Data Requirements
The following table lists the data requirements for setting up a print server.
| Parameter | Description | Your Value |
| Printer name | User-assigned name of the printer. |
|
| Printer share name | User-assigned name of the printer as it will appear to network clients. This can be the same as the printer name if you want. Due to client limitations, this name should be limited to 8 characters. |
| List of client operating systems | To facilitate automatic download of drivers from the server to the client, you must know in advance the operating systems of the clients which will use the shared printer. |
|
Configuration Procedure
Authority Level Required Some of the following configuration steps may require administrative authority.
1. The first step in setting up a
print server is to set the machine up to print directly to the printer. If you have not already done so, do the procedure Configuring Windows 2000 to Print Directly to the Printer, and return here when done.
2. Select Start, then Settings, then Printers. You see the Printers folder.
3. Right-click on the printer and select Sharing....
4. Click the Shared radio button, then enter the printer's share name.
5. If there will be clients on other operating systems that are going to use this shared printer, click Additional Drivers, select all such operating systems in the resulting list, then click OK. At this point, you will be prompted to install the drivers by inserting the Setup CD-ROM. Follow the instructions to do this.
6. As an option, you can enter the location of the printer (such as "Building 3, Room 107") and a comment about the printer (such as "For use by marketing only"). To enter this information, select the General tab.
7. Click OK.
8. Inform the clients that will be using the printer of the share name of the printer.
Verifying the ConfigurationYou will test the shared printer by installing a client of the printer and printing a test page from that client. To install a print client, see
Configuring Windows Print Clients on TCP/IP Networks.
Iomega Corp. today announced its StorCenter Pro NAS 450r series array -- a rack-mountable series of
Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices that feature capacities up to 2TB and
print server capabilities. Prices start at $3,999.
Mac, Windows and Linux-compatible, the StorCenter Pro NAS 450r employs
Windows Storage server 2003 R2 for an operating system. Under the hood is a dual-core Xeon CPU, hardware-based RAID support, hot-swappable 7200RPM Serial ATA (SATA) hard disk drives, dual Gigabit Ethernet ports and other capabilities.
The StorCenter Pro NAS 450r features four disk drives and hardware-based RAID Level 0 (striping, no fault tolerance), Level 1 (mirroring) or Level 5 (striping with parity) support. An Ultra 320 SCSI port is also included, for high-speed direct backup.
The StorCenter Pro ships with a five-client license of EMC Retrospect Express backup software. Also included is
Windows Print Server, which provides centralized support and management for up to five network printers.
The StorCenter Pro NAS 450r costs $3,999 for a 1TB system (incorporating four 250GB drives). A 2TB system (using four 500GB drives) costs $4,999. Iomega plans to ship a 4TB model once 1TB drives are available later this year.
Via:www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=nas&articleId=9016399&taxonomyId=148&intsrc=kc_top
Windows Server 2008’s print server role offers a new Print Management console. (An earlier form of the console was part of Windows Server 2003 R2.) The Windows Server 2008 version, which is provided to the server when the print server role is added, allows you to retrieve information and the state of printers and other print servers. For clean installations, you can also use the Print Management console to install printers to client systems via Group Policy.
After installing the print server role, the Print Management console appears and offers a central view for the printers and print servers. Figure A shows the main screen of the Print Management console.
The Print Management console is one of the stronger features for Windows Server 2008 simply because of the deployment options of printers through Group Policy. For a printer deployed through Group Policy, the corresponding Group Policy Management configuration is shown in Figure B.
As with other Group Policy configurations, it can be applied to User or Computer objects. This flexibility can avoid risky scripts or inconsistent driver situations that can result from haphazard printer deployment.
You can apply the Print Management console to a permission model for delegated control so a help desk technician could clear a queue or even deploy the printer to a client. Printer drivers can also be managed within the Print Management console, avoiding issues where unnecessary printing features complicate the support of the solution.
Source:blogs.techrepublic.com.com/datacenter/?p=455
Is This for You? This document set is written to meet the requirements of IT professionals who are responsible for the planning, design, deployment, and operations of file and print services in an enterprise environment. The readers of this document set are expected to have an understanding of its technical details; however, service-level expertise is not needed to follow the enterprise-level discussions and to understand the decisions that are made.
Organizations need to share, store, retrieve, and print information in an efficient, cost-effective, secure, and reliable manner. Information may exist in the form of static files, such as large format architectural drawings and external brochures, software code and executable, plans and presentations, pictures and spreadsheets. Information may also take the form of dynamic data such as databases, event logs, or captured video streams. In each case, information exists as collections of files and is managed accordingly.
As the amount of data increases, the cost of storage and maintenance also increases due to administrative and hardware overheads. A number of studies have shown how data growth continues to be exponential while the resources available for managing data remain flat or the area reduced. It is important to ensure that users can access data quickly and easily and that it can be managed efficiently.
Organizations also need to be able to publish and print information in hard copy format, whether for legal, business, or personal requirements. They need to print on multiple devices having multiple attributes at different times of the day. They must also provide users with the ability to find and use printers easily without requesting assistance from the IT support organization.
In addition, printing assets need to be managed securely and kept online and available at the same time. File and print services are critical for users and applications within information technology (IT) environments. However, these services are often ignored during the IT infrastructure design phase, which leads to environments where printer and file repositories appear in ad hoc fashion without clear strategies for their management. Planning for these services is vital; requirements of the users and applications need to be assessed and available technologies matched to the requirements in order to provide a supportable package of technologies and services.
Over the weekend I installed the released version of Windows Server 2008 (after having worked with the release candidate previously), and the experience reminded how impressed I am by Win2008's ease of installation. I have a Intel quad-CPU set up, along with some 7200rpm drives because I do a lot of testing, and the 64-bit version Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition installation just flew onto my hard drive. Following that, deciding what you want your Win2008 to be in life is a relatively straightforward, guided process.
If you are new to Win2008, it includes something called Server Roles. What do you want this server to be? An Active Directory domain controller (called Domain Services), a file or print server, an IIS Web server, a combination, or maybe something else? Win2008 comes with some 17 Server Roles, each comprising a number of appropriate options. Let's say you want to set up a multipurpose server as a domain controller, DHCP server, file server, print server and Web server -- a configuration you might use in a smaller organization. Each of those functions are Server Roles within Win2008. Active Director Domain Services will also require you set up the server using the DNS Server role.
Each Server Role starts with a wizard for basic configuration information (like setting up scopes for the DHCP Server role, for example) and concludes with an installation step. If some feature selections within a Server Role have other software dependencies, those are shown with an easy-to-understand "okay" box to add those to the installation. If you are a beginner or don't happen to know about a certain feature set within a Server Role, help is there right upfront about what it does and the installation options that may be relevant to you (like setting up a new domain vs. adding a controller to an existing domain services forest).
You'll likely have to reboot Win2008 after most installation steps, so you'll want to get everything installed and configured before a bunch of users sign on. While there's a big difference in pricing, I've found Win2008 Standard Edition about as easy to set up as the Win2008 Small Business Edition. SBE obviously consolidates some steps, but Win2008 isn't all that hard to set up -- the basic stuff anyway. If you are going to exceed the license restrictions, don't fear setting up Win2008, as it's not that much harder.
