Windows Server 2008 – Fixing Slow Network Printing Over OpenVPN

network-printeropenvpnrdpwindows-server-2008

Our setup is as follows:

Two offices (A and B) connected with OpenVPN Access Server.

One Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard

Housed in remote datacenter.
Terminals at both offices connect through RDP in order to use a particular piece of software concurrently.
Network Connected printers (Deployed with GPO) that are connected to separate terminals at each office (and shared) are used with this software to print things throughout the day.

We are experiencing extremely slow printing times. Opening printer properties can take 30-60 seconds and printing times range from 30-180 seconds with no apparent reason. File sizes remain < 1mb.

This happens with each of our printers. All different models.

The server massively underutilized with a 6-core AMD, 16GB ram, 4x 120GB SSDs, and a 100 megabit port. Our VPN does not seem to be a bottleneck either.

I've been attempting to find ways to increase print speed. So far no success. What can you advise?

Best Answer

I don't have any advice to offer on root cause. Nothing jumps out.

If I were troubleshooting this I'd sniff the traffic. Nothing beats seeing the packets on the wire.

I would capture network traffic between the Terminal Server computer and one of the computers hosting the shared printers while the problem is occurring. Since you're seeing "slowness" just opening the Properties sheet for the printer I think capturing the traffic generated when you try to do that should at least generate a lead.

Minimally, you'd do a capture at a time when traffic between the Terminal Server and the PC hosting the shared printer would be at a minimum, so that you can use a simple capture filter like host <ip of print server PC> (assuming pcap filter syntax). It would be even better if you could find a time when you're the only use on the Terminal Server such that you can capture (and feel confident that your actions are generating) all non-RDP traffic to/from the Terminal Server just to make sure you're not missing attempted DNS resolutions, IPv6 connection attempts, etc.

If you're uncomfortable putting third-party sniffer software on the server grab Microsoft Network Monitor. (I'd like to recommend the new Microsoft Message Analyzer but I just haven't had enough time to get comfortable with it yet.)

Related Solutions

Openvpn – Samba over OpenVPN – horribly slow

Make sure that your OpenVPN tunnel is using UDP, and not TCP. Additionally, ensure that the tunnel is using compression by using the 'comp-lzo' directive in your OpenVPN config file on both ends.

Lastly, it may be worth setting the MTU and MSS clamp values for the tunnel, but this depends on the type of internet connection you're using, and if incorrectly set, would usually result in timeouts rather than slow transfers anyway.

tun-mtu 1500
mssfix 1212

The MSS clamping would also need to be set to something like 1300 one level lower than OpenVPN, for the PPP connection itself. However, as I've said, I have no clue what type of connectivity you're using - MSS clamping would only be useful on a non-Ethernet network such as ADSL, etc.

Very slow printing from print server

Printing issues can be frustrating, especially because there are so many issues at play with printing. In my experience, though, more often than not with issues like you've described the issue is at a software level. From what you describe it sounds like the issue is either a driver issue or perhaps a spooling issue.

I would do the following to isolate the issue :

Print with another piece of software that will work with the file type. For instance, if the issue is with an 80 Mb PDF, then try FoxIt Reader instead of Adobe Reader. Sounds silly but you'd be surprised how often this works.
Most production or office computers come with two driver types - PS and PCL. If you have PS installed now, try PCL. If you have PCL installed then try PS.
Try setting up another server as a print server temporarily. This should be a quick setup and may determine if the issue is with your server or with the document itself.
If it is an MS office document, try saving it as DOCX if it's DOC or DOC if it's already DOCX. Check for compatibility and strip all comments from the document.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Openvpn – Samba over OpenVPN – horribly slow

Very slow printing from print server

Related Topic