Print Management
Step-by-Step Guide for
Print Management
Step 1: Install Print
Management
Step 2: Open Print
Management
Step 3: Add and remove
print servers
Step 4: View Printers
Step 5: Saving a custom
view
Step 6: Manage Printers
Step 7: Troubleshoot
Printers
Step 8:
Troubleshoot Print Management
Brief Description
Print
Management is a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in
that enables you to install, view, and manage all of the
printers in your organization from any computer running
Windows Server 2003 R2.
Overview
Print
Management provides up-to-the-minute details about the status
of printers and print servers on the network. You can use
Print Management to install printer connections to a group of
client computers simultaneously. Print Management can help you
find printers that have an error condition by using filters.
It can also send e-mail notifications or run scripts when a
printer or print server needs attention. On printer models
that provide a printer Web page, Print Management has access
to more data, such as toner and paper levels, which you can
manage from remote locations, if needed.
What Is Print Management?
Print Management is a snap-in in
Microsoft Management Console (MMC) that enables you to
install, view, and manage all of the printers in your
organization from any computer running Windows Server 2003 R2.
Print Management provides up-to-the-minute details about the
status of printers and print servers on the network. You can
use Print Management to install printer connections to a group
of client computers simultaneously. Print Management can help
you find printers that have an error condition by using
filters. It can also send e-mail notifications or run scripts
when a printer or print server needs attention. On printer
models that provide a Web page, Print Management has access to
more data, such as toner and paper levels, which you can
manage from remote locations, if needed.
Who Should Use Print Management?
This guide is targeted at the following
audiences:
?Print
Administrators and Help Desk professionals.
?Information
Technology (IT) planners and analysts who are evaluating the
product.
?Enterprise
IT planners and designers.
?Early
adopters.
Benefits of Print Management
Print Management saves the print
administrator a significant amount of time installing printers
on client computers and managing and monitoring printers.
Tasks that can require up to 10 steps on individual computers
now can be accomplished in 2 or 3 steps on multiple computers
simultaneously and remotely.
By using Print Management with Group
Policy, you can automatically make printer connections
available to users and computers in your organization. In
addition, Print Management can automatically search for and
install network printers on the local subnet of your local
print servers.
Requirements for Print
Management
Here are some important notes about the
requirements for Print Management and the print servers that
you can monitor using Print Management:
?You
can install Print Management only on computers running Windows
Server 2003 R2.
?You
can use Print Management to monitor printers that are on print
servers running Microsoft? Windows? 2000 Server, Windows
Server 2003, and Windows Server 2003 R2 operating systems.
?You
can use Print Management to monitor multiple print servers at
a time.
Print Management can display and install
printer drivers on computers running the Microsoft?
Windows NT? Server 4 operating system, but it cannot display
printer drivers that are already installed. It is not possible
to display forms on computers running Windows NT 4.
Security Requirements
To take full advantage of Print
Management, you must be logged on as an administrator or a
member of the Administrators group on the print servers you
are managing.
It is good practice for administrators to
use an account with restrictive permissions to perform
routine, non-administrative tasks and to use an account with
broader permissions only when performing specific
administrative tasks.
You can open Print Management and monitor
any print server and printer without administrative
privileges. However, you will be unable to perform certain
functions such as adding and deleting printers and printer
drivers.
Steps for Deploying and
Operating Print Management
To deploy and operate Print Management,
complete the following tasks:
Installing Print Management is
accomplished by adding or updating the print server role. Note
that the computer on which Print Management is installed does
not need to be a print server. Do one of the following:
?If
the print server role is not installed, perform the following
procedure.
To install the print server
role
|
1. Click Start,
point to All Programs, point to
Administrative Tools, and then
click Manage Your Server.
2. Click Add
or remove a role.
3. In the Configure Your Server
Wizard, click Next to get to the
Server Role page.
