Creating and populating device groups

Understanding device groups

A device group is a collection of printers that share one or more solution deployments with the same local configuration. At least one device group must be created to deploy solutions. Multiple device groups should be created if either more than one solution is deployed to different sets of printers or one solution is deployed with different local configurations for different printers.

Note: Printers are known as devices in LMC.

Printers can be members of more than one device group. Solutions from each device group to which a printer belongs will be deployed to that printer.

Creating a device group

  1. Click the Device Groups tab.

  2. Under the Device Groups list, click the Add button.

  3. Type a unique name for the device group, and then click Add.

Creating a device group from an existing device group

  1. Click the Device Groups tab.

  2. Under the Device Groups list, click Add.

  3. Type a unique name for the new device group.

  4. Select the existing group to copy, and then click Add.

    The following settings are copied from the existing device group to the new device group:

    • Solution associations

    • Solution settings

    • eSF application associations

    • eSF application settings

    • Home screen configurations

    • Fax forwarding configurations

    • Security settings

Configuring policy updates

  1. Click the Services tab.

  2. Select PolicyUpdate from the Services list.

  3. If necessary, select Parameters from the Tasks list.

  4. Type a timeout period in seconds for each device during a policy update.

    The timeout setting for the PolicyUpdate service determines how long the system waits for a printer to respond after it is initially connected during a policy update.

    Note: If a large eSF application or several eSF applications are included with a hybrid solution, then you may need to increase the default timeout for policy updates in order to allow enough time for policy updates that include eSF application deployments to complete.

  5. Select the Overwrite all function overrides on the device check box.

    Note: If there are eSF applications installed on the device that can override the device function, then clear the Overwrite all function overrides on the device check box. Otherwise, this setting should be selected at all times.

  6. Click Apply.

Creating a new discovery profile

  1. Click the Device Groups tab.

  2. Select a device group from the Device Groups list.

  3. Select Discovery Profiles from the Tasks list.

  4. Type the IP address, address range, subnet, host name, or fully qualified domain name in the Address field.

    Address format

    Example

    IP address

    10.10.2.100

    IP address range

    10.10.2.1-10.10.2.127

    Subnet

    10.10.2.*

    Host name

    printer-host-name

    Fully qualified domain name

    printer-host-name.domain-name


  5. Type information in the remaining fields for any optional filters.

  6. Click Add in the main section to save the discovery profile.

Importing a list of printers to a device group

A list of printers can be imported from an XML, TXT, or CSV file exported from MarkVision or other systems.

  1. Click the Device Groups tab

  2. Select a device group from the Device Groups list.

  3. Select Discovery Profiles from the Tasks list.

  4. Click Import.

  5. Type the path of the file, or click Browse, and then locate the file.

  6. Click Upload.

    The entries in the file are added to the list of discovery profiles. Perform a device discovery to search for the imported printers.

In a TXT file, each line contains the host name or IP address for a single printer.

In a CSV file, each line contains the record for a single printer. Each line may contain a single IP address or fully qualified domain name, or the following fields may be used:

IP address or fully qualified domain name, SNMP read name, SNMP write name, device class, device model, serial number, contact name, contact location, property tag

As with any CSV file, you must still include a comma for a blank field followed by populated fields.

An XML file is structured like the following example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<filters>
  <filter>
    <addressRange>10.10.2.200</addressRange>
    <snmpRead>public</snmpRead>
    <snmpWrite>public</snmpWrite>
    <contactName>John Doe</contactName>
    <contactLocation>Office 1A</contactLocation>
    <serialNumber>0123456789</serialNumber>
    <propertyTag>XYZ123</propertyTag>
    <deviceClass>All</deviceClass>
  </filter>
  <filter>
    <addressRange>10.10.2.150</addressRange>
    <snmpRead>public</snmpRead>
    <snmpWrite>public</snmpWrite>
    <contactName>Don Joseph</contactName>
    <contactLocation>Office 2B</contactLocation>
    <serialNumber>1234567890</serialNumber>
    <propertyTag>ABC789</propertyTag>
    <deviceClass>All</deviceClass>
  </filter>
</filters>

Discovering printers

Before a solution can be deployed to a printer, the printer must be discovered as part of a device group. Printers may be manually discovered or automatically discovered on a schedule. This section covers manual discovery, which is used during initial setup of the system. For more information about scheduled discovery, see Scheduling a discovery task.

  1. Click the Device Groups tab.

  2. If necessary, create a new discovery profile.

  3. Select a device group from the Device Groups list, or select All Device Groups to discover printers in multiple device groups.

  4. Select Discovery from the Tasks list.

  5. If you are discovering printers in a device group or groups where you have previously discovered printers, and you want to skip any IP address where a printer has been discovered (including currently missing devices), then select Discover new devices only. This results in a faster discovery when adding subsequent discovery profiles.

    If you are discovering printers from multiple device groups, then select the device groups for the discovery task in the main section. The list does not appear if a specific device group is selected in the Device Groups list.

  6. If necessary, click Edit to edit the discovery configuration.

    Note: For more information about adjusting timeout periods for device discovery, see Configuring NPA device communication.

  7. Click Discover.

    After device discovery, the system reports the number of printers discovered. To see the discovered printers, select the Discovered Devices task.

    Notes:

    • If you stop the discovery process, then it may take a few minutes for the discovery task to completely stop.
    • After a printer has been discovered, removing the related device group or discovery profile does not remove the printer from the system. For information about removing printers from the system, see Removing devices from the system.
    • After the discovery process, the number of missing devices appears, if applicable. Click Missing Devices Count to launch the Missing Devices task. For more information, see Discovering missing printers.

Discovering missing printers

If a printer is offline during a discovery, then it will be identified as missing.

  1. Click the Device Groups tab.

  2. Select a device group from the Device Groups list, or select All Device Groups to discover missing printers in multiple device groups.

  3. Select Missing Devices from the Tasks list.

  4. If you are discovering missing printers in multiple device groups, then select the device groups for the discovery task in the main section. The list does not appear if a specific device group is selected in the Device Groups list.

  5. If necessary, edit the discovery parameters.

  6. Click Discover.

Viewing all printers with outdated policies

  1. Click the Device Groups tab.

  2. Select All Device Groups from the Device Groups list.

  3. Select Out of Policy Devices from the Tasks list.

Scheduling a discovery task

  1. Click the Device Groups tab.

  2. Select a device group from the Device Groups list, or select All Device Groups to discover devices in multiple device groups.

    Note: Make sure discovery profiles exist for device groups to be included in the operation.

  3. Select Schedule from the Tasks list.

  4. Click Add > Discovery.

  5. Type a description for the task, and then click Next.

  6. If you are discovering devices from multiple device groups, then select the device groups for the discovery task, and then click Next. The list does not appear if a specific device group is selected in the Device Groups list.

  7. Enter a start date and a start time.

  8. Configure the frequency of the scheduled event, and then click Finish.