[Samba] sizing a print server for 10'000 users

[Charles Bueche]

Hi,

I'm building a print-to-PDF queue system for a customer. A Samba queue pass jobs to Ghostscript. The PDF output is then provided back to the user (by email or web URL).

My question is on server sizing. It will be on Linux (SLES 9) and will only host the print queue, nothing else. Samba will be joined in the ADS domain, so I can recognize the submitting user (%u).

Every Windows client will have the print queue defined. What happen with the connection ? do I assume Samba will see 10'000 permanent connections ? Or only when printing ?

And then, when several client submit print jobs at the same time, does Samba serialize the calls to my script ? Or should I assume I can be called 10'000x in parallel (assuming 10'000 users click "Print" at the same time) ?

I'm as well interested at building a small "admin" web page where one can see the queue, the last 10 job entries, the load, possibly a usage graph, etc.

Hints from a similar setup are welcome. 
TIA,
Charles

-- 
Charles Bueche <charles at bueche.ch>
sand, snow, wave, wind and net -surfer