After configuring a cluster's group, resources, ports, and printer drivers, you can add a printer to a cluster. To do so, each node must have connectivity to the remote print server device. In addition, you can't use a locally connected computer in a cluster configuration because the printer is directly connected to the node and doesn't fail over if that node goes down.
To add a printer to a cluster, you follow the same rules as you follow when you add a printer to a computer. However, the process of adding a printer to a cluster has the following exceptions:
- Never start the addition process from the local Printers folder. The cluster always appears as remote, even if you're working on the active cluster node. Instead, type the cluster name (e.g., \\Cluster-prn) in the Run text box. Then click the remote Printers folder that the system displays.
- If the Add Printer Wizard doesn't appear when the remote Printers folder opens, you can't continue. One of three things is wrong: You don't have administrator permissions on each cluster node, the spooler service isn't started on the current computer, or the cluster doesn't have at least one print spooler resource online.
—Mauricio Marín Bao
mmarinb@usmp.edu.pe