best practices for configuring printing

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Confidential—Proprietary Information—For use by authorized NextGen clients and employees only. Not for public distribution. Copyright 2013

Best Practices for Configuring Printing

200

Jeffrey Cascino, Donald

Gunkel, Jason Kelly, and

Todd Nixon


Things our lawyers make us say...

Neither NextGen Healthcare nor any presenter at the Users

Group Meeting is engaged in rendering legal or other

professional advice and this presentation is not a substitute

for the advice of your attorney, accountant and/or other

professional advisor.


Session Guidelines

• Silence all cell phones

• Questions will be addressed at the end

of the presentation

• Refrain from personal discussion


INTENDED AUDIENCE / GENERAL INFO

• System Administrators, Network Administrators, Engineers

• Printing methodologies discussed are typical to Microsoft OS platforms

• Not intended as a how to document – for tutorials or step by step, please

reference Microsoft, Citrix, or other printer specific documentation

• Should a conflict become apparent, NextGen yields to vendor specific

documentation

• For thin client environments, illustrations are applicable to both RDP and ICA

• Rule of Thumb: If you cannot print from Windows Notepad, you will not be

able to print from NextGen!


AUTO CLIENT-CREATED PRINTERS

• Printer physically attached to client

• Client connected over LAN / WAN

• Print traffic is compressed



• Printer attached thru print server.

• Client connected over LAN / WAN.

• Not ideal if client connected over

WAN – impacted by latency.



ADVANTAGES

• Generation of auto-created printers is the default behavior for Remote

Desktop and Citrix XenApp

• Users see the printers that they are already familiar with

• All local printers or only the default printer can be made available

• No additional setup is necessary



DISADVANTAGES

• Depending on location of user related to Remote Desktop / Citrix and print

server, performance can be poor

• Can be bandwidth intensive

• Print jobs must be rendered on the server which is processor intensive

• Native drivers may be required on the Remote Desktop / Citrix servers

• Printer installation and configuration is still required on the local client

• Users can manage their own printers – potentially impacting printers

mapped in a client session


NETWORK PRINTERS and SESSION PRINTERS

• Printing traffic is routed directly

from Remote Desktop / Citrix

server to the print server.

• Most efficient printing method if all

traffic remains on a LAN.



• Represents a typical WAN network

topology

• Can present a challenge to obtain

optimal performance due to print

job routing over a WAN



ADVANTAGES

• Administrators have the greatest control over printing in this configuration.

• Printing is optimal when the Remote Desktop / XenApp Server and the print

server are on the same LAN.

• Very reliable – administration is centralized

• Users can receive the same printers no matter where they log in.



DISADVANTAGES

• Administrators must manually configure printers by user, group or location.

• If not configured by Administrator, users must browse the network for

printers.

• To obtain best performance, the print server and the printer must be located

on the same LAN as the Remote Desktop server or XenApp server



NextGen recommends that Network Print Servers and Session Printers be

used wherever possible.

This method remains the preferred printing model for the NextGen Application.


REMOTE DESKTOP SERVICES GENERAL GUIDELINES

Remote Desktop Services:

• Microsoft signed drivers should always be used.

• Implement the Microsoft Easy Print and / or Fallback print drivers where

possible.

• Enable printer redirection in the RDC client for auto-created printers.

• Printers can be provided via Group Policy or via a logon script.

• Printer drivers must be installed locally on the server.


CITRIX XENAPP GENERAL GUIDELINES

Citrix XenApp:

• Microsoft signed drivers should always be used.

• If applicable, install the XenApp Printer Optimization Pack.

• For session printers, print drivers must be installed locally on the server

unless the Citrix Universal Printer is used (requires XenApp 6.5 HRP01 or

later)

• Create a local printing policy enforcing legacy style printer names.

• If testing demonstrates 100% viability of the Universal Print Driver, prioritize

this driver – otherwise use the UPD only if native drivers are not available.

• For session printers, session printers must be mapped in the Delivery

Services Console or App Center.


SAMPLE XENAPP PRINTER POLICY OPTIONS for

AUTO-CREATED PRINTERS

The following Citrix XenApp policy option concepts encompass multiple

versions. The specific implementation between versions.

These policy options are suggestions to start with. Business drivers within your

organization may warrant different choices.

Policy Option Setting Configuration

Client Printers/Auto-creation Enabled Auto-create all client printers

Client Printers/Legacy client printers Enabled Create old-style client printers

Client Printers/Printer properties retention Enabled Held in profile only if not saved on client

Client Printers/Print job routing Enabled Always connect indirectly as a client printer

Client Printers/Turn off client printer mapping Not Configured

Drivers/Native printer driver auto-install Enabled Do not automatically install drivers

Drivers/Universal driver Enabled Use universal driver only if requested driver is

unavailable


SAMPLE MICROSOFT GROUP POLICY OPTIONS for

AUTO-CREATED PRINTERS

The following Microsoft group policy option concepts encompass multiple OS

versions. The specific implementation between versions.

These policy options are suggestions to start with. Business drivers within your

organization may warrant different choices.

Policy Option Setting Configuration

Use Terminal Services Easy Print printer driver

first Enabled Always attempt to use easy print driver first.

Redirect only the default client printer Not Configured Allow All client printers to connect

Specify RD Session Host server fallback printer

driver Enabled Use PCL and / or PS driver


NETWORK PRINTERS and SESSION PRINTERS:

DRIVER REMAPPING

NextGen recommends minimizing the number of print drivers maintained on a

Remote Desktop Server or XenApp Server to reduce administrative overhead.

Many vendors provide “Universal Drivers” for the specific printers. These can

provide a good starting point for providing functionality to multiple printers while

minimizing the number of drivers hosted on a server.

Multi-function print drivers should be avoided.

Alternatively, the Windows OS is provided stock with several print drivers,

which are perfectly viable. Microsoft signed drivers should always be used.


PRINT DRIVERS

Install only the print drivers. Do not install additional management tools or

applications.

In some cases Native Drivers will be required. Prior to installing native drivers,

NextGen recommends the following be considered:

NextGen has not done testing of specific drivers at this point, however

beginning in NextGen 5.6 and improved upon in 5.7, all printing conforms to

.net framework standards.

Microsoft Easy Print Driver Microsoft Fallback Print Driver

Citrix Universal Print Driver HP Universal Print Driver

Dell Open Print Driver Lexmark Universal Print Driver

Konica Minolta Universal Print Driver


TROUBLESHOOTING

If printer performance is a concern or printer instability is suspected:

• Stress Printers: http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX109374

• Print Detective http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX116474

These are Citrix tools, however they can be run in a native Microsoft

environment as well. Poorly performing print drivers should be removed from a

Remote Desktop or Citrix XenApp environment.

Alternately, if a poor driver must remain, beginning with Windows Server 2008

R2, Printer Isolation is an option.

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX109374

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX116474


ADDITIONAL REMARKS

NextGen EPM Printer Preferences are not currently supported in VDI

environments.

NextGen EPM Printer Preferences are not supported for auto-created printers

unless Citrix XenApp is being used.

NextGen environments that went live on versions earlier than NextGen 5.6 SP1

UD5 and KBM 8.0 will need to ensure printer names are 31 characters or less.

In some environments, published applications should wait for printers to be

created prior to launching EPM.


Any Questions?

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