Posted by Jordan Pusey

Printing in Citrix using its built-in functionality is something many admins try to avoid. Not out of choice, but out of necessity. Both client-side Citrix printing and Citrix print management leave a lot to be desired on account of their unreliability, unique requirements and lack of transparency. Although there have been gradual improvements as Citrix evolves, printing in Citrix environments still is nowhere near the level it needs to be for dependable, straightforward, trouble-free enterprise printing.

Several third-party solutions have sprung up to address Citrix printing problems, but few of them offer the ease of use and flexibility of PrinterLogic. Here are six reasons why PrinterLogic should be your go-to solution for printing in Citrix:

1. Citrix print management done right. When you use PrinterLogic in a Citrix environment, you get access to PrinterLogic’s unparalleled print management. Your first experience with this will likely be the web-based admin console, which offers centralized management of every printer across the entire enterprise from a single pane of glass. And it just gets easier from there. Set permanent or temporary default printers with the click of a checkbox. Deploy printers with precision – yet without resorting to group policy objects (GPOs) or scripts. Plus much, much more.

2. No need for print servers. A huge contributor to Citrix printing problems is print servers, which are finicky, frustrating and costly single points of failure. By enabling you to eliminate print servers altogether through direct IP printing in Citrix, PrinterLogic lets you remove all traces of bloat from your thin architecture.

3. Reduced WAN traffic. By virtue of its ability to establish direct IP connections between endpoint devices and printers, PrinterLogic slashes the amount of network traffic that has to travel across the WAN to the centralized servers. That removes further potential for Citrix printing problems, frees up bandwidth, and improves the network performance that is so essential to virtual environments.

4. Self-service printer installation. One of PrinterLogic’s most acclaimed features is its intuitive self-service portal. This allows ordinary end users to easily identify and install printers themselves from a floor plan map. All without having to call the service desk. That saves them time, and it saves your IT and support staff time.

5. Your choice of printing in Citrix. Want to print to the Citrix Universal Printer? Not a problem. Or maybe you’d rather use auto-created printers? That’s fully supported, too. So is using direct IP session printers. Since each method brings its own advantages, PrinterLogic doesn’t force you into relying on one method for printing in Citrix. You’re free to choose whichever method your organization prefers.

6. Improved proximity printing. Citrix print management isn’t all bad. It has some great features, such as proximity (or location-based) printing. PrinterLogic actually builds on this strength by making proximity printing more targeted and effective, so end users can have nearby printers automatically installed on the fly—even if they happen to roam during a session.

The fixes to printing in Citrix can sometimes be as daunting as the problems themselves. Not with PrinterLogic. Our print management solution is a comprehensive remedy for Citrix printing problems that combines flexibility, ease of use and stability.

Windows Server 2012 R2 included a new and welcome feature called Branch Office Direct Printing. Because high WAN utilization is such an ongoing problem for distributed organizations with a centralized server infrastructure, this feature was designed to reduce network traffic via WAN connections by allowing client workstations at remote sites to make direct connections to local printers for faster and more reliable branch printing. In theory, this method of branch office printing should also reduce the workload on the overtaxed centralized print servers by bypassing them entirely.

As many IT professionals soon discovered, however, Branch Office Direct Printing in Windows Server 2012 has a number of show-stopping restrictions. To begin with, it requires both Windows 8 clients and a print server running Windows Server 2012. With so many organizations still running Windows 7 clients, branch office printing would force them into system-wide OS upgrades just to make use of a single benefit. Furthermore, this implementation of branch office printing also calls for printer drivers that support the client-side rendering (CSR) capability on which it relies.

And then there’s lost functionality. Branch office printing in Windows Server 2012 forfeits quota, auditing and detailed job logging capabilities, and it also introduces some security issues because printers have to be configured to accept jobs from any client. As Branch Office Direct Printing relies on CSR to handle print jobs, any server-side rendering (SSR) features would naturally be inaccessible with branch printing enabled.

Even with all those caveats, Microsoft makes no guarantees that Branch Office Direct Printing will reduce WAN traffic, speed up branch printing and improve scalability as intended.

