Print Clustering High Level Overview

Microsoft Corporation Published: April 2002

Abstract
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Datacenter Server help you ensure that business-critical services are available when theyre needed. One technology that makes this possible is Windows Clustering service, which is used to keep applications running, even if a server fails.

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Contents
Contents.........................................................................................................................................3 Introduction...................................................................................................................................1 What the Business Manager Should Know..................................................................................2 What the IT Manager Should Know..............................................................................................3 Summary........................................................................................................................................4 Related Links.................................................................................................................................5

Introduction
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Datacenter Server help you ensure that business-critical services are available when theyre needed. One technology that makes this possible is Windows Clustering service, which is used to keep applications running even if a server fails.

Print Clustering High Level Overview

What the Business Manager Should Know

The Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Datacenter operating systems offer safeguards, such as the Cluster service, to help you make sure that critical services you need to run your business are always available. Cluster service, described in more detail below, lets you connect two servers together so one can take over for the other in the event of a hardware or software failure. The Windows 2000 Advanced Server Cluster service implementation lends itself well to ensuring availability of critical print servers. A print spooler service on a clustered print server may be hosted on any of the nodes (individual servers) on the Cluster server and may be moved between nodes without impacting on clients ability to print. The client doesnt know which physical server it is connecting toconnections are made to a virtual server. The failover between nodes is automatic in hardware or software failure cases; however, administrators can initiate a manual failover for maintenance purposes (such as during an operating system upgrade). The bottom line is that the Clustering service in the Advanced and Datacenter Server operating systems helps you avoid print server downtime.

Print Clustering High Level Overview

What the IT Manager Should Know

A server cluster is a set of independent servers (referred to as nodes) and connected storage devices that are managed together. They present a single view of the server to users, applications, and the network. Windows 2000 Advanced Server supports two-node clusters, and Datacenter Server supports four-node clusters. Clustered servers are physically connected by cables and programmatically connected by cluster software. Clusters use an algorithm to detect a failure, and failover policies to determine how to handle the work from the failed server. These policies also specify how a server is to be restored to the cluster when it becomes available again. The servers do not have to be the same size or have the same configuration. For example, you can run exactly the same applications on both servers and have one of them idle, ready to pick up all operations and sustain high performance. Or you can have both servers online at the same time, with a variety of options for what applications are running on each server.

This flexible model allows you to configure Cluster service to provide the best value and protection for your particular circumstances. To simplify configuration, Windows 2000 Advanced Server includes Cluster Administrator. Using this facility, you can configure and manage the cluster from a central location, even from a remote location. After youve established a cluster, you can move workloads around between the servers while performing maintenance and testing without interrupting users. This ability to move workloads back and forth also makes it possible to do rolling software upgrades without interrupting users. The Microsoft Cluster Server implementation lends itself well to creating highly available print servers and includes spooler-specific failover support infrastructure to accurately determine when a server fault has occurred, and to seamlessly migrate the spooler service to an available node. Managing a clustered print spooler is similar to managing a non-clustered print spooler and effort has been made to provide the same set of interfaces for administrators. The one exception is in the management of drivers, because drivers must be loaded on each cluster node individually.

Figure 1: Cluster service lets you connect two servers to help ensure site availability.

Print Clustering High Level Overview

Summary
The Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Datacenter operating systems provide a means of ensuring high availability of print servers in the event of hardware or software failure.

Print Clustering High Level Overview

Related Links
For more information about deploying Windows 2000 print clustering, see the Creating Highly Available Print Servers white paper at www.microsoft.com/windows2000/technologies/fileandprint/print/default.asp. For more information about Windows print servers in general, visit the Print Server Web site at www.microsoft.com/windows2000/technologies/fileandprint/print/default.asp.

Print Clustering High Level Overview