A couple of months ago, in June I wrote about some of the benefits that Tricerat brings to the table when printing from remote, or Cloud-based virtual environments, which, of course, applies to WVD as well. Now that Windows Virtual Desktop has gone GA I thought I’d talk a bit more on how this works from a technical point of view.
Continue ReadingA big step forward for Windows Virtual Desktop printing. Part one
Last month I (virtually) sat down with Andrew Parlette, CTO of Tricerat. We’ve been in contact before and I was wondering if they have anything special up their sleeve regarding the upcoming Windows Virtual Desktop release. As it turns out, their Simplify Print Suite fits in very nicely. Of course, if you know their product stack this doesn’t come as a surprise.
Continue ReadingWhat happened with Citrix Printing throughout 2018?!
Average time to read: 6 minutesCitrix has had a very busy year. After the release of XenApp and XenDesktop 7.16 in November of 2017, four new versions were released throughout 2018 – XA/XD 7.17, 7.18, and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 1808, and 1811. Wow! From delegated control to the Workspace App, numerous HDX and ICA improvements, LHC, Config Logging, and the list goes on. Release after release brought new and improved features and functionalities, awesome! But what about printing..?
Direct IP printing for the masses. Easy and effective
Average time to read: 5 minutesDirect IP printing is where you print directly from your desktop machine (a physical one, in most cases) to a print device, meaning no print servers or other infrastructural components sit in between. This isn’t new technology, though, the way you handle or manage such a setup has changed over time. How can we take advantage of direct IP printing without the drawbacks that usually come with it? That’s what I’d like to discuss today.
Focus on Citrix (or VMware, or Microsoft) – not printing!
Average time to read: 6 minutesI’ve always had a big interest in printing. It’s something I have written about and presented on extensively in the past. Throughout the years I have had my fair share of failure when it comes to printing in Citrix/RDSH/VDI based environments (who hasn’t?) so I decided to dig in a bit deeper. Not too long ago I got introduced to Tricerat, a very simple, yet effective and efficient solution when it comes to taking care of all things print related within Citrix environments, or any other type of environment, for that matter. Throughout this post I’d like to share with you how they simplify print management and let you, the IT Administrator, focus on Citrix – not printing!
The ultimate Citrix printing internals cheat sheet – version 2.0
Average time to read: 35 minutesWhen I was working on my ultimate Citrix XenDesktop internals cheat sheet just a couple of weeks ago I also got asked (thanks, Jamie) if I would consider updating my printing internals cheat sheet. After giving this some thought – which took me about a minute – I decided this was a great idea and got right to it. Although printing, especially on SBC environments is quite stable, in the sense that not a lot has changed throughout the last couple of years when it comes to the architecture, pathways, traffic flow and so on, I managed to rewrite a great deal (almost all) of the material published earlier and to include a bunch of new facts, figures and ‘nice to knows’ along the way. All this, together with the renewed look and feel, freshly created images and the addition of a Table of Contents will greatly enhance your reading experience, I’m sure. If you download a .PDF copy that is.
What’s new… Printing in Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp 7.9? A more in-depth look.
Average time to read: 6 minutesWhile there have been some major announcements at Synergy, like the Microsoft / Citrix pact including Azure, Office 356, Windows 10 VDI and more, some huge improvements to MCS regarding I/O storage optimizations, including MCS provisioning for the Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor, the Federated Authentication Service, which was also (very) well received, I’d like to focus on a few smaller enhancements. Though ‘small’ does not mean less important, au contraire – as the French would say.
Citrix Synergy SYN508 – Houdini’s guide to Citrix printing, slide deck
Average time to read: < 1 minuteLast Tuesday I gave my first ever Citrix Synergy presentation. It was a so-called Expo Theater session as part of the ‘Meet the Experts’ program over at the Citrix booth. Exiting to say the least. Luckily it went well and I received some very positive feedback. Afterwards multiple attendees approached me asking for the slide deck. I promised to make it available on basvankaam.com as soon as possible. So here it is. Just imagine the slide animations being in there as well. If you have any questions and/or other remarks please let me know by leaving a comment, a PM on Twitter, or just send me an email. Thanks everybody.
The ultimate Citrix printing internals cheat sheet! BIG Takeaway list included!
In this article (part two) I’d like to focus on the Citrix printing pathways, how they differ and when one or the other will, or can be used. I’ll also highlight the universal print driver, server and printer together with a whole bunch of CTX defaults, best practices including some of the most common troubleshooting tools and a BIG list of takeaways. However, knowing what happens after a user hits print and how traffic flows throughout our infrastructure is probably the best place to start. I have also included a BIG list of takeaways, which is available as a separate download as well.
Continue ReadingCitrix printing internals cheat sheet… Part one!
Average time to read: 9 minutesA user clicks print, what happens next? When Citrix is thrown in the mix things work a bit differently. Although the Microsoft print basics still apply, and I’ll discuss them shortly, the way that print traffic will, or can be, routed throughout your environment depends on, one: the physical setup of your machines and printers and, two: the Citrix (print) policies configured. Due note that I will only focus on native Citrix printing and won’t go over any of the third party solutions out there.