[THIN] Re: Printer Hell

  • From: Evan Mann <emann@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2007 13:55:56 -0500

We made the plunge to invest in ScrewDrivers and the day after getting
clients rolled out the number of printer related calls to the Help Desk
went to almost zero.  I turned off all Citrix print mapping after roll
out and rely only on ScrewDrivers mappings.
 
I only had 8 servers on the initial hit so it wouldn't be as bad as 31
would be, but I got a pretty nice discount based on 5-10 server range,
and the level  jumps up at 11+.  I'd check into some pricing.  Might not
be AS bad as you might expect.

________________________________

From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Mike MacDonald
Sent: Friday, February 02, 2007 1:52 PM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] Re: Printer Hell


We might be to that point. Although with 22 published desktop servers
and 9 published app servers and the licensing on those done per
sever....it gets expensive fast. That being said, it may be well worth
it when it comes to TCO. Just curious, which 3rd party solution are you
using? 
 
-Mike

 
On 2/2/07, Landin, Mark <Mark.Landin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: 

        I have three words for anyone in "printer hell":
         
        third
        party 
        printing
         
        Nothing is perfect, but I've run a 100-user farm for three
years, with international and mobile users, and have not had to spend
any time diagnosing or fighting printer problems. 
         
        You don't have to live this madness. Please, friends, I hate to
see you suffer needlessly!
         
         

________________________________

        From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:
thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> ] On Behalf
Of George Yobst
        Sent: Friday, February 02, 2007 11:06 AM
        To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
        Subject: [THIN] Re: Printer Hell
        
         
        
        Hi Mike,
        I'm still going thru printer hell as well, and have tracked one
problem
        down to a Policy change in the CMC (and I didn't do it), so
check that.
        For some unknown reason, the printer in the OU group it was
assigned
        to got changed to the next group down the list (no way I would
have done it).
        Printer issues seem to be almost monopilizing my time lately, so
good luck!
        -George
        
         
        On 2/2/07, Mike MacDonald <mike5287@xxxxxxxxx > wrote: 

                I know I am not the first one here to be in printer
hell, but recently things have taken a turn for the worse. Something
changed that caused drivers to get loaded on our W2K/PS4 servers from
clients. This even though driver installation was restricted to
administrators, only allowed from a single trusted source and our PS4
policies said that client printers would only use native drivers if they
were available.  Long story short is all of a sudden drivers started
installing - we got up to 135 drivers on each of the 20 servers in the
farm. Along with the high number of drivers we started having frequent
spool service/Citrix Print service hangs or crashes which has resulted
in logon delays as printers try to get connected at logon. 
                 
                Currently I am going through each server and eliminating
unneeded drivers. I was able to go from 135 down to 53 drivers per
server. Still too many, but there are that many different models of
network printers here. I also renamed the ntprint.inf to make sure no
additional drivers got installed without me putting them there. After I
get rid of the extra drivers I am going to go through the remaining
drivers on the print server and the Citrix servers to make sure they are
compatible. If they are not I will change the driver used for the device
to one that is compatible. 
                 
                One last bit of background is that we use a mix of
client printers and network printers that logon scripts connect users to
at logon and most users connect to a published desktop from thin-clients
or via the Web Interface. 
                 
                I guess I am looking for any suggestions on how to get
out of printer hell. I am ready to build new servers running W2K3/PS4
but don't want to move the same problems forward to the new servers. I
also feel I must be doing something wrong related to the Citrix Print
Service because I can restart it and the spool service then instantly
try to stop it and it won't stop  - has to be killed. Is there something
else I should be doing or has anyone had similair issues, and what was
done to correct the problems. I am going to go through cleaning up
drivers as mentioned, but if I need to do something else I am all ears! 
                 
                Thanks in advance for any suggestions or assistance!
                
                 
                -Mike MacDonald




        -- 
        
------------------------------------------------------------------------
        George Yobst, Library Technology Analyst        phone:
503.723.4890 
        Library Information Network of Clackamas County   fax:
503.794.8238
        16239 SE McLoughlin Blvd, Suite 208         web:
http://www.lincc.lib.or.us <http://www.lincc.lib.or.us/> 
        Oak Grove, OR 97267-4654                  email:
george.yobst@xxxxxxxxx
        "...it is impossible for anyone to begin to learn
        what he thinks he already knows."  - Epictetus 


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