* Reduces load on theserver andbandwidth andCPU processing are saved.
* Reduces delays when spooling over slow connections.
* Avoids more problems in a diverse environment.
* Limits the installation and duplication of print drivers on servers.
* Ensures that client printers auto-create regardless of print driver availability on the server.
* Minimizes Help Desk calls.
* Enables users to print toalmost any printer.
* Redirects client printers only.
Somenative anduniversal print driver best practices:
* Bynot allowing native print drivers to automatically be installed from auto-created printers, you can guarantee thatno rogue drivers make it into the farm.
* By using adriver compatibility list, you cancontrol which drivers are allowed in the farm.
Since you don't know always know which drivers might try to install in your server farm, use the settingAllow only drivers in the list andadds the known acceptable drivers to the list.
* By selecting the policy ruleUniversal driver settingUse universal driver only if the requested driver is unavailable rule, youguarantee there is always a driver available, whether it's themanufacturer's driver or the universal driver.
Universal XPS Printer Driver
TheUniversal XPS Printer Driver is based on Microsoft's XPS (XML Paper Specification) technology, which uses platform-independent XML for a product that is similar to Adobe's Acrobat.
* XPS technology was introduced in Windows Server 2008.
Client devicesmust have .NET 3.0 installed on them to use the Citrix Universal XPS Printer driver.
* .NET 3.0 comes with Windows Vista.
Install and Replicate Drivers
Before a printer can be used, aprint driver must be installed on the XenApp server.
Toadd,remove andreinstall print drivers on a server:
* Use theDrivers utility on a Windows Server by going toPrinters >File >Server Properties >Drivers.
Tomake the print driver available on other servers in the server farm an administrator can leverageprint driver replication to deploy the print diver to all member servers.
* Print driver replication requires thatthe driver be installed and available on one server per base operating system.
* The driver replication process cantake a considerable amount of time and requires asubstantial amount of system resources.
Because of these resource requirements, thereplication should be performed during off-peak hours when higher priority traffic is not impacted.
Auto-replication list:
* Created using the XenApp Advanced Configuration tool.
* If aserver is added to the server farm thatdoes not have the print driver detected, thedriver is installed.
Tocreate a driver auto-replication list:
* Expand thePrinter Management node in theXenApp Advanced Configurationtool.
* Right-clickDrivers.
* SelectAuto-replication.
* In theAuto-replication dialog box, select the appropriate operating system platform from thePlatform drop-down list.
* ClickAdd to add a print driver to replicate for the selected platform.
* Select the appropriate source server in theServer drop-down list.
If no specific source is required, theAny option can be used to list all print drivers available on all servers in the farm.
* Optionally, selectOverwrite existing drivers and clickOK in the confirmation ifAnywas chosen as the source server.
* ClickOK in theAuto-replication dialog box.
* ClickOK in the replication queue confirmation message.
Printing Policies
Legacy client printers enables the use ofold-style client printer names as used by Terminal Services or Presentation Server versions prior to 4.0.
Printer properties retention controls whether or notprinter properties are stored on the client device or the user profile on the server.
Print job routing controls whether or not network print jobsflow directly from XenApp to the print server or takes an extra step and are routed back through the client device.
Turn off client printer mapping disables the mapping of all client printers.
Session printers allows an administrator tocontrol the assignment of network printers.
* Administrators canassign the default printer as well asdesignate the connection to network printersbased on the desired policy filter.
Many timesSession printers is filtered by IP address so that theIP range of the computers determines the print devices that are available on each level of a building.
Troubleshoot Printing
Issue: Other departments have started complaining that the Sales users are tying up their printers.
Probable cause: All of the users in the Sales department have several network printers configured on their client devices. They have been printing to print devices in other departments.
Solution: TheSession printers policy rule allows an administrator to control the assignment of network printersbased on specific attributes of user sessions. Allow the Sales users to only connect to the network printers in their area by configuring theSession printers policy rule.
Issue: The users in the Reporting department often complain that they have to make several attempts before they can see their printers on their client device, so they have to wait to print.
Probable cause: The Reporting group uses several applications and does a lot of printing. Sometimes they require printing from an application immediately after opening it.
Solution: An administrator configuressynchronous printer creation for the applications in the Reporting department so that all printers will be created firstbefore the users have access to interact with and use their sessions.
Issue: The Reporting department is complaining about slow logon times.
Probable cause: Each person in the Reporting department has their own print device connected to their client device and that printer is configured as the default printer. They also have ten network printers on their floor which are all configured on their client device.
Solution: By creating a policy withAuto-create client's default printer only, logon times will be sped up because the client devices will no longer try to connect to and auto-create the ten network print devices on the Reporting department's floor.
Issue: The Reporting department is complaining about applications running slow. The applications that they are complaining about are published applications in the server farm.
Probable cause: The Reporting department is in a remote office that connects to the server farm over a WAN which has become quite congested with network traffic.
Solution: The administrator has already optimally configured printer auto-creation and print job routing.Applying a printer bandwidth policy will allow the administrator tocontrol the amount of maximum bandwidth in kilobytes per second that may beused for printing. This willfree up some bandwidth for other resources, including applications, using the WAN link.
Test New Print Drivers
StressPrinters:
* Is a tool that can be used tosimulate multiple sessions of auto-creating printers using thesame print driver.
* Can be used tocompare CPU load and time required while creating a printerusing a particular driver.
Auto-Created and Networked Printers
By using the ruleAuto-create local (non-network) client printers only:
* Only the printersconnected directly to the user's client device through an LPT or other local port will beautomatically connected.
* Enabling this settingensures any network printers defined on the client device are not auto-created within the ICA session.
Logon times will be reduced for those who have several network printers configured on their client device.
Auto-creation enables the auto-creation of either:
* All client printers
* Local client printers
* Default client printers
* No client printers
Print job routing determines whether or not a clientprinter is auto-connected.
Auto-create all client printers automatically connects all the printers on a client device.
Connect directly to network print server if possible routes the print jobsdirectly from the XenApp server to the network print server.
Always connect indirectly as a client printer routes print jobs through the client device, where it is redirected to the network print server.
* Data sent to the client device iscompressed using the ICA protocol; therefore,less bandwidth is consumed as the data travels across the WAN.
Turn off client printer mapping to auto-createonly network printers or printers connected directly to the server.
* In some instances, it might be preferable to not auto-create client printers.
Withsynchronous printer creation:
* Printers create before the users have access to interact with and use their sessions.
* The users must wait for all printers to create in the background before they can perform any activities.
* Is enabled by deselecting theStart this application without waiting for printers to be created option in the application properties.
Withasynchronous printer creation:
* Printers create in the background while the users have control of and are using their sessions.
* Minimizes the amount of time it takes for the users to begin using the application.
* Asynchronous printer creation is enabled by selecting theStart this application without waiting for printers to be created option in the application properties.
Importing a Print Server
Toimport a print server:
* In theXenApp Advanced Configuration tool, right-clickPrinter Management and clickImport Network Print Server.
* In theNetwork Print Server dialog box, type the name or IP address of the print server in theServer field.
* Type a user account name that has access rights to the specified printer in theConnected As field.
* Type the password for the user account in thePassword field and clickOK.
Print Driver Mapping
Aprint driver mapping list should be created toresolve compatibility issues between print drivers that havedifferent names for the same printer on different server operating systems.
An administrator can configure:
* The fileWTSUPRN.INF to map printer drivers for aspecific server.
* TheXenApp Advanced Configuration tool to map printer drivers forall servers in the farm.
TheWTSPRNT.INF file lists the print driver mappings made using the XenApp Advanced Configuration tool andshould not be edited.
