Installing Printer Drivers on 2008 Server

In the process of migrating our servers from 2003 to 2008 and 2008 R2 we have started migrating our print server.  When you bring online the print server we downloaded the 32bit and 64bit drivers for each printer.  While most of our systems are still 32bit the new print server is a 64bit server, hence needing both drivers.

Installing the 64bit drivers was fairly straight forward but allowing 32bit machines to print via this server you also have to add the 32bit drivers as well.  In the past this has been the reverse but the process is the same.. Add and Share the printer then go back in to the Printer Properties and on the Sharing tab add the driver for the other, in our case adding the 32bit drivers for the guests.

When adding the 32bit drivers we ran into some issues.  Since a lot more printer drivers are shipping with windows in 2008 Server the wizard that adds the printer wants to install the OEM driver.  Which we found would print just fine from the server but give us one of two errors when we tried to add the 32bit driver.

The first 32bit driver error:

This error is a result from attempting to install a 32bit driver that doesn’t match the 64bit driver that the printer is currently using.  This is most likely caused by installing the printer with the OEM driver for that printer that came from windows update or shipped with Windows Server.  This is an issue because the Printer name in the OEM.inf and the .inf file provided by the vendor for the 32bit driver is somehow formatted differently … ie: ‘PCL_6’ might be ‘PCL6’ or some other slight variation in the printer name in the .inf file. 

The two solutions are to:

1. Find the oemsetup.inf file and edit the printer name or change the 64bit driver that the printer is using. 
2. The easier of the solutions is to change the 64bit driver from the OEM driver to a downloaded 64bit driver supplied from the vendor.  Once you change the driver or add the manufacture’s driver the install of the x86 driver will not be an issue.

The second 32bit Driver Error:

This occurs when the driver doesn’t match the formatting in the 64bit driver as above, but the issue isn’t resolved when using a vendor supplied 64bit driver.  You can attempt to find the differences between the two vendor supplied drivers as mentioned in issue 1 or take the following steps to install the 32bit driver.

1. Login as an Admin on any  client machine running 32-bit OS (it can be W2k3, XP, Vista doesn’t matter)
2. Access the print server \\PrintserverName\ and choose Printers and Faxes
3. Select the printer you would like to add the 32-bit driver
4. Go to properties
5. Sharing Tab
6. Additional drivers
7.Check the box for x86 for windows 2000,windows xp and windows 2003
8.click ok
9. The driver will be installed from the included drivers on the 32bit OS or it will prompt you for the location of the driver. 
8.Once the driver is installed you can check the server and the X86 box will be enabled.

Installing ACS Facility Scheduler on Remote Desktop Server 2008r2

Previously I documented the process for installing ACS’ Facility Scheduler Application on a 2003 Terminal Server as noted [Here].  But now its time to upgrade our ACS Remote Desktop Server to 2008r2 and the process for installing FS is a little different.  So here were our steps, your mileage may vary.

1. Download the latest installer from the ACS Client Portal. 
    (note the version released on 8/28/09 requires the .Net Framework 3.5)

2. .NET3.5 is included in 2008r2 but when you start the ACS FS installer you get the error displayed below. 

The next logical step would be to install .Net Framework, but remember it comes with Server2008r2, so you can’t just install it as the error below notes.  Rather you have to enable it not install.

The error notes to use the Roles Management tool, which you might think is Adding or Removing Roles, but what the error message really means is to go to the Server Manager then the Features item in the display tree then and then select add Feature to enable .Net 3.5.1. 
(Note: You can deselect the option to install WCF Activation which then won’t require you to install IIS on this server when you enable .Net 3.5.)

