LOsing printer mappings

[tpulley]

I have a problem where occasionally (2-3 times a week) as users connect to the Citrix server they discover that their printers are gone. They will retain some and it isn't always the same printer that disappears. They are running metaframe 1.8, sp4 with the Microsoft SP3 for the os.

I added a printer then select for that user it to be the default printer. When it changes things it will choose the one in the upper left of the printer choices. No matter what it is.

Any ideas?

 

[Nostferatu]

tpulley

Firstly how many servers do you have in your farm ? if more than one have you tried publishing the app seperately from each server to try and alienate which one is causing the problem ?
It is possible that the printer driver is not installed/mapped or otherwise on just one of the servers and if your load balancing correctly the client is fine on server a but if they get on to server b the driver could be incorrect.

I trust you are using the wtsprnt.ini file to remap printers to save you installing numerous potentially disaster bringing drivers on your server/s ?. Do a comparison between the files on each server and ensure there are no duplications of the printers and that none of the installed drivers (verify through the registry) <HKLM,system,currentcontrolset,control,printers,environments,windows nt4,print> are also being mapped within the file.

IE having an HP Deskjet 895c driver installed on the server directly, and having a mapping for the HP Deskjet 895c in the wtsprnt.ini file to say the ever reliable HP 550C driver.

If all else fails, buy UNIPRINT (or similar solution) !!!

OK so not everyone has a bottomless pit to purchase this software, but I cannot emphasise enough how much of a relief it will bring to you.

Let me know if you need any clarification on any of the above or if none of this helps, if you would like to be more specific with printer type etc I can look into it further if you like.

Regards and good luck,

Nostferatu

&quot;Yesterday is History,
Tomorrow A Mystery,
Today is a gift,
That's why they call it the Present&quot;

 

[tpulley]

Thanks for the reply.

There is only one server in this farm. The problem isn't really with a cpecific program. It appears to be about their default printers.


The wtsprnt.ini file sounds interesting. How does this work?

 

[Nostferatu]

tpulley,

The file is used to map printers to a known working driver, NT4 TSE is very prone to falling over randomly if you just go ahead and install all and every print driver without it being fully tested. There are several print drivers known to cause blue screens if found on TSE servers, you can also experience this kind of issue with bad drivers, in fact, almost all problems can end up being driver related if you are unable to find specific fixes.

The file basically works by taking the name of the client side print driver IE client has an HP deskjet 985C installed on their machine with the same driver name.
You then tell the server that this driver is to be mapped to the known working 550C driver already installed on the TS server. When the client logs on for all intense and purposes the printer is available, but will use the 550C driver when printing in the citrix environment. You will soon hail the HP LaserJet 4L driver as the saviour of all when it comes to laser printer mapping

The file is located in %systemroot%\system32 and will prove invaluable to anyone with more than a handful of printer types. Managed well it can save time and heartache. There are numerous posts to the same effect (I dont have time to search and privide links for you sorry), but as a seasoned Metaframe 1.8 and prior admin I cannot emphasise enough how important this file is.

If you check the registry as mentioned before you will find the printers installed by TSE by default, most HP printers will map to one of these. Drivers like kyocera and lexmark are ones to avoid as much as possible, I would just do a quick search on citrix forums before applying any driver as it could save a rebuild.

Hope this helps.

Regards



Nostferatu

&quot;Yesterday is History,
Tomorrow A Mystery,
Today is a gift,
That's why they call it the Present&quot;