Print servers in 2016 - what's optimal? : sysadmin - Reddit [PDF]

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Print servers in 2016 - what's optimal? (self.sysadmin )

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submitted 1 year ago by cr0ft Jack of All Trades

Our current print situation is pretty iffy, and there are way too many drivers on way too many machines for this to really be pain free. So, what I need to figure out now is what way to go to get things as usable as possible.

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We're moving up to Server 2016 - so I suppose the most obvious call would be to set up one VM to run a print server. Not difficult, but still a lot of drivers on endpoints floating around out there being a pain in my butt. What are the options? Are there any Thinprint Engine users around who have set that up centrally and use it on the end points successfully? Is it worth the added cost for normal in-office printing, especially as remote connections are largely done via Remote Desktop? Ie, does it solve enough of the problem to be worth paying for? What else is out there? There's already AD in place, and obviously relatively extensive use of GPO so it's not like I have to run around installing on separate desktops or endpoints or anything, but still - what would be the One True Printserver at the end of 2016? 52 comments

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[–] [deleted] 22 points 1 year ago

Windows Server is not too bad as a print server, so if you already has the infrastructure in place, I would stick with that. permalink

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[–] disclosure5 17 points 1 year ago

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I would agree with this - deploy a Windows print server and use "normally". I've dabbled in Thin Print and felt underwhelmed. The thing is, the server is rarely the issue. Crap drivers is. permalink

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Yeah, since the printing happens almost entirely on the gigabit LAN, the compression features aren't really important. So I was mainly wondering if it added some management and driver independence but I guess not. embed save

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[–] mrgoalie 3 points 1 year ago

I would agree with this. I've got 3 drivers deployed on my print server of over 150 printers. I rarely have problems, if ever. I just make sure I have plenty of drive space available for the spooler. I also run PaperCut for accounting, and it's been a lifesaver. Went through 3 million less pages last year alone just by implementing follow me and putting a little bug on the user's desktop showing how much they've cost our org in printing costs for the year. permalink

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[–] cr0ft Jack of All Trades [S] 2 points 1 year ago

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[–] Already__Taken 1 point 1 year ago

But don't put papercut server on your print server. So you can mess with drivers and just roll things back to a snapshot and not lose the database history in papercut. permalink

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[–] mrgoalie 2 points 1 year ago

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I leverage Veeam for that stuff. I just spin up my backup in sandbox mode, do the messing that I would, check everything, and if it was successful, I do it in production. permalink

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[–] Already__Taken 1 point 1 year ago

That's nice. Better than our way by the seat of the pants. Just something to be aware of. permalink

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[–] cr0ft Jack of All Trades [S] 2 points 1 year ago

Yep, this seems like the most sensible way to go. No extra investments over the already blinding amount of money we have to lay down for Server 2016 Datacenter. permalink

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[–] Sajem 16 points 1 year ago

You may not be able to achieve this immediately but our solution is to use printers from one manufacturer and as few different models as possible. We standardised on HP printers. HP has their universal print driver which means we only install the one driver. Not sure but I think Canon have a universal driver now as well. We also have FinePrint and PDFFactory installed on our RD servers that act as an intermediary between the server and the printer permalink

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[–] Ajsmazda 6 points 1 year ago

Same here. Please do read the HP universal print driver manual though. It's important to get it right first time and ensure there are appropriate processes in place for adding printers. UPD dll corruption is a bitch to fix when you have 160 printers. permalink

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[–] LowestKillCount Sysadmin 2 points 1 year ago

I do this with most of my clients now as well. We use Fuji Xerox and stopped having 99% of our printer problems when we turfed the drivers for all the little random shitty printers all over the place permalink

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Most of ours are in fact HP.

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[–] cr0ft Jack of All Trades [S] 2 points 1 year ago

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[–] IdiotManChild 4 points 1 year ago

We have a mix of HP, Ricoh, and Konica printers. The one print driver that we've found to work almost universally across our organization (even for Citrix printing, which is always an issue) is the Xerox Global Print Driver. We don't have a single Xerox printer, but that universal driver just works. We have 352 printers on our print server, and all of them use that one driver. permalink

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[–] ranger_dood K12 Sys/Net/Desktop/Toasteradmin 5 points 1 year ago

You may or may not be surprised to find out that a lot of printer brands use Xerox as the underlying print engine... permalink

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[–] cr0ft Jack of All Trades [S] 2 points 1 year ago*

Really? Interesting. I'm all for minimal driver quantities, the less crap on the server the better. I'll have to lab some. Thanks for the lead. Edit: so far so good, set up a little test on a new VM and the Xerox driver seems to be working perfectly, grabbed the PostScript variant. Thanks again. permalink

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[–] tommyTONG 1 point 1 year ago

I'm about to set up a new print server, and I was thinking about installing HP Universal Print Driver for all our printers, because we mostly have HP printers. Do you have any experience with this driver compared to the Xerox Global Print Driver? permalink

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[–] IdiotManChild 1 point 1 year ago