3.  After you have enabled .NET Framework 3.5.1 you can run the ACS Facility Scheduler installer.
4. Once the installer is complete launch the application and enter your site number
5. You may be prompted to download application updates, if prompted choose yes to update.
6. Once the updates are complete you should be able to login to FS with your login.
7. After updating and successfully launching the software you need to copy the application files to the default user’s folder so all users will be able to run the application on the Remote Desktop Server.  You can do this by the following steps:

• Enable Hidden Folders by Clicking on Organize>Folder and Search Options> View Tab and then Select Show Hidden Files
• Browse to C:\Users\%User%\AppData\Loca\
• where %User% is the name of the account that was logged in when you installed FS
• Copy the ‘ACS Technologies’ Folder
• Paste the Copied ‘ACS Technologies’ Folder in C:\Users\Default\Appdata\Local\
• To place a shortcut on the Remote Desktop Server desktop for all users, go to c:\Users\%User%\Desktop and Cut the ACS Facility Scheduler shortcut, and paste it in c:\users\Public\Public Desktop\

8. Test your work by RDPing into the server (with an account that hasn’t logged into the server or the profile has been deleted) and you should be able to launch Facility Scheduler and access the application.

• If ACS pushes out updates between the time you do the original install and the first time the user is logging in they may be prompted on the first use to update the application, if so choose yes and let the application update and then launch.

Happy Facility Scheduling…

Windows 2008R2 Remote Desktop Server Licensing – No more auto discovery

One of our recent projects has been preparing for and testing of the migration of our ACS Server.  We are are working to migrate our ACS Terminal Server from a 2003 Terminal server to a 2008r2 Remote Desktop Server and one of the problems that has caused frustration is the Remote Desktop Server CALs (Client Access Licenses).

We have software assurance so having those CALs wasn’t the issue, SA migrated our 2003 TS CALs to 2008r2 Remote Desktop CALs… The problems started when we brought the new server online and added the Remote Desktop Role it wouldn’t sync up with the license server. 

Previously we had setup one of our ‘backup’ domain controllers to be the terminal server license server so all Terminal servers would auto discover our Terminal Server licenses… but not with this new 2008r2 box.  Well alas I found out why… as noted here in the RD Licensing Tech net article:

“Prior to Windows Server 2008 R2, the license server was automatically discovered on the network. This discovery is no longer supported for an RD Session Host server that is running Windows Server 2008 R2.

In Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration in Windows Server 2008 R2, you must specify a license server for the RD Session Host server to use. You can either choose from a list of known license servers or manually enter the name.”

But nowhere in the document does it say how do setup said configuration… Other than you can do so by going to the Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration window.  In the RDSHC window (my abbreviation not Microsoft’s) you can see what license issues you have, and in our case we didn’t have an active license server but we couldn’t figure out how to fix that.

Finally today I came across this article [here] which links to this article [here] that actually gives the step by step instructions.  The gotcha is in the RDSHC window you need to not right click on any of the tree headings but select the top level and then go into the window and right click on the RD license server text for the properties menu to display. 

Incase the links go dark here are the step-by-step copied from the TechNet page.

To specify a license server for the RD Session Host server to use

1. On the RD Session Host server, open Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration. To open Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, point to Remote Desktop Services, and then click Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration.

2. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Yes.

3. In the Edit settings area, under Licensing, double-click Remote Desktop license servers.

4. On the Licensing tab of the Properties dialog box, click Add.

5. In the Add License Server dialog box, select a license server from the list of known license servers, and then click Add. If the license server that you want to add is not listed, in the License server name or IP address box, type the name or IP address of the license server that you want to add, and then click Add.

   You can add more than one license server for the RD Session Host server to use. The RD Session Host server will contact the license servers in the order in which they appear in the Specified license servers box.

6. Click OK to close the Add License Server dialog box, and then click OK to save your changes to the licensing settings.

You can also specify a license server for the RD Session Host server to use by applying the Use the specified Remote Desktop license servers Group Policy setting. This Group Policy setting is located in Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Remote Desktop Services\Remote Desktop Session Host\Licensing and can be configured by using either the Local Group Policy Editor or the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC). Note that the Group Policy setting will take precedence over the license servers configured in Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration.

Now.. I have to say I am not complaining that the new navigation is bad.. just the new way things are being displayed in 2008 and 2008r2 one has to get accustomed to… BUT i am complaining that its a little frustrating when you search the net for ‘how to configure type articles’ and you have go to three or four layers deep to find the instructions.

So… i hope this helps you in you quest to configure the Remote Desktop license server… as well as provides me a place to look when I forget next time I bring online a new server.