Network Printers all suddenly offline

Brian Harris 21 Reputation points
2021-10-01T06:40:26.813+00:00

Good day,

I'm running Server 2012R2 for a school environment. The Printer server deploys printers VIA group policy for either students or Staff.

Two days back, without any KNOWN changes (there may have been a possible Windows Update) made to the server, all the printers suddenly were designated as being offline. I have removed the printers and reinstalled them, with no success. I even removed the Print Server Role, rebooted and reinstalled it again, still with no success.

All articles that I have found have not assisted.

I'm running a network consisting of Win 7 and 10 machines. The error applies to all PC's irrespective of OS.

Print Error log shows this:

While attempting to publish the printer to the Active Directory directory service, the print spooler could not find the appropriate print queue container because the Domain Name System (DNS) domain name could not be retrieved. Error: 80090350. This can occur if DNS cannot resolve the domain controller IP address, or if the domain controller or directory service is not functioning correctly. The printer is not published in Active Directory and cannot be located by searching Active Directory.

Cross checking the DNS Event logs, I can find no errors in the log.

If I go to a client machine, I can manually install the printer so that printer functionality can somewhat be restored but it is not possible for me to visit each machine to perform a manual reinstall.

Can anyone point me in the right direction to fix this please?

Windows Server Printing
Windows Server Printing
Windows Server: A family of Microsoft server operating systems that support enterprise-level management, data storage, applications, and communications.Printing: Printer centralized deployment and management, scan and fax resources management, and document services
643 questions
0 comments
Accepted answer
  1. Brian Winkler 76 Reputation points
    2021-10-01T14:36:25.837+00:00

    PrintNightMare KB update that now enforces rpcAuthnLevelPrivacyEnabled=1 ?

1 additional answer

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Limitless Technology 39,396 Reputation points
    2021-10-04T09:49:14.913+00:00

    Hi there,

    If you have recently updated the machines try uninstalling these updates and check the printer status.

    This thread might be helpful for you
    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/517533/pint-server-and-print-nightmare-update.html

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    If the reply is helpful, please Upvote and Accept it as an answer

    0 comments