RE: Bidirectional Printing Windows 2003 Cluster

Hi Wayne ,

Sorry for delay in response due to the research.

Based on my research, I found some documents said that we unfortunately
cannot guarantee the functionality of Bidir on a Cluster, but did you tried
to connecting directly to one of the physical nodes to see if the Bidir
works?

I found an article : How To Create a Shared Printer on Windows Clustering .
Unfortunately, it was archived. I paste the steps here for your reference.
You can have a check:

Create Cluster Group (Virtual Server) to Host Printer
1. If there is no existing group to host the printers, open Cluster
Administrator. Right-click New , and then click Group .
2. Configure the group properties as appropriate for your cluster.
3. Add an IP Address resource, a Network Name resource, a Physical Disk
resource, and a Print Spooler resource to the group. Configure the
resources correctly for the intended use.

If a group exists to host the printers, ensure that a Print Spooler
resource is correctly configured in the resource group. You should have no
more than one spooler resource per resource group. The Print Spooler
resource should depend on the Network Name Resource and the Disk Resource
of the group. Create a folder on the shared disk to store spooled print
jobs; this folder is usually named \SPOOL. In the properties of the Print
Spooler, specify the full path to the spool folder.

Install Printer Drivers on All Nodes
Install the printer drivers once on each node for each make and model
printer to be shared. For example, if you share 100 printers of the same
make and model, you only install that printer drivers once on each node.

1. On the first node, click Start , point to Settings , and then click
Printers .
2. Double-click Add Printer to start the Add Printer Wizard, and then click
Next at the Welcome screen.
3. When prompted, click local printer to indicate that the printer is
attached to the local node. Click to clear the Automatically detect and
install my Plug and Play printer check box, and then click Next .
4. Choose a port for the printer. At this point, you can select any port
(even a non-existent one) because you will delete this printer at later
point. Click Next .
5. Click the make and model of the printer that you want to cluster. Click
Have Disk to use a vendor-supplied driver, and then click Next .
6. Enter any printer name (you will soon delete this printer), and then
click Next .
7. If non-Windows 2000 clients will access the printer, choose to share the
printer. With this option, you can install non-Windows 2000 client drivers
for the printer. Again, the share name is not important as you will soon
delete the printer. Click Next .
8. Leave the location and comment boxes blank, and then click Next .
9. Because the printer is (most likely) not physically connected to the
indicated port, do not print a test page. Click Next .
10. Click Finish . The node installs the printer drivers to the node.
11. If non-Windows 2000 clients will be printing to a shared printer of
this make and model, right-click the icon for the newly created printer.
Click Properties , and then on the Sharing tab, click Additional Drivers to
install the additional drivers for the non-Windows 2000 client operating
systems.
12. At this point, drivers for the make and model of the specified printers
are installed on the node, along with necessary drivers for non-Windows
2000 client computers. Close the printer properties.
13. From the printers folder, delete the newly created printer.
14. Repeat steps 1 through 13 on each additional node in the cluster.

Create the Shared Printer(s)
1. From a remote computer or from a node in the cluster, click Start ,
click Run , type \\servername , where servername is the Network Name of the
virtual server that contains the Print Spooler resource.
2. Verify in the title bar of the window that opens that you are using a
remote connection. If you are performing this step from one of the nodes in
the cluster, and you do not connect to the virtual server as described, the
following steps will not work.
3. Double-click the Printers folder.
4. Double-click Add Printer to start the Add Printer Wizard. This time,
create the actual shared printer. Click Next .
5. You should only have the Remote print server servername option available
on this screen. If you have other options, you have performed the preceding
steps incorrectly. In that case, click Cancel and start over, otherwise,
click Next .
6. If you have previously created a port for this printer, click it in the
list. Otherwise, create a new port for the printer by using the Standard
TCP/IP port. Click Next .
7. If you create a new port, the New Port Wizard starts. Type the IP
address of the printer and a port name, and then click Next to create the
printer port. Complete the New Port Wizard and return to the Add Printer
Wizard.
8. Click the make and model of the printer, and then click Next .
9. When you are prompted, choose to keep the existing driver. By choosing
to use updated drivers you undo all of the work that you did previously to
install the drivers on all of the nodes. Click Next .
10. Type the printer name (using the real name), and then click Next .
11. Choose to share the printer (using the real share name), and then click
Next .
12. Type a location and comment for this printer as you would like them to
appear in Windows 2000 Active Directory, and then click Next .
13. Choose to print a test page if you want to, and then click Next .
14. Click Finish to create the shared clustered printer in the virtual
server.

