Windows Server

Jan Eliasen · Guest

Hi

I am right now trying to get the MSMQ <=> MQSeries bridge to run in a
Windows 2003 cluster.... but it is giving me a hard time.

Does the 2004 version support windows 2003 clusters? I am talking
about an active/passive cluster.

--
Jan Eliasen, representing himself and not the company he works for.

Aaron Grady [MSFT] · Guest

Jan-

A few things:
-The capabilities of the bridge have not changed from HIS 2000 to HIS 2004,
including clustering support.
-Although the bridge ships with HIS, you will probably reach more
knowledgeable folks by posting to the MSMQ newsgroups
-I'm pretty sure the bridge supports clustered MQSeries servers, and can
also itself run on clustered servers, although it is not necessarily
recommended to run the bridge itself on a cluster.
-There is more information on configuring the bridge and some information
about clustering here:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/host/2000/all/reskit/en-us/part3/hisrkc13.mspx

HTH,
--
Aaron Grady
MCSE + Internet, MCDBA, MCSD
SNA Server/Host Integration Server 2000
Microsoft

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Use of any included samples are subject to the terms specified at
http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm

"Jan Eliasen" <eliasen@nospam.nospam> wrote in message
news:uel5l0d7shb3n4o6v3jqja6d6c98d10qjv@4ax.com...

Mark Houseberg · Guest

Does HIS 2004 work with Windows 2003 cluster for print services?

Mark

"Aaron Grady [MSFT]" wrote:

Neil Pike · Guest

Mark,

No, not really. Are you looking for a resilient print server solution? If so, search the
newsgroup for a posted solution, I think it was "LRing" that posted it.

Charles Ezzell (MSFT) · Guest

Yes, but there could be issues if you have multiple "clusters" providing
print services and if they have different print driver versions on the "same
name" printers. No different than having multiple print servers with
different driver versions for "identical" printers. By identical I mean the
"Name" as it shows in the add printer wizard.

Print rendering always takes place on the "local" box that is doing printing
for ANY print job (word, notepad, snaprint, etc), the "OS Print Servers"
only "hold" the drivers and queues. Thus, with HIS, all printing is rendered
on the Host Integration Server hosting the snaprint service.

For instance (extreme case):
\\server1\printer1 is a HP LaserJet 4, but server1 is a NT4 box with only
Version 2 drivers installed.

\\server2\printer2 is a HP LaserJet 4, running Windows XP in the mail room,
Version 3, revision 1111

\\server3\printer3 is a HP LaserJet 4, running Windows 2003 next to the
water cooler, Version 3, revision 2222.

\\server4\printer4 is also an HPLJ4, with the same "driver" name as above,
OS is Windows 2003, running OEM print drivers, version 3, Revision 2123.

HIS is Windows 2000 with no print drivers installed.

You create a printer in Control Panel/Printers.

Create a network defined printer to \\server1\printer1. NT 4 drivers would
be installed.

Next you create a network defined printer to \\server2\printer2. Revision
1111 drivers would be copied down.

Next, you create a network defined printer to \\server3\printer3. Revision
2222 drivers would be copied down, replacing revision 1111 drivers.

Finally, you create a network defined printer to \\server4\printer4. The
drivers are "older" version than the ones from \\server3, so no new drivers
are copied down.

The NT4 driver would stay installed, but the revision 2222 drivers would be
used to print to all 4 print server queues. The NT4 server gets the rendered
data which goes to the queue then to the printer so it doesn't care what
version driver rendered the data, it isn't going to touch it anyway.

Plus, every time an application on the OS prints (every print job from HIS),
the OS would do a version check against the remote and local print drivers
to see if the print drivers changed and need to be "upgraded".

To avoid version conflict issues, we do recommend you putting your print
queues directly on the HIS server. A remote print server really saves you
nothing in performance, etc, since rendering will take place locally.

Network printer:
Connect to remote printer -> check driver version against local, download
new drivers if necessary -> render print job -> send rendered data to remote
print server -> send to queue -> print job sent to printer.

Local printer:
Render print job -> send to queue -> send to printer.

(the above is simplified of course)

Charles

"Mark Houseberg" <MarkHouseberg@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:DBCD88D9-22B8-4C80-B962-75F2FC24117F@microsoft.com...

