Multi-server and multi-site deployments

The PaperCut solution is designed with distribution in mind. The solution is built using Service Oriented Architecture, which allows its components to be installed on different machines of varying OS’. This allows PaperCut to be installed in a variety of configurations, adapting to your network design as no two sites are the same.

The simplest and most common installation is to install PaperCut onto a site’s print serverA print server is a system responsible for hosting print queues and sharing printer resources to desktops. Users submit print jobs to a print server rather then directly to the printer itself. A print server can be a dedicated server but on many networks this server also performs other tasks, such as file serving (where the site has only one). For a school or a small organization the implementation doesn’t need to be any more complex than this. This is a single Application ServerAn Application Server is the primary server program responsible for providing the PaperCut user interface, storing data, and providing services to users. PaperCut uses the Application Server to manage user and account information, manage printers, calculate print costs, provide a web browser interface to administrators and end users, and much more., single print server deployment and suits the majority of deployments.

Some more complex implementation examples exist below, as a way of showing what’s possible. You can extend or merge some of these concepts to suit your network and create your ideal PaperCut deployment.

PaperCut operates at a layer above your network print services. For this reason, design your solution to provide your printing services first, then integrate the PaperCut application into your network second. i.e. if you want a print server per site to stop large jobs traversing network links, do so. You can also use clusteringClustering allows your organisation to ensure your services are not affected if anything should happen to your main server. PaperCut is a cluster compatible application and is supported under Windows (Microsoft Cluster Server / MSCS, Microsoft Failover Cluster Manager / MSFCM, Vetitas Cluster Server / VCS) and Linux (Novell Cluster Services / NCS, Linux-HA) at all levels of the application, including: clustering at the print spooler service layer by integrating with clustering services, failover based clustering at the Application Server layer using clustering services, and at the database layer by utilising cluster aware databases such as Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, or Oracle. to provide high up time to printing services.