Mystical_Ice
asked on
Best way to map printers via script/group policy (Win 2008 r2)
Hi,
We have a windows domain (with 2008 domain controllers, and one 2003 domain controller), and several hundred clients. The clients are all running Vista or 7, with the exception of perhaps a dozen XP computers.
There is also a RDP/terminal server (running 2008 R2) that about 60 users connect to.
We're getting rid of all our old printers, and signing a lease to get new, networked devices. Would like an easy, straightforward way to map printers to the users, regardless whether they're logging onto their local machine or onto the RDP server. Whichever they log on to, they would need the same printers mapped. Each user is going to need one printer (for the most part - depending on what department or building they're in), and perhaps 2 or 3 more just as backups.
We have our printers named pretty consistently, such as:
Accounting-prn1
Accounting-prn2
etc.
I would love to be able to, for instance, create security groups, one for each printer, and then based on what group(s) the user is in, those are the printers that it maps to him. Thus if a user ever switches locations or departments, we just put them in that new printer group, and they're good to go when they log in next.
My question is what is the best way to do this? Also, how would I handle which printer is their 'default'? I.E. if they're in three printer groups, and i want one to be the default, is there a particular way to do it? If not, as long as it maps all three of them, and they can go in and manually pick which one they want as their default (but the one they pick should stay their defalut, so the next time they log in, it doesn't 'reset' it)
Just overall looking for the best way at the end of the day to manage several hundre users printing to ~75 networked printers
Please dont' just post links for me to read - i want to have some actual opinions :)
We have a windows domain (with 2008 domain controllers, and one 2003 domain controller), and several hundred clients. The clients are all running Vista or 7, with the exception of perhaps a dozen XP computers.
There is also a RDP/terminal server (running 2008 R2) that about 60 users connect to.
We're getting rid of all our old printers, and signing a lease to get new, networked devices. Would like an easy, straightforward way to map printers to the users, regardless whether they're logging onto their local machine or onto the RDP server. Whichever they log on to, they would need the same printers mapped. Each user is going to need one printer (for the most part - depending on what department or building they're in), and perhaps 2 or 3 more just as backups.
We have our printers named pretty consistently, such as:
Accounting-prn1
Accounting-prn2
etc.
I would love to be able to, for instance, create security groups, one for each printer, and then based on what group(s) the user is in, those are the printers that it maps to him. Thus if a user ever switches locations or departments, we just put them in that new printer group, and they're good to go when they log in next.
My question is what is the best way to do this? Also, how would I handle which printer is their 'default'? I.E. if they're in three printer groups, and i want one to be the default, is there a particular way to do it? If not, as long as it maps all three of them, and they can go in and manually pick which one they want as their default (but the one they pick should stay their defalut, so the next time they log in, it doesn't 'reset' it)
Just overall looking for the best way at the end of the day to manage several hundre users printing to ~75 networked printers
Please dont' just post links for me to read - i want to have some actual opinions :)
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ASKER
Thanks guys. I am going to try your suggestions this week and let you know.
Also, I did create a print server for all the printers :)
Also, I did create a print server for all the printers :)
ASKER
Real quick question - we really can't do it with moving users into different OUs, because the users are already in seperate OUs that we can't change.
Is there any way to do it based on the GROUP they're in, not the OU?
Is there any way to do it based on the GROUP they're in, not the OU?
Yeah you can do that by push printers group policy preferences on the user side. From that you then can do item level targeting using your groups.
Just make sure you have your scope correct and if you are linking this in the computer OU that u use loop back policy processing
Just make sure you have your scope correct and if you are linking this in the computer OU that u use loop back policy processing
https://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/Server_Software/File_Servers/Active_Directory/A_6531-Installing-printer-using-GPO-preferences.html
good thing is you can use Item level targeting to tagert you securtiy groups so you can have one policy and it only installs on computers in that group.