Virtual Printer lost

[tmwah]

This one is probably a silly question ...

On a 3-server installation (Gateway/ReverseProxy + 2xApp server), when connecting via HTML5 client, no Virtual Printer appears on one of the app servers, while it is working on the other one. I have no idea at the moment, how we got accidentally rid of the Virtual Printer(s). Is there some setting in the admin tool I am not aware of, that enables/disables the Virtual Printer? Anything else I can check?

As the virtual printer is working as it should on one server, I assume this is not a browser issue (tried Chrome/FF/IE, anyway). Also, we installed the last update today, so we have an up-to-date installation and I do not see the difference between the 2 servers. AFAIK, the virtual printer was already missing before the update.

[hansen]

You might need help from someone at TSplus, but open this file in notepad on both app-servers:
C:\Program Files (x86)\TSplus\Clients\webserver\printer.bin
It should be identical - if not, copy the working version to the bad server (not sure if you need to restart the server or just the webserver).

Otherwise run the printer installation again - it should automatically update everything (server reboot) and pretty sure it touches virtual printer as well, even though it's called universal printer:
http://dl-files.com/Setup-UniversalPrinter.exe

[tmwah]

Thanks for your hints!

Unfortunately, neither copying printers.bin (which was identical - a new version was apparently installed during the last upgrade) nor running Universal Printer setup (and reboot) did make the Virtual Printer reappear.

[admin]

Hello,

If your operating system is a 32 bit Windows, you will be able to solve this by editing the printer.bin located in C:\Program Files (x86)\TSplus\Clients\webserver and add the following line at end :

USE_CMD.EXE=yes

Save the file and restart the web servers afterwards.

[tmwah]

Unfortunately, USE_CMD.EXE=yes did not help, either. All three servers are 2012R2 64b.

If I compare both servers in "printermgmt.msc" I see ports named TS001/TS002/TS003 on the server with working Virtual Printer, and no such ports on the server without Virtual Printer. Is this the culprit? How do I add these ports?

[tmwah]

Yep, this was (more or less) the culprit ...
On the server in question, printer redirection was explicitly disabled via the local group policies, and obviously, Virtual Printer relies on printer redirection, while the Universal Printer does not.

Well, I mentioned at the very beginning that it might be a silly question ...

[hansen]

Those ports are auto-generated by users connecting to a terminal server.

Are the two app servers setup at the same time and with the same updates? Could you try to connect directly to the failing app-server via RDP with printer sharing enabled on the client, just to see if the server can even manage to share regular printers (via the easy print driver or whatever it's called).

Is it virtual machines? Would it be difficult to clone the working app-server and replace the failing one?

[hansen]

I thought it was something to do with redirection (called it sharing before, still not awake) - glad it's fixed and you replied for others to search in the future.

[juwagn]

Check firstly webserver\weblog.txt
******************
PS to PDF converter: C:\Program Files (x86)\gs\gs9.19\bin\gswin32c.exe************
PS params: -dEncodeMonoImages***************************
Printers: ps:%PRINTMENU%MS Publisher Imagesetter%Virtual Printer with Preview %; ********************
******************
If one of these 3 lines is not present, than something went wrong while searching for ps to pdf converter.
I make copy of the file gswin32c.exe*SERVERNAME* on begin, so you could look inside that directory and manually delete the file gswin32c.exe*SERVERNAME*, than restart html5 server via GUI. However it will not help, if these 3 lines are already present.


Than if previous things look OK, check please if your event viewer reveals the cause of your issue.
As example by one of our customers with similar issue it looked that like.