Jan Hettich's questions

We want to add our network printers (Dell 5100cn) to Active Directory, so that it is easier for users to find them on the network, but don't see a need to place a "print server" between the clients and the printers, as the latter have their own IP addresses and the built-in capability to queue print jobs originating from multiple clients.

Yet all the documentation I have seen on adding a printer to Active Directory seems to start with the assumption that the printer has been added to a Windows computer that "shares" it. Is it not possible to add such network printers into AD directly?

I think of a network printer as being a specialized host that should be able to have an independent entry in the directory. Is this the wrong concept?

This question relates to introducing Windows Server 2008 R2 Active Directory and DNS into a network for the first time. Currently, all our Windows desktops just belong to a workgroup, and we are using a Linux based DNS server that is built into our router.

Our plan is to create an AD forest consisting of a single Domain, which will house all of our desktops (about 40) and some other internal resources (printers, etc.). We are installing two Windows Server 2008 R2 computers to serve as domain controllers for the Domain. We also want to use the Windows Servers for DNS.

As there is a close inter-dependency between Active Directory and DNS, I am not clear what the correct order is for installing these server roles and migrating DNS. It seems to be a chicken/egg problem. At the end of the day, I want to set up AD, use AD-integrated DNS, and have the Windows Server based DNS replace our existing DNS server, including name resolution for non-Windows related resources on our network. Any recommendations on best practice on the order of steps to get there would be much appreciated.

Thanks!