Maximum number of printers on NT4 print server

[DROFNUD]

Does anyone know what the recommended maximum number of printers on a print server should be? or some experience that showed what is optimal

Simon...

 

[johncurtis]

In theory there is almost no limit to the number of print queues. The only limiting factor will be the size of the registry which grows quite large with many queues.
There are sites with hundreds of queues. How many printers are you thinking of?

 

[TheLad]

If you can, I'd distribute your printers over 2 or 3 servers just in case. If your server with all of your print queues went down and was down for a while, no one could print! If you have the queues spread out over 2 or 3 servers, there will still be a way to print even if one is down. "It's true, its damn true!"

 

[MasterRacker]

The registry grows large but that is minimal compared to the spooler folders. Every print spooler is simply a folder where the print jobs are queued up. If you want to do a lot of printers you will need a LOT of disk space. How mauch will depend on your environment and print drivers. PCL jobs are much smaller than Postscript jobs. Graphics are much larger than straight text, etc. Start setting them up and monitor your load for a while to see how it works.
Jeff
I haven't lost my mind - I know it's backed up on tape somewhere ....

 

[DROFNUD]

We have 60 odd printers over 4 print servers that management want to consolidate onto one!

I didn't expect us to be anywhere near the limit, but wanted some advise. We will try to reduce it to 2 servers for resilience purposes.

Thanks to everyone that answered.
Si...

 

[MasterRacker]

Use perfmon and monitor the disk usage of each server under normal printing loads. Add that up and you know how much you need to have on 1 or 2 servers. Don't forget to add a margin for peak loads also.
Jeff
I haven't lost my mind - I know it's backed up on tape somewhere ....