4. On the
Server Role page, click Print
Server, and then click Next
twice. Follow the steps in the wizard to complete the
installation. |
?If
you are running an earlier version of a Windows server
operating system that has the print server role and at least
one shared printer already installed, perform the following
procedure.
To update the print server
role
|
1. Click Start,
point to All Programs, point to
Administrative Tools, and then
click Manage Your Server.
2. Click
Update this role.
3. In the Print Server Role
Wizard, click Next.
4. Follow the steps in the
wizard to complete the installation. |
After you install both Windows
Server 2003 R2 and Print Management, then open Print
Management. If you want to use Print Management on a computer
in another location by using Remote Desktop, the remote
computer must have Windows Server 2003 R2 and Print Management
installed.
To open Print Management
|
?Click Start, point to
All Programs, point to
Administrative Tools, and then
click Print Management. |
You can add both a local print server and
network print servers to Print Management. Note that the
computer on which Print Management is installed does not need
to be a print server.
Adding a Print Server
If the server on which you use Print
Management is also a print server and you want to manage the
printers that it hosts by using Print Management, use the
following procedure to add the print server to Print
Management.
To add print servers to Print
Management
|
1. In the Print Management
tree, right-click Print Management,
and then click Add/Remove Servers.
2. In the
Add/Remove Servers dialog box, under
Specify print server, in
Add server, do one of the
following:
?Type the name.
?Click Browse to locate and
select the print server.
3. Click Add
to List.
4. Add as many print servers as
you want, and then click OK.
Note
You can add the local server on which
you are working by clicking Add the Local
Server. |
To remove print servers from Print
Management
|
1. In the Print Management
tree, right-click Print Management,
and then click Add/Remove Servers.
2. In the
Add/Remove Servers dialog box, under
Print servers, select one or more
servers, and click Remove. |
The Print Management tree contains three
places where printer information is stored:
Custom Printer Filters, Print Servers,
and Deployed Printers. The
Custom Printer Filters folder contains
the All Printers object, which
contains a dynamic view of all of the printers on all of the
servers available for managing by Print Management. All of the
custom views, or filters, of printers that you create are
stored in Custom Printer Filters.
The network printer servers that you add
are stored in Print Servers. Every
printer server automatically is given four objects that serve
as filters for information about a server:
?Drivers
?Forms
?Ports
?Printers
To quickly access the
Print Server Properties dialog box, right-click the
Drivers, Forms,
or Ports objects, and then click
Manage Drivers,
Manage Forms, or Manage Ports.
Deployed Printers
contains a list of all of the printers located in Print
Management that are managed by Group Policy objects. For more
information about managing printers by using Group Policy, see
Deploying Printers to Users or Computers
by using Group Policy later in this
guide.
Offline Print Servers
If a server goes offline, the printer
server icon will change. You will be able to unable to manage
the Drivers, Forms, Ports, and Printers objects until the
server comes back online.
Printer Details
The details for each printer display in
the results pane of the snap-in console. The results pane
contains columns with values such as the printer name, queue
status, jobs in the queue, printer location, and driver
version. You can add and remove columns to show only certain
characteristics of the printers, and you can filter among all
the print servers in your organization to display only
printers with specific criteria in the columns. Figure 1 shows
both a filtered view and the resulting columns.
In any view, you can sort on one
criterion by clicking on the heading of one of the columns.
Figure 1 A view of printers where "Queue
Status" does not equal "Ready"
You can also show an extended view, which
shows more detail about the queue and provides access to the
printer's Web page, if one is available. You can add, remove,
and sort columns in extended view.
Adding and Removing Columns
When you click the
Printers object in each printer server or an object in
the Custom Printer Filters folder, you
can view the columns in the results pane that contain printer
details.
To add and remove columns
|
1. In the Print Management
tree, under a print server, right-click
Printers, point to View,
and then click Add/Remove Columns.
2. In the
Add/Remove Columns dialog box, select the name of
the column, and then click Add or
Remove. |
Showing Extended View
Extended view displays beneath the
columns in the right pane, separated by a splitter bar.
