Azure Windows Print Server design best practice and considerations?

EnterpriseArchitect 5,376 Reputation points
2023-07-18T12:22:58.4033333+00:00

I am considering consolidating all of my Local Windows Print Servers from multiple different geo locations into just a single Azure Windows Server 2022 VM.

All of my offices' WAN links are connected using ExpressRoute circuit to Azure, therefore rather than multiple VMs and physical servers on every single office physical location, I can just deploy one single Azure VM to do the print queue.

What considerations and caveats are apart from the single point of failure?

Does the Azure network Egress cost will be charged for all print spooling?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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  1. Prrudram-MSFT 24,546 Reputation points
    2023-07-19T06:26:47.9066667+00:00

    @EnterpriseArchitect

    Hello! Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A platform.

    It sounds like you're considering consolidating your local Windows Print Servers into a single Azure Windows Server 2022 VM. That's a great idea! Here are some considerations and caveats to keep in mind:

    1. Single point of failure: As you mentioned, having a single Azure VM for print queue means that it becomes a single point of failure. If the VM goes down, all printing will stop. To mitigate this, you can consider setting up a backup VM in another Azure region or using Azure Site Recovery to replicate the VM to another region.
    2. Azure network egress cost: Yes, Azure network egress cost will be charged for all print spooling. You can estimate the cost using the Azure pricing calculator. To minimize the cost, you can consider compressing the print data before sending it over the network.

    Bandwidth: Make sure you have enough bandwidth to handle the print traffic. You can use Azure Network Watcher to monitor the network traffic and identify any bottlenecks.

    Printer drivers: Make sure you have the correct printer drivers installed on the Azure VM. You can either install the drivers manually or use a tool like Print Management to manage the drivers.

    Security: Make sure you have the appropriate security measures in place to protect the print data. You can use Azure Security Center to monitor the VM for any security threats.

    I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

    If this does answer your question, please accept it as the answer as a token of appreciation.

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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