trying to standardize printer names

[Guest]

Ok so here is my problem. First off, I am a total newb to scripting, cscript, wscript, etc and I understand that is an issue I am working on. Nonetheless, I have a server running Win2k that is not a part of my domain. This server runs Citrix and acts as the print server for Citrix applications/users and regular LAN domain users. The printers listed on the server were installed over time by several different people, so the naming conventions are all different and it looks\is sloppy. Also, sometimes a user will lose a printer mapping and will get the "printer unavailable" error message. If I delete that printer reference, and simply setup the printer again, it works fine. Hit and miss when they break themselves. So...

I would like to be able to create the printers on the server with the same naming convention, then have a script of some sort that can be plugged into the users domain logon script (currently maps drives) that will remap their printers as well as their drive maps.

I am sure this can be done and I'm also sure I would spend weeks trying to figure this out. Has anyone done this that could help me with the code??

Thanks in advance for any help;
chris

[Trammel]

Re: trying to standardize printer names

hmm, you post subject is way short of what your asking. Though we understand where your coming from. As we have all been through the begining before. First thing is naming structure. This can make you run circles trying to figure out what is what and where. Here is an example of mine.
<span style="font-weight: bold">workstations</span>
phx-adm-012345
phx-adm-012346
My company is made up across the country. We are located in Phoenix, AZ. The second part is our building as we have 28 sites total. So adm stands for admin. The last number is the assest tag on the machine. With this information I can nail a machine down to its site and then inventory.

<span style="font-weight: bold">printers</span>
Phoenix-01
Phoenix-02
Same thing here except we just went with Phoenix and the printer number. By making the number two digits it sorts well when searching.

Check out the windows 2000 resource kit as there is some nice printer vbs scripts.

Are you using kixtart for your login scripts or your own?

[This message has been edited by Trammel (edited 10-05-2005).]

[Guest]

Re: trying to standardize printer names

I know, if I could figure out how to change the subject line I'd add "and map client printers" or something to that effect.

I saw another post of your's talking about the resource kits and vbs. Prnmgr.vbs I believe is the one you were referring to.

Now if I only knew something about vbs scripts....arrrrggg.

My naming conventions are:

clients:

Bend-HQ-position name (i.e. isales, bkpr)
(city-location-user title)

Printers:
Bend-Plant-Dell3100cn
same idea

this allows me to name machines here at HQ, my plant, warehouse in Ohio, Hawaii, etc and has proven to be useful to me. Beats the way they were setup.

[Trammel]

Re: trying to standardize printer names

no no no, your making it harder then it should. You don't have to edit the vbs. Are you running active directory?

[Guest]

Re: trying to standardize printer names

I am running AD yes, however, my Citrixserver, which is also the print server, is a stand alone Win2k server without AD installed. This was basically because this network used to be Novell, and the primary application vendor at the time didn't support their appl on a DC....I have DNS and Wins setup on the stand alone server and the AD network and repl is happening fine, so name/IP resolution works fine.

I should mention that my workstations and the printers I have added all carry the new and improved naming convention, just not the ones previously installed. If simply renaming the printers on the server wouldn't break the clients connection, even though the share name isn't changed...

[Trammel]

Re: trying to standardize printer names

Ok, now the first question is are your users in the local users group or administrators group on the workstation? If they are users then login scripts use their permissions. If there administrator to their own workstation you won't have as much problem.

Make a test OU in AD, then create a GPO for that OU. I recommend using GPMC sp1 as it makes it easier to work with GPO. Now what your going to do is. Dig in the GPO, go to computer configuration>windows settings and double click scripts. <span style="font-weight: bold">please note that computer startup scripts use system rights. You have the same setting under user configuration</span>
Here is where you can specify the machines effected by this polciy. I currently have a GPO which makes all the machine run a batch file. You can to copy up prnmgr.vbs file with the commands or switches you need for them to install the network printer.

In fact, now thinking about it. Users may not need to run the vbs file, you could make a batch file and place it under the user configuration settings. It would take me time to find the right sites with the commands. I'm sure this should be enough to get you going though.


[This message has been edited by Trammel (edited 10-05-2005).]