Printer Pruning

[Todd S]

I wanted to know if someone knew how a DC attempts to
connect to a printer queue when it attempts to prune the
printers, ie. what type of connection does it attempt? I
wanted to see if I could manually duplicate this process
in an attempt to see why my DC is pruning printers that
still exist on a server that is up and running fine.

I have a theory and want to check on that. My theory is
that the DC uses LDAP. What I believe my problem is
follow as:

1. My print server is a windows 2003 cluster.

2. The Cluster Name resource isn't using Kerberos and
thus isn't in Active Directory as a computer name.

3. Because the Cluster Name isn't in AD the DC cannot
communicate with the printer queue.

I haven't been able to confim this yet. I did try turning
on Kerberos on my Cluster Name resource but for some
reason we started getting RPC errors when users were
attempting to print so I removed Kerberos and deleted the
computer account from AD.

Thanks.

Todd S.
toddflbass@{IHATESPAM}yahoo.com

 

[Jason Hall [MSFT]]

--------------------
Sender: "Todd S" <toddflbass@{ihatespam}yahoo.com>
Subject: Printer Pruning
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 04:39:46 -0700

I wanted to know if someone knew how a DC attempts to
connect to a printer queue when it attempts to prune the
printers, ie. what type of connection does it attempt? I
wanted to see if I could manually duplicate this process
in an attempt to see why my DC is pruning printers that
still exist on a server that is up and running fine.

I have a theory and want to check on that. My theory is
that the DC uses LDAP. What I believe my problem is
follow as:

1. My print server is a windows 2003 cluster.

2. The Cluster Name resource isn't using Kerberos and
thus isn't in Active Directory as a computer name.

3. Because the Cluster Name isn't in AD the DC cannot
communicate with the printer queue.

I haven't been able to confim this yet. I did try turning
on Kerberos on my Cluster Name resource but for some
reason we started getting RPC errors when users were
attempting to print so I removed Kerberos and deleted the
computer account from AD.

Thanks.

Todd S.
toddflbass@{IHATESPAM}yahoo.com
------------------------

Your point #2 is on the right track, the Cluster Service isn't "Active
Directory aware". Thus, when you publish a printer resource installed on a
cluster, the printer will be shown in AD as being attached to the NODE that
owns the resource.

Hence, your point #3 doesn't really apply

There have been some wrinkles with printer publishing / pruning and
clusters...that have yet to be ironed out.
My advice to you: If you don't need Printer Pruning (which most
environments don't), then disable it, you can do so in Group Policy.
--
~~ JASON HALL ~~
~ Performance Support Specialist,
~ Microsoft Enterprise Platforms Support
~ This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
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originated.

 

[Guest]

Jason,

Thank you for the info. The only reason I though #3 might
be the case is because when my printers are pruned it
appears the DC is looking for the cluster name in AD:

PrintQueue LDAP://CN=GL-FP-01-MSD01HP4SI,CN=GL-FPN-
02,OU=Member Servers,OU=Computers,OU=Glynco,OU=FLETC
Locations,DC=FTC,DC=FLETC,DC=TREAS,DC=GOV was deleted.

GL-FP-01 is the cluster name
GL-FPN-02 is the node that is controlling the cluster

I am aware that when installing a printer on the node the
printer is actually in AD under the node (saw that through
ADSIedit). I was just looking for a reason to why the
printers are being pruned and though that because the
cluster name wasn't in AD might have something to do with
it. Doesn't sound like it from you analysis. Thank you.



Todd