Supported Printer Types

Supported Printer Types

The different types of printers supported by MetaFrame Presentation Server clients can be broken down into three main categories. They are client printers, network printers, and local printers.

Client Printers

The client printer category represents any printer that is locally accessible from the client device. This includes

• Printers physically attached to a port on the client device. This is the only type of printer accessible through MetaFrame when using the DOS or Windows CE clients. Many thin-client devices also support locally attached printers through MetaFrame.

• Network-based printers accessed through a printer share or alternate means such as a TCP/IP printer port. When a network-based printer is set up on a local client device, it is considered to be a client printer.

• Virtual printers such as Adobe Acrobat, email, or fax printers. A virtual printer behaves like a printer, but the output is transparently directed to an alternative device or file instead of a printer. Note that not all types of virtual client printers are available within a MetaFrame client session.

A MetaFrame Presentation Server can be configured to automatically make client printers accessible from within a MetaFrame user session. When this is done, the client printer appears as a standard printer within the Printers folder in the MetaFrame session, as shown in Figure 12.1.

Figure 12.1. MetaFrame can make client printers accessible from within a MetaFrame session.

Names of client printers appear as follows :

Client/<clientname>#/<printername>

<clientname> represents the name of the MPS client, and <printername> is the name of the client printer. If the printer is a network-mapped printer, <printername> will include the name of the host print server and appear as follows:

Client/<clientname>#///<printservername>\<printername>

Also, note that the <clientname> is the MPS client name. Depending on how the client has been configured, this may or may not be the same as the hostname of the workstation. Having unique client names is important to ensuring that print jobs are directed to the correct client device.

Caution

The MetaFrame Presentation Server Administrators Guide incorrectly states that client printers appear with the name #<clientname>/<printername>. In all versions of MetaFrame, client printers have always had the # added as a suffix to the client name.

Figure 12.2 shows MPS clients with client printers in relation to a MetaFrame server. Both printers in this figure are considered to be client printers.

Figure 12.2. Any printer directly available on a MetaFrame client device is considered a client printer.

Network Printers

A network printer is considered to be any printer that is connected to a print server and shared on a Windows network. Network printers are accessed within a MetaFrame session just as they would be from a local Windows desktop. A connection is made to the printer share, and jobs are sent to that queue for printing. As we discussed earlier, if a network printer is mapped on a local client device and then from a MetaFrame session, it is considered to be a client printer, not a network printer. Only when a shared network printer is mapped from within a MetaFrame session is it considered a network printer.

Local Printers

A printer falls into the local printer category when it is directly connected to any MetaFrame server within a server farm. Locally connected can mean one of two things:

• The printer is physically connected to a MetaFrame server through an LPT or USB port.

• A logical printer port has been configured to direct the print job to the remote queue for that printer. A TCP/IP printer port is one of the most common configurations, but third-party ports such as Lexmark or HP JetDirect can also be defined.

Referring to Figure 12.3, the two printers (Printer A and Printer B) within the farm called Test Farm are considered local printers to that farm, and the printers connected to the print server (Printer C) and the MPS server in the farm called Dev Farm (Printer D) would be considered network printers in relation to Test Farm. Similarly, Printer D would be a local printer to Dev Farm, and Printers A, B, and C would be network printers to Dev Farm.

Figure 12.3. A printer connected to any MetaFrame server within the same farm is considered a local printer.

Only printers connected to servers running MPS and belonging to the same farm fall into the local printer category.

Alert

Understanding what differentiates a local printer from a network printer in an MPS 3.0 server farm is helpful. Only printers that are connected to MetaFrame servers in the same farm are considered to be local printers to that farm. All other printers are categorized as either network or client printers.