ThinPrint Management Services

Description

Defines a model for a ThinPrint Port with the Virtual Channel Protocol type¹. The model is repre­sented by a container that predefines all printer ports to be installed by Tpms.Agent in one variable.

Afterwards, this model can be used to define the target machine using New-TpmsObjApplyAgent and to perform the installation process using Start-TpmsApplyByAgent.

Requirements

• ThinPrint Engine
• ThinPrint Clients (RDP or ICA type)

path of print data with Virtual Channel printing

Old

UserName:PrinterId#PrinterName

New

PrinterName#UserName:PrinterId

ThinPrint Port settings: Virtual Channel Protocol port type (Vcp)

ThinPrint Port settings: Naming convention

Example 1: cmdlet usage

New-TpmsObjTpPortVcp -BandwidthCtrl 256 -IsEncrypted 0 -Compression Default -Name Vcp:

Defines a ThinPrint Port with the denomination Vcp:, the print protocol Citrix ICA or Microsoft RDP, band­width limited to 256 kbit/s (kbps), no encryption and the default compression level.

Example 2: script containing New-TpmsObjTpPortVcp (for both Native Printing and Driver Free Printing)

The following script creates and shares a number of printer templates for ThinPrint Engines installed on three terminal servers (here: ts01 … ts03) with native drivers (called Native Printing) and with TP Output Gateway as driver (called Driver Free Printing) – each connected to a port pool defined in the .csv file vc-port-pool.csv. The printer information is retrieved from the .csv files native-printers.csv as well as tpog-printers.csv. The printer properties are retrieved from the Tpms templates defined in the respective printer definition file – native-printers.csv or tpog-printers.csv.

For each printer read from the definition files a relevant ThinPrint printer with its driver as well as the ThinPrint Port pool is created.

Note! The general Windows rule for port pooling or so-called printer pooling is:
length of port name ´ number of ports £ 200
With the example

ThinPrint000: to ThinPrint004:

we have 13 ´ 5 = 65 characters.

 

• The port pool definition file vc-port-pool.csv:

"Selected","PortName"

"1","ThinPrint000:"

"1","ThinPrint001:"

"1","ThinPrint002:"

"1","ThinPrint003:"

"1","ThinPrint004:"

• The definition file for Output Gateway printer templates tpog-printers.csv:

"Selected","PrinterName","TemplateName"

"1","_#Output Gateway color","TP Output Gateway color"

"1","_#Output Gateway b+w","TP Output Gateway b+w"

• The definition file for printer templates with native drivers native-printers.csv:

"Selected","PrinterName","DriverName","TemplateName"

"1","_#HP DeskJet 500C","HP DeskJet 500C","HP DeskJet 500C"

"1","_#HP DeskJet 500","HP DeskJet 500","HP DeskJet 500"

• The PowerShell script:

$ports = @()

$allports = @()

$printers = @()

$nprinters = @()

$allprinters = @()

Import-Csv -Path .\vc-port-pool.csv | foreach {

if($_.Selected -eq 1)

{

$ports += New-TpmsObjTpPortVcp -Name $_.PortName

$allports += $_.PortName

}

}

Import-Csv -Path .\tpog-printers.csv | foreach {

if($_.Selected -eq 1)

{

$printer = $_.PrinterName

$template = $_.TemplateName

$printers = New-TpmsObjPrinterTpog -Name ($printer) -Port ([string]::Join(",", $allports)) -Template ($template)

$allprinters += $printers

}

}

Import-Csv -Path .\native-printers.csv | foreach {

if($_.Selected -eq 1)

{

$nprinter = $_.PrinterName

$ndriver = $_.DriverName

$ntemplate = $_.TemplateName

$nprinters = New-TpmsObjPrinter -Name ($nprinter) -Port ([string]::Join(',', $allports)) -Driver ($ndriver) -Template ($ntemplate)

$allprinters += $nprinters

}

}

$srva = New-TpmsObjApplyAgent -Name "ts01.ourdomain.local" -Port 5050 -Printers ($allprinters) -Ports ($ports)

$srvb = New-TpmsObjApplyAgent -Name "ts02.ourdomain.local" -Port 5050 -Printers ($allprinters) -Ports ($ports)

$srvc = New-TpmsObjApplyAgent -Name "ts03.ourdomain.local" -Port 5050 -Printers ($allprinters) -Ports ($ports)

Start-TpmsApplyByAgent -Action Deploy -Servers ($srva,$srvb,$srvc) | Format-TpmsDispatch

Start-TpmsApplyByAgent -Action Deploy creates ports and printers on the target machine and -Action Remove deletes them.

Printers folder on the central print server: template printers before running the script

Printers folder on the central print server: template printers as well as four ThinPrint templates (with TP Output Gateway and HP DeskJet 500/500C as driver) created and shared by the script above

ThinPrint Port Manager: template printers connected to ThinPort: as well as four ThinPrint Engine tem­plates – each connected to a port pool composed of five ThinPrint VCP Ports created by the script above

^{1 Print print data are sent – bandwidth controlled and compressed – from a user session (Microsoft RDP or Citrix ICA) directly to ThinPrint Clients on workstations or thin clients.}