Creating and populating device groups

Understanding device groups

A device group is a collection of printers that share one or more deployed solutions with the same local configuration.

To deploy solutions, create at least one device group. Multiple device groups are created when any of the following is applicable:

More than one solution is deployed to different sets of printers.
One solution is deployed with different local configurations for different printers.

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

Creating a device group from an existing device group

From LMC, click the Device Groups tab.
From the Device Groups section, click or Add.
Type a unique name for the device group, and then select the existing group to copy.
Click Save or 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

From LMC, click the Services tab.
From the Services section, select PolicyUpdate.
From the Tasks section, select Parameters.

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

Note: If a large eSF application or several eSF applications are included with a hybrid solution, then increase the timeout period for policy updates. This configuration allows sufficient time for policy updates that include the deployment of eSF applications to complete.

Select Overwrite all function overrides on the device.
Note: If one or more eSF applications installed on the device can override the device function, then clear Overwrite all function overrides on the device.
Click Apply.

Creating a discovery profile

From LMC, click the Device Groups tab.
From the Device Groups section, select a device group.
From the Tasks section, select Discovery Profiles.

In the Address field, type one of the following:

IP address (For example, 10.10.2.100)
IP address range (For example, 10.10.2.1-10.10.2.127)
Subnet (For example, 10.10.2.*)
Host name (For example, printer-host-name)
FQDN (For example, printer-host-name.domain-name)

Note: Using the asterisk wildcard character (*) to represent the sections at the end of the IP address returns all devices in that subnet. For example, typing 10.10.*.* searches for all devices that have been discovered within the range 10.10.0.1–10.10.255.255.

If necessary, configure the filters.
Click Add.

Note: You can also edit or delete profiles.

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^TM or other systems.

From LMC, click the Device Groups tab.
From the Device Groups section, select a device group.
From the Tasks section, select Discovery Profiles.
Click Import, and then browse to the file.
Note: To prevent overwriting existing files, clear Overwrite if file already exists.
Click Upload.
The entries in the file are added to the list of discovery profiles. To search for the imported printers, perform a device discovery. For more information, see Manually discovering 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. The lines contain one or more of the following parameters:

IP address or FQDN
SNMP read name
SNMP write name
Device class
Device model
Serial number
Contact name
Contact location
Property tag

In the CSV file, include a comma for a blank field followed by populated fields.

The following is an example of an XML file structure:

<?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>

Manually discovering printers

Before deploying a solution to a printer, discover the printer as part of a device group. Printers may be manually discovered or automatically discovered on a schedule. For more information on scheduled discovery, see Scheduling a discovery task.

From LMC, click the Device Groups tab.
If necessary, create a discovery profile. For more information, see Creating a discovery profile.
From the Device Groups section, select a device group, or select All Device Groups to discover printers in multiple device groups.
Note: Make sure that discovery profiles exist for device groups to be included in the operation.
From the Tasks list, select Discovery.
Notes:
- If you are discovering printers in a device group where you have previously discovered printers, then select Discover new devices only. This setting allows the system to discover profiles faster.
- If you are discovering printers from multiple device groups, then from the main section, select the device groups.
If necessary, configure the SNMP timeout retries period in milliseconds for each retry in the sequence, separating each by a space.
Note: For more information on adjusting timeout periods for device discovery, see Configuring NPA device communication.
Click Discover.
After device discovery, the system reports the number of printers that are discovered. To see the discovered printers, select Discovered Devices.
Notes:
- If the discovery process is stopped, then the discovery task may take a few minutes to stop completely.
- After a printer has been discovered, removing the related device group or discovery profile does not remove the printer from the system. For more information on removing printers from the system, see Removing devices from the system.
- After the discovery process, the number of missing devices appears, if applicable. To launch the Missing Devices task, click Missing Devices Count. For more information, see Discovering missing printers.

Discovering missing printers

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

From LMC, click the Device Groups tab.
From the Device Groups section, select a device group, or select All Device Groups to discover printers in multiple device groups.
Note: Make sure that discovery profiles exist for device groups to be included in the operation.
From the Tasks section, select Missing Devices.
Notes:
- If you are discovering printers in a device group where you have previously discovered printers, then select Discover new devices only. This setting allows the system to discover profiles faster.
- If you are discovering printers from multiple device groups, then from the main section, select the device groups.
If necessary, configure the SNMP timeout retries period in milliseconds for each retry in the sequence, separating each by a space.
Click Discover.

Scheduling a discovery task

From LMC, click the Device Groups tab.
From the Device Groups section, select a device group, or select All Device Groups to discover printers in multiple device groups.
Note: Make sure that discovery profiles exist for device groups to be included in the operation.
From the Tasks section, select Schedule.
Click Add > Discovery.
If necessary, type a description for the task, and then click Next.
If you are discovering printers from multiple device groups, then from the main section, select the device groups, and then click Next.
Enter a start date and a start time.
Configure the frequency of the scheduled event.
Click Finish.