[THIN] Re: Moer and more....logon scripts hanging....

You don't really need any printing management software if you alias your 
printers properly within Citrix and also make strict specifications about what 
can be used across your organization and control your spoolers via services 
manager. For an outside WI, UPD works like a champ and you shouldn't guarantee 
to your users coming from home that their printer will work if it isn't one you 
have specified.  I've been running Citrix for 10 years on a large network of 
1300 PC's and haven't once used an outside product, (though I have tested most 
all of them) I've opted for taking the time to just map the printers properly.  
Each company has their merits and does things a different way and you need to 
try them all to see what works best for you. Look at APM, Uniprint and 
Provision Networks UPD also. 
  Jim
   
  

Chris Grecsek < wrote:
        v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}  o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}  
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}  .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}        
st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) }                We were working with 
Thinprint engineers during our pilot program?we asked whether we could only 
have the one set of printers and they told us we had to have both <shrug>. I 
didn?t think to call them on it and test further as they were the experts and 
had assumed they had this question in the past. Regardless, at that point in 
the pilot that was a pretty small issue compared with some of the other hurdles 
we were running into. 
   
  As for Tricerat and when we had some of the bluescreen issues ? it was 
probably about 1.5yrs years ago at this point. At the time we were also testing 
some of their lockdown tools/other pieces of their suite?there were a myriad of 
problems with that set of tools ? things didn?t work, they came out with new 
builds on an almost weekly basis and those builds would make things that were 
working stop working?long story short ? we didn?t have a lot of confidence in 
their programming/support crew, ability to put out a consistent product. I know 
their printing tools were a little more evolved/tried and true than some of 
these other tools but it called into question a lot of things?and then when you 
looked at their pricing where they were essentially making it very worthwhile 
to buy the suite as opposed to the single component of the suite?it just made 
sense to evaluate it as a whole. Perhaps if we went back and just focused on 
the printing stuff we might come back with a
 different opinion?
   
  I?d be interested in a general poll as to what people are using for printing. 
   
  1)       3rd party drivers on servers
  2)       UPD only
  3)       Thinprint
  4)       Tricerat
   
  J 
   
  Thanks!
   
  Chris
   
   
      
---------------------------------
  
  From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf 
Of Jeff Pitsch
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 1:38 PM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] Re: Moer and more....logon scripts hanging....

   
    Out of curiousity, when using ThinPrint why were you doing the ThinPrint 
printers and the autocreated PS printers?  why not go with one way and not 
confuse the user?

     

    As well, I believe both ThinPrint and Tricerat clients can be combined with 
the ICA client installs so you only have one install that needs to be pushed 
down to the clients.

     

    Jeff Pitsch
Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server
  Forums not enough?
Get support from the experts at your business
http://jeffpitschconsulting.com
  

 

    On 7/28/06, Chris Grecsek <cgrecsek@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: 
        First off, our printing is cut and dry/simple?all windows clients are 
standard, clean desktops with a completely locked down version of Win XP. 
Nothing installed locally. Users come into a published desktop that is hosted 
in the datacenter via web interface. Printers are auto-created during 
login/based on what you have installed (either locally attached or 
networked/shared printers) on the local client. We don't save printers in the 
user's profile/published desktop. 
   
  Thinprint ? cost was substantial. Not a cheap solution. This is a very 
flexible product and great if you have some funky clients/difficult printing 
requirements. We don't. There are a number of ways you can deploy it for either 
clientless setup, having local thinprint server, etc, etc. Like I said, lots of 
flexibility but each of the options had downsides and if we're going to pay the 
high price we want everything fixed/better ? not a mostly lateral move. 
   
  You need to install a client on local clients ? there are some configs where 
you don't have to do this, but again, tradeoffs. Since we do auto-creation, 
users were getting two sets of printers ? Citrix and Thinprint?i.e. confusion 
for clients. You also had to manipulate the local client (icon in the system 
tray) to get it just the way you wanted. Again, great flexibility but confusing 
for our users/didn't work all the time. The fact that it didn't work all the 
time put us in the same boat as Citrix's UPD?and we were paying quite a bit 
more. We also didn't like the way you had to manage the thinprint ports ? we 
saw a lot of manual work for each one of our Citrix servers?this product would 
have essentially caused us to have to "silo" users to specific servers based on 
printing needs?this goes against our core thinking/scalability model of keeping 
things simple/dynamic. 
   
  As for Tricerat ? we had some test servers bluescreen as a result of using 
their solution. That was a pretty massive flag but we continued testing. In a 
nutshell the driverless printing was nice but you also had to install a client 
on every local machine and that meant additional support overhead/complicating 
the environment. We work in a WAN environment with no permanent connections to 
the workstations; we can't use deployment tools so this is problematic. As 
compared to the UPD, the UPD works?kinda, but Tricert was working ? kinda, as 
well so again, we're not making much progress in moving towards lowering 
costs/adding functionality/increasing stability. Oh yes, and there is an extra 
cost involved...    
   
  Believe me ? if we could find a product that fixed all of our printing issues 
(or at least 90%) of them ? we would buy it in a heartbeat as printing is the 
#1 headache with our model. I just don't think the product exists?therefore ? 
we ride the UPD. 
   
  If anyone knows better ? please enlighten me! 
   
   
  Chris
   
   
      
---------------------------------
  
  From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf 
Of Landin, Mark
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 1:01 PM

    
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] Re: Moer and more....logon scripts hanging....


     
  Interesting. What problems did you see yourself introducing with a ThinPrint 
or a Simplify? Just curious. 
   
    
---------------------------------
  
  From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf 
Of Chris Grecsek
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 2:46 PM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] Re: Moer and more....logon scripts hanging.... 
  Make sure you have the latest hotfixes?there are a few new ones that are 
directly related to the cpsvc.exe service (the one that bonks). The biggest 
thing we did to stabilize our environment was to force all printing to be done 
via the UPD (talking about 4.0 of course). 
   
  We looked at 3rd party printing solutions but when we did the full assessment 
we determined that we'd be solving some problems but really trading those for a 
new set of problems?and paying more money for those problems/confusing our 
clients. At the end of the day we just decided that the proper course was to 
ride the 4.0 UPD and hope that Citrix continues to stabilize/improve it.  
   
      
---------------------------------
  
  From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf 
Of Schneider, Chad M
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 11:39 AM
To: ' thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx'
Subject: [THIN] Moer and more....logon scripts hanging....

   
  Having to restart the spooler?which does not always work successfully, which 
then requires a reboot.
   
  Chad Schneider
  Technology Analyst/Citrix Admin.
  Bemis Company, Inc.
  920-303-7609
   




   




Jim Kenzig 
    Microsoft MVP - Terminal Services
  Provision Networks VIP
CEO The Kenzig Group
http://www.kenzig.com
Blog: http://www.techblink.com

    Terminal Services Downloads: http://www.thinhelp.com
Windows Vista: http://www.VistaPop.com
Virtualization: http://www.virtualize-it.com
Games: http://www.stressedpuppy.com

Other related posts: