2nd print server ? Best option ?

[Snow-Munki]

Hi we got a print server here which has about 40 printers on it and works pretty well. However if it ever stops working then suddenly no one can print !

Just wondering is it possible to get a 2nd print server in and have it load balanced in some way ?

Looking into Windows Load Balancing but it isn't very clear. So if the primary print server goes down the user won't see any difference as the backup one would be used.

 

[Snow-Munki]

I think a Network Load Balanced server would be the best rather than clustered. The downside is that the server would have to mirror the existing one exactly (printer share names, etc.)

You then install the NLB component and assign it an IP what happens then is when someone goes to NLB IP (i.e. 192.168.0.1) it then decides which server to go to. If one server goes down it always goes to the other server until it's back available.

Very easy to setup but you may have to change the printer shares to \\NLB IP\printer share name\



M.

Thanks very much, any ideas where I start with this ? Been looking online and can't too much information about this.