Client management in Print Deploy

Client management lets you easily deploy, manage, monitor, and troubleshoot your organization’s print queues to connected clients (workstations/computers). It’s client-specific, so it doesn’t matter which users are logged in to the client, they all see the print queues deployed to it - perfect for shared workstations.

Client management is enabled by default for new customers. Existing customers can enable it by following the steps below .

What client information is stored

When client management is enabled , Print Deploy stores client information in its server database each time the client checks in for a printer update. This lets you view the following details about clients when they’re connected to Print Deploy:

• username
• hostname
• IP address,
• OS
• user groups
• which zones the clients are connected to.

You can view the client details on the Enable Printing > Clients page.

By default, Print Deploy retains the information for 180 days but you can change that timeframe .

Client-specific print queues

If you have a valid license (Zone Pack, MFS license, or Advanced Enablement Pack license), client management also lets you deploy print queues directly to those clients. This is particularly useful when you need to assign print queues to specific computers that do not fit within predefined zones.

Faster troubleshooting

Installing printers, managing print environments, and troubleshooting can be slow and complex for IT admins, especially in dynamic, large setups. Client management speeds up issue resolution and provides greater flexibility for complex environments.

Also, it lets you grant your IT support desk staff access to this feature without them requiring full access to all system admin settings in Print Deploy.

When to set up client-specific queues versus zone queues

With client management, you can deploy print queues directly to a user’s computer (client), as long as you have a valid license. Traditionally, Print Deploy deployed print queues only to computers that were part of a zone.

Client-specific queues are perfect for situations where computers require unique print queues that are not shared with other computers at a specific location.

Zone queues are ideal for grouping users based on location or role. For example, in a school district you can create a zone for each school and then add further control to limit the queue in that zone to only teachers, not students. That way students can’t print in the teacher’s lounge!

Example scenarios

In a hospital for a printer dedicated to a specific room or area

Client-specific queue deployment - In a hospital, a shared computer in a consulting suite should have a specific print queue installed for the printer in that room to print scripts. In this case, it would be too much overhead to create a zone just to target one specific computer.

In an IT department for troubleshooting

Viewing details about clients - In an IT department, the client management feature will enable support staff to help users on the spot. For example, if a user is not connected to the correct WiFi network, they won’t be included in zone and won’t be able to see the printers they need. Client management enables the IT person to view the information about the client, where they will see that the user is on the wrong WiFi. They can then tell the user to connect to the right WiFi so they’ll see the correct queue(s ).

Enabling or disabling client management

To enable or disable client management:

1. Click Enable Printing. The Print Deploy tab is displayed.
2. Click the Settings tab. The Settings page is displayed.
3. In the Client management section, select the Record and display when clients last called in to refresh their printers, and enable print queue deployment to specific clients checkbox.
   
4. Click Save.
5. Refresh the browser.

Now when you go to the Clients tab, you’ll see a new table with all of the clients and their related information.

Deploying client-specific queues

To deploy client-specific queues:

1. Click Enable Printing. The Print Deploy tab is displayed.
2. Click the Clients tab. The Connected clients page is displayed.
3. Search for and select the client by hostname or user. Their client information is displayed.
4. In the Print queues list, select the printer(s) you want to assign to the client.
5. Click Deploy to client. The print queues are added to the Client-specific print queues list.
6. Click Save changes, then on the popup screen, click Done.
   The client will receive both the host-specific print queues and any zone-based queues applicable to them.

The Client-specific print queues list shows only specific print queues assigned to that client. The client might also have print queues deployed to them by a zone. You can find those via the Zones tab.

Load risk and performance considerations

If your system is already operating under a high load, enabling this feature could impact performance by adding additional database write operations. In these cases, we recommend proceeding with caution.

For organizations with high system load, assess your system’s current load. If there’s any concerns:

1. Consider increasing the client’s polling interval .
2. Disable the feature by navigating to MF > Enable Printing > Settings > Client Management. Disabling this feature can prevent potential performance issues.

Changing the client record retention and deletion timeframe

By default, client records are kept for 180 days unless manually removed. You can configure the duration for which client records are retained before they are automatically removed:

1. Open the client.conf.toml config file.
2. Change the ClientInformationRetentionPeriodInDays: (default is 180 days) to the number of days you want to retain the client information. The client information will be deleted after the specified number of days from the last time they connected to Print Deploy.
3. Change ClientInformationPurgeIntervalInHours: (default is 24 hours) to the interval at which the above deletion process is performed.

Chromebook support

For Chromebooks, Print Deploy relies on the Asset ID (configured in Google Workspace) to identify and manage each device. To use client management, ensure that each Chromebook has a unique Asset ID set in Google Workspace.

If the Chromebook has an Asset ID in Google Workspace and the Mobility Print extension has ‘Enterprise device attributes’ permission, the Asset ID will be used as the hostname. If not, the Chromebook won’t appear in the client list.