Note : In Windows 2000, you only create the shared printer once on the
virtual server. It does not matter which node owns the virtual server when
you create the printer.
15. To create additional printers of the same make and model, repeat steps
1 through 14 for the additional printers.

Note: This steps also been tested on Windows Server 2003, they works.

Let me know the results. I'll try my best to be of assistance.

Thanks.

Best regards,

Vincent Xu
Microsoft Online Partner Support

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Thread-Topic: Bidirectional Printing Windows 2003 Cluster
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Subject: RE: Bidirectional Printing Windows 2003 Cluster
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 14:01:02 -0700
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Hi Vincent,

they are downloaded from HP's web site. I did a test with a Windows 2003
server by loading the same driver Bidrectional printing was available but
when the the same driver is insttaled on the cluster Bidrectional
printing is
not available the box is greyed out. I dont think it caused by the driver.

"Vincent Xu [MSFT]" wrote:

Hi Wayne ,

Based on my research, it looks like the printer driver may have
disabled
the bi-direction feature when it is used in the cluster nodes. What are
the
printer drivers, are they built-in drivers, or are they downloaded from
the
HP websites.

For the built-in drivers, it is possible that the bidirectional feature
has
been disabled in clustered spooler because of potential issues with
bidirectional printing. See the following article:

278455 How to set up a clustered print server
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=278455

If it is a HP driver, please check with HP to see if the bi-directional
feature is available on their supplied drivers in clustered printers.

More information for Language monitor
================
The language monitor provides the common language that is needed for
the
client and printer to understand each other in bidirectional
communication
so that you can configure the printer and monitor printer status. You
can
request configuration and status from the printer, and the printer can
send
unsolicited status information (such as paper tray empty) to the
client.

Windows Server 2003 includes Pjlmon.dll, a language monitor that uses
Printer Job Language (PJL). PJL is the language that implements the
bidirectional communication; it does this by using a parallel port
connection, such as one between a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 5Si and the
computer. Any bidirectional printer that uses PJL can use Pjlmon.dll.

If a printer uses a different printer language, the vendor can develop
a
language monitor for it. A vendor might also develop a language monitor
to
add data, such as printer-specific control information, to the print
stream
that is going to a unidirectional printer.

To take advantage of bidirectional printing, you need a bidirectional
printer, and a correctly configured bidirectional port and port
monitor.
The standard port monitor supports bidirectional communication by
default.

Hope this helps!


Best regards,

Vincent Xu
Microsoft Online Partner Support

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Thread-Topic: Bidirectional Printing Windows 2003 Cluster
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Subject: Bidirectional Printing Windows 2003 Cluster
Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 14:20:02 -0700
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I have a Windows 2003 Print cluster in our environment It was built
using
the
Windows 2003 "guide to Creating and Configuring a Server Cluster
under
Windows Server 2003", "Creating and Configuring a highly Available
Print
Server Under Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Using a Server Cluster"
and MS
article 278455 "How to Setup a Clustered Print Server".
However the "Enable bidirectional support" is grayed out on the port
tab
on
each printer. We use all HP printers and drivers so I know they have
bidirectional support. You can also enable bidirectional support on a
standard windows 2003 print server. Is there a reason this is not
available
or is there a way to make it available.

Thanks
Wayne





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