Managing System Updates

You must update the server by applying security patches. The security patches are available in the form executable files. You can download these patches from the Microsoft website. You can use Windows Update to manually connect to the Microsoft Web site and download the required patches for your computer.In addition, you can set Automatic updates to automatically connect to the Microsoft Web site and download the required patches. The Automatic Update feature installs the security patches after downloading them from the Microsoft Web site.

Troubleshoot Printers

Windows Server 2003 installs the printer using the settings you specify. The installation may complete successfully, but you can face problems with the printer after a period. The problems associated with the printer include:

Applications that access the printer

Network connection between the printer and the computer

Configuration of the printer

Status of the printer

Security settings, printer drivers and the printer pool

As a system administrator, when you troubleshoot a printer problem, consider th following:

Problem Identification - Specifies the scope of the failure for a print job. If the user can successfully print using another application, the problem must be with the application that produced an error while printing. You must use a different printer driver to solve application print errors.

Verify Connection - Specifies to check the connection between the printer and computer. You must open the printer window from the client computer. If the printer window lists the print job in queue, then the client computer connects successfully to the printer. In addition, you can also check connectivity by using the ping command to ping the print server. Enter \\printserver in the run dialog box to ping the print server. If the Printers and Faxes window opens, the client computer can connect to the print server.


Check Printer Operation - Specifies to ensure that the printer is operational. You must check that the printer displays a ready to print status. You can verify the status of the printer by printing a the printer by printing a test page from the printer console. A printer console is the computer on which the network printer is installed.

Access from Print Server - Specifies to check the printers access from the print server. you can determine the IP address of the network printer by printing a configuration page. You must compare the printers IP address and the IP address of the logical printers port. You must verify that the printer is accessible through the network by pinging the printers IP address.


Printer Services - Specifies to check the services required for the printer are running. You can check the printer services by using the Services snap in from the Microsoft Management Console. You must ensure the services on the print server, such as, Remote Procedure Call and Print Spooler are running to enable printer access.

System Log

In addition to counters, you can monitor the printer using the system log. The log provides information on print spooler events. A print spooler is a program that stores the output from the computer memory and forward it to the printer in the background. Using a print spooler, you can continue working as the computer prints in the background.

To monitor printer logging:

1. Open the Printers and Faxes window. The Printers and Faxes window appears.

2. Select File -> Server Properties. The Print Server Properties dialog box appears.

3. Click the Advanced tab. The Advanced tab appears.



The different options on the Advanced tab are:

Log spooler error events - Records the spooler errors.

Log spooler warning events - Records the spooler warnings.

Log spooler information events - Records the spooler information.

Beep on errors of remote documents - Causes a beep sound when remote documents create errors.

Show informational notifications for local printers - Displays information about the local printers.

Show informational notifications for network printers - Displays information about the network printers.

Notify when remote documents are printed - Alerts the user about the completion of print.

Notify computer, not user, when remote documents are printed - Alerts the computer about the completion of print.

4. Select the required events to record.

5. Click OK.

Performance Console

The performance console enables you to monitor the performance of the system. You can add counters monitor system performance. The counter monitors system objects and displays the performance using a graph.

To add a counter:

1. Select Start -> Control Panel. The Control Panel window appears.

2. Double-click Administrative Tools. The Administrative Tools window appears.

3. Double-click Performance. The Performance console appears.

The console displays the performance in the form of graphs. The console displays the graphs in different colors enable you to identify the performance of the system.

4. Right.click the graph area. A shortcut menu appears.

5. Select Add Counters. The Add Counters dialog box appears.


In the Add Counters dialog box, the options are:

> Use local computer counters - Specifies to use the counter for the local computer

> Select counters from computer - Specifies to use the counter for a computer on the network

> Performance object - Specifies the performance object

> All counters - Specifies to use all counters for the performance object

> Select counters from list - Specifies to select counters from the list

> All instances - Specifies to record all instances to the counter

> Select instances from list - Specifies to record selected instances to the counter

> Add - Adds the counter to the system monitor

> Explain - Provides description about the performance object


6. Select Print Queue from the Performance Object drop down list box.

7. Select the counter to add, for example, Jobs.

8. Select the instance, for example, Auto HP desk jet 930C Series.

9. Click Add. The system monitor adds the counter to the graph.