Benefits of load balancing Konica Minolta Dispatcher Paragon

Load balancing Konica Minolta Dispatcher Paragon enhances system reliability and performance:

• High Availability (HA): Load balancing ensures there is no single point of failure. If one server running Dispatcher Paragon components (like a Site Server or Spooler Controller) fails, the load balancer automatically redirects traffic and print jobs to the remaining healthy servers. This minimizes downtime and ensures that critical print services, like secure Follow-Me printing and user authentication, remain available to users, supporting business continuity.
• Scalability: Load balancing allows you to distribute the workload (print jobs, user requests) across multiple Dispatcher Paragon servers. As your organization grows or print volume increases, you can easily add more servers to the cluster. The load balancer automatically incorporates these new resources, increasing the total capacity and improving overall performance without service interruption.
• Improved performance: By distributing requests evenly, no single server becomes overwhelmed, which prevents slowdowns and bottlenecks. Users experience faster response times for job submission, authentication at the MFP, and print job release, leading to a more efficient and productive print environment. The system can handle a larger number of concurrent users and print jobs more effectively.

About Konica Minolta Dispatcher Paragon

Dispatcher Paragon is Konica Minolta’s solution for effective central accounting of all print, copy and scan operations, which helps organizations improve their print operation workflows, and increase employee productivity – all of which ultimately helps lower print-related costs while at the same time maximising document security.

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How to load balance Konica Minolta Dispatcher Paragon

The load balancer can be deployed in 4 fundamental ways: Layer 4 DR mode, Layer 4 NAT mode, Layer 4 SNAT mode, and Layer 7 Reverse Proxy (Layer 7 SNAT mode).

For Dispatcher Paragon, Layer 4 DR mode is recommended.

This mode offers the best possible performance since replies go directly from the Real Servers to the client, not via the load balancer. It’s also relatively simple to implement. If DR mode cannot be used, for example if the Real Servers are located in remote routed networks, then Layer 7 Reverse Proxy is recommended. These modes are described below and are used for the configurations presented in this guide.

Virtual service (VIP) requirements

To provide load balancing and HA for Dispatcher Paragon, 2 VIPs are required.

• VIP 1 is for the underlying Microsoft print services on ports 445 (SMB print queues), 515 (LPD print queues) & 9100 (RAW print queues)
• VIP 2 is for the other Konica Minolta Dispatcher Paragon traffic being load balanced.

Load balancing deployment concept

About Layer 4 DR mode load balancing

One-arm direct routing (DR) mode is a very high performance solution that requires little change to your existing infrastructure. 

DR mode works by changing the destination MAC address of the incoming packet to match the selected Real Server on the fly which is very fast. 

When the packet reaches the Real Server it expects the Real Server to own the Virtual Services IP address (VIP). This means that you need to ensure that the Real Server (and the load balanced application) respond to both the Real Server’s own IP address and the VIP.  

The Real Servers should not respond to ARP requests for the VIP. Only the load balancer should do this. Configuring the Real Servers in this way is referred to as Solving the ARP problem. 

On average, DR mode is 8 times quicker than NAT for HTTP, 50 times quicker for Terminal Services and much, much faster for streaming media or FTP.  

The load balancer must have an Interface in the same subnet as the Real Servers to ensure Layer 2 connectivity required for DR mode to work.  

The VIP can be brought up on the same subnet as the Real Servers, or on a different subnet provided that the load balancer has an interface in that subnet.  

Port translation is not possible with DR mode, e.g. VIP:80 → RIP:8080 is not supported. DR mode is transparent, i.e. the Real Server will see the source IP address of the client. 

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