MS Print servers

Hi Chris,

as I'm only responsible for the Loadbalancer I can only provide this config (I hope the server guy has done his job correctly as well, he mentioned that he want's to test some additional things these days, but didn't get any feedback yet):

virtual mltprtp01 {
   destination 10.10.10.10:any
   translate address disable
   profile fastL4_print_profile
   pool printer_cluster_mltprtp01
   vlans Productie enable
}
pool printer_cluster_mltprtp01 {
   action on svcdown reselect
   monitor all check_mltprtp01_tcp_445
   member 10.10.10.20:any
   member 10.10.10.21:any
        
}
monitor check_mltprtp01_tcp_445 {
   defaults from tcp
   dest *:microsoft-ds
}
profile fastL4 fastL4_print_profile {
   defaults from fastL4
   tcp close timeout 51
   loose close enable
}

As you can see the VIP is in the same subnet as the printservers, but I hope this is not a problem.

Thank you for any additional ideas or information.

Ciao Stefan üôÇ

Stefan,

 

 

Post your config and I'll compare to my working setup. Do you have the service port set to 0? My configuration is based off a lot of trial and error and a little less understanding. It does work though. I've been serving ~700 queues for a little over 2 years with multiple gigabytes of traffic going through the VIP every day.

 

 

Chris

Hi there,

 

I'm also fighting with MS print servers behind the BIG-IPs.

 

Based on the two Threads here in the Forum we configured nPath as described and also configured a loopback on the print servers with the VS IP-address. Also the two mentioned Registry tweaks were implemented.

 

But we still only get the listing working, nothing more. With setting the Metric for the loopback to 2 nothing was working, also ping monitoring from the LB to the print server was red then. That's why we removed it again.

 

Basically I'm also wondering why nPath routing is necessary at all. Normally nPath routing will only be used if you have a huge amount of outgoing server traffic, which should not go through the BIG-IP (to save resources and internal throughput). From a technical point of view nPath or having SNAT enabled should be the same, only difference with SNAT you have one additional hop for the response.

 

So can someone explain, why nPath is technical required for MS print servers? And does anyone has an additional idea, why it's not working for me? Btw. the result, that only listing is working is the same using nPath or SNAT.

 

Thank you!

 

 

Ciao Stefan :)

 

HI,

 

 

 

Could any one can help, i am planing to implement Win2k8 print services with Big-IP LTM,

 

 

could you kindly share the implementation steps or guide.

 

Never mind! I just found it.

Can someone tell me how to set the loopback adapter metric to 2?

 

 

My server guys tell me that there is no such option.

 

 

Meena

Here are my rough notes for a W2K print server environment....Configuring Windows Printing using Big-IP

 

 

Special Hardware Requirements

 

 

Separate physical disk for spooler and swap file

 

 

Ethernet Gb

 

 

 

Special OS Requirements

 

 

Big-IP

 

 

Performance Layer 4 Virtual Server with Npath Routing

 

 

TCP only

 

 

No SNAT, address translation, or port translation

 

 

FastL4 Print Protocol proile (Loose Close Enabled, TCP Close Timeout 51 seconds)

 

 

Default Persistence Profile is Source Address

 

 

Health Monitor (TCP port 515 only, Interval 10 seconds, Timeout 31 seconds)

 

 

 

Wintel Servers

 

 

Must Configure a Loopback Adapter with IP of virtual server on all nodes

 

 

Loopback adapter metric set to 2

 

 

Registry Edits -

 

 

Disable Strict Name Checking

 

 

Locate and click the following key in the registry:

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters

 

On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value:

 

Value name: DisableStrictNameChecking

 

Data type: REG_DWORD

 

Radix: Decimal

 

Value: 1

 

 

Disable Loopback Check

 

 

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.

 

2. In Registry Editor, locate and then click the following registry key:

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa

 

3. Right-click Lsa, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.

 

4. Type DisableLoopbackCheck, and then press ENTER.

 

5. Right-click DisableLoopbackCheck, and then click Modify.

 

6. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.

 

7. Quit Registry Editor, and then restart your computer.

 

 

Configure Optional Names (the DNS Name of the Virtual Server)

 

 

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters,

 

then create the OptionalNames value, you can enter a list of names.

 

Restart the computer, and the server will then respond to any of the names you listed.

Could you provide some details?

Got it working!

Here is a link to another thread on this forum where a user got this working. I'll play with it more tomorrow.

 

 

http://devcentral.f5.com/Default.aspx?tabid=53&forumid=5&postid=30480&view=topic