How to Setup Windows Print Server in Azure/AWS/GCP

07 Apr

How to Setup Windows Print Server in Azure/AWS/GCP

To setup a Print server in Azure, AWS or GCP, the quickest and easiest way is to install our Print server virtual machine offering from the cloud marketplaces. Our virtual machine comes pre configured as a Windows Print server, allowing you to manage your on prem printers in the cloud. Click any of the deployment buttons below to deploy to your preferred cloud provider.

RDP into new server

Once you have deployed our Print server, the first step is to RDP into the new instance once it has fully booted up. The following links explain how to connect the VM once it has finished being deployed:

Once logged in, you’re now ready to start setting up your new server as per the following sections.

Getting Started

Adding Printers

To get started, simply open the ‘Print Management‘ desktop icon and start adding your network printers by their ‘IP Address‘. You will need to make sure the printers IP is accessible from the print server in your cloud environment, assuming you have an internal network route back to onprem.

Click on Printers under Print Servers, right click ‘Add Printer‘, select TCP/IP and add the IP address of your printer.

Deploy Printers to users using Active Directory GPO

You can use Active Directory Group Policy to deploy printers to your users.

Choose each printer that you intend to share from the server, right-click and choose Deploy with Group Policy…

Click Browse… then locate an existing GPO for this policy setting, or find the button to Create New Group Policy Object, and name the GPO. Click OK. Before you exit, be sure to select The users that this GPO applies to (per user), then click Add. Click OK to finish. Repeat this process for each printer share that is required.

Printing Firewall Ports

The following ports are used for printing. If you have a firewall in between your print server in the cloud and your onprem printers you’ll need to make sure the following ports are open:

NetBIOS Datagram Service – UDP 138
NetBIOS Name Resolution – UDP 137
NetBIOS Session Service – TCP 139
SMB – TCP 445

To setup AWS firewall rules refer to – AWS Security Groups

To setup Azure firewall rules refer to – Azure Network Security Groups

To setup Google GCP firewall rules refer to – Creating GCP Firewalls

Support

If you have any questions about this Print server deployment or are experiencing any issues with your deployment leave your comments below and i will answer them for you within 24 hours.

If you would like to hire us to setup your Print server environment for you, get in touch and we can get you up and running