We tried the HP Universal driver first, and it worked sometimes but was flaky at others. We also tried the Ricoh Universal driver and it was garbage (for our needs at least). When I found the Xerox everything just worked, and we haven't looked back since. permalink

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[–] tommyTONG 1 point 1 year ago

Thank you very much. I'll give it a shot! permalink

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[–] plasticsaint 1 point 1 year ago

Xerox also has a universal print driver, and it happens to have basic support for some other manufacturer's printers as well (HP, Samsung, Brother I think). permalink

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[–] just_some_tech 14 points 1 year ago

We recently moved away from printservers. We deployed Printer Logic to make all printers IP printers. That gives us the ability to manage what drivers and printers are installed on the workstations. We can deploy via IP address ranges, useful for our branch offices, or through a webpage with a map of the facility so users can add whatever printer is closest to them. The Printer Logic agent installed on the desktops checks in every hour to get changes. So I can update drivers to everyone that uses a particular printer in the console and it will update the next cycle, or the user can force the check in. So far, that has helped us remove about 40 branch servers and two corporate printservers. Have no complaints so far. Not saying this is your solution, but it might be an option. permalink

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[–] ballr4lyf bit monkey 14 points 1 year ago

Just looked this up. Looks like a good solution. The downside is that the pricing is behind a "Contact Us" form. Not. Gonna. Happen. permalink

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[–] lordmycal 2 points 1 year ago*

I thought they were pretty expensive for what I got. Windows print servers are good enough and can be clustered so I as something that is merely "nice to have" I think they're asking too much for it. They also charge per printer in windows, which is a problem for us since we set up extra printers on the desktops with saved settings to simplify things for our users. As an example, if you have to print your TPS reports on yellow paper, the user will have PrinterA for regular print jobs, and PrinterA-TPS for TPS reports. Under printer logic, we'd have to pay extra for the TPS "printer" -- even though it's the same physical device. permalink

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[–] just_some_tech -1 points 1 year ago

Pricing was not bad. Give them a call, they were not pushy, and I did not get spammed by them either. Bonus was we got to setup a POC that really sold the product. I understand the hesitation, but sometimes, you just gotta say WTF... permalink

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[–] cr0ft Jack of All Trades [S] 1 point 1 year ago

Interesting, but I think this may be a bit over the top for us. We don't have hundreds of printers, and we can probably manage with a more traditional setup for now. I don't see a lot of wasted printouts (ie, prints that just get done and left at the printer). But yeah, some form of improved accounting and follow up would definitely make sense. permalink

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[–] redmonkeyyyy 1 point 1 year ago

This. I cant recommend this enough, we did the exact same thing and I am managing the service and love it. Struggling with a few printers (Sharp) that seem to not be playing nicely with PL but are working through that one at a time when issues arise. permalink

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[–] kcovert 1 point 1 year ago

We've done this as well. We've over 200 printers with over 600 users. I always used to cringe when we had to add/change drivers, especially HP drivers... There were a number of times when the print spooler would randomly crash. permalink

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[–] LowestKillCount Sysadmin 10 points 1 year ago

Convince the eco-hippies to demand a paperless office and set all the printers on fire. permalink

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[–] cr0ft Jack of All Trades [S] 3 points 1 year ago*

I wish. :) Without printers, my life would be much better. After that, all you need to get rid of are the users and I could play around with fun IT projects all day. Alas, I'm stuck with both. Until it's time for the inevitable execution... permalink

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[–] Neoburner 5 points 1 year ago

Papercut follow me print works a treat, can tie it in with ID / Security cards for AD access (most modern printers come with the reader / software too) permalink

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[–] flyan How did I get here again? 1 point 1 year ago

We used Papercut in my old place. Its 'alright'. permalink

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[+] [deleted] 1 year ago* (1 child) [–] TimmyMTX 3 points 1 year ago

Last year we replaced 160 network printers with a new fleet using which could use follow-me print software (print to a single print queue, log on to any device to release your print job). We now publish a single printer share, with a single driver, and I couldn't be happier with it. Print problems on our Citrix XenApp servers are 99% eliminated. Our devices are Kyocera MFDs using Papercut print management software, but pretty much every supplier has options for this. permalink

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[–] Reptilian_Overlords Dev that needs ROOT BABY 3 points 1 year ago

Optimal is centralized printing and auditing. Windows as a print server runs very well for the most part with little overhead. I stood up a print server for our organization with paper cut for logging the print jobs. permalink

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[–] engagThe like a boss, except the pay. 5 points 1 year ago

Moving towards CUPS and Google Cloud print to handle driverless BYOD with no licensing requirement. permalink

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[–] cr0ft Jack of All Trades [S] 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah, Microsoft licensing is beginning to go from onerous to unacceptable. Probably wouldn't fly for us, but it's a thought. permalink

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[–] engagThe like a boss, except the pay. 2 points 1 year ago

In a fast paced BYOD environment Microsoft Licensing is impossible from what I understand. permalink

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[–] cr0ft Jack of All Trades [S] 1 point 1 year ago

