Certification Objective 12.02: Replicating Print Drivers and Importing Print Servers

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Certification Objective 12.02: Replicating Print Drivers and Importing Print Servers

Several tools are available within the Printer Management node of the Citrix Management Console to make managing and working with Network printers easier than ever before. With MetaFrame XP, we can install a print driver to a single server in the farm and then replicate it to all other servers. We also have the ability to assign specific users or groups to specific network printers. In addition, we can create auto-replication lists for a standard set of print drivers so any new server in the farm will automatically have the supported printers installed.

Updating Printer Drivers in the XP Data Store

When viewing the driver list in the Citrix Management Console, you can determine easily which print drivers have been installed on any server in the farm. If a new driver is required in the farm, we need only add it to one server.

This driver can be installed two ways on Windows 2000, but only one way on NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition.

In Windows 2000 and NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition, we can add a driver by simply following the Add Printer Wizard, associating the printer with an unused port, adding our driver, and simply deleting the printer. The logical printer is removed but the driver remains installed on the server.

In Windows 2000, you can also add a driver by opening the Printers folder, selecting Print Server Properties, and from that window selecting the Drivers tab (see Figure 12-6). This window allows you to add or remove drivers without creating a logical printer. While both of these methods will install the driver in the same way, the second method reduces the amount of time involved by eliminating unnecessary steps, such as picking a port and naming a printer that will be deleted after it is created. One thing to remember is that since driver information is kept in the data store, the number of drivers and servers you have can affect the data store performance and size.

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Figure 12-6: The Drivers tab from the Print Server Properties page in Windows 2000 Server

So, how does the farm become aware of this new driver? By adding the driver to a server, you have basically installed a set of new files to the server along with driver specific registry entries. At regular intervals, IMA service for that server polls the print driver registry keys and compares that information against what is already listed in the data store. When the Independent Management Architecture subsystem discovers a new driver, that driver's information is then written to the data store.

Exercise 12-2: Installing a Print Driver and Updating the Data Store

start example
  1. Open the Printers applet in the Control Panel.

  2. Select the Add Printer Wizard.

  3. Select Local Printer (if using Windows 2000, uncheck Automatically Detect Local Printer)

  4. Select LPT1:.

  5. Select HP as the driver manufacturer and HP LaserJet 4Plus as the driver.

  6. Accept the default printer name.

  7. Do not share the printer.

  8. Do not print a test page.

  9. Once the 'logical' printer has been installed, select its icon in the Printers folder and delete it.

  10. Using the Citrix Management Console, select the Drivers icon in the Printer Management node to verify that your driver is shown in the list of drivers for your server.

If the driver is not present in the list immediately, wait a minute or two and refresh the list by right-clicking drivers and selecting Refresh Drivers.

end example

Importing a Network Print Server

Printers attached to a network print server outside the server farm are not readily available to ICA clients attaching to the farm. A Citrix administrator can ease this process by importing the network print servers he/she uses on the network. This can be done by right-clicking the Printer Management node and selecting Import Print Server. You will then be asked to supply the print server's name and a user account that has access to those printers (see Figure 12-7).

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Figure 12-7: Importing a network print server.

Currently imported network printer servers can be viewed by selecting the Printer Management node in the Citrix Management Console, then selecting the Network Printer Servers tab on the right side of the console (see Figure 12-8).

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Figure 12-8: Viewing imported print servers on the Network Print Servers tab

Once a Print Server is imported into the farm, its printers show up in the Printers icon under the Printer Management node. These printers can now be made available to the MetaFrame users that connect to the farm.

Exercise 12-3: Importing a Network Print Server

start example
  1. In the Citrix Management Console, right-click the Printer Management node.

  2. In the pull-down menu, select Import Network Print Server.

  3. When the Import Network Print Server dialog box appears, supply the name of a server that is sharing printers on your network, as well as the domain credentials necessary for access to those print shares.