To truly enjoy the benefits of Branch Office Direct Printing in Windows Server 2012 without the long list of conditions and tradeoffs, there’s PrinterLogic. Optimized branch printing isn’t an added feature – it’s an integral part of our print management solution.

By leveraging robust direct IP technology, PrinterLogic enables you to eliminate the WAN traffic created by print jobs in all kinds of print environments, even those with hybrid OS clients. It automatically creates direct connections between endpoint devices and printers, which prevents those print jobs from ever crossing the WAN. That reduction in print traffic ends up reducing overall network congestion and accelerating branch office printing. Plus PrinterLogic can integrate with your existing WAN caching technologies to avoid cross-WAN driver download, so you can push out company-wide driver installs and updates without worrying about bogging down the WAN link to remote sites.

Better still, PrinterLogic allows you to eliminate your print servers entirely – along with their attendant costs, infrastructure and hassle. In their place you get increased branch printing functionality, centralized administration over every network printer from a single pane of glass, an intuitive user self-service portal for routine printer installations, and the possibility to include modules for mobile/BYOD printing, comprehensive auditing capabilities and much more.

Branch Office Direct Printing in Windows Server 2012 was met with cheers, quickly followed by disappointment when all of its limitations were factored in. PrinterLogic has no such drawbacks. It enables your entire organization to move beyond print servers while delivering all the benefits you expect of WAN-avoiding branch office printing.

Posted by Josh Macdonald

The recent release of PrinterLogic Web Stack (formerly Printer Installer) brings the highly anticipated addition of role-based access control or “RBAC.” As a system administrator for an enterprise print management solution, you are tasked with balancing restrictions for what IT users can do within a system, without blocking them from getting their job done. This practice is known as the principle of least privilege. You can apply the principle of least privilege across your network using complicated group policies and active directory user, groups, containers and organizational units. Doing so ensures your end users are only able to access the information, tools and resources needed to complete their day to day tasks.

With a one year old boy at home, my wife and I have taken measures to protect him (and us). We have locked cabinets, keep doors shut and make sure the dog food dishes are out of reach. Recently, my wife heard the familiar sound of the dog door opening. With the dog on the floor next to her, she rushed into the kitchen and arrived just in time to catch our son sliding through his new found portal to freedom.

When the principle of least privilege isn’t being applied to a network of any size, you leave the “dog door” wide open for some serious headaches. At PrinterLogic, we understand the importance of the principle of least privilege, and that is why the recent release of PrinterLogic Web Stack includes RBAC.

In the past we have had three non-configurable roles: Administrator, Manager and Deployer. As we interacted with our customers, we discovered they were looking for six roles: Administrator, Site Manager, Deploy Manager, Help Desk, Print Job Manager and Administrative Auditor. But we also took it one step further and provided the ability to create custom roles to fit any position on your team.

When you create a new role, you can either build it from the ground up, or simply clone an existing role and change the permissions. Each part of the admin console is represented in the permission tree, so you can get very granular in setting the permissions of the user. Notice that you can hide menu items, folder objects, and printers from each user, limiting their scope. You can also give them view-only permissions. Now you have the option to limit your help desk workers in Australia to only see printers in the Sydney office and only deploy printer drivers, but not change the printer settings, for example.

As you get used to this granular approach, you will see that you can create roles based on every worker who needs access to print management in your organization, giving them the least privileges, but enough to get their job done.

Are you concerned about what will happen with your existing roles you have in version 15.1 as you upgrade to 16.1? As you upgrade to 16.1 from 15.1 the administrator role remains the same. The manager role will change to a site manager role and the deployer role will change to the deploy manager. Nothing will change in regards to permissions with those roles except for the fact that in 15.1 if the role did not have certain permissions those functions were grayed out in the platform. Now we completely hide those features so anything a role does not have view or modify permissions to is now completely hidden from the user.

With PrinterLogic, you now have the power to implement RBAC on a very granular level. Adding this to the benefits of print server elimination, centralized management, a self-service installation portal, Pull and Mobile Printing and more…what more could you ask for? Seriously. If there’s more you are asking for. Leave a comment below.

Posted by Chris Poole

Implementing PrinterLogic’s Pull Printing solution has many benefits, including lowering costs, increasing security and reducing waste. It also adds convenience for end users who simply walk up to a printer, authenticate using their badge or enter their credentials on the printer’s LCD. They then are able to select which jobs to release from their queue.

But what happens if your printer does not have a control panel? Does it mean you need to spend a lot of money and upgrade your entire printer fleet? PrinterLogic has an option that could be the correct choice for you. It is Simple Badge Release, the ability to release print jobs to any network printer with a simple swipe of a badge.

In Devils Lake, North Dakota, they have a problem. The lake waters have no way to flow to a natural river causing flooding in the local towns each time the lake water levels rise. Instead of taking on the cost of moving homes, families and towns, the city decided to build a dike to control the flood waters. Every couple of years, they must build the dike higher and higher to combat the flooding issues causing additional expense to the government. However, it’s considerably cheaper to build up the sides of the dike instead of relocating all the residents of the small towns surrounding the lake.

At PrinterLogic we understand that you have legacy devices that do not support our embedded control panel applications to release print jobs in a user’s pull printing queue. As much as we would all prefer new large Multi Function Devices (MFD) with low operating costs, sometimes we are like Devils Lake and have to make decisions based on many factors that don’t allow for replacing your entire printer fleet. There can be high up front costs to purchase and integrate new large MFDs into your environment. You have already spent the money on your current devices, and you might feel you have not utilized these devices to the end of their useful life. You shouldn’t have to update your fleet based on limited support from your print management software.

For this purpose PrinterLogic has introduced Simple Badge Release functionality. We support Pull Printing from any network printer without having to replace your entire fleet. This could be legacy printers or single function devices that do not have a control panel to use for releasing print jobs.
Simply use a network card reader such as the RF IDeas Ethernet 241 and associate the device to a printer from within the administrative PrinterLogic Web Stack (formerly Printer Installer) admin console. Plug the card reader into the network and it will be ready for use.

With Simple Badge Release your users will have the ability to release their jobs at any network printer. They simply walk up to a printer, swipe their badge or key fob at the network enabled card reader, and their jobs are released and printed at the associated printer. You will have the option to configure whether it is the user’s last job in the queue, or their entire queue that gets released when they swipe their badge. It makes it a very simple process for IT and your end users.

PrinterLogic has fantastic support for Pull Printing with devices with an embedded control panel and a badge reader. While we realize this will be the preference when possible, there are times when you can’t use a supported device. With Simple Badge Release there is a simple way to provide the security and convenience of Pull Printing and Secure Printing at any network printer.

With the advancements being made to technology in the workplace, we are increasingly becoming more mobile and untethered from our desks. When you add mobile or traveling users to the mix, you are also adding a new level of complexity to your printing environment. This begs the question, how do I make sure that no matter what location an end user goes to, they will be able to print. The answer to that question is location based printing.

Let’s say you have a manager who travels to your remote offices and all he comes armed with is his company issued laptop. When he shows up, he occasionally needs to be able print. No problem right? In the words of Dwight Shrute, ”FALSE,” this can be a problem. If you aren’t currently using a 3rd party solution to manage location based printing, then your options are pretty much limited to having the manager create a help desk ticket every time they visit a remote office or, mapping all remote office printers onto the manager’s laptop.

Having the manager create a help desk ticket every time might not seem like a terrible idea, but each time they request help it costs money, the cost of the requests can add up quickly and the time spent could have been used on more pressing projects. The problem with mapping all of the printers is they now have a big list of printers to sift through that aren’t even relevant to where they are currently stationed. Which means they can accidently send sensitive documents to a printer that isn’t even at the same location they are currently at.

With PrinterLogic’s solution, you can easily configure location based printing and quickly add printers to a workstation according to its IP address and subnet. The intelligent client that is installed on your manager’s laptop sees what IP address is assigned anytime there is an active network connection. The client reports back the IP address and automatically installs the printer(s) for that location and remove any printers that aren’t found there. That effectively allows you to automatically deploy printers based entirely on location, saving your staff and your employees the hassle of service desk calls to troubleshoot installation woes.

