White Paper. Microsoft Failover Clusters and ThinPrint.print. Installation and configuration of.print Engine (version 8.0)

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1 White Paper Microsoft Failover Clusters and ThinPrint.print Installation and configuration of.print Engine (version 8.0) Failover Cluster +.print Engine Print server clusters are used to assure a high reliability of servers in large environments. The advantage of a cluster is that from outside it can appear as a single server with only one IP address. But behind this multiple physical servers so called nodes are hidden. Failover or server clusters place special demands on program installation and configuration. This white paper therefore describes what steps are necessary to install and configure.print Engine in a print server cluster under Windows. System requirements.print Engine Print Spooler Service on the failover cluster Installation Installing.print Engine on cluster nodes Installing Output Gateway driver on the print spooler instance Adding ThinPrint Ports to the print spooler instance Adding and sharing printers Setting up print job tracking Appendix Customer service and technical support Additional sources Abbreviations

2 Copyright This document is the intellectual property of ThinPrint AG. This document may be copied in whole or in part, provided this Copyright notice is included in every copy. Registered Trade Marks All hardware and software names mentioned in this document are the registered trademarks of their respective companies or should be regarded as such. ThinPrint AG Alt-Moabit 91 a/b Berlin Germany/ Alemania ThinPrint Pty. Ltd. L 10, 275 Alfred Street North Sydney/ NSW/ 2060 Australia ThinPrint, Inc Detroit Road, Suite 303 Cleveland, OH USA/EEUU ThinPrint, Inc Grandview Avenue, Suite 200 Denver, Colorado USA/EEUU info@thinprint.com Web: Issued: October 20, 2010 (v32)

3 Contents System requirements... 4.print Engine... 4 Print spooler service on the failover cluster... 4 Installation... 5 Installing.print Engine on cluster nodes... 5 Installation... 5 Licensing... 5 Unattended licensing... 6 Installing Output Gateway driver on print spooler instance(s)... 6 Adding ThinPrint Ports to the print spooler instance... 9 Adding and sharing printers Setting up print job tracking Setting up Tracking Service on cluster nodes Enabling Tracking Service on the print spooler instance Appendix Customer service and technical support Additional sources Abbreviations Failover Clusters White Paper 3

4 System requirements System requirements.print Engine.print Engine requires one of the following operating systems including Microsoft Cluster Service: Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2 or later Windows Server 2003 x64 with Service Pack 2 or later Windows Server 2003 R2 with Service Pack 2 or later Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 with Service Pack 2 or later Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2008 x64 Windows Server 2008 R2 Print spooler service on the failover cluster The failover cluster must have at least one print spooler instance (Illus. 1). To set up a print spooler instance on a cluster see Microsoft TechNet at Illus. 1 Illus. 1 Print spooler instance PS in the Failover Cluster Management (= Cluster Administrator with Windows Server 2003) 4 White Paper Failover Clusters

5 Installation Installing.print Engine on cluster nodes Installation.print Engine must be installed individually on every node in the cluster. Proceed as follows: Install.print Engine on the cluster nodes. Use the installation program Setup.exe as well as the.print Server Engine manual (Page 18) or the Quick installation.print Server Engine manual (Page 18) Licensing During.print Engine installation (see above) select: Print Server as Server Role With Licensing: Either Demo mode (for a 30-day test installation) Or Enter license(s) (if you already got license keys) The license keys of.print Server Engine (THPS and/or TAPS) and of.print Printserver Basic Pack (TPPS) have to be purchased and installed per cluster node; in this situation each license key can be activated only once per node. The server access license keys (THSA) and the user license keys (TPUS) however, only need to be purchased once per cluster and can be installed and activated on each cluster node (= multiple activation). Restart the print spooler instance(s) after entering further, new license keys. To do so select TAKE THIS SERVICE OR APPLICATION OFFLINE and afterwards TAKE THIS SERVICE OR APPLICATION ONLINE (Illus. 2). Illus. 2 Illus. 2 Restart the print spooler instance after entering new license keys Failover Clusters White Paper 5

6 Unattended licensing ThinPrint license keys can be distributed and activated unattended as well as remotely. Refer to Unattended installation and licensing of.print server components white paper (Page 18). However, you need to make sure that the server address (target host) is that of the cluster node and not of the cluster s print spooler instance. (Failing to do so will result in passing the licenses through to the cluster node that is active at that moment, and that may be the wrong one.) Installing Output Gateway driver on print spooler instance(s) Install the TP Output Gateway printer driver on each print spooler instance: 1. Change to the desired print spooler instance by entering its UNC path under START RUN (on a node, see Illus. 3). Illus. 3 Illus. 3 Example for a UNC path of a print spooler instance (here: PS) 2. Select the print spooler instance in the printer folder: FILE SERVER PROPERTIES DRIVERS (Illus. 4). 3. Select ADD 1 and afterwards NEXT to confirm the Welcome window. Illus. 4 Illus. 4 Install Output Gateway driver in the SERVER PROPERTIES 1 With Windows Server 2003: REINSTALL (in case of TP Output Gateway is already installed) 6 White Paper Failover Clusters

7 4. Select both x64 and x86 as processor architecture (Illus. 5). Click NEXT to confirm. Illus. 5 Illus. 5 Select both architectures: x64 and x86 5. Select TP Output Gateway as driver (Illus. 6). Click NEXT and afterwards FINISH to confirm. Illus. 6 Illus. 6 Select TP Output Gateway Failover Clusters White Paper 7

