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vrivoire_97090's avatar
vrivoire_97090
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Oct 29, 2008

MS Print servers

Hi all,     I am planning to use my new F5 LTM to load balance Windows Server 2003 print servers. For the moment, it doesn't work for me: I can see the shared printer but I can't map it. ...
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  • Christopher_Boo's avatar
    Christopher_Boo
    Feb 05, 2014

    Here's the new link to the guide for creating the WMI monitor. As I recall it was pretty straightforward. I'm even using the same interval and timeout. Looking at my monitor properties, the only thing I see that is different is my alias service port is 3389 and the external program path is /usr/bin/monitors. Also, you'll need to enable remote WMI requests on the win2k8 boxes if not already enabled.

     

    Monitoring WMI Services from Big-IP

     

Stefan_Klotz's avatar
Stefan_Klotz
Icon for Cumulonimbus rankCumulonimbus
May 05, 2011
Hi again,

 

I have to make a little correction on my second last post. Today we realized again problems and it wasn't working anymore (not sure why this happens today).

 

But we found the critical option on the LB, it's the Address Translation, which is enabled by default. It needs to be disabled for the MS printing service. All other settings can stay on its default values, no TCP- or fastL4 profile modifications and also SNAT can be used.

 

Based on the findings from Meena, that the IP-address in the TCP-data part will be used I thought it shouldn't matter if this option is enabled or not (so I choose the default setting).

 

To summarize my findings:

 

- we are using 9.3.1 and w2k3

 

- print server with loopback adapter (same IP as the VS)

 

- enable "Client for MS networks" and "File and Printer Sharing" on the loopback adapter

 

- the two Registry tweaks are NOT implemented

 

- VS and poolmembers with the "any"-port option

 

- disable Address Translation on the VS

 

- all other settings on the LB can stay at its default value or can match you individual preferences

 

- if the Default Gateway of the print server is not pointing to the LB, I prefer to enable SNAT to have a clear traffic flow and no asynchronous routing (makes things complicated especially during troubleshooting), but it will also work with SNAT disabled (doesn't matter from a technical point of view)

 

 

Ciao Stefan :)