They certainly make it hard to comply to their rules. For instance, if you want to do Windows 10 VDI, they now have an option that's per user and month. But, of course, you have to jump through hoops... can only buy from a specific type of reseller, have to buy a minimum amount of seats and other stuff that leaves a smaller organization with their usual VDA offerings - ie, one license per device for a lot of money. It's on purpose, of course. They want you to either overbuy and pay them more than they even ask for, or else under-buy so they can come in, audit you and suck money out of you that way. Cynical and aggravating. permalink

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[–] SysAtMN Sysadmin 2 points 1 year ago

and there are way too many drivers on way too many machines for this to really be pain free. UPDs. We have several hundred printers in several offices but only manage a handful of print drivers between them. Update the Print Server, let the print server do the rest. Keep your printer fleet lean and mean. When printers go EOL then review and replace them as necessary to clean up ones that do not work with the UPDs. What are the options? Windows Print Server Logon Script GPO mapped printers Knowledge Doc explaining how to manually install network printers Give everyone a USB direct connected printer Give everyone a camera (for scanning), pad of paper and supply of pens Email/export all print jobs to a 3rd party, pay for shipment between parties. permalink

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[–] CFH75 2 points 1 year ago

I use a 2012R2 print server along with a solution called SafeQ. With SafeQ we added card terminals to all our HP printers. I literally have 35 printers, 1 print queue, 2 drivers because macs, and people can print and walk up to any printer and retrieve their job. 700 Employees. If it's broken or out of toner they just walk to the next closet printer. I also have 2 Papercut servers that I use for a remote office and to track color cost on my Fiery printers. permalink

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[–] cr0ft Jack of All Trades [S] 1 point 1 year ago

So SafeQ is better than Papercut at follow-me style printing? If not, how do they compare? How have you solved the identification at the printer, smartcards? We already do use RFID cards for identification, perhaps I should be rethinking this follow-me approach. Is pricing outrageous? :p permalink

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[–] CFH75 1 point 1 year ago

Haven't used Follow me on Papercut, but SafeQ works great for that. Yes we use our security badges at the printer. I have it sync with Active Directory so it pulls the users and the car ID's from there. It also has a nice little feature so if you want to print from your phone or tablet just attach it to an email and send it to a special address, then walk up to any printer and badge in to retrieve it. Forgot to add that no the cost is not bad at all. It's not as good as Papercut but it's not bad. permalink

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[–] tidux Linux Admin 3 points 1 year ago

RasPi with CUPS, shared as PostScript. There are very, very few ways to fuck this up from the client machine end, and if the hardware dies you pull another board out of storage, connect the SD card, and go. permalink

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[–] pdp10 /usr/ucb 1 point 1 year ago

This is my favored method at the moment, with an HA pair of easily-replaceable USB printers per print-microserver. Controlling the network-facing OS lets you fix security issues and add features without relying on the printer vendor's peculiar embedded OS. permalink

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[–] cr0ft Jack of All Trades [S] 1 point 1 year ago

A side question, I suppose - would it be worthwhile to try to set up the printers on said print server (assuming we go old school) to use PostScript drivers or is the day of PostScript behind us and PCL 6 Universal is the future? permalink

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[–] creamersrealm Meme Master of Disaster 1 point 1 year ago

2016 isn't Officially out yet. All print servers I configured are single instance with universal PCL drivers from each manufacturer in isolation mode. If you check my github there is a good script I developed to mass migrate printers. permalink

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[–] cr0ft Jack of All Trades [S] 1 point 1 year ago

You can already download and run 2016 release, and then you have 180 days to deal with licensing. permalink

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[–] creamersrealm Meme Master of Disaster 1 point 1 year ago

Ugh it's still technical preview and not GA. permalink

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[–] cr0ft Jack of All Trades [S] 1 point 1 year ago

It says nothing about it being a preview at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-server-2016 Preview 5 was the last one, and I downloaded that days before this version was made available on the 26th. Either way, going forward from the above will be just a matter of applying patches the normal way. permalink

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[–] creamersrealm Meme Master of Disaster 2 points 1 year ago

Those bastards they never sent me my insider email. permalink

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[+] [deleted] 1 year ago (2 children) [–] Cheesesteakordie 1 point 1 year ago*

I don't have control over the endpoint devices other than mandating they are "enterprise" level so I have a few dozen different drivers. My older devices don't work well with the UPD so I try to use the specific drivers where possible. Though, I do have a healthy amount of UPD too. VM with Server 2012R2 with GPOs works well for us. Have it replicated in vmware, just in case it goes down, switch some DNS and should be good to go Pain to set up at the get go, but day to day isn't bad, rarely look at it. Though, I have none of the advance functions of management software. Management declined PaperCut because of their non-us based support since "up time" is critical and any delay in on communication is unacceptable. I have a few queues I control some functions with security groups permalink

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[–] thatowensbloke Infrastructure Specialist 1 point 1 year ago

you will only get massive benefits from ThinPrint when utilising small WAN links. Think remote offices. The compression engine when combining both the TP Output Gateway and the VLayer queues is phenominal - but it comes at a cost of course ;) permalink

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