Server 2008 File and Print server 32bit or 64bit?

[Guest MT]

My company is going to star tthe process of buidling a new File and Print

server for our domain. I wanted to get opinions on using Server 2008 for this

job. Right the a 2003 server is performing this duty.

 

I need this to be a clean and painless operation. I've been thinking I

should just go with 2008 32bit, to avoid any driver issues in the migration.

What is the general consesus on this? If there are other caveats with this

migration we could deploy a new 2003 server for this job.

 

We have a lot of Shares,printers and files on the old server and I need a

seamless move. Also any tools to help aid in the process, and perhaps a

checklist of best practices for this job would be help. Thanks in advance!

[Guest Dusko Savatovic]

Re: Server 2008 File and Print server 32bit or 64bit?

 

If it's new server, go for 64 bit. I didn't have any issues with drivers.

 

 

"MT" <MT@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:34B8C17A-4B5D-4225-99F6-BA95FA75D5D5@microsoft.com...

> My company is going to star tthe process of buidling a new File and Print

> server for our domain. I wanted to get opinions on using Server 2008 for

> this

> job. Right the a 2003 server is performing this duty.

>

> I need this to be a clean and painless operation. I've been thinking I

> should just go with 2008 32bit, to avoid any driver issues in the

> migration.

> What is the general consesus on this? If there are other caveats with this

> migration we could deploy a new 2003 server for this job.

>

> We have a lot of Shares,printers and files on the old server and I need a

> seamless move. Also any tools to help aid in the process, and perhaps a

> checklist of best practices for this job would be help. Thanks in advance!

>

>

[Guest Alan Morris [MSFT]]

Re: Server 2008 File and Print server 32bit or 64bit?

 

Verify that the manufacture of the printers shared by the server has 64 bit

and 32 bit print drivers for the devices.

 

Most vendors have 64 bit drivers for new devices but nothing for most

devices older that five years. HP and Xerox have a "universal" and "global"

driver that will work with most models in 64 and 32 bit.

 

The 64 bit server must have 64 bit print drivers to install the printers and

32 bit print drivers installed so the 32 bit clients can get the print

driver from the server rather than searching for the driver from the

manufacture's web site.

 

If you only have 32 bit clients, the a 32 bit server is fine but if you have

32 and 64 bit clients and all the printers you use have 64 bit drivers

available go 64 bit on the server.

 

tools to migrate:

 

Vista clients include printbrm.exe and printbrmui.exe to remotely backup the

Server 2003 printer data. Once you install the Print Role on Server 2008,

you can use the same tools to restore the backed up data to the new server.

 

 

The hard part is remapping the shared printers to the existing clients. I

typically setup the new machine using NEWNAME. Then I restore the printers,

verify all the printers are online and working, then rename the CURRENT

server to OLD, then rename the NEWNAME to CURRENT. All the clients

reconnect to the new server and can continue printing. I normally perform

the rename operation during off hours since DNS replication of the new

machine name can take a while.

 

No clue on file services.

 

 

--

Alan Morris

Windows Printing Team

Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:

http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

 

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

"Dusko Savatovic" <nospamplease.savatovic@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:ucZ9AjMHJHA.4080@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

> If it's new server, go for 64 bit. I didn't have any issues with drivers.

>

>

> "MT" <MT@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

> news:34B8C17A-4B5D-4225-99F6-BA95FA75D5D5@microsoft.com...

>> My company is going to star tthe process of buidling a new File and Print

>> server for our domain. I wanted to get opinions on using Server 2008 for

>> this

>> job. Right the a 2003 server is performing this duty.

>>

>> I need this to be a clean and painless operation. I've been thinking I

>> should just go with 2008 32bit, to avoid any driver issues in the

>> migration.

>> What is the general consesus on this? If there are other caveats with

>> this

>> migration we could deploy a new 2003 server for this job.

>>

>> We have a lot of Shares,printers and files on the old server and I need a

>> seamless move. Also any tools to help aid in the process, and perhaps a

>> checklist of best practices for this job would be help. Thanks in

>> advance!

>>

>>

>