Because PrinterLogic’s solution also fully integrates with virtual platforms, you can utilize this same location based printing with Citrix, VMware and Terminal Services. Whether you are using session printers, redirected printers, zero clients or thin clients.

In addition to what has been covered, PrinterLogic has the ability to eliminate print servers altogether by converting printers to direct IP, provide a self service printer installation portal complete with floor plan maps and a browsable folder tree, mobile printing, releasing printing, print job auditing and much much more. To find out more about our solution, visit us at www.printerlogic.com for a demo and a free trial and see if it’s the right fit for you.

Posted by Andrew Miller

Targeted printer deployment is an important goal of every IT administrator. Unfortunately, in most real-world scenarios, that goal ends up looking like a pipe dream more often than not, because deploying printers to specific users usually relies on scripts or group policy objects (GPOs).

GPOs in particular aren’t renowned for their precision. This is because they can end up invalidating one another when contradictory policies are introduced at the core group policy level and the client-side level, which can cause an untold number of hard-to-troubleshoot problems when deploying printers. There are actually incredibly complicated flowcharts designed for helping admins trace the circuitous path of group policy application and hunt down the issues preventing certain users from receiving certain printers: Is a necessary GPO disabled? Is security filtering on? Are instructions being processed asynchronously? Is loopback processing enabled? Is there a slow network link?

Scripts are another common strategy for targeted printer deployment. They have the potential to complement or even supersede GPOs by offering more precision in some environments, but they require custom coding and constant updating to be useful. If a print environment changes on account of wider workplace or workforce changes, the script needs to be changed accordingly. And fast. Otherwise, at the very least, it could result in deploying printers to the wrong users and leaving the right ones out in the cold.

All this complexity runs contrary to the idea of truly targeted printer deployment. And it still doesn’t always result in the right printers being deployed to the right users at the right time. For that, it takes a print management solution like PrinterLogic.

PrinterLogic does away with scripts and GPOs without forsaking their basic utility. For example, like GPOs, PrinterLogic integrates fully with Active Directory (AD) so you can continue deploying printers according to familiar hierarchies like user, computer, group, container or Organizational Unit (OU) along with an increased range of targeted printer deployment criteria that includes IP address range, hostname and MAC address.

At the same time, PrinterLogic removes the restrictive GPO rights requirements that prevent service desk staff from altering printer deployment assignments. They can safely add and remove individual printer deployments in response to real-time end user needs without the fear of corrupting delicate GPO arrangements or scripts. Furthermore, PrinterLogic provides extended default printer options for unparalleled targeted printer deployment. A printer can be set as a client default the first time it’s installed, each time the user logs on, or based on the user’s current location – all through the simple click of a checkbox in PrinterLogic’s intuitive web-based administrative console.

Through this same easy-to-use console accessible from anywhere in the enterprise, deploying printers using PrinterLogic can be performed manually or automatically, individually or en masse. That takes the customary effort out of printer deployment while allowing for granular precision – even in large-scale and globally distributed organizations. As targeted printer deployment strategies go, it’s not hard to see why PrinterLogic comes out on top.

Managing printing and print servers is a royal pain no matter who you are, even if you’ve achieved Gandalf the White status as the manager of the Windows print server world.

When using a Windows print server there are so many things to configure, leaving the door wide open for many things to go wrong or not work properly, not to mention all the problems you will run into that will seem to be out of your control. A quick Google search shows that currently the most common issues System Administrators are running into with Windows Server 2012R2 configured as a print server are:

• Driver management
• Misconfigured printing permissions
• Slow print spooler
• Overlooked printer settings
• Needing scripts or group policy to deploy printers

The list can go on and on with strange things happening in different environments. While there are different ways to fix these issues, most are a band-aid approach or don’t address all of the issues you might be having. That is where PrinterLogic comes into play. Allow me to explain how PrinterLogic is able to address all five of the listed issues (promoting you to Gandalf the White status) plus more.

