Where should the print server be?

[Former Member]

Hello all!

Right now we have a cluster with two nodes for SAP (Node1: SAP & SAP PRD / Node2: Database) and all printers are installed on a different standard file server. Last week we realized that the file server is not the right place for SAP printer. If someone restarts the file server he unwillingly stops all SAP printing jobs. So we have two options now:

a) reconfigure the file server as a cluster with two nodes to get high-availability

b) put the printers on one of the SAP cluster nodes

Our system partner said we shouldn´t install the printers on the SAP system, it could slow it down too much. But I don´t think they thought about the two nodes. Would there be enough performance on one of the nodes. Maybe the printers could run on the database node or on the apllication node. How do you use printers and their queues? Or is

c) a dedicated print-server (as a two-node cluster)

a better idea? Thanks for any ideas

[nelis · Accepted solution]

Hi Peter,

You have not given much info so I will have to make some assumptions

For printing, SAP firsts stores the data in the database via the spool work process then sends it off depending on the configuration of the printer access method. For local printing the data is then passed on to the spooler of your operating system where it is queued on the file system.

If you attach a printer directly to your database or dialog(application) instance(in SAP we call them instances not nodes then that means the management of your prints would also reside on the same system which is probably not a good idea especially if you start having problems with the printer. Also, you would be adding additional IO(through transferring data to file system spooler) and storage to the system which you probably could do without. Additional processing would also be required for managing the queued data. So yes, your supplier is correct in this case especially if your print jobs are large ones at times.

Personally, I would go for your final option c) but a) should also do fine.

Regards,

Nelis

[Former Member]

Thanks for your answer. So b) is not an option, even it is a high-end system? We have about 150 PCs running SAP, overall system performance is quite good right now.

With nodes I meant cluster nodes of course