Mark Houseberg · Guest

I just found out that there is only 1 sna cluster now; sorry.
We are also using PDT's for the printer formatting. I have already converted
the pdf files to HIS 2004 using PDFCOMP. Would this change your answer?

"Charles Ezzell (MSFT)" wrote:

Mark Houseberg · Guest

Neil,

This is what I am trying to do; I hope you can help answer a couple
questions I have.
I need to migrate 2 SNA4/NT4 servers to Win2k3/HIS2k4 that are pretty much
only used as print servers with about 50 printers for each server.

1. Can I just build 2 new servers and give them the same server name and
cluster name and restore the backup CFG file fro the old SNA config?
At this time we are still using PDT files for print formatting. I already
converted the PDF files to 2004 PDT files using PDFCOMP.

2. What is the best method for failover or redundency?
3. What is a typical backup solution?

Thank You in advance for your time all you HIS gurus,
Mark

"Neil Pike" wrote:

Charles Ezzell (MSFT) · Guest

Yes, and no <G>

Rendering will still take place on the HIS Servers before the rendered print
job is sent to the print server (cluster in your case). Drivers are still
downloaded and version checked. But, as long as you only have 1 cluster, and
can guarantee that all print drivers are the same (they should be for a
cluster), then you should not have versioning issues with different drivers.

Versioning issues would come into play even more if you had say the
following:
\\printserver1\printer1
\\printserver2\printer2
\\printserver3\printer3

All printers using OEM print drivers for say "XYZ Printer"
Each using a different version.
So, printserver1 is using all drivers with a version of say "1.0.0.4"
printserver2 is using an "updated" driver, but some dlls are marked as
"1.0.0.4" while others are marked as "1.0.0.6" and others as "1.0.0.7"
And, printserver3 has say drivers that are all marked "1.0.0.5", which is
actually an "update" of what printserver2 has, but the OEM built them from a
separate code tree and did not update the version numbers.

(yes this can happen)

So, the OS downloads the drivers from \\printserver1\printer1 for this "XYZ
Printer"
all DLLs are Version 1.0.0.4
It connects to \\printserver2, and updates ONLY those dlls that are marked
as "1.0.0.6" and "1.0.0.7".
Now, it connects to \\printserver3 and updates ONLY the remaining DLLS that
are marked as "1.0.0.4" to "1.0.0.5"
So, you now end up with dlls that are 1.0.0.5, 1.0.0.6 and 1.0.0.7.

Which matches none of what is installed for the 3 print servers.
It may work fine. But, chances are fairly good you will have some print
irregularities, if it doesn't just GPFault in the driver which would bring
down the snaprint service.

As long as you can guarantee the drivers on the print cluster are "clean"
with no versioning issues, then you should be ok. But, if you do have any
issues, Microsoft PSS would ask you to move the drivers local to the Host
Integration Server to rule out any issues there.

Using a PDF does help also <g>.

Charles

"Mark Houseberg" <MarkHouseberg@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:E5D142C3-3F04-467C-B6EC-D12BE131F238@microsoft.com...

Charles Ezzell (MSFT) · Guest

My opinion only.

1. Yes, this should work. But you should probably bring them up in their own
subdomain and names until you can fully test everything out. Since you are
using PDT 's, that should help with most print issues, but you may have some
others, as there have been MANY MANY changes since SNA4sp4 to Host
Integration Server 2004, not to mention the changes in print drivers from
running in kernel mode (on NT4) to user mode (win2k, xp, win2k3). You don't
want to just bring them live and have all your users upset if something
doesn't work first time.

2. HIS/SNA has always had it's own failover. There are some articles on this
and it is also documented in the online help. basically define another link
to the host on the 2nd server that matches the first (except for name, and
LUnames). Set this to "by administrator" or "on demand". If set to ondemand,
and the first server is offline, the connection on the backup server would
go live at the first attempt of a user to use one of the resources attached
to the connection.

3. Copy your com.cfg file. That is usually enough. If you lost a server, you
can easily rebuild it and add the link service back in. Backups will get a
new com.cfg file automatically when they are brought live. If the primary
goes down hard, promote one of the backups to primary.