Extended view is useful when you want more information about
the status of a print job, its owner, the number of pages, the
size of the job, when it was submitted, its port, its
priority, and so on.
In addition, when the printer has a Web
page, extended view displays a Printer Web
Page tab. The Web page provides details about the
physical properties of the printer and specifications, and
sometimes allows remote administration. For more information,
see
Using the printer Web page
later in this guide.
To show extended view
|
?In the Print Management tree, under any print
server, right-click Printers, and
then click Show Extended View.
Note
To display or hide columns in
extended view, select a printer. On the
Jobs tab, right-click the column heading row, and
then click the name of the column that you want to display
or hide. |
Filtering Views
You can use the filtering feature to
create custom views of printers, for example, it might be
helpful to filter for printers with certain error conditions
or those printers in a group of buildings regardless of the
print server they use. Each view is dynamic, so the data is
always up to date. All filtered views are stored in the
Custom Printer Filters folder in the
Print Management tree.
An example of a filter that may be useful
is shown in Figure 2. This custom view displays all printers
on the specified printer server that have a queue status other
than Ready and where there are one or more jobs in the print
queue.
Figure 2 Using filter criteria to create a
custom view of printers
For every filtered view that you set up,
you have the option of setting notifications by e-mail or
choosing to run a script. To learn how to use these options,
see Troubleshoot
Printers later in this guide.
To set up and save a filtered view
|
1. In the Print Management
tree, right-click the Custom Printer
Filters folder, and then click Add
New Printer Filter. This will launch the
New Printer Filter Wizard.
2. On the
Printer Filter Name and Description wizard page,
type a name and optional description for the printer
filter. The name will appear in the
Custom Printer Filters folder in the Print
Management tree.
3. In
Description, type an optional description.
4. To display the number of
printers that satisfy the conditions of a filter, select
the Display the total number of printers
next to the name of the printer filter check box.
5. Click Next.
6. On the
Define a printer filter wizard page, do the
following:
a. In the
Field list, click the print queue or printer status
characteristic.
b. In the
Condition list, click the condition.
c. In the
Value box, type a value.
d. Continue adding criteria
until your filter is complete, and then click
Next.
7. On the Set
Notifications (Optional) wizard page, do one or
both of the following:
?To set an e-mail notification, select the
Send e-mail notification check
box, and type one or more recipient and sender e-mail
addresses. An SMTP server must be specified to route the
message. Use the format account@domain
and semicolons to separate multiple accounts.
?To set a script to run, select the
Run script check box, and then
type the path where the script file is located. To add
more arguments, type them in the
Additional Arguments box.
8. Click
Finish. |
Step 5: Saving a custom view
If you use customized views of Print
Management, it might be useful to save one or more views.
Print Management files are *.msc files.
The following are Print Management
settings that you can customize for viewing:
?Print
servers added
?Custom
views (filters) and notifications
?Column
preferences
You can use Print Management to manage
all of the printers in your enterprise, including printers in
branch offices. You can use the same interface to control how
printers are shared, update drivers, and control print queues.
It is unnecessary to navigate to the individual folders for
each printer on each printer server.
By using Print Management in conjunction
with the Configure Your Server Wizard and Terminal Services,
you can automatically search for and install network printers
on a local print server in branch offices. This is helpful
when branch office personnel are not trained in administrative
duties. You can deploy a printer to an entire group of people
or make a printer available to every computer in a particular
room. For more information, see
Deploying Printers to
Users or Computers by using Group Policy
later in this guide.
As the administrator on the local print
server, you can add and remove printers. Print Management can
automatically detect all printers located on the same subnet
as the print server, install the appropriate printer drivers,
set up the queues, and share the printers. Unless a printer
driver cannot be found, no intervention is needed.
You need to have administrator
permissions on the computer where the printers will be added.
If you want to automatically detect
printers for a branch office or another location beyond the
subnet of your server, use Remote Desktop to log on to the
remote print server and start the process from that computer.