8 6. In the following window click BROWSE, to specify the path to the driver s.inf file (Illus. 7). Illus. 7 Illus. 7 Choose the path to the TP Output Gateway driver 7. Select the oemprint.inf file in C:\Program Files\ThinPrint.print Engine\driver\TPOG3 (Illus. 8). Click OK to confirm. The result is shown in Illus. 9. Click CLOSE to finish. Illus. 8 Illus. 9 Illus. 8 Path to the TP Output Gateway driver Illus. 9 TP Output Gateway installed on the print server instance 8 White Paper Failover Clusters

9 Adding ThinPrint Ports to the print spooler instance A least one ThinPrint Port has to exist to make sure that the ThinPrint Port Manager as well as the.print Management Center will be able to add printer objects to the print spooler instance. 1. Start Microsoft Management Console from the cluster node s command prompt with: mmc. 2. Select FILE ADD/REMOVE SNAP-IN (Illus. 10). Illus. 10 Illus. 10 Select ADD/REMOVE SNAP-IN in the MMC 3. Add THINPRINT (mark THINPRINT and afterwards click ADD, Illus. 11). Illus. 11 Illus. 11 Adding Snap-in ThinPrint Failover Clusters White Paper 9

10 4. Select.PRINT ENGINE (Illus. 12). Illus. 12 Illus. 12 Select.PRINT ENGINE 5. Specify the print spooler instance (Illus. 13). Repeat this action for all other print spooler instances (if necessary). Illus. 13 Illus. 13 Enter the print spooler instance Creating new ThinPrint Ports 6. Create a new ThinPrint Port (by clicking the button in Illus. 14 as well as in the illustration left). 10 White Paper Failover Clusters

11 7. Enter a port name and click OK to confirm (Illus. 14). Illus. 14 Illus. 14 Add at least one ThinPrint Port Here, you can set up further ThinPrint Ports (see Illus. 15 as well as the.print Server Engine manual, Page 18). Illus. 15 Illus. 15 ThinPrint Ports in the Port Manager (example) Adding and sharing printers On the print spooler instance at least one printer has to be shared to make sure that printers, drivers and printer ports can be added remotely e.g. using the.print Management Center. Advantageously create an Output Gateway printer as follows: 1. Change to the desired print spooler instance by entering its UNC path under START RUN (Illus. 3). 2. Open the Printers folder and select ADD PRINTER (Illus. 16). Failover Clusters White Paper 11

12 Illus. 16 Illus. 16 Select ADD PRINTER on the print spooler instance 3. Select a printer port, e.g. your already created ThinPrint Port called ThinPort1: (Illus. 17) and click NEXT. Illus. 17 Illus. 17 Select a ThinPrint Port 4. Select TP Output Gateway as printer driver (Illus. 18). Click NEXT to confirm. Illus. 18 Illus. 18 Select TP Output Gateway as printer driver 12 White Paper Failover Clusters

13 5. Share the printer (Illus. 19) and click NEXT to confirm. Illus. 19 Illus. 19 Share the printer object 6. If you want to print a test page: Rename the printer afterwards according to the.print naming convention or add a new one (see the.print Server Engine manual). Here, enter the.print Client s address and a printer ID. With the example in Illus. 20 it is the IP address and the ID 7. Illus. 20 Illus. 20 Printer name according to the.print naming convention Failover Clusters White Paper 13

14 Setting up print job tracking If you want to use the.print Engine s print job tracking enable the Tracking Service which is installed automatically by the.print Engine installer routine. Setting up Tracking Service on cluster nodes To prepare the.print Engine for sending data of sent print jobs to the SQL server, make the following settings in the Configuration for the.print Engine: 1. Open the.print Engine Configuration. 2. Mark a cluster node s.print Engine (here: Node1) and select EDIT SETTINGS (Illus. 21). Illus. 21 Illus. 21 Select tracking settings of a cluster node 14 White Paper Failover Clusters

15 3. Enter the following settings in the TRACKING tab (Illus. 22): ENABLE TRACKING SQL server address and name SQL server authentication: an account set up on the SQL server which has write permissions for the TPTrack database Encryption settings if the data are to sent encrypted to the SQL server Name of the tracking database (TPTrack) Click OK to confirm. The result is shown in Illus. 23. Illus. 22 Illus. 23 Illus. 22 Enable tracking on the cluster node and enter settings Illus. 23 Tracking enabled on the cluster node Failover Clusters White Paper 15

16 Enabling Tracking Service on the print spooler instance 1. Change to the print spooler instance (here: PS) assigned to the node set up above (Illus. 21, here: Node1). 2. Mark a print spooler instance s.print Engine (here: PS) and select EDIT SETTINGS (Illus. 24). Illus. 24 Illus. 24 Select tracking settings of the print spooler instance 16 White Paper Failover Clusters

17 3. Select ENABLE TRACKING (Illus. 25) and click OK to confirm. The Result is shown in Illus. 26. Illus. 25 Illus. 26 Illus. 25 Enable tracking on the print spooler instance Illus. 26 Tracking enabled on the print spooler instance For more information about tracking see the.print Tracking manual (Page 18). Failover Clusters White Paper 17

18 Appendix Appendix Customer service and technical support SUPPORT Additional sources Further information about ThinPrint.print can be downloaded from our website. Manuals.print Server Engine and.print Tracking manuals are available at: PRODUCTS OVERVIEW.PRINT SERVER ENGINE MAN- UAL(S). White papers The Unattended installation and licensing of.print server components white paper can be downloaded at PRODUCTS OVERVIEW.PRINT SERVER ENGINE WHITE PAPERs or at SUPPORT WHITE PAPERS. Abbreviations Please see also the index of abbreviations in the.print Server Engine manual. MMC MS TP TPOG UNC Microsoft Management Console Microsoft ThinPrint ThinPrint Output Gateway Name convention for accessing network resources under Microsoft operating systems (universal naming convention); e.g., \\server\folder 18 White Paper Failover Clusters