Installing PaperCut into a Citrix Environment

Installing PaperCut into a Citrix Environment

There are several different ways in which printers can be configured in a Xen App/Xen Desktop Environment. The most common configurations include the following:

• Client Printers: This maps the printers from the client machine into the session and prints using the client printing paths.

• Server Local printers: Printers are installed and attached locally onto the Xen App server.

• Network Printers (client or server) with a print server: This scenario has all printers setup on a network print server and shared to the rest of the network via print shares (eg: \\servername\printer1). With this option you can either use the network printers mapped on the Client machine (pc) or the network printers mapped on the Citrix server. The print job can either be configured to go via the client PC or sent directly from the server.

• Network Printers (client or server) without a print server: In this situation the network printers have been configured on the client or the server to point directly to the printer and have been installed locally on the machine. (eg: Printer 1 points to the printer IP address: 192.168.10.50). The print job can either be configured to go via the client PC or sent directly from the server.

The client site configurations will determine the configuration that they will use for the setup of the Xen App Printing. The four options listed above have been described in more detail with examples.

Installation of PaperCut into the Xen App/Xen Desktop Environment

Option 1: Client printers

In this scenario the local printers on the client machine (ie: directly attached to the client machine via a USB cable) are mapped into their Citrix session and used to print their documents. In this scenario the print job is spooled locally on the Client machine. Therefore, we would need to use Direct Print in order to capture these print jobs at the client machine. This scenario is unlikely in a Domain environment, but may be used in a small office or workgroup environment.

Scenario Example - David manages a Citrix server in a small workgroup environment. Each user has a desktop printer attached locally to their computer for printing purposes. The Citrix server has been implemented to provide a shared workspace for the staff in the office. As each user has a locally attached printer, David implements the Client Printers option for their Citrix session.

David needs to manage the printing costs for the office, but has no way of tracking the number of jobs each person prints or the associated cost for the printers. He implements Direct Print on the client computers. This allows the local computer to track printing, which forwards the printing statistics to a PaperCut Application server to allow David to track and report on printing across the office.

Option 2: Server Local Printers

In this scenario, the printers are locally connected to the Citrix Xen App or Xen Desktop machine. The printers are then shared through the Client session to allow users to print to these devices. As such we could either utilise Direct Printing at the server or set up the Citrix server as a Primary/Secondary print server to manage and monitor the print jobs.

Scenario Example - Peter runs a student computer lab in the Science department at the local University, which also runs a specialised scientific software package for the students. Peter has installed a Citrix server in the lab to provide students with access to this software during classes. To allow student to print their work, 2 printers have been locally attached to the Citrix server in the lab to ensure that only the students in the lab can print to them.

Peter wants to ensure that each student pays for the printing that they do in these labs. In order to track and manage the student printing, Peter wants to implement PaperCut.

The university already runs PaperCut in the domain.

Option A: Peter installs PaperCut as Secondary Server on the Citrix box to manage the print queues and report back to the Primary Application server.

Option B: Peter installs the Direct Print installed on client machines or Citrix server to report back to Primary PaperCut server

There is no PaperCut Server at the University

Option A: Peter installs the PaperCut Application software onto a machine in his network. He then installs the Direct Print client on client machines or the Citrix server, which reports back to the PaperCut Application server.

Option B: Peter installs the PaperCut Application server on the Citrix machine and monitors/manages all print jobs through the Citrix server.

Option 3: Network Printers with a Print Server

In this Scenario, we would install PaperCut onto the Print server, as all print jobs would be directed through the print server. Depending on how Citrix is configured the print job may come from either the client PC:

Or the server:

Scenario Example Julia is an I.T Manager for a company acme.com. The company runs a domain with a head office and multiple remote office locations. A print server at each office has been configured to simplify the management of printing. To ensure that the users use their default network printer, Citrix has been configured to map the client network printers into their Citrix session. As all print jobs are now routed through the client’s local office print servers, Julia installs the Primary PaperCut Application server on the Print Server in the Head Office and installs PaperCut as secondary servers on the print servers in the Remote offices. The PaperCut installations on the print servers then monitors the print jobs at each of the company’s’ local and remote sites and collates the results back at the head office PaperCut Application Server. Julia can now log into a single website (ie: the PaperCut Admin Interface), at the head office to view the printing across the entire company.

Option 4: Network Printers without a Print Server

In this scenario, the network printers are locally installed on either the Client or Server machine with all print jobs being directly sent to the printer instead of via a print server.

Scenario Example Sebastian is an I.T Manager for a local legal firm. There is a company requirement that all legal tender documents from the Legal Management software is printed only to the high capacity printers on premise. The Legal Management software is provided to all staff via a Citrix Desktop Server. In order to ensure only the network printers are used, Citrix has been configured to display only the high end network printers in the session. As the company is not running a print server these printers have been installed on the Citrix server, pointing directly to the printers’ IP addresses. Sebastian therefore installs PaperCut Direct Print onto the Citrix Desktop Server to monitor user printing. The PaperCut Application server has been configured on another machine in the company to manage centralized reporting for this Citrix Environment configuration.

Questions:

Does PaperCut work with Citrix Print Server and Citrix Universal Print Driver?

Yes. PaperCut operates with Citrix Print server and the Citrix Universal Print Driver. In this scenario you would install PaperCut onto the Citrix Print server and configure it to monitor the Citrix Universal Print queue. All print jobs are then routed through this queue and captured in PaperCut.

I have multiple sites and want to configure Session Printer Policies. How does Papercut work in this scenario?

A session printer is a printer that is mapped to the clients virtual Citrix environment. Typically, this is a printer on the work network. If you are mapping these printers via a shared queue on the company print server, then you can install PaperCut on the print server to monitor and capture print jobs sent to these queues. This will be captured if the user is printing via Citrix or directly from their work computers.

My Client pop up keeps appearing for other users. What should I do?

This is an issue that can occur for clients running in a VDI/Terminal Services environment. Please refer to our KB article on how to configure your PaperCut instance to identify your users based on their username instead of referencing the machine IP address (default config): https://www.papercut.com/kb/Main/SpecialConsiderationsOnTerminalServer