You need to have administrator permissions on the computer
where the printers will be added. Once you connect to the
remote server by using Remote Desktop, you can search for
network printers by starting Print Management or by running
\windows\pmcsnap\fnprinters.exe
from the command line.
To add network printers to the local
printer server automatically
|
?In the Print Management tree, right-click
ServerName
(local), click Automatically Add
Network Printers, and then click
Start to automatically locate and install printers
found on this server's local subnet.
Note
You may be prompted to specify which
driver you want to install for a printer, but otherwise,
the process is automatic. |
Bulk operations can be performed on all
the printers on a particular server or all the printers under
a particular filter.
The following is a list of the tasks that
are possible to perform on multiple printers simultaneously:
?Pause
printing
?Resume
printing
?Cancel
All Jobs
?List
in Directory
?Remove
from Directory
?Delete
Printer driver details are shown
separately for each server that you have added to the Print
Management snap-in console. By default, the driver name,
driver version, environment, and provider columns are visible.
You can add columns to show more details such as the config
file path, data file path, default datatype, driver file path,
manufacturer, and so on.
You can export the list of details to a
text file for use outside of Print Management.
To manage device drivers
|
1. In the Print Management
tree, under the appropriate print server, right-click
Drivers, and then click
Manage Drivers.
2. Do one or more of the
following:
?To add a printer driver, click
Add, and then complete the Add
Printer Driver Wizard.
?To remove a printer driver, select a driver from
the list, and then click Remove.
?To reinstall a printer driver, select a driver,
and then click Reinstall.
?To view the details for a printer driver, select
the driver, and then click Properties.
|
Listing printers in the Active Directory?
directory service makes it easier for users to locate and
install printers. After you install printers on a printer
server, you can use Print Management to list them in Active
Directory.
In fact, you can list more than one
printer simultaneously. You may want to set up a filter to
show all of the printers to list or remove, so that you can
easily select all of the printers at the same time.
To list or remove printers in Active
Directory
|
1. In the Print Management
tree, under the appropriate print server, click
Printers.
2. In the results pane,
right-click the printer you want to list or remove from
the directory service, and then click
List in Directory or Remove from
Directory. |
Exporting a List of Printers and
Displayed Columns
You can export a text file containing the
data available on any Printers object,
which includes the currently displayed columns.
To export a list of printers
|
1. In the Print Management
tree, under the appropriate print server, right-click
Printers, then click
Export List.
2. In the
Export List dialog box, in File
name, type the name of the file, and then click
Save. |
Deploying Printers to Users or
Computers by using Group Policy
Print Management can be used with Group
Policy to automatically add printer connections to a
computer's Printers and Faxes folder.
Note
Before the Deploy Printer Connection
feature will work, the schema needs to be updated. For more
information about how to update the schema, see "Upgrading
from a Windows 2000 domain" on the
Microsoft Web site (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=52146).
For more information about schema updates, see the
Microsoft Web site (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=51166).
To do this, you use the
Deploy with Group Policy dialog box to automatically
add a printer connection setting to an existing Group Policy
object (GPO) in Active Directory. When Group Policy processing
runs on client computers, the printer connection settings are
applied to the users or computers associated with the GPO.
Printers you deploy by using this method appear in the
Deployed Printers object of Print Management tree when the
print server they are connected to is being monitored. You
will have Read Access on the GPO to which the printers are
being deployed.
This method of installing a printer is
useful in a laboratory, classroom, or branch office setting
where every computer in the room or office needs access to the
same printer. It is also useful in large organizations, where
computers and printers are often separated by function,
workgroup, or department, such as marketing or human
resources.
A printer connection that has been
installed by using a per-user connection is available to users
on any computer the user logs on to in the network. A printer
connection that has been installed by using a pushed
per-machine connection appears in the printers and faxes
folder, ready for use by any user the next time they log on to
that computer.
