Monday, October 8, 2012

Notifications and Migrating Printers

Notifications and Migrating Printers

You can use custom filters to generate e-mail notifications or to automatically run scripts when specific conditions are met on a printer. For example, you could send an e-mail to a printer administrator when a printer is out of paper or jammed.

In Server Manager, right-click Print Management\Custom Filters, and then choose Add New Printer Filter. Type in filter name and click Next.
Field – Defines the criteria being compared. The most useful Field is Queue Status, which indicates the printer’s current state.
Condition – Conditions vary depending on the value you select for Field, but they
can be “is exactly,” “is not exactly,” “begins with,” “contains,” and many others.
Value – The value the Field and Condition must match for a printer to meet the filter criteria.
Set Field value to Queue Status. Set Condition value to is Exactly. And Value to Paper Jam. Set other conditions as shown and click Next to continue. Select Send email notification. fill in all details then click Finish. The new Notification has been created.

Deploying Printers with Group Policy

Enterprise environments should use Group Policy settings to deploy shared printers to clients, this helps to speed up the deployment of printers in the Enterprise. In Server Manager select Printers. Right click the printer and select Deploy with Group Policy. Click Browse to select a Group Policy Object (GPO). Select the GPO and click OK. To deploy the printer to specific users regardless of which computers they log on to, select the “The Users That This GPO Applies To” check box.
To deploy the printer to all users who log on to a particular computer, select the The
Computers That This GPO Applies To check box. Click OK to continue. Printer has now been deployed.

Migrating Printers

Exporting

To allow you to quickly migrate a print server from one computer to another, you can export a list of printers and drivers from the current print server and then import them into the new print server. You can automatically migrate all configuration settings, including whether a printer is published in the Active Directory.
Right click Print Management and select Migrate Printers. Select Export and Next to continue. Choose print server then Next to continue. Review list then Next to continue. Select Browse. Choose Location and File name for the export file, then select Open. Click Next. Printers and drivers are exported. Export complete select Finish.

Importing

Right click Print Management and select Migrate Printers. Select Import and Next to continue. Select File to import and Open to continue. Next to continue. Review and Next to continue. Select Print Server and Next to continue. Select Import Mode. Select List in Directory options. Click Next to continue. Import is complete click Finish.

Exporting/Importing via Command Line

You can also export and import printers at a command prompt or from a script using the PrintBRM tool, which is located in the %SystemRoot%\System32\spool\tools\ folder.
To export printers to a file, run PrintBRM with the -B parameter, as the following example demonstrates:
Change directory to %systemroot%\system32\spool\tools
And run the command
Printbrm –b –f printers.printerexport
This will export all printer information to a file named printers.printerexport
The export continues. For more switches and options type printbrm ?
Change directory to %systemroot%\system32\spool\tools
And run the command
Printbrm –r –f printers.printerexport
This will import all printer information to a file named printers.printerexport
Import Continues. Operation completes successfully.

2 Responses to Notifications and Migrating Printers

No comments: