multiple printers

Considerations for Selecting Printers

Considerations when selecting printers are:

Initial hardware cost of the printer

Cost per page for printing and consumables Duty cycle of the printer Networking support
Printer control language support (XPS)

Lesson 2: Windows Server 2008 Printing Features

Printer Pools XPS-based Printing

Interoperability of XPS and GDI-based Printing

Print Management Console Printer Driver Store

Internet Printing Protocol

Printer Pools

Printer pools: Increase print services availability and scalability Allow additional printers to be added to increase availability
Prevent outages due to printer failure

Require at least two physical printers

Printers must be the same model and use the same driver

Printers must be placed in the same location

XPS-based Printing
XPS-based printing:
Is a new printing process in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista Requires an XPS printer driver Is used only by WPF applications Generates a spool file in XPS format

XPS-based printing improvements:

Better print quality Better color information Smaller spool files Easier print job and device configuration information for applications to access

Interoperability of XPS and GDI-based Printing

XPS-based printing:
Can print to an older GDI-based printer driver Print job is converted from XPS to EMF

GDI-based printing:
Can print to a new XPS-based printer driver Print job is converted from EMF to XPS

Print Management Console

You can use the Print Management console to perform all the tasks that can be performed by using Control Panel

Tasks that can only be performed by using Print Management are:

Manage multiple print servers Create filters for viewing printers by characteristics, including status Deploy printers by using Group Policy Automatically add printers to a print server by scanning the local subnet Perform bulk operations to multiple printers at a time

Printer Driver Store

Printer driver store:

Is a central location where printer drivers are stored Can store printer driver packages Can stage drivers before printer installation

Supports multiple driver versions

Internet Printing Protocol

Internet Printing Protocol:

Uses only TCP port 80 or 443 for printing Can be used to install printers and drivers on clients Client link to printer can be UNC or URL

Requires IIS on the server

Is supported by Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista clients Allows remote management over HTTP, but is not preferred

Lesson 3: Designing Print Services

Failover Clustering for Print Services Recommendations for Simplifying User Access to Printers

Recommendations for Simplifying Print Services

Administration

Monitoring Print Services Considerations for Branch Office Printing

Failover Clustering for Print Services

Failover clustering: Increases print services availability Does not increase print services scalability Prevents outages due to server failure Requires at least two physical servers

Recommendations for Simplifying User Access to Printers

Consider the following to simplify user access to printers: Publish printers in Active Directory Use intuitive printer names Use printer location tracking Deploy printers and preferences by using Group Policy Use IPP for remote printing

Use Web-based maps for manual printer installation

Recommendations for Simplifying Print Services Administration

Considerations to simplify administration of print services: Use Print Management to centrally manage printers
Use Print Management to migrate printers between print servers Standardize printers to reduce the number of printer drivers

Avoid the use of inexpensive desktop printers

Monitoring Print Services

To monitor print services: Use Print Management notifications Use Performance Monitor Use Microsoft System Center Operations Manager

Considerations for Branch Office Printing

Considerations for branch office printing are: Print jobs over WAN links consume lots of bandwidth
Print jobs generated through terminal services connections are transmitted over WAN links Branch offices require someone to perform onsite maintenance of printers

Lab: Designing Print Services in Windows Server 2008

Exercise 1: Selecting a Print Services Design Exercise 2: Designing User Access to Printers

Exercise 3: Designing High Availability for Printing

Exercise 4: Implementing IPP Exercise 5: Deploying Printers by Using Group Policy

Logon information

Virtual machine User name Password

NYC-DC1, NYC-CL1 Administrator Pa$$w0rd

Estimated time: 60 minutes