To enable this feature, you must use a
utility called PushPrinterConnections.exe.
Note
The PushPrinterConnections.exe utility is
only needed on computers running Windows 2000, Windows XP, and
Windows Server 2003 R2 client computers.
Important
In order for the
PushPrinterConnections.exe utility to work, you must update
your Active Directory schema with the Windows Server 2003 R2
changes. For more information on these schema updates, see the
Microsoft Web site
(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?linkid=51166).
First, add the PushPrinterConnections.exe
utility to a machine startup script (for per-machine
connections) or to a user logon script (for per-user
connections). The utility reads the settings made by the GPO
containing the printer setting and adds the printer
connection.
It is a good idea to use the same GPO for
both the printer connection settings and the
PushPrinterConnections.exe computer startup or user logon
script. This ensures that only users (or computers) that
receive the printer connection settings will run the
PushPrinterConnections.exe utility.
Note
Only per-user printer connections are
supported on computers running Windows 2000. Either Windows XP
or Windows Server 2003 is required for per-machine printer
connections.
Important
You must have write access to the Group
Policy object to use it to manage printers. Before you install
printers by using Group Policy, you must have a GPO for your
printer connections settings that is assigned to the
appropriate users and computers. You can use the Group Policy
Object Editor or Active Directory Users and Computers to
create a GPO.
For more information about using Group
Policy, see "Enterprise Management with the Group Policy
Management Console" on the
Microsoft Web site (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?linkid=22814).
To install printers to groups of
users or computers by using Group Policy
|
1. In the Print Management
tree, under the appropriate print server, click
Printers.
2. In the results pane,
right-click the printer you want to deploy, and then click
Deploy with Group Policy.
3. In the
Deploy with Group Policy dialog box, click
Browse, and then choose a Group
Policy object.
4. Click OK.
5. To assign the printer
connection setting to the GPO, do one or both of the
following:
?As a per-user setting, select the
The users that this GPO applies to (per user) check
box.
?As a per-machine setting, select the
The computers that this GPO applies to
(per machine) check box.
6. Click Add.
7. Repeat steps 3 to 6 to add
the printer connection setting to another GPO.
8. Click OK.
|
To use the
PushPrinterConnections.exe file
|
1. Using Group Policy
Management console (Gpmc.msc), right-click the GPO with
your printer connections settings and click
Edit.
2. In the Group Policy Object
Editor tree, navigate to one following locations:
?If the printer connections are deployed
per-machine, go to Computer Configuration,
Windows Settings,
Scripts (Startup/Shutdown).
?If the printer connections are deployed per-user,
go to User Configuration,
Windows Settings,
Scripts (Logon/Logoff).
3. Right-click
Startup or Logon, and then
click Properties.
4. In the
Logon Properties or Startup
Properties dialog box, click Show
Files.
5. Copy the
PushPrinterConnections.exe file to this location and then
close the window.
6. In the
Logon Properties or Startup
Properties dialog box, click Add.
7. Type
PushPrinterConnections.exe in the
Script Name box.
8. If you want to enable
logging, type ?log
in the Script Parameters box. Log
files are written to %windir%\Temp\PpcMachine.log (for
per-computer connections) and %temp%\PpcUser.log (for
per-user connections) on the computer on which the policy
is applied.
9. Click OK.
Note
For per-computer connections,
the printer connections will be added when the client
computer restarts. For per-user connections, the printer
connections will be added when the user logs on.
Note
If you remove the printer
connection settings from the GPO, the
PushPrinterConnections.exe will remove the corresponding
printers from the client computer on the next restart or
user logon. |
Step 7: Troubleshoot Printers
Print Management has several features
that may help you identify and resolve printer problems?even
in remote locations. Setting pre-defined filters lets you
easily find all printers that are not in Ready status or that
have a backed up queue. Many devices, regardless of
manufacturer, provide rich status information, which is
readily available to Print Management. By closely monitoring
the printers in your organization, you may even be able to
resolve problems before they happen, such as identifying when
paper or toner is low.
