[THIN] Re: Print Server / Citrix design question - urgent

  • From: Angela Smith <angela_smith9@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:38:55 +1000

Hi RickI was looking at using desktop class hardware but Im concerned about 
manageability.  Eg if it bluescreens or looses LAN connectivity.  I like the 
idea of having a ILO (HP Servers) as we have many sites around the country.  I 
was looking at HP ML Class hardware and would be happy to go down this path.  I 
just dont want to deploy 30 Print Servers to our branch offices only to find 
out its better to use a centralised Print Server..Would I be correct in saying 
I need to use indirect Printing if the Print Server is in each office?  Can I 
not control Printer bandwidth using Universal driver in indirect mode?I will 
look into Print-IT - thanks..Would third party drivers make my life easier if 
we had local Print servers in each office?  We tried this a while back but had 
many spooler crashes with HP drivers hence our reason to go 
universal...ThanksDate: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:05:04 -0400From: 
ulrich.mack@xxxxxxxxxxx: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx: [THIN] Re: Print Server / 
Citrix design question - urgentHi Angela,
 
You aren't going to have an ideal scenario with a pure Citrix solution at this 
point in time. 
 
However you'll get the smallest WAN printing payload (and quickest printing) if 
you make sure that each site has it's own print server. That way you can use 
UPD only with no additional SMB-based printing traffic. AOpen have a very small 
PC that's almost identical to a Mac Mini (but black) that makes an excellent 
unobtrusive print server for remote offices.

 

The one downside to that appraoch is that one person's print job can starve 
everyone else on that site of WAN bandwidth. That's why a UPD solution that 
let's you print efficiently outside a Citrix session is so much more valuable.

 
Having a centralized print server is better from the viewpoint of controlling 
printing bandwidth utilization outside the ICA channel, but if it's not at all 
ideal in terms of WAN printing payload unless you use a third party UPD 
solution.

 
Incidentally Provision Network's Print-IT is an excellent solution UPD solution 
that's quite as good as Thinprint and not nearly as expensive.
 
regards,
 
Rick
 

-- Ulrich MackQuest SoftwareProvision Networks Division 
On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 6:30 AM, Angela Smith <angela_smith9@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

HiIm looking at making changes to our existing farm as Printing is not 
currently setup optimally.  We run Windows 2003 Presentation Server 4 farm with 
a centralised MS Windos 2003 Print Server.  The Citrix farm and MS Print Server 
are on the same network.  All our clients are across the WAN on 1Mb frame relay 
links.  We have several sites that are 100% Citrix with Windows XP clients that 
are setup with client network printers which are autocreated in Citrix.  We use 
Citrix universal drivers only (No third party HP drivers used).
Now my question is....  Am I better to use a centralised MS Print Server or 
should I have a Print Server in each office?  I want to minimise the amount of 
traffic on the WAN as the links are small and often get saturated.  Ive read 
numerous documents and am confused now in relation to the best way to setup 
printing.  I want to minimise WAN traversal as much as possible and I don't 
want documents spooling over the WAN.  PDF documents can be very big and a 
100MB spooled job will take hours to print over a 1MB link.
What do you suggest?  Should I be using Indirect Printing?  Should each site 
have a MS Print Server? By the way, we do not have budget for THinPrint or 
ScrewDrivers so I need to make do with Citrix functionality.  Please help as I 
am out of ideas and am close to removing Citrix all together...
ThanksAngela
 
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