Fail over of a print queue

[LUE42]

We have a requirement to set up one of our print queues to
automatically failover to another printer port (IP) if the printer is
not available.

IE. Print Queue A prints to Printer A (HP Jetdirect IP). If Printer
A fails (broken, out of paper, generally unable to print), I need
Print Queue A to automatically send print jobs to Printer B.

Is this possible to set up within regular print queue setup? If not,
is there any third party software that can allow this configuration?

This setup is very similar to Printer Pooling... except that I want
the 'primary' printer to always be used except when it is unavailable.
Printer Pooling, as far as I can tell, cannot be configured in this
way... it just prints to the first available port.

Thanks!

Cory

 

[Jason Hall [MSFT]]

--------------------
From: (e-mail address removed) (LUE42)
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.win2000.printing
Subject: Fail over of a print queue
Date: 27 Apr 2004 06:25:22 -0700

We have a requirement to set up one of our print queues to
automatically failover to another printer port (IP) if the printer is
not available.

IE. Print Queue A prints to Printer A (HP Jetdirect IP). If Printer
A fails (broken, out of paper, generally unable to print), I need
Print Queue A to automatically send print jobs to Printer B.

Is this possible to set up within regular print queue setup? If not,
is there any third party software that can allow this configuration?

This setup is very similar to Printer Pooling... except that I want
the 'primary' printer to always be used except when it is unavailable.
Printer Pooling, as far as I can tell, cannot be configured in this
way... it just prints to the first available port.

Thanks!

Cory
-------------------

You're right, with Printer Pooling you can't choose a default printer

If you download the Windows 2000 Resource Kit there is a utility called
Prnadmin.dll (read prnadmin.doc to find usage)
You could right a script that queries the status of the print device, and
upon detection of it being offline, changes the printer settings to a
different port (and thus, print device).

--
~~ JASON HALL ~~
~ Performance Support Specialist,
~ Microsoft Enterprise Platforms Support
~ This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.
~ Use of included script samples are subject to the terms specified at
http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm
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