You can set up e-mail notifications to
alert you when a printer needs attention. This is especially
useful when you have printers at multiple locations with
different people responsible for managing them. By using an
automated system to notify you when a printer or printer
server is down, the problem may be resolved sooner and less
attention may need to be focused on the monitoring program.
Print Management must be running for
notifications to be sent or for scripts to run.
Using the Printer Web Page
Multifunction printers sometimes have a
Web page that is accessible though extended view in Print
Management. The functionality on the printer Web page will
vary depending upon both the model and the manufacturer of the
printer. Some multifunction printers provide remote functions,
the amount of paper in each tray, and the toner level. You may
be able to delete print jobs or upgrade device drivers from
the printer Web pages.
Note
If the printer is down due to a
networking error, the printer Web page cannot be displayed.
When you create a view, or filter for
specific printer criteria, you have the option of sending an
automatic e-mail notification to someone when the conditions
of the filter are met. This is useful for resolving printer
problems, particularly in an organization with multiple
buildings and administrators.
For example, you can set up a view of all
printers managed by a particular print server where the status
does not equal Ready. Then, if a printer changes from the
Ready status to another status, the administrator could
receive a notification e-mail from Print Management.
To send these notifications, you must
specify that the SMTP server forward the messages.
To set e-mail notifications
|
1. In the Print Management
tree, do one of the following:
?To set a notification on an existing filtered
view, right-click the custom printer filter, and then
click Properties. Click the
Notification tab.
?To set a notification on a new filtered view,
right-click the Custom Printer Filters
folder, and then click Add New Printer
Filter. Follow the instructions until you reach the
Set Notifications page.
2. Select the
Send e-mail notification check box.
3. Enter the following
information:
?In Recipient e-mail address(es),
type the e-mail address of the recipient. Use the format
account@domain.
Use semicolons to separate multiple accounts.
?In Sender e-mail address,
type the e-mail address of the sender. Use the format
account@domain.
?In SMTP Server, type the
host name of the SMTP server that will forward the e-mail
notifications.
?In Message, type a text
message describing the conditions of the printer problem.
|
In addition to setting notifications on a
custom set of printers, you can set notifications on printer
server objects. For example, if the server is offline, or the
spooler goes down, an e-mail notification can be sent. To do
this, right-click a print server object, click
Set Notifications, and then follow
steps 2 and 3 in "To set e-mail notifications."
You can quickly print a test page from
any printer in your organization. This is helpful for testing
a printer, particularly when you are not in the same building.
To print a test page
|
1. In the Print Management
tree, click the appropriate print server.
2. In the results pane,
right-click the printer for which you want a test page,
and then click Print Test Page. |
When you create a view, or filter for
specific printer criteria, you have the option of running a
script when the conditions of the filter are met. Script
notifications are defined in the Set
Notifications dialog box. Setting script notifications
are useful for resolving printer problems and troubleshooting.
For example, you could automatically run
a script to restart a spooler when printers go offline. You
could also automatically run a script that prints a test page.
The arguments are:
UserSpecifiedArgumentsServerOfflineServerName
Scripts can be written in Visual Basic?
Script (.vbs) or any scripting language available on the
computer. The script has to be on the computer with Print
Management. The script should be running with your credentials
and you need to have the permissions to do whatever it is that
you want the script to do.
An example of a command that you might
use in a script is to start the print spooler:
net start spooler
If you are using a firewall with Print
Management, some or all of the printers on a network print
server may not be displayed. To solve the problem, add File
and Printer Sharing to the list of exceptions in the firewall
software configuration. For example, in Windows Firewall the
setting is on the Exceptions tab.
To display all of the printers on a
network print server when using a firewall
|
1. Once File and Printer
Sharing has been added, click Edit.
2. In the Edit
a Service dialog box, click Change
scope.
3. In the
Change Scope dialog box, select
Any computer (including those on the Internet). |
