PaperCut has been around since 1999 and has proven to be a robust and reliable system. We still have customers running the original version 1 release back from 1999 without any hitches! One of the design objectives forming the foundation of PaperCut is “self administration”. Where possible the system should be responsible for it’s own management and maintenance. PaperCut does a good job in this area and normally manual maintenance is not required. However, like all systems, Administrators should make regular inspections and avoid configuration or system changes that might upset normal operation.

The following list highlights some problems experienced by our customers over the years, and explains how to avoid them on your own networks:

• Take care when renaming printers. PaperCut detects printers by name. After renaming a printer, Administrators should be aware that they will need to manually setup the “new” (renamed) printer again in PaperCut’s charging list.
• Test PaperCut after making large network or domain structure changes. Renaming a domain or making large Active Directory structure changes may affect PaperCut’s user synchronization process. Take a few minutes to test PaperCut (print a few test documents) after making network changes.
• Ensure a good off-disk backup strategy is in place on the server. (See Backing up PaperCut data)
• Keep an eye on disk space. PaperCut needs disk space to write log files. Full disks can cause problems.
• Clear log files. PaperCut’s log files will grow indefinitely. The system will issue a warning when logs grow to a large size. Very large log files may impede the performance of the server and the web tools interface. We recommend that Administrators clear the logs at “logical” periods such as end-of-year or end-of-semester. (Note: old log files are archived so data is not lost)
• Make a PaperCut health check part of your weekly or monthly system status checks. Take a few minutes to check the PaperCut Application Event log for errors and print test documents to ensure everything is OK.

By keeping these points in mind, PaperCut should give you years of trouble free operation.

Categories: Administration