"Mark Houseberg" <MarkHouseberg@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4342428E-4A24-4C07-80C4-8909266BB466@microsoft.com...

Mark Houseberg · Guest

You are my hero; where do i send the money. Thanks!!!

A couple more questions.
1. Can I use NLB to balance the load or is is there a beter easier way of
doing this with HIS 2004?

2.The only reason want to use the same name is because there are a lot of
users that have the server name hard coded and we don't have the time to
train right now. Can this be fixed with a simple DNS change/alias?
And for simplicity's sake. Is it as easy as using snacfg to output the
printsessions to a text file, changing the server names and then importing
them into the new server?

Thanks again; I really appreciate time you have taken to help me out!
Mark

"Charles Ezzell (MSFT)" wrote:

Neil Pike · Guest

Mark,

Mark Houseberg · Guest

That is how we are doing it now.
The printing is initiated by users.
Am I missing something, I just did a "snacfg /print >cfg.txt" from the SNA4
server, copied to the new server then "snacfg @cfg.txt" on the new one, but
it got stuck on the first server name.

Thanks,
Mark

"Neil Pike" wrote:

Neil Pike · Guest

Mark,

When you say it got stuck, what error did it get? You did remove all the other
stuff from the config other than the print3270session bits you wanted to add?

The NT printer definition (/DEVICENAME) does exist on the other server already? If
not you can use printmig to migrate the actual NT printer definitions/drivers across
- that's a completely separate task to the SNA config stuff

Charles Ezzell (MSFT) · Guest

As Neil mentioned, it would be helpful to see the exact error message.

what exactly are you attempting to pull into the new box?

You may want to look at the following articles:
185436 Using Excel and SNACFG to Implement Batch Configuration Changes
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=185436

321262 How to Upgrade Previous Versions of SNA Server to Host Integration
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=321262

If doing the entire configuration, then just open sna manger and import the
com.cfg in. You would need to setup the proper link services, and may need
to drag and drop some Connections from the "old" to the "new", but easily
done.

If you want ONLY the 3270 print sessions, you could do it this way. First,
from your SNA4 system do the following:
snacfg printsession3270 /list

This dumps out a list of all the print sessions, but not in importable
format

Pipe it to a text file (snacfg printsession3270 /list > printers.txt),
import this into excel, and dump everything out except the session names.
(I'm assuming you have hundreds, if only one or 2, easier get the list of
printers and create a batch file.

Edit the spreadsheet so that you end up with something similar to this:
snacfg printsession3270 Printer1 /print > printers.txt
snacfg printsession3270 Printer2 /print >> printers.txt
snacfg printsession3270 Printer3 /print >> printers.txt
snacfg printsession3270 Printer4 /print >> printers.txt
snacfg printsession3270 Printer5 /print >> printers.txt
snacfg printsession3270 Printer6 /print >> printers.txt
snacfg printsession3270 Printer7 /print >> printers.txt
snacfg printsession3270 Printer8 /print >> printers.txt
snacfg printsession3270 Printer9 /print >> printers.txt
snacfg printsession3270 Printer10 /print >> printers.txt
snacfg printsession3270 Printer11 /print >> printers.txt
snacfg printsession3270 Printer12 /print >> printers.txt

save this as a batch file and run it. Then, edit printers.txt to reflect the
new server name. IE - if your old server was SNA1, and your new server is
HIS1, then change
PRINTSESSION3270 PRINTER1 /ADD \
/SERVER:SNA1 \

to
PRINTSESSION3270 PRINTER1 /ADD \
/SERVER:HIS1 \

If you are using a PDT file, ensure that your PDT is enclosed in quotes:
/PDTFILE:"C:\Program Files\Host Integration Server\system\hplj2.pdt"\

Then import this in on the new HIS server.

"Neil Pike" <neilpike@compuserve.com> wrote in message
news:VA.0000627c.0df9f1de@compuserve.com...

Mark Houseberg · Guest

Thanks guys; I will give that a shot.
I think my problem was that I tried this a few times and there was still
some stuff in there, so when I tried the input, I got the error that the
items already existed.

Mark

"Charles Ezzell (MSFT)" wrote:

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