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Sizing and choosing print servers

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Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

Sizing and choosing print servers

Consider the following when sizing and choosing your print servers:

  • A print server can be any computer running a product in the Windows Server 2003 family or Windows XP Professional.

  • A print server running Windows XP Professional is limited to 10 concurrent connections from other computers and does not support printing from Macintosh and NetWare clients.

  • The minimum requirements for a Windows Server 2003 family server for file and print services will be sufficient for a print server that manages just a few printers with low printing throughput. Managing a large number of printers or many large documents requires more memory, disk space, and potentially a more powerful computer.

  • In situations where many large documents are submitted for printing at the same time, the print server must have enough disk space to spool all of the documents. If you need to keep a copy of everything you print, you must provide additional disk space.

  • If you use the Windows Server 2003 family server for both file and print sharing, file operations have a higher priority, so printing will not slow access to files. That is especially true if the printers are connected directly to the server; parallel and serial ports are always the primary bottleneck.

  • Printers that attach directly to the print server, typically through the parallel port, require more CPU time. It is always preferable to use printers that are attached directly to the network with a network adapter.

  • To maximize print server throughput, and to manage many printers, or printing of many large documents, you should dedicate a Windows Server 2003 family server only for printing.

  • To increase the throughput of a print server, you can change the location of the print spool folder. For best results, move the spool folder to a dedicated disk drive that does not share any files, including page files with the operating system.