Server 2003 Failover Print Cluster

We want to implement a two-node failover print cluster using Server 2003. We
have a mix of HP printers and MFDs (e.g., Ricoh, Minolta, Xerox, etc.). We
have eliminated all of the kernel mode drivers by pointing those devices to
the HP Universal Print Driver (UPD). We currently have all printers
installed on a single Windows 2003 server and have backed them up using Print
Migrator 3.1. Is there an "accepted" process to install these printers onto
our clustered environment? Specifically, I'm wondering about print monitors
from some of the other vendors (again, Ricoh, Minolta, etc.)?

Hello zhicooley99,
The thing about cluster solutions is you need to be sure that the hardware
you select is in the server catalog not only as supported in 2003 but as
supported in a 2003 cluster solution to be officially supported by MS. That
and all tests must pass...

The printer gets installed as a cluster resource within cluster administrator,
assigned which nodes own it, group membership etc...

This is not very different than creating a highly available file share.

I don't know about the monitor though.

> We want to implement a two-node failover print cluster using Server
> 2003. We have a mix of HP printers and MFDs (e.g., Ricoh, Minolta,
> Xerox, etc.). We have eliminated all of the kernel mode drivers by
> pointing those devices to the HP Universal Print Driver (UPD). We
> currently have all printers installed on a single Windows 2003 server
> and have backed them up using Print Migrator 3.1. Is there an
> "accepted" process to install these printers onto our clustered
> environment? Specifically, I'm wondering about print monitors from
> some of the other vendors (again, Ricoh, Minolta, etc.)?
>

Thanks so much for the response. That makes sense. The monitors are not a
big deal as I've cleaned most of them up. My challenge is really to get the
HP Universal Print driver working for some of the older printers (assuming
they're supported) and using the Print Migrator product to move existing
queues to the cluster. Any thoughts on that?

"bbird" wrote:

> Hello zhicooley99,
> The thing about cluster solutions is you need to be sure that the hardware
> you select is in the server catalog not only as supported in 2003 but as
> supported in a 2003 cluster solution to be officially supported by MS. That
> and all tests must pass...
>
> The printer gets installed as a cluster resource within cluster administrator,
> assigned which nodes own it, group membership etc...
>
> This is not very different than creating a highly available file share.
>
> I don't know about the monitor though.
>
> > We want to implement a two-node failover print cluster using Server
> > 2003. We have a mix of HP printers and MFDs (e.g., Ricoh, Minolta,
> > Xerox, etc.). We have eliminated all of the kernel mode drivers by
> > pointing those devices to the HP Universal Print Driver (UPD). We
> > currently have all printers installed on a single Windows 2003 server
> > and have backed them up using Print Migrator 3.1. Is there an
> > "accepted" process to install these printers onto our clustered
> > environment? Specifically, I'm wondering about print monitors from
> > some of the other vendors (again, Ricoh, Minolta, etc.)?
> >
>
>
>