Windows 7 / Getting Started

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Customizing Views of Information

The Custom Filters node of the Print Management console gives you a great way to quickly see the status of the entire print environment. By default, four filters are provided, which list all print drivers, all printers, all printers not in a ready state, and all printers with jobs. If you have 20 print servers added to the Print Management console and you want to look for any printers not in a ready state, select the Printers Not Ready custom view. Any nonready printer is listed, with its state, number of jobs, and server.

If you want to view additional information for the filter, select Add/Remove Columns from the View menu, and additional columns can be added, such as the driver name, whether the printer is shared, and its share name, location, and comments.

Additional filters can be added by right-clicking on Custom Filters and selecting Add New Printer Filter, which opens up the New Printer Filter Wizard. The first screen asks for a name for the filter and a comment. Notice that you also have the option to show the number of items that match the filter.

The next screen is the real power of the print filter, and it allows up to six fields to be tested for possible values. The conditions vary depending on the field. As with the condition, if the field is a defined type, the values possible are constrained. You check the Queue Status field for exactly being offline and the Location field for containing B (for your Lab B). After the conditions are selected, click Next.

The final screen allows a notification to be configured. When a printer meets the criteria in the filter, you can send an e-mail with a certain message and/or run a script. This is optional but is useful if you created a filter for errors and so forth. In the event that a printer goes into an error condition, you could be mailed an alert of the error status. Enter the e-mail address that receives the e-mail and an address from which the alert appears to come.

Click Finish after configuring the notification options or just leave them unselected. The custom filter now lists a new entry that you've created with any offline printers in Lab B. You can always change a filter by right-clicking it and selecting Properties.

Notifications

Notifications are possible when a printer meets the criteria configured in a filter. You can also add a notification for a print server. If you right-click a print server, select Set Notifications from the context menu. This allows an e-mail notification or script to be executed in the event of a print server failure with the same options as a filter notification. If a print server goes offline, restart the print spooler from a script (net stop spooler, then net start spooler).

Internet Printing

The final piece in this printing puzzle is Web-based printing. This allows users to view and install printers via an Internet Information Services-hosted Web page. The good news is that it's done automatically if you selected the Internet Printing sub-role of Print Services, which takes care of Internet Information Services installation and configuration. Go to http://<print server>/printers to see a Web page, listing the printers on the server.

A user can click a printer to see the queue of the printer and depending on the user permissions, he has options to pause, resume, and cancel documents. The Connect option is displayed.

When you connect to a printer, the connection first tries via remote procedure call as normal. If this connection is not possible, the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) is used. Communication for printing is via IPP encapsulated in HTTP packets over standard port 80, which is open in most environments. This is all done automatically.