Enable load balancing on multiple print devices of the same type
Problem/Question
“Is it possible to distribute the print jobs evenly to several printers?"
You have several printers of the same type and want to realize a kind of "load balancing".
That means you want to ensure that your printers are being used optimally with minimal downtime and minimal operator interaction.
Solution/Work-Around
There is the possibility of setting up so-called printer pools in Ergosoft. Printer Pools are a powerful tool to automatically distribute print Job across multiple print devices of the same type.
You can configure a Printer Pool and assign all printers of the same type to it. Now whenever you send a job to that Printer Pool, the RIP will automatically check which printers are currently idle and send the job to that one.
Basically, the printer pool is a virtual queue in which the print queues of all printers involved are summarized. Accordingly, the procedure for creating a printer pool is similar to that for creating an ordinary PrintQueue.
So proceed as follows:
- Go to the "Queues" tab in the ControlCenter
- Select "Manage Queues"
- This time you choose "Printer Pool" as client
- Click on the green plus to create a new one
- The dialog window "Edit Printer Pool" is opened
- Open the drop down menu at "Printer Pool Members" besides the <Add> button
- Now select the first device for the printer pool from your device fleet and confirm with <Add>
- The selected printer now appears in the list above
- If you now open the dropdown menu again to add the next printer, only suitable printers of the same type appear
- In this way, add all the desired printers to the members list one after the other
- Next, set up a Spool Folder for your Printer Pool in the "Folder for Spool Files" section by clicking the <Browse> button and selecting a folder from there
(This Spool folder is specific to the Printer Pool and separate from the spool folders already set up for your individual PrintQueues) - Finally you may enter a description for your printer pool to easily identify it later
- Confirm with <OK> when you're ready
Note: The procedure described assumes that you have already created an individual PrintQueue for all of your printers.
It continues now in the "Print Environment Manager":
- Create a copy of an existing printing environment for a printer that is now in the printer pool.
- Select <Settings> for this printing environment
- At "Output Device" activate "Printer Pool" to select the one you want
- Confirm with <OK>
Important to know! The following requirements will help you to achieve color results that are as comparable as possible on all devices in a printer pool:
- All devices are technically up to date
- You use the same ink and media
- With the Color Equalizer you can coordinate the color rendering of the devices even better
- All jobs are listed in the PrintQueue of each pool member (you can see on which printer the job was printed in the journal)
- To force a certain printer of the pool members to print, all the other members have to be offline
Related Articles & Links
In our Documentation Portal: