Printer Share Availability

Dashboard Server
,
1

Looking for a solution to an issue we are having. Our windows print server has occasional problems where it goes crazy and needs a reboot. We are not seeing any common things like high cpu or high memory usage until after it reboots. I am seeing were some processes like spooler and print isolation host are consuming high virtual memory but physical memory is fine. When this happens printers become unavailable and printing is down. I am looking for a way to alert on this condition only thing I can think of right off is would there be a way to monitor a printer share if it was available?

 

Any thoughts?

2

Perhaps WMI can help. If it is happening the next time, try to check if what the state and if it is still shared for example.

https://www.computerperformance.co.uk/vbscript/wmi_printer.htm

There are a few properties mentioned above that might help to find something interesting.

 

Another idea would be to check the queues of 1 or 2 popular printers. - A monitor could check if more than X jobs than raise error, restart spooler or server, etc.

 

There are also another couple of interesting scripts here:

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-take-advantage-of-the-hidden-vbscript-print-utilities-in-windows-10/

 

Last, did you check the printer-log? Microsoft-Windows-PrintService/Admin

3

We use the event log for various printing related issues and alert upon them, such as:

 

Logs all from Source Microsoft-Windows-PrintSpooler

300: Printer %1 was created. No user action is required
301: Printer %1 was deleted, and users will no longer be able to print to this printer. No user action is required.
302: Printer %1 will be deleted. No user action is required.
303: Printer %1 was paused. No user action is required
304: Printer %1 was resumed. No user action is required
306: Settings for printer %1 were changed. No user action is required
320: Printer %1 failed to initialize because none of its ports (%2) could be found. This can occur if the ports were deleted or the port information is invalid.
315: The print spooler failed to share printer %2 with shared resource name %3. Error %1. The printer cannot be used by others on the network.
371: The print spooler failed to unshare printer %2 which is shared as %3. Error %1
316 Microsoft-Windows-PrintSpooler
Printer driver %1 for %2 %3 was added or updated. Files:- %4. No user action is required.
317 Microsoft-Windows-PrintSpooler
Printer driver %1 was deleted. No user action is required.
348 Microsoft-Windows-PrintSpooler
This version of %1 is incompatible with this version of Windows. Please obtain and install a new version of the driver from the manufacturer (if available), or choose an alternate driver that works with this print device.

4

Hi!
You could use the powershell managementpack (https://squaredup.com/content/management-packs/free-powershell-management-pack/) and do a:

$printerok = add-printer -connectionname \server\printer

and if that doesnt give an error (Add-Printer : The specified server does not exist, or the server or printer name is invalid.) you are good to go.

You could even do a get-printer and then a remove-printer do activate the monitor for

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/printmanagement/add-printer?view=win10-ps