[THIN] Re: fault tolerance print servers
- From: "Adam Thompson" <adwulf@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2008 12:40:19 +0100
2008/6/9 Greg Reese <gareese@xxxxxxxxx>:
> you could build two servers and build the same queues on each one. Then use
> an alias in DNS to point the users to one or the other. Should the main one
> fail, change the alias in DNS to the other one and clients should keep
> working. it's not automatic unless you do some clever monitoring and
> scripting. And you might lose a couple print jobs in the tranisition during
> a failure.
>
> there's a few holes in this but it is basic and easy.
>
You'll need to disable strictnamechecking to do this.
Then assign a CNAME which can point to either server (eg PRINTSERV),
point it at your preferred server initially (eg SERV1)
Now, you need to have something which detects when the node has died,
and runs something like dnscmd.exe /RecordDelete and dnscmd.exe
/RecordAdd to modify the CNAME.
It won't be instantaneous, as you'll have to wait for DNS to replicate
around. Also, all the jobs in the queue will appear to be lost, and
you still have the problems of client DNS cache and what happens when
the nodes can talk to the dns server but not each other (possibly
worked around with a heartbeat NIC).
Much simpler, if you have W2k or later to take a look at:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/b/a/5bae5aa4-674f-42fb-b8cd-49e26bd29549/clusterfp.doc
Creating Highly Available File and Printer Shares with Windows 2000
Cluster Service
or
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/techinfo/overview/availableprinter.mspx
Creating and Configuring a Highly Available Print Server Under
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Using a Server Cluster
--
AdamT
"At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents
do not cease to be insipid." - Nietzsche
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