  4. Once the Printer Server is imported, it should be listed in the Printer Management node in the Network Print Servers tab. Verify this and also that its shared printers are listed under the Printers icon of the Printer Management node.

end example

On The Job 

Once a print server is imported to the MetaFrame farm it cannot be reimported. The printer information that was imported to the data store is not updated dynamically from the current information on the print server. If a printer's properties have been changed or printers have been added or deleted from the print server, you must update or refresh the print server by right-clicking the server and selecting Update Print Server. Trying to import a network print server that is already imported will result in an error.

Assigning Users to Printers

By assigning network printers to the users' environment, we simplify the environment for both the end user and administrator. When the client connects and the user is authenticated, the IMA printer subsystem queries the data store to determine which printers the authenticated user has rights to. Only those printers that were assigned to the user are created for the session. The printers are then available to receive print jobs from applications running within the Citrix session.

To assign a user or group of users to a specific printer, right-click the printer in the Printer Management node and select Auto-Creation from the pull down menu that appears. From here, we can choose from a list of Available Accounts on the left (users or groups) and add them to the list of Configured Accounts on the right. (See Figure 12-9.)

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Figure 12-9: The Replicate Driver dialog box

When these users log in to the MetaFrame farm, the printer will be auto-created for them no matter what physical client they connect from. This is unlike the auto-created client printers. Remember, auto-created client printers are only available from a specific client device that the user is logging in from.

Now that you understand the basics of network printers and printer driver installation, here are a few possible scenarios and their solutions.

Scenario & Solutions

How would you allow your users to access printers that are shared on a server outside the farm?

Using the Citrix Management Console you can import the print server into the farm, then assign users or groups to the printers.

Is it possible to view which print drivers are installed on a MetaFrame server using the Citrix Management Console?

Yes. To do this you would select the Drivers icon in the Printer Management node, then select the server you wish to view.

Can a printer that has been imported from a network print server be assigned to an individual user?

Yes. When assigning users to printers, you can assign groups or individual users.

Replicating Printer Drivers Across a Server Farm

In order to ensure that all client and network printers function as they should, each server must have the drivers necessary to print to those printers. To keep an administrator from having to install the same print driver on several servers, the IMA architecture has a print driver replication function built into it.

This function will allow us to replicate a print driver to every server in the farm, or we can select specific target servers for the replication. It will also allow an administrator to create an Auto replication list that allows us to replicate drivers to any new server brought in to the farm automatically. This print driver information is stored in the IMA Data Store for future replication operations.

To replicate a driver to the entire server farm, select the Drivers icon under the Printer Management node. From this window, select the server from which the print driver should be replicated. This source server will be retained in the XP data store for replication to future servers. Selecting a source of 'Any' is not recommended. Doing so will result in a warning from the system. (See Figure 12-10.) Citrix recommends having one server that all print drivers are replicated from.

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Figure 12-10: The Driver Compatibility list

Once the source is selected, the installed drivers on that source server are displayed. Right-click the driver you wish to replicate and select Replicate Drivers. The Replicate Driver dialog box will appear (see Figure 12-11). You can now replicate this driver to the entire farm and add it to the auto-replication list for new servers, or you can replicate it to specific servers of your choosing.

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Figure 12-11: The Driver Mapping list

The Auto Replication list can also be viewed and edited by right-clicking the Drivers icon in the Printer Management node and selecting Auto-Replication from the pull-down menu. This list is platform-specific. You can choose the appropriate server operating systems from a platform pull-down menu at the top of the window. Drivers can only be replicated to similar platforms.

A check box is also available that will allow the administrator to select the option to overwrite existing drivers on the target servers. This is extremely useful if you are updating an existing print driver to a newer version.

Exercise 12-4: Replicating Print Drivers

start example

Note: If you do not have multiple MetaFrame XP servers for this lab, you will need to stop at step 4 since you will not have any servers in your Replicate Drivers dialog box.

  1. Using the Citrix Management Console, open the Printer Management node and select the Drivers icon.

  2. Using the Server pull-down menu in the right pane of the Citrix Management Console, select the server you installed for the HP LaserJet 4Plus driver in Exercise 12-2.

