Question

After a history of nearly anyone configuring and reconfiguring printers throughout the firm, the management has decided to centralize coordination of five new centrally located printers in the hands of the two computer support staff. The computer support staff wants to turn one of the servers into a print server from which to manage the five new printers. Create a short report that describes the basic steps for installing a Windows Server 2016 print server. In your report also discuss two tools that can be used to set up and manage printers that the support staff will be able to use with the print server.

Answer 1

1) Basic steps for installing a windows server 2016 printing server:-

Print Management saves the print administrator a significant amount of time installing printers on client computers and managing and monitoring printers.

Configure Print Server and Network Printer on Windows Server 2016 step by step.( Firstly we have to install a role).

1) From Dashboard click on “Add roles and features”, and then click Next twice.

2) Then Select your server from server pool, and click Next.

3)  On this step, select “Print and documents services” role, once you click on it the wizard will pop up to add it features, click on”Add Features“, and then Next.

4) On the features page, leave the default selections and click Next.

5)  The next screen of the installation wizard will provide you some information about the role you are going to install, then click Next.

6) Now select “Print Server” service under Role services, if it’s not already selected and click Next.

7)  On the last screen of the installation wizard, Confirm your selection, and click “Install” to start the installation progress of the mentioned role.

8) Now the role is installing.

9) The features installation has been completed, you can now click on close button to close the wizard as shown, and to start the configuration step.

Configure Print Server and Network printer on Windows Server 2016

After you successfully installed the role, it’s time to start the configuration of it, Using the steps below you should be able to configure Print server.

1) From the dashboard, click on “Tools” and from the drop-list, click on “Print Management“.

2) From the left pane, click on your server and then right click and select “Add Printer…“.

3) Select “TCP/IP or Web Service Printer by IP address or Hostname” option, click Next to continue as shown.

4) Now enter IP address or the hostname of your printer, and then click Next.

5) Select “Install a new driver” to get the latest driver for your printer and click Next.

6) Select your printer driver, or if you have the required files for its driver click “Have disk…”, for me I will select the driver from the drivers already on my windows server, and then click Next.

7) Now if you want to share your printer check on “Share Printer” if not uncheck it and click Next.

8) This page of the installation will confirm the printer details if its correct click Next.

9) Now the printer driver is installed, and you can test it by check on “Print test page” and once you click Finish a test page will be printed.

So we have done here in installing a Windows Server 2016 print server.

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.

·You can use Print Management to monitor printers that are on print servers running Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Server, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 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.

Some of the tools in my knowledge are:-( here is a brief explination for the tools i think it might help or you can also find about them in google.)

ZebraNet™ Bridge Enterprise

Integrating and maintaining remote Zebra® printers in a distributed environment is easy with Zebra’s advanced centralized printer management tools—a range of networking solutions to meet the growing needs of evolving network environments. Leverage the power of ZebraLink Solutions.

• Deployment

» Automatic discovery—Find printers on a network.

» Create printer profiles—Create and save the “Golden Printer” for later use.

» Download printer profiles—Copy printer profiles one to one, or one to many or to a group.

» Create printer configurations—Quickly create a configuration file that can be copied to one or many printers—or quickly compressed into a single file that can be easily emailed.

» Font conversion wizard—Easily convert and download fonts.

» Wireless setup wizard—Set up wireless printers.

» Parallel/serial/USB support

» Copy printers—Copy alerts, settings and files from one printer to another.

• Management

» Group management—Manage printers in logical groups.

» Change settings—Change settings from a remote PC.

» Firmware and file download—Download firmware and files to a single Zebra printer.

» Resource management—Centrally manage printer files, firmware, fonts and graphics.

» File download—Download formats, fonts and graphics to a single Zebra printer or a group.

» Multiple user configurations—Manage multiple locations with different application settings.

• Monitoring

» Application heartbeat and status icons—Color-coded icons provide visual notification of issues.

» Quick status and network port status—Get a detailed view of print server and network port status.

» Detailed status—View detailed printer status for quick troubleshooting.

» Configure printer and print server alerts—Configure alerts on the printer and print server.

» Alert logging via SNMP and TCP/IP—Capture printer alerts over SNMP and TCP/IP.

» Alert filtering—device/group/severity—View events by printer, group or multiple groups.

» Visual alerts—See your entire printer enterprise at a glance.

Zebra Setup Utilities Quickly and easily configure select Zebra highperformance, midrange and desktop printers with this free tool that includes:

• Printer settings wizard—Steps you through the printer setting configuration process.

• Print quality wizard—Helps you set the best speed and darkness combination for your media.

• Connectivity wizard—Guides you through configuring Ethernet, wireless or Bluetooth® settings.

• Preloaded Microsoft®-certified Windows® driver— Automatically installs the printer driver when using USB plug-and-play.

• Quick tools—Provides printer diagnostic tools to test/ confirm printer configurations and control printer functions.

• Font and graphics downloader—Saves font and graphic details for reuse or editing.

• File editor and terminal window—Enables you to create, edit and print commands from a single window.

• Automatically reconfigures your ZebraDesigner™ printer driver.

Microsoft Management Console (MMC)

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. 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.

I don't now much about this you can search it online.

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