Inventorying the Current Printing Environment
Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2
The first phase in moving to a Windows Server 2003–based printing environment is gathering information about your current printing environment. Document the port types, printer names, share names, IP address, driver models and driver versions of each printer that you plan to replace or migrate. This information helps you plan details of the deployment process and gives you a way to rebuild printers if a server fails.
Figure 3.2 illustrates the place of this phase in the design and deployment process.
Figure 3.2 Inventorying the Current Printing Environment
.gif "Inventorying the Current Printing Environment")
A number of tools can help you inventory your current printing environment. These tools can also be useful if you decide to migrate your existing print servers to new print servers that are running Windows Server 2003. The tools you can use depend on your current operating system:
Windows Server 2003 includes scripts written in the Microsoft®Visual Basic® Scripting Language that you can use to inventory your current printing environment.
If you are in a Windows NT 4.0 domain, you must use PrnAdmin to inventory your current printing environment.
Note
- For a worksheet to assist you in inventorying your printing environment, see "Print Server Inventory Worksheet" (Sdcpsv_1.doc) on the Microsoft® Windows® Server 2003 Deployment Kit companion CD (or see "Print Server Inventory Worksheet" on the Web at https://www.microsoft.com/reskit).
Visual Basic Scripts
Table 3.1 lists information that you might require while inventorying your printing environment and the scripts you can use to obtain that information. These scripts are located in the Windows\System32 directory.
Table 3.1 Scripts That Provide Print Server Information
| Information Needed | Script |
|---|---|
Print server name |
Prnmngr.vbs |
Print queue name |
Prnmngr.vbs |
Printer driver name |
Prnmngr.vbs |
Print port type |
Prnport.vbs |
Print port configuration |
Prnport.vbs |
Print device IP address |
Prnport.vbs |
For a list of parameters for each script listed in Table 6.1, perform the following procedure.
To list the parameters for the Visual Basic scripts listed in Table 6.1
Open a Command Prompt, and then move to the Windows/System32 directory.
At the command prompt, type:
cscript scriptname.vbs
PrnAdmin
If you are migrating from Windows NT 4.0 to Windows Server 2003, you can use Prnadmin.dll to inventory your current environment. PrnAdmin enumerates ports, drivers, printers, or forms on local or remote printers. The Visual Basic script for the PrnAdmin utility is named Prnmgr.vbs.
You can find the PrnAdmin utility on the Windows Server 2003 Deployment Kit companion CD. To install PrnAdmin, type the following command:
regsvr32 “C:\Program Files\Resource Kit\PrnAdmin.dll”
Important
- The preceding command syntax assumes that you installed the contents of the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit companion CD in the default location, C:\Program Files\Resource Kit. If you install the contents in a different location, you must use that path in the syntax.
PrnAdmin syntax
The command-line syntax for PrnAdmin is:
cscript prnmgr.vbs [-adx[c]] [l] [-cserver] [-bprinter] [-mdriver model]
[-pdriver path] [-r port] [-f file]
PrnAdmin example
The following command lists all printers on the print server \\adminserver:
cscript prnmgr.vbs -l -c \\adminserver