Case Study

CME, our case study company, did an audit of their print environment before they implemented MetaFrame XP. The firm had each department list its currently used printers complete with driver names. Once the list of printers was determined, a MetaFrame XP server was set up to test the print drivers by installing the Microsoft operating system native driver and then printing to the driver from two client machines simultaneously. If no Microsoft native driver for the printer was available, it was then tested with the Citrix Universal Print Driver unless additional print features beyond the UPD's abilities were required. If advanced features were required past the UPD or Microsoft drivers, the print manufacturer's drivers were installed and tested. If a printer did not print in the proper format or caused the print spooler to crash, the printer was put into a Drivers Compatibility list for incompatible drivers. All printers on this list will have to be replaced rather than risk having a bad printer in the environment. Once a list of good printers was determined, a short list of supported printers was created for the procurement department to use when purchasing new printers. Design goals required at least one printer each for low-volume client printing, high-volume network printing, low-volume color client printing, and high-volume color printing. The audit of the environment also verified that all departments used the corporate asset number for the machine name so that the client name will be unique and appropriate for all clients within the corporate environment.

CME uses Microsoft Native drivers any time there is a Microsoft native driver for the printer or if there is a driver that can be mapped to the current client driver. The UPD will be used for client auto-created printers and some printers that remain in the environment waiting to be replaced. The print device manufacturer's print driver will be used for a few limited machines in marketing and engineering that require additional print features.

The print drivers will all be loaded onto one MetaFrame XP server initially and then replicated from that server to all other servers using MetaFrame XP manual driver replication. Future drivers will be tested first on one MetaFrame test server farm before replication to the production farm.

The printers will be provided to the users by using auto-created network printers for users at corporate sites with a print server(s). Roaming sales personnel, FAT clients, and executives that have a locally attached printer or that connect from home will use auto-created client printers. Citrix User Policies will set the client auto-creation settings. The options in the Printer Management properties of the CMC for Always Create Client Network Printers As Client Printers and Delete Pending Print Jobs At Logout will be selected in addition to the default settings.

The printer bandwidth between sites will be managed by the Packeteer for Network auto-created printers and each user that has auto-created client printers will have bandwidth restrictions specified within a Citrix User policy.

The Printers folder will be published for the users so they can set their default printer. The other major print management steps CME is taking is to train all of their managers on printer management and policies so that end users will have an immediate place to go for common support early in the process. An e-mail will be sent to the enterprise explaining how to set a default printer and how to acquire the necessary printers.