Local Printers

In smaller environments (less than three MetaFrame XP servers) local printers can provide a robust printing environment without requiring a large amount of administration to maintain them. All MetaFrame XP servers in this configuration become print servers and need individual print queues to each network printer used by clients. There are utilities such as the Print Migrator 3 from Microsoft (found on the Windows 2000 resource kit) that assist with propagation of printers from one server to another, but in larger farms this process becomes very time intensive. When a new printer is introduced to the environment, the administrator needs to configure the printer on each Terminal Server in the environment.

Advantages of local printers on a MetaFrame XP server:

• Excellent LAN printing performance.

• Reliable.

• Printer setup per user is very controlled.

Disadvantages of local printers on a MetaFrame XP server:

• Additional overhead for MetaFrame XP server to process print jobs.

• No local printer support.

• Poor WAN printing performance.

• Users must browse the network for printers they need that are not configured.

• Printers must be configured on all servers in the farm.

Printer Driver Selection

Driver selection is a critical decision for SBC printing. It is important to have a print driver that will be compatible with the multiuser environment and at the same time provide the printing functionality that is required by the users. While things have come a long way from the Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition's "blue screen of death" and limited support from third-party providers, drivers are still a paramount concern of printing in the SBC environment. The following driver selection topics are explained and their advantages and disadvantages discussed: the printer manufacturer native driver, the Microsoft operating system native driver, and the Citrix Universal Print Driver.

The Printer Manufacturer Native Driver

The printer manufacturer native driver is a print driver included with the printer or downloaded from the printer manufacturer's web site.

Advantages of printer manufacturer native drivers:

• All features of the printer are included with the driver (printing to mailboxes, two-sided printing, collating, stapling, and so on).

Disadvantages of printer manufacturer native drivers:

• The drivers are often not written for a multiuser environment and may cause the spooler service to crash any time a user prints with that driver.

• Although they may be certified as multiuser-compliant, some advanced features still may not function properly (graphics printing, landscape, duplex, watermarks, and so forth).

• Drivers are not designed for a network environment and often have additional components that are not desirable (control panels, print monitors, and others).

Printer manufacturer native drivers have become better over time in terms of supporting the Terminal Services structure, but there are still many inherent problems. Windows Server 2003 drivers have improved due to more multiuser compatibility requirements by Microsoft. There will always be issues with drivers written by third parties due to the complexities involved in the print subsystem and the reluctance of some third-party providers to correctly code and test drivers for Terminal Services.

Microsoft Operating System Native Driver

Microsoft operating system native drivers are the built-in drivers that ship with the Windows operating system. Windows 2000 Server included drivers for over 2800 devices and Windows Server 2003 natively supports over 3800 devices.

Advantages of Microsoft native drivers:

• Drivers are included with the operating system.

• Drivers are written as a part of the operating system so there will be fewer incompatibility problems.

• Many driver features are still available.

Disadvantages of Microsoft native drivers:

• Advanced printer features are not always supported (printing to mailboxes, stapling, and so on).

• Printers that are newer than the operating system do not have drivers.

This driver option is usually preferred because it is specifically written for compatibility with Terminal Services and still has many of the required printer features.

The Citrix Universal Print Driver

The Citrix Universal Print Driver (UPD) was first introduced in MetaFrame XP Feature Release 1. The new UPD version 2, included with MetaFrame XP Feature Release 3, has support for monochrome or color printing as well as 600-dpi resolution. The driver uses PCL4 or PCL5 for Windows 32-bit and Macintosh clients. Linux clients and PostScript-compatible printers use PostScript.

Note

The extended features (color, 600 dpi) are achievable only with the 7.0 version of the Win32 and Linux ICA Clients. The original UPD is available to Win32 and Macintosh OS X clients on version 6.30 or later.

Advantages of the Universal Print Driver:

• There are no additional print drivers to install on MetaFrame XP servers.

• It is a very stable print driver.

• It is included with MetaFrame XP software.

Disadvantages of the Universal Print Driver:

• It is only supported on Win32, Mac OS X, and Linux clients.

• Windows printers that cannot print using PCL 4 or PCL 5c will not work.

• Advanced printer features such as duplex, stapling, and watermarks are not supported.

• It is limited to 600 dpi.

• Large print jobs due to the rasterization of the EMF file before it is processed by the local print driver.