Windows Server 2008 Printing

[Annihilator_4]

Long time lurker first time posted, I love these forums and y'all were a big part of getting my CCNA and my current job.

I believe I can describe the issue best by first describing our setup. We have several "pods" as we call them where our doctors are stationed and see patients. Each pod has the exact same setup, rooms with thin clients (WYSE), and each pod has a "host" machine where we have printers locally mapped. Note all of these printers are connected to the host machine through USB and most if not all do not have ethernet ports (they costed almost double the price when we initially setup the clinic). This worked wonderfully in Server 2003 but we found as we moved to Server 2008 there are TONS of drivers issues and various bugs which cause downtime during peak hours. The errors vary from "too many remote connections" to printers not mapping from our printer script to spoolers locking up altogether.

I realize the translation from XP to Server 2008 (vista whatever) is likely what is causing these interfacing issues and have been looking for solutions like installing a print server on one of our new virtual servers but still get the same translation issues. I can add the printer to the print server and run test prints all day but when I try and map it to a terminal server session and try and print I get errors. Installing network printers everywhere is out of the question as the cost of running drops to each pod and buying all new printers we can never get by administration.

I am curious if anyone has gone to Server 2008 with virtual printers (hosted locally) and found a good way to avoid the translation issues from XP to Server 2008.

Thanks for any suggestions

 

[Exavior]

Server 2008 or 2008 R2?

 

[p3n]

Not sure since you gave no specifics of errors but on 2008r2 we had to manually add some drivers to our RDS hosts otherwise the printers failed to install...

 

[Exavior]

Windows 2008 R2 added a new feature easy print for printing when connected through a remote desktop connection to a shared printer from the client. So for example if i'm on mypc and remote desktop into server1 with my printer shared through my connection from mypc, If i try to print from server1 to the printer on mypc it won't use the normal driver. Instead it uses some virtual driver that takes the print job, converts it to xps sends that over the connection to the client which then sends it to the printer using its own print driver.

In theory this is a good features, had they did it the othe way around that is. This is meant to keep you from having to worry about your server having the drivers for every single possible printer that could connect to it, instead if just uses the virtual driver. Issue is that this is sloooooooow as it has to first "print" to an xps then copy that to the client and then send it to the printer. so you are waiting for extra steps in there. With some changes to group policy you can set it to only use that fake driver if it doesn't have the real one, then go through and install the correct drivers for any printer that you know will be used and it will speed up printing.


although after rereading the OP, it sounds like in this case the printer is being shared from server1 from my example and not mypc. is that correct?

 

[Annihilator_4]

-Running Server 2008R2

-We have all the appropriate drivers on the terminal servers as the users are able to print 60-70% of the time. I would list out all the errors but through observation I can assume with some certainty that the issue lies with the XP/Server 2008 translation. If it helps I can provide more specifics

-Some more specifics about our setup, we run mostly HP Laserjet Printers; 2055, 2035, 2015, 1320 (lots). Each pod is mapped through a printer script by the name of their host machine (thin client or desktop) which clears their printers each time they login then readd's the appropriate ones. The idea being that if they login at another station or a new pod they are mapped to the correct printer. This worked wonderfully in server 2003/XP environment but is very kuldgy in Server 2008. As I understand a print server would allow us to do away with the printer script and push printers down through GP.

-All the printers are shared locally by the client connecting to the server, so for example if any of the thin clients look at the port configuration of their mapped printer the path will be the \\hostmachine's name\printer.

-I haven't tested easy print yet, you mention it is slow to translate how slow are we talking? I have a very impatient user base (who doesn't).

Again thanks for the all the help guys

 

[Exavior]

-Running Server 2008R2

-We have all the appropriate drivers on the terminal servers as the users are able to print 60-70% of the time. I would list out all the errors but through observation I can assume with some certainty that the issue lies with the XP/Server 2008 translation. If it helps I can provide more specifics

-Some more specifics about our setup, we run mostly HP Laserjet Printers; 2055, 2035, 2015, 1320 (lots). Each pod is mapped through a printer script by the name of their host machine (thin client or desktop) which clears their printers each time they login then readd's the appropriate ones. The idea being that if they login at another station or a new pod they are mapped to the correct printer. This worked wonderfully in server 2003/XP environment but is very kuldgy in Server 2008. As I understand a print server would allow us to do away with the printer script and push printers down through GP.

-All the printers are shared locally by the client connecting to the server, so for example if any of the thin clients look at the port configuration of their mapped printer the path will be the \\hostmachine's name\printer.

-I haven't tested easy print yet, you mention it is slow to translate how slow are we talking? I have a very impatient user base (who doesn't).

Again thanks for the all the help guys

Easy Print is on by default, you have to turn it off. We took me awhile to figure it out. Moved to a new accounting system that requires us to remote desktop into a hosted server on their end (wasn't my idea, old GM thought that would be a great way to go) and noticed that when printing it would take about 30 - 45 seconds for the first page to start printing. Thought it was due to the connection going over a IPsec link to their network. but then noticed that if I installed a printer locally on there via IP address that it worked fine, it was only the ones that were being shared from the clients that were causing the issues. Then looked and seen that by default it is using a fake driver and that you have to turn that off in group policy and then install a real driver for it to stop using that.

Like I said, in theory that is nice that it makes it easier for people to print but I wish it would try to use a real driver from the start. Then if it can't find one then use the easy print. Not use easy print unless you dig down into policies and turn that off.