Specified Printer Has Lost Its Connection to the Server

I've set up a clustered print spooler on a two node W2K3 cluster. I've
installed my printers on the node that owns the print spooler resource and I
can print to all of the printers on that node just fine. However, when I
attempt to connect to the printers from a remote workstation over the
network, I'm getting an error that says 'Windows cannot connect to the
printer. Either the printe rname was typed incorrectly, or the specified
printer has lost it's connection to the server'. There is a kb article that
appears to address this issue, it's KB883789. I believe I've followed the
instructions in that article by setting up a group policy for the machine
that owns the print spooler that allows remote connections to the print
spooler. I also tried setting this up on the virtual server that owns the
print spooler in the cluster. Neither of these has worked. Can someone
point me to a solution? Thanks in advance.

It sound like you are attempting to connect to the SMB shares (which can't
connect to) you will see when enumerating the node name

Start / Run / nodename

Browse to the name of the clustered spooler resource instead

Start / run / spoolerresourcename

then make the connection





--
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.

"ebferro" <ebferro@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:877C5311-5A55-4635-BE17-919F38272419@microsoft.com...
> I've set up a clustered print spooler on a two node W2K3 cluster. I've
> installed my printers on the node that owns the print spooler resource and
> I
> can print to all of the printers on that node just fine. However, when I
> attempt to connect to the printers from a remote workstation over the
> network, I'm getting an error that says 'Windows cannot connect to the
> printer. Either the printe rname was typed incorrectly, or the specified
> printer has lost it's connection to the server'. There is a kb article
> that
> appears to address this issue, it's KB883789. I believe I've followed the
> instructions in that article by setting up a group policy for the machine
> that owns the print spooler that allows remote connections to the print
> spooler. I also tried setting this up on the virtual server that owns the
> print spooler in the cluster. Neither of these has worked. Can someone
> point me to a solution? Thanks in advance.

I hope you didn't really install the printers on the node that controls the
print spooler resource, if you did they won't work when you fail the cluster
over to the other node. The proper way to install a printer is to the
cluster name, eg \\ClusterName not \\NodeName. The drivers won't be
installed to the shared drive, and even though you can see them when you try
to connect to the clustername they don't exist on the cluster and you can't
connect and use them.

I suggest using the Print Migrator tool to back up the printers you created
on the node and restore them to the cluster, I'd probably fail over to the
other node when I do the restore, and then once I was sure they were up and
running on that node I'd delete the printers on the original node, and then
fail over to it and verify the printers are working.

By the way, Win2K print clusters worked differently, you had to install the
drivers on both nodes manually.



"ebferro" <ebferro@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:877C5311-5A55-4635-BE17-919F38272419@microsoft.com...
> I've set up a clustered print spooler on a two node W2K3 cluster. I've
> installed my printers on the node that owns the print spooler resource and
> I
> can print to all of the printers on that node just fine. However, when I
> attempt to connect to the printers from a remote workstation over the
> network, I'm getting an error that says 'Windows cannot connect to the
> printer. Either the printe rname was typed incorrectly, or the specified
> printer has lost it's connection to the server'. There is a kb article
> that
> appears to address this issue, it's KB883789. I believe I've followed the
> instructions in that article by setting up a group policy for the machine
> that owns the print spooler that allows remote connections to the print
> spooler. I also tried setting this up on the virtual server that owns the
> print spooler in the cluster. Neither of these has worked. Can someone
> point me to a solution? Thanks in advance.

Tim and Alan:
Thanks for your response. I guess I should have said that I installed the
printers to the node that owns the resource but also installed them to the
clustered print spooler. So, if I do a start \ run \ printspooler name, it
lists all of the printers that I've installed to it.
Any other ideas?
Thanks.


