Integration of Windows 2000 Printing w/ AD

[Shoey]

Ok, I have quite a few questions about Windows 2000 printing with AD.

Initially I was going to setup all of our printers on one server that
was not an AD DC. After reading Microsoft's white paper on
"Integration of Windows 2000 Printing with Active Directory", I
learned that a print server does not have a set relationship with any
specific domain controller. It finds a domain controller in the
appropriate domain dynamically.

Given this information, do I need to run dcpromo on the server that I
would like to add the printers and then add them? But here is where I
am confused. I have the AD root server and a second DC within AD now.
I added some printers to the AD root server. When I add the printer
on the client machine, it says that it is "printer name" on "root AD
server". If these printers arent associated with a particular server,
why are they listed that way? For performance, am I better off adding
all of these printers to the third server that I was going to? Since
all of these printers will be AD printers, is there an advantage to
adding them to a particular server or will information be replicated
with the AD database anyway?

Confused

 

[Matjaz Ladava [MVP]]

When you add a printer on a computer running Windows 2000/XP/2003 the
printer is automatically published in the AD (if not selected differently).
Printer published in AD are visible, If you enable View Users, Computers as
containers in View menu of AD Users and computers. Published printer is
visible selecting a computer object in this view mode.
As everything else, printer information is replicated among all DC in
domain. Depending of the number of print queues I would recommend to
implement a separate computer for printers.

If you have different sites I strongly advise to implement printer location
tracking as described in
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr...ard/sag_PRINTconcepts_locationlite_enable.asp

Hope this answers all your questions. If you have any doubts post back.
--
Regards

Matjaz Ladava, MCSE (NT4 & 2000), MVP
(e-mail address removed)
http://ladava.com

 

[Shoey]

I understand that now, given the amount of printers that I have, I
should install the print queues on my third server. I am still
confused as to whether or not I need to run dcpromo on this third
server to promote it to an AD DC. Will users get the full directory
functionality if I just have this server log into the AD domain or
does it need to be an AD domain controller? These printers are all
within the same site.

Thanks

 

[Matjaz Ladava [MVP]]

No need to run Dcpromo. Printers will be published into AD even if they are
on member server. The clients will query AD for printers and then connect to
the right printer server.

--
Regards

Matjaz Ladava, MCSE (NT4 & 2000), MVP
(e-mail address removed)
http://ladava.com

 

[Cary Shultz]

-----Original Message-----
No need to run Dcpromo. Printers will be published into AD even if they are
on member server. The clients will query AD for printers and then connect to
the right printer server.

--
Regards

Matjaz Ladava, MCSE (NT4 & 2000), MVP
(e-mail address removed)
http://ladava.com

I understand that now, given the amount of printers that I have, I
should install the print queues on my third server. I am still
confused as to whether or not I need to run dcpromo on this third
server to promote it to an AD DC. Will users get the full directory
functionality if I just have this server log into the AD domain or
does it need to be an AD domain controller? These printers are all
within the same site.

Thanks



"Matjaz Ladava [MVP]" <matjaz@_nospam_ladava.com> wrote

in message
selected

differently).

View Users, Computers
as implement printer
location

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?

url=/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/proddocs/standar
d/sag_PRINTconcepts_locationlite_enable.asp

.

I might add that where I used to work I built a WIN2000
Member Server as a dedicated Print Server. We had over 50
Printers ( er, sorry, print devices ) so it as well worth
it to have dedicated Print Server. Each and every printer
did indeed show up in AD as by default the printer will be
published....as Matjaz stated.

HTH,

Cary