First off, what is PrinterLogic? PrinterLogic is an on premise web application that runs behind your firewall and gives you an expansive toolset to manage your printing environment, empower your end users and remove the headache print servers can cause. As for the five issues mentioned above, here is how PrinterLogic can help.

Learn how you can eliminate your print servers.

Driver Management

Managing drivers on your 2012R2 can be a nightmare, especially if you have both 32 and 64bit. PrinterLogic is able to make managing drivers really simple with a single driver repository that holds both model specific and universal printer drivers, separating them between 32 and 64bit. You can assign drivers to printers according to the specific operating systems supported in your environment and PrinterLogic takes it from there. Any driver changes or updates will be replicated across your environment automatically.

Misconfigured Printing Permissions

Getting printing permissions can be a mess if you aren’t too familiar with the different print server rules, group policy or active directory. With PrinterLogic you can set printer permissions easily with existing active directory groups, containers, OU’s, IP address ranges, the hostname of the workstation or by the MAC address of the workstation. With a couple of mouse clicks you have defined who is allowed to have access to printers.

Slow Print Spooler

In a heavy printing environment, your print server’s spooler is taking quite the beating. This can cause the spooler to run slow or stop responding. That means you either need to get on the print server and reset the spooler or change how the spooler is configured. The biggest issue with this is when the print server has an issue, it brings printing to a standstill and when a office full of heavily motivated workers can’t print, you can bet your help desk is being blown up with calls and requests. PrinterLogic solves this problem by seamlessly converting all of the printers in your environment to direct IP. The print server is no longer being used at all. The print job’s spool on user’s workstation and get sent directly to the printer, never crossing the WAN and staying on the LAN.

Overlooked Printer Settings

When you are managing printers on a windows print server, it can seem a bit overwhelming. Lots of menus and options. PrinterLogic breaks out the printer’s options into easy to navigate tabs and from a single location you can manage all of the printer’s device settings and printing preferences.

Needing Scripts or Group Policy to Deploy Printers

Using scripts or GPOs to deploy printers from your print server are a pain to manage and have repercussions on the end user. Every time they log into their workstation, that script or policy have to apply. This slows down the login time for your users. That time can be a real nuisance if you are an impatient person. PrinterLogic can fix this problem by removing the need for scripts and group policy all together. Any printer that is installed by PrinterLogic will happen after the user logs into their workstation instead of happening while they are logging in.

Aside from the five issues addressed above, PrinterLogic offers so much more. Contact us today to see a demonstration of the software and a free proof of concept to see it in action in your environment.

Posted by Andrew Miller

Optimization should be the watchword for any enterprise. Whether it concerns people, facilities, processes or resources, smart and successful organizations know that their bottom line depends on how efficiently these aspects are operating and being utilized. However, at PrinterLogic we find that print optimization—and more specifically, print infrastructure optimization—is neglected all too often, despite the fact that printing represents a sizable portion of any IT budget.

Some might say that print infrastructure optimization is advisable. We’d argue that it’s absolutely necessary. That’s because print infrastructure optimization done right has the potential to cut the initial costs of purchase as well as the ongoing costs of operation, maintenance and upgrade. But outside of simply shrinking the number of printers in your organization, how it is possible to streamline your print infrastructure further?

The answer lies in eliminating print servers. This is a big step for many organizations, one they tend to view with trepidation. Eliminating print servers? Surely that would cripple their enterprise printing by limiting functionality, hindering scalability and restricting capacity. Wouldn’t it? It would be like trying to operate a city transit system using minivans! How does that qualify as print infrastructure optimization?

But eliminating print servers is far easier and far more beneficial than you might think – as long as you have the right enterprise print management solution.

PrinterLogic is built around the very idea of print infrastructure optimization. It’s an enterprise print management solution based on proven direct IP technology, which establishes direct connections between endpoint devices and local printers. Instead of having print jobs passed from one device to another along the network chain, opening up the possibility for errors and slowdowns at every hop, PrinterLogic puts print jobs on the fastest route from point A to point B. That can speed up print times (making your end users very, very happy) and avoid the heavy WAN traffic associated with printing in consolidated server environments.

