
Over 300,000 organizations have placed their faith in Citrix Systems for virtualization, networking, and cloud solutions from. Many of these firms have become heavily reliant on the powerful and scalable virtualization software such as XenDesktop which Citrix Systems has extensively developed.
One limitation that still persists is that printing is difficult in a Citrix environment. Despite the improvements that have been done, it is still difficult for admins to deploy printers. Even when they do, it is hard for them to monitor their progress. In the end, the users of this platform are still struggling to perform routine printing tasks.
Unfortunately, the issues don’t end here. The thing is that the virtualization software throws in a lot of variables which weren’t there earlier which leads to introduction of various flashpoints. Let’s look at some of the common problems faced with this platform.
- The Citrix server print-spooler may crash
This problem has persisted for a while now. The spooler may hang, the server usage may spike. This will cause end-user frustration and lead to the development of help desk tickets. To solve this, restart the spooler using the services console. This usually solves the problem unless the driver is at fault. Restarting involves hunting for the problem driver so that it doesn’t happen again. This process will halt spooler crashes but will require some additional input to allow your clients to continue printing. You can command affected workstations to use Universal Print Driver (UPD) or search for a different version of the driver.
- Printing policies are ignored
Properly configured but non-applied printing policies are another issue the people using this platform may have faced. This happens when there is a conflict with a group policy object (GPO) or a related Citrix policy. When this happens the policy in question can be selectively overridden. This entire process of detecting the problem and diagnosing it can become quite a hectic task for admins. What you could do, is run a dedicated test server within its own organizational unit (OU). This needs to be done while simultaneously blocking all policy inheritance. After this you need to login with a new user account and check whether or not the new desired policy is executed when there are no overrides.
- Improper printer deployment
This is a basic problem in any printing environment, but Citrix is also affected by it. Before deploying choose to either auto-create printers or deploy session printers. A solid print-management solution is needed if either of these methods is to be effective.
All these organizational problems cannot be tackled if you are not equipped with the right hardware. You need to have proper printers with the right components. Without the right components the printers will not perform optimally and will breakdown faster. You can visit sites like Needink which will provide you with the best products like printer and toner cartridges to ensure that your setup functions optimally.