TROUBLESHOOTING

Troubleshooting printing problems in the Presentation Server environment can be complex and exasperating. The following section outlines a methodology to solve the most common printing problems. Most printing problems can be avoided or fixed by investigating a number of basic areas, such as: service state, printer settings configuration, client-side printer drivers, server-side printer drivers, printing permissions, printer driver names , and client name .

Service State

There are two basic services that must be running for printing to work properly. They are the Print Spooler and Citrix Print Manager Service.

The Print Spooler can typically just be restarted if it is not running. If it will not restart or immediately stops, then more troubleshooting must be done. Many times these types of problems are caused by a corrupt print job that must be manually deleted from the spool directory or a bad print driver. If neither of these options resolves the issue, research current hotfixes for Citrix that address Print Spooler issues. There are many other possibilities, but these are typically a good place to start.

The Citrix Print Manager Service was introduced with Presentation Server 4 to aid in the printer creation and management processes, but it has many other possible issues of its own.

The Citrix Print Manager Service utilizes the Ctx_SmaUser account. The user account must have at least Power User permissions on the Presentation Server server. It also must have at least Query Information and Virtual Channels permissions on the ica-tcp listener. In many government environments, departmental and federal mandates preclude any user account from being a member of the "Power Users" group, and standard Windows Group Policy objects will remove all accounts from this group , resulting in printing failures. In these cases, the CTX_SmaUser account must be given equivalent (or greater) permissions.

Citrix Policy Problems

Client printers and session printers will not be created if a policy is not configured properly or if it is overridden by a higher priority policy. Verify the printer settings in each policy and that they are applied to the appropriate users and groups. Verify that the priority of the policy is working in the appropriate order. A good way to verify the settings for a user, group, or IP range is to use the search function in the Policy section of the Management Console. An administrator can search on various users, group, and other properties to see exactly what policies are applied to a specific user and in what order.

Event Log Events

Errors in the Windows Event Viewer can give a lot of valuable information about potential printing issues. You may see service events about Print Spooler or Citrix Print Manager stoppages. The Security log can show issues with printer or driver security. The Application log can contain Citrix Events that show errors in printer creation and driver installations. The Citrix Events will typically report both the client-provided driver name (as installed on the client) and the server-side driver being used for printer creation.

Client Machine Issues

Many of these steps can also pertain to issues that may originate on the client machine. If the print spooler on the local machine is not running, then the print jobs will not be able to print to a client printer. If the client machine is secured to a point that the ICA virtual channel is not allowed to access the spool directory, then the print job will not be delivered to the local spooler. If a user is not able to print a test page from Notepad or some other application on the local machine, then the Citrix printing will certainly also fail. In these cases and in many of the server-side issues normal printing troubleshooting applies.

Driver Issues

Even with improved technologies, drivers, including the UPD, can cause erratic behavior. "Knowing the rules" will allow administrators to effectively troubleshoot driver- related issues.

Native Drivers

Common problems with native drivers are usually the result of selecting the wrong driver, lack of driver availability, or driver incompatibility . Check the following:

• – Verify that native drivers are certified user-mode drivers.

• – Avoid monolithic drivers. Many "all-in-one" printers use drivers intended for installation on a PC directly attached to the target printer. These drivers include multipurpose features such as scanning and copying that cannot be "hooked" through the appropriate ICA channel. Most vendors (notably Hewlett-Packard) provide a current compatibility listing of alternative drivers suitable for the print engine but without the multi-function support. For example, HP recommends the DeskJet 970 driver as an alternative driver for its all-in-one OfficeJet printers in a Citrix environment.

• – Avoid drivers that poll for printer status. Drivers for modern USB-connected printers typically include job monitors and status monitors that communicate continually with the target printer. Although the driver component usually works on Presentation Server, the USB port is not directly attached to the server and cannot be polled. Uninstall or disable status features or use an alternative driver.

• – Driver names reported by the client don't match (character for character) the native driver on the server. This issues has existed through all versions of Citrix. Track the problem via event log entries and create the appropriate client-to-server driver mapping.

UPD Drivers

UPD-based printing is heavily dependent upon correct configuration on the client. Check the following:

• – Ensure a local print driver is installed and functional.

• – Verify that the client-side driver does not exceed the page limits of the UPD driver. The UPD driver enforces a