Overview:
The getting out of hand printing expenses in a small business environment and the lack of proper monitoring of all printers usage was the reason for Deployment of Print Manager Plus - Network Enterprise Edition 2010 (PMP).
Customer needs:
Printer - management, restrictions, cost control, report, and authentication.
User - notification, restriction, cost control, report, and authentication. (1)
Remote - printer and user (printing) administration and account control.
All those needs were properly addresses by the PMP software.
Setup:
The small business environment had a mixed infrastructure of domain joined workstations (WS) and non-domain workstations. The domain joined WS used the Domain Server as printer server while the other WS’s used an workgroup Windows XP machine with Printer Server role installed. To add a twist in the setup the computer lab was using Freeze State software.
Deployment strategy and tweaks:
We first had to create a uniform environment by joining all WS to the domain.
The next step was to assign the Print Server role to the Windows XP machine and share all of its network printers.
Then we created domain sub-OU’s within an "OU which allowed us to assign the appropriate user rights and restrictions based on group membership. The PMP software can be installed on the domain controller, on a printer server, or even on a workgroup, desktop machine that has the printer server role which makes is very flexible for domain or for a workgroup environment. The PMP uses SQL database for the reporting capabilities which will be installed on the Printer Server or on a separate machine.
Deployment Notes:
We had to make sure that ports TCP-48100 and TCP-48101 are allowed by the firewall on ALL server and workstations that will be communicating with the PMP software (i.e. server, remote admin console, user agents)
For Remote Admin Console – we made sure that the user has admin rights (or local admin right to the PMP database)
For security, we created separate PMP administration account to limit access to the Admin control.
Due to the frequent change of the lab users, we had to automate the profile setup with automated printers’ deployment. The new default profiles did not install any printers by default. To automate the printers’ deployment we pushed the printer deployment via Group Policy (we used per user printer deployment) and we installed specific printers to the desired group. Good tutorial can be found in this source (2)
When deploying multiple printers as it was in our case, the push printer deployment via Group Policy might not assign the desired printer as a default. We had to push a logon script to assign a certain printer as a default printer. Microsoft KB 263226 can be used as a starting point. (3) To avoid possible conflicts in simultaneous execution of the push printer policy and the default printer assignment script via the same policy we added a time delay. The 40 seconds delay in the script made sure the printer drivers install had finished before assigning the allocated printer as default.
Resources:
(2) http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Deploying-Printers-Group-Policy-Windows-R2.html
(3) http://support.microsoft.com/kb/263226
Krasi Piskov
My goal was to build an inexpensive scalable and expandable file and media sharing storage with build-in redundancy.
The power consumption was the next factor in mind. Physical dimensions played little role as I am going to re-use a standard mini-tower case and an mATX motherboard.
Hardware selection requiements:
My main research was aimed at finding mATX motherboard offering:
- More than 4 build-in SATAII ports.
- NCQ and AHCI support for the SATAII.
- 10/100/1000Mbps network connectivity.
- Good reviews and reliable platform.
- At least one PCI slot for future storage expansion with PCI/SATA controller card
Motherboard, Processor, and Memory
I found a cheaper solution with AMD low power processor. I spent the most of the time researching the features that the chipsets used on the motherboards offer. The easiest accessible information was from a comparison table from Intel (1) comparing their I/O Controller Hub (ICH) chips and the supported features.
Suitable candidates were the Intel mATX boards but they were coming with a higher price. Nvidia and AMD chipsets comparison was more buried and more time consuming. A few emails with the Nvidia tech support helped me to find which chipsets support the NCQ and AHCI.
I settled on a combo with ASUS M3A76-MC and AMD Athlon 64 X2 4850e processor. I decided to use ASUS tested and supported DDR2 memory for full compatibility and reliability with their motherboard. I also looked to use the dual channel capability of that motherboard.
Power Supply
For my Power Supply the power supply selection: I choose Antec TP3-430W power supply due to its good reviews, 5 year warranty (I hope not to use it) along with the active PFC, three 12v rails and a 120mm quiet fan operation. It also comes with 4 SATA connectors (additional ones can be added with Molex/SATA adaptors)
After the power calculations using the Antec power calculator (2) for my scenario that includes: 1 AMD Athlon 64 X2 AM2 4850e, 6 SATA HDD,1 DVD-RW drive, 2 sticks of DDR2 memory, and one 120mm. case fan I end up needing only 295W. The 430W will be plenty than enough.
The hardware list (as of 8/2008)
MB Asus - M3A76-CM
CPU AMD - Athlon 64 X2 4850e
MEM G.Skill - (2x1G, DDR2 800, F2-6400CL4D-2GBPK)
PSU Antec - TP3-430
HDD Western Digital - WD10EADS Green 1TB 32MB
HDD Western Digital - WD10FALS Black 1TB 32MB
HDD Seagate SATA 500GB 32MB
Case Re-used existing mini-tower case with mounting capabilities for up to 12 HDDs.
Case Fan Cooler Master - SAF-S12-E1 120mm
DVD Used existing IDE DVD-RW (Disconnected for power reservation but still in the case.)
UPS APC-BN600 600VA. (350W)
Upgrades, comparisons, etc
More hard drives will be added as my needs require.
From the Windows Home Server (WHS) instructions and forums (8)(9), I read that I need a large system drive for best results and large file transitions. The WHS installation is straight forward and without problems.
Next step will be to do some network benchmarking and compare the performance of my WHS. With my current WHS with 2.5 TB of storage space, the price per MB is close to $0.24. For comparison is the price per MB with 1.5TB for the HP 487 close to $0.60 (newegg.com price as of 8/08).
List of installed add-ins on the WHS
- Grid Junction (4) – UPS power backup application that can shut down gracefully the WHS and through a script other PC’s. The application also shows and power events.
- Advanced Disk Manager (5) – It shows detailed information, temperatures, etc. for each drive connected.
- Advanced Admin Console (6) – Allows remote desktop administration and control to the WHS server.
- Avast Anti-Virus for WHS (7) – Well, its antivirus designed for WHS. WHS is based on Windows 2003 with some file systems and disk organization tweaks. Regular AV might corrupt files or bring instability to the WHS (I haven't verified this).
Links
1) www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imst/sb/CS-012304.htm
2) www.antec.outervision.com/PSUEngine
3) www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=aU8effdifLvraVze&templete=2\
4) www.kentdome.com/gridjunction
5) www.tentaclesoftware.com/whsdiskmanagement/
6) www.home-server-addins.com/
7) www.avast.com/eng/avast-windows-home-server-edition.html
9) www.wegotserved.com/
Krasi Piskov
In the ever increasing mobility of our lifestyles we need a matching mobility from our Home Automation Systems. What better solution than a Mobile App accessible on your mobile phone. Even better, why not consolidating it as a remote control for your Home Automation aystem while located at home.
For the HAI-Omni based automation systems this is possible mainly on four different ways. I am excluding custom created solutions not certified or officially supported by the manufacturer.
Client based app on the mobile phone that communicate directly with the home controller, or web based app that connects to a user hosted web server which communicates with the home controller. Another solution is an USB stick that plugged to any internet connected computer can connect to the home controller. The last option is the old fashioned phone call and running through the voice menu on the controller. The main differences are:
