PaperCut NG is designed to scale to networks over 50,000 users (largest deployments are running over 300,000 users). To ensure reliability on networks of this size, network architects may adopt strategies including:

PaperCut NG is a cluster compatible application. It supports clustering at all levels of the application, including

Setting up PaperCut NG in a cluster environment is an advanced operation. This chapter assumes the reader has a high level of expertise in system and cluster configuration. The cluster environment should be operational before undertaking the PaperCut NG installation. Readers should also have a good understanding of PaperCut NG's Service Oriented Architecture - specifically its two main components, the Application Server and the Print Provider and how they work together (the section called “Print Monitoring Architecture”).

In a cluster environment, PaperCut NG can be set up in one of two possible configurations.

Mode 1 is the simplest configuration and is suitable for most organizations. It implements clustering in the “front line”, that is, the printer and print monitoring layer. The cluster print server is configured as a secondary print server reporting back to a primary PaperCut server hosted on another system outside the cluster.

Mode 2 implements clustering on all levels of the application for maximum fault tolerance - In addition to the print queues, the PaperCut Application Server is also hosted in the cluster. Mode 2 is somewhat more demanding to configure and should only be attempted by organizations with staff experienced with advanced cluster and database management.

Please refer to the subsequent sections for an explanation on how to set up Mode 1 or Mode 2 in your environment.

This section assumes that you have an already installed and working clustered printing environment.