  3. Right-click the HP LaserJet 4Plus driver and select Replicate Driver.

  4. In the Replicate Driver dialog box, select the option to Replicate To All Citrix Servers On The Platform And Add To The Auto-replication List; then click OK.

  5. Return to the Drivers list in the Citrix Management Console and verify that the driver has been replicated to all servers in the MetaFrame farm. This can take several minutes. Refreshing the Drivers tab may speed the update of the Drivers list.

end example

Managing Print Drivers

Deciding which printer drivers to support in a MetaFrame environment can be a tedious job. Some print drivers can cause server side problems when they are used to access client printers. These problems can include a stopped spooler service or even the infamous NT Blue Screen. It may be necessary to prohibit certain drivers from being used in your MetaFrame farm. Creating Driver Compatibility lists can allow you control over what drivers are used for client printers in your farm.

This list can be accessed and edited by right-clicking the Drivers icon and selecting compatibility. Again, this list is platform-specific, and you can choose your operating system with a pull-down menu at the top of the window (see Figure 12-12).

The default for this window is to allow all drivers except those listed. During a base install of MetaFrame, no drivers are added to this list. If you wish to restrict access to a certain driver in the farm, you can do so by clicking the Add button and selecting your driver.

Inversely, you can also make a list of supported drivers. Selecting the radio button Allow Only Driver In This List would create this type of list. You must then specify each driver that you will allow clients to use. Any printer using a driver not specifically mentioned will not be allowed to auto-create, and the end user will receive a message at connection time stating they are attempting to use an unsupported print driver.

Exam Watch 

Importing of network printers and the print driver management are new functions that were added with MetaFrame XP, and are not available with earlier versions of MetaFrame. The exam is sure to test your knowledge of these functions, along with your knowledge of how both systems work. Be sure to have a good understanding of network printers and print driver management before sitting down for the test.

Mapping Print Driver Names

As seen at the beginning of this chapter, an auto-created client printer can fail to auto-create if a matching print driver is not installed on the MetaFrame server. In some cases, print driver names vary between Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 9x. This difference in driver names can also cause the printer auto-creation process to fail.

Example: Windows 98 client station has a local HP Laser 5Si using the HP LaserJet 5Si/Mx driver. You have installed the Windows NT 4.0 version of this driver on your Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server. The driver name for NT 4.0 may look like this: HP LaserJet 5Si. In such cases, the driver on the server side may print fine to that print device, but it is the auto-creation sequence that is failing due to the differences in the driver names. Here we must create a mapping that will associate the client driver with an acceptable server driver.

To create this mapping you will right-click the Drivers icon again and select Mapping. This list again is platform-specific, so you need to verify that you have the proper operating system selected before editing the list. Select the Add button and you are presented with a Window that will allow you to enter the client printer driver name and use a pull-down menu to select the appropriate server print driver name (see Figure 12-13). This mapping will then be written to the WTSPRNT.INF file in the %SYSTEMROOT%\System32 directory on each MetaFrame server of your selected platform.

On The Job 

The auto-creation process is extremely sensitive. When entering the client driver, you must enter it verbatim. Respect upper- and lowercase characters, as well as spaces.  A quick way to get the client driver information is to view the auto-creation error message associated with this client in the Event Viewer's application log. In the details of this event, you see and copy to the clipboard the client's driver name as it is needed in the mapping window.

With the knowledge you now have about driver replication and printer auto-creation, here are a couple of real-world questions and there possible answers.

Scenario & Solutions

True or False: Print driver information for the server farm is stored in each local server only.

False. The IMA service reads the print driver information from each server's local registry, but stores the information in the XP data store.

You have determined that every time your users print using a specific print driver, the spooler service on your server stops. You wish to restrict the use of this driver in your farm. How would you do this?

Using the Compatibility menu from the Drivers icon, you would select Allow All Drivers Except Those In The List, then add the unwanted driver to the compatibility list.



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CCA Citrix MetaFrame XP for Windows Administrator Study Guide Exam 70-220
CCA Citrix MetaFrame XP for Windows Administrator Study Guide (Exam 70-220)
ISBN: 0072193190
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2001
Pages: 169

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