Centralized administration is another huge benefit of PrinterLogic. Whereas print servers lead to a fragmented experience no matter how much you try to amalgamate them into one management interface, PrinterLogic offers at-a-glance monitoring and control of your entire print environment through its convenient, consistent web-based console. Admins can automatically deploy and delete printers and drivers, adjust profiles and settings, or monitor and manage print queues for the whole fleet. And PrinterLogic provides this with a single server. Now that’s print infrastructure optimization.

PrinterLogic gives you something else print servers can’t: true end-user self-service. Through its intuitive and ubiquitous self-service portal, PrinterLogic empowers end users with the ability to perform routine printer installations themselves. Without ever having to call the service desk and ask for help, they can locate, identify and install nearby printers with a single click. That saves them as well as their support technicians time and frustration, which is just one of many examples of how print infrastructure optimization can actually result in labor optimization. Hundreds of our customers have attested to that outcome in case studies and independent surveys.

And by eliminating print servers, you remove their risky single points of failure along with their vulnerability to driver conflicts, their licensing fees and their recurring costs of service and upgrade. So print infrastructure optimization ought to be looking pretty enticing right now. PrinterLogic and its acclaimed ease and speed of deployment can help your organization achieve that goal as quickly as you can say, “I’m ready to eliminate print servers!”

We now live in an era where 64 bit operating is becoming more prominent, leaving its 32 bit counterpart further and further behind in the dust. Even though 64 bit has been gaining more traction and pulling away from 32 bit, 32 bit is still relevant and supporting it is still necessary. This can cause some serious headaches when it comes to managing printer drivers on a 64 bit Windows print server.

If you are an expert in this field, then you are already aware of the potential issues and time that goes into trying to install and manage 32 bit drivers. For those who aren’t experts, if you are using Windows server 2008R2 adding and managing 32 bit drivers requires some extra work. One of the more popular approaches requires you to install the 32 bit drivers from a 32 bit client workstation and the driver names have to match exactly with its 64 bit version. This might not seem so bad at first, but if your organization uses numerous model specific drivers, that one off ten minute task just turned into a full days work IF you don’t run into any issues. Windows server 2012 and 2012R2 have provided a new Type-4 driver that works across both 32 and 64 bit operating systems which saves you from needing to do the above steps, but with it being so new there isn’t a whole lot of support for them yet so Type-3 drivers are still primarily used, which means you are back to adding 32 bit drivers separately and making sure the names match exactly.

Instead of pounding your head on your keyboard, trying to reinvent the wheel in this situation, let’s instead look at how to best utilize a solution that can make that management a lot easier.

PrinterLogic’s print management software offers an intuitive solution that puts a powerful tool set at your fingertips that will allow your 32 bit and 64 bit drivers to coexist with hardly an effort. Once the software has been installed, you are provided with a web based administration console that can be accessed from any web enabled device on your network. In this administration console you can use a built in tool that will connect to any existing Windows or Novell print server and import all of the print queues with their respective drivers and printing configurations (that way, if you have already put forth the effort of adding all of the 32 bit drivers you won’t have to do it again).

If you need to add 32 bit drivers, simply click the “upload new driver” button, browse to the driver’s .INF file and click upload. The software will look at the INF file and automatically determine if it is 32 bit or 64 bit and what operating systems it is compatible with. When it is done being uploaded to the driver’s repository you can assign it to any printer you like and what operating systems you support.

If you needed to configure any default printing preferences or tray configurations, PrinterLogic offers profiles for each driver that are fully customizable and utilize the assigned drivers native configuration interface. Once created and applied, everybody with that printer will automatically have those configurations applied to their printer.

In addition to what has been covered, PrinterLogic has the ability to eliminate print servers altogether, further reducing the 32 bit and 64 bit driver management issues, provide a self service printer installation portal for your end users, integration with Citrix and VMware environments, mobile printing, releasing printing, print job auditing and much much more. To find out more about our solution, visit us at www.printerlogic.com for a demo and a free trial and see if it’s the right fit for you.