Does SCCM 2007 manage Network and Local Printers? Can I discover,groupping and manage them? Thanks

By using the Network discovery method you are able to discover network printers, routers, and stuff like that. However, since you can not install a SCCM client agent on them, you can not manage them with them with SCCM. Local printers can be inventoried by the normal Hardware inventory cycle. However, you need to enable it in the SMS_DEF.mof

can you provide more details how to define local printering findings in SMS_DEF.mof? THX.

Search for "Printer Device" and/or "Printer Configuration" in sms_def.mof (%Program Files%\Microsoft Configuration Manager\inboxes\clifiles.src\hinv) and enable the Reporting Class and Attributes that you want to be inventoried.

Where do i pull the report for this once it has been enabled and the clients have inventoried for it?

You'd have to create a custom report. I don't know the name of the views on top off my head but it should be something like v_GS_Printer...

Oh boy, i'm completely SQL illiterate. If you find out can you please let me know??

Just go into report builder, (ConfigMgr Console, Reporting, Reports, right-click New, report). Give it a name & a Category, Edit SQL Statement...Then just pick & choose from the Views & the columns listed there. That's what I did for my first 2 or 3 years of being an SMS/Configmgr admin. Going straight to SQL took me a while / learning curve until I was comfortable in SQL/WQL without a pretty gui in front of me.Standardize. Simplify. Automate.

The only problem with that is the select, from, and where are not populated..

Did you enable the win32_printer class in sms_def.mof, and a couple attributes in that class? I'd start with DeviceID, DriverName, and Name.Standardize. Simplify. Automate.

Just to let everyone know, this is the SQL statement i'm using and it works great.SELECT Distinct SYS.Netbios_Name0, PRINTER.Name0, PRINTER.DeviceID0, PRINTER.DriverName0, PRINTER.PortName0FROM v_R_System SYSJOIN v_GS_PRINTER_DEVICE PRINTER ON SYS.ResourceID = PRINTER.ResourceIDWhere SYS.Netbios_Name0 LIKE @variableORDER BY SYS.Netbios_Name0, PRINTER.Name0

HiI'm trying to carry out exactly the same thing as you were around reporting on printers. I have amended the sms_def.mod file so that the two printerclasses and required attributes are set to TRUE and saved the file. I have amended the Hardware Inventory Client Agent and the Coputer Client Agent so that they are set to 10 minutes on the schedule and the policy refresh. I then waited and went into Reports and created a custom report. Unfoftuantely when I look at the v_R_System SYS view, I don't see any of the database columns in the SQL Query you have supplied. Do you have any idea how I can get the database views updated with these columns, I would have thought it would have added them in when the hardware schedules were run after updating the sms_def.mod file.Cheers in advanceNibbs

1. I recommend changing your Hardware Inventory schedule to be longer than every 10 minutes. Wow, that's overkill. Daily should be fine. (As for Client Agent every 10 minutes... that depends on your environment. the shortest I've ever heard of before this was 15 minutes; but if you know that your environment can handle that, go for it; otherwise drop it back to the default [60 minutes I believe])2. The printer stuff won't be in v_r_system, they'll be in a new view for printer information. If you do not see the printer information yet in v_gs_printer_device, it may have been a timing issue. You might want to just wait a few hours and see if a client reports printer device information. Or start looking at a client, specifically the client log inventoryagent.logStandardize. Simplify. Automate.

Don't worry I only changed the inventory schedule and the client agent so that it would update quickly, I wouldn't normally have them set so low :) thanks for the advice though it was appreciated.As for the printer views, i can see both GS_PRINTER_DEVICE and GS_PRINTER_CONFIGURATION now but I'm having problems getting the SQL statement working which 's10xtremenlow' said worked. IfI add in the SQL Statement into the report and click ok I just get a dialog box with a yellow warning triangle appear, there is no message though, it's just blank. I'm assuming therefore that the code is wrong.I'm not good with SQL myself so I'd really appreciate some assistance if you have time please :) Thanks againnibbs

hello "nibbs" did you manage to get the SQL query working to collect your network printer in SCCM? Thanks Ken

Nibbs wasn't looking for network printers. He was looking for locally attached printers, like ones attached to lpt1, usb, or a locally defined LPR port (which, sure, that would end up being a printer that happens to be on a tcip/ip address, but it's not a network printer in the way you mean, Ken. I don't think.Standardize. Simplify. Automate.