Print Management on remote machine shows no printers

Question

I can't seem to figure this one out. We have a new Server 2008 R2 print server with what will be nearly 400 printers installed. The Help Desk, in the past, has had to manage printers by logging into the print server (when it was a 2000 server). With the server upgrade and the HD switching to Windows 7 we were looking forward to the Printer Management Snap-in. The issue we are seeing is that when even a domain admin (admin on the print server and the remote machine) adds the print server to Printer Management on Windows 7 the ports, the drivers and the forms all show up but the printers never do. Is there a firewall issue involved or something that I can look at to try to figure this out? I can tell you that all printers are physically on a different network and only the server can access that network and of course the HD machines and the servers are on different VLANS with aggressive server firewalls in-place. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

That is possible.   Let me summarize your current configuration and you can correct me.
Server 2008 R2 print server, Windows 7 client machine monitoring the print server.  Server is on a network segment and there is a Firewall layer between the helpdesk clients and the print server.
Currently the printers are not displayed in PMC but you see forms, drivers, and ports.  When this happens the client spooler has gone into a polling mode since the server spooler was unable to connect to the client.  On Windows 7 the RPC port the spooler uses is not a specific port but one in a range (I don't know the range). 
Once the spooler is in polling mode you will need to stop and start the spooler on the client after making the firewall changes.
Is there a Server 2003 machine (or XP) in the same network as the print server?  The reason I ask is Server 2003 will only communicate to the client over the SMB ports  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc787076(WS.10).aspx
If you can add a shared printer on that machine and view the printers then it's a matter of tracking the blockage to your other network setting.  If you can only see forms, ports but no printers then there is a client setting blocking anonymous connections to the client. 
The remote Server 2003 name will appear as a MACHINE$ connection on the client in the Shared Folders MMC snapin.
I'm assuming you have already reviewed this technet article and have setup print driver isolation.  Be sure to review the print server delegation feature to configure your helpdesk administration.  I thought there was a grid explaining all the settings on Technet but I was unable to find it.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd878502%28WS.10%29.aspxAlan Morris
Windows Printing Team;
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