"Tim Walsh" wrote:

> I hope you didn't really install the printers on the node that controls the
> print spooler resource, if you did they won't work when you fail the cluster
> over to the other node. The proper way to install a printer is to the
> cluster name, eg \\ClusterName not \\NodeName. The drivers won't be
> installed to the shared drive, and even though you can see them when you try
> to connect to the clustername they don't exist on the cluster and you can't
> connect and use them.
>
> I suggest using the Print Migrator tool to back up the printers you created
> on the node and restore them to the cluster, I'd probably fail over to the
> other node when I do the restore, and then once I was sure they were up and
> running on that node I'd delete the printers on the original node, and then
> fail over to it and verify the printers are working.
>
> By the way, Win2K print clusters worked differently, you had to install the
> drivers on both nodes manually.
>
>
>
> "ebferro" <ebferro@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:877C5311-5A55-4635-BE17-919F38272419@microsoft.com...
> > I've set up a clustered print spooler on a two node W2K3 cluster. I've
> > installed my printers on the node that owns the print spooler resource and
> > I
> > can print to all of the printers on that node just fine. However, when I
> > attempt to connect to the printers from a remote workstation over the
> > network, I'm getting an error that says 'Windows cannot connect to the
> > printer. Either the printe rname was typed incorrectly, or the specified
> > printer has lost it's connection to the server'. There is a kb article
> > that
> > appears to address this issue, it's KB883789. I believe I've followed the
> > instructions in that article by setting up a group policy for the machine
> > that owns the print spooler that allows remote connections to the print
> > spooler. I also tried setting this up on the virtual server that owns the
> > print spooler in the cluster. Neither of these has worked. Can someone
> > point me to a solution? Thanks in advance.
>
>
>

I think you are connecting to the node shared printers which will not work
when targeting the cluster name.



--
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.

"ebferro" <ebferro@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:9FA86870-3375-4E2C-98E6-7B3601CD6674@microsoft.com...
> Tim and Alan:
> Thanks for your response. I guess I should have said that I installed the
> printers to the node that owns the resource but also installed them to the
> clustered print spooler. So, if I do a start \ run \ printspooler name,
> it
> lists all of the printers that I've installed to it.
> Any other ideas?
> Thanks.
>
>
> "Tim Walsh" wrote:
>
>> I hope you didn't really install the printers on the node that controls
>> the
>> print spooler resource, if you did they won't work when you fail the
>> cluster
>> over to the other node. The proper way to install a printer is to the
>> cluster name, eg \\ClusterName not \\NodeName. The drivers won't be
>> installed to the shared drive, and even though you can see them when you
>> try
>> to connect to the clustername they don't exist on the cluster and you
>> can't
>> connect and use them.
>>
>> I suggest using the Print Migrator tool to back up the printers you
>> created
>> on the node and restore them to the cluster, I'd probably fail over to
>> the
>> other node when I do the restore, and then once I was sure they were up
>> and
>> running on that node I'd delete the printers on the original node, and
>> then
>> fail over to it and verify the printers are working.
>>
>> By the way, Win2K print clusters worked differently, you had to install
>> the
>> drivers on both nodes manually.
>>
>>
>>
>> "ebferro" <ebferro@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:877C5311-5A55-4635-BE17-919F38272419@microsoft.com...
>> > I've set up a clustered print spooler on a two node W2K3 cluster. I've
>> > installed my printers on the node that owns the print spooler resource
>> > and
>> > I
>> > can print to all of the printers on that node just fine. However, when
>> > I
>> > attempt to connect to the printers from a remote workstation over the
>> > network, I'm getting an error that says 'Windows cannot connect to the
>> > printer. Either the printe rname was typed incorrectly, or the
>> > specified
>> > printer has lost it's connection to the server'. There is a kb article
>> > that
>> > appears to address this issue, it's KB883789. I believe I've followed
>> > the
>> > instructions in that article by setting up a group policy for the
>> > machine
>> > that owns the print spooler that allows remote connections to the print
>> > spooler. I also tried setting this up on the virtual server that owns
>> > the
>> > print spooler in the cluster. Neither of these has worked. Can
>> > someone
>> > point me to a solution? Thanks in advance.
>>
>>
>>