1.1 Understanding Micro Focus iPrint

Micro Focus iPrint provides secured enterprise print services for your desktops, laptops, and mobile devices. Micro Focus’s iPrint solution integrates with your existing corporate printers, regardless of the printing vendor or brand allowing you to deliver self-service printer provisioning to your device users.

1.1.1 iPrint Components

Figure 1-1 iPrint Overview

Users

Users can submit print jobs through iPrint from their desktops, laptops, or mobile devices to both new and legacy printers from all the major print vendors, without worrying about print drivers. You can either import users from an existing LDAP source or create new users on the iPrint Appliance.

Devices

iPrint supports printing from desktops, laptops, or mobile devices.

Desktops and laptops: Clients for Windows and Mac workstations.

Mobile Devices: Apps for iOS, Android, Windows, Amazon Kindle, and BlackBerry devices.

Protocols

IPP/ Email: The devices and app uses IPP (Internet Printing Protocol) or email to submit the print job. If a direct network connection to iPrint Appliance is unavailable, the device switches to email printing, and uses the email client configured on the device.

LDAP: LDAP is used for communication between iPrint Appliance and identity stores (eDirectory and Active Directory).

HTTPS: HTTPS protocol is used for secure communication between iPrint Appliance and remote renderers.

LPR/RAW/SNMP: iPrint Appliance supports printer communications using the Line Printer Remote (LPR), RAW, or SNMP protocols.

Administration

Using Micro Focus iPrint Appliance Management Console, you can add and manage printers, check the printer status, create printer maps, and monitor the appliance.

iPrint Configuration: Use for initial iPrint configuration and setup. You can configure items such as mobile printing, LDAP user/group sources, renderers for enhanced document conversion, and so on.

Appliance Configuration: : Use this tool to reconfigure the system's network settings, time, SSL certificates, and passwords. Network Settings should not be changed once iPrint Appliance Configuration has been initiated.

iPrint Printer Configuration (iManager): iManager is a web-based tool that allows you to set up and manage your print environment. You can create printers, printer drivers, profiles, and users.

iPrint Health Monitor: Monitors your iPrint environment. You can view status of print jobs and manage jobs, and generate audit reports that show details of who printed and how much.

iPrint Migration Utility: You can migrate printers, drivers, driver profile, and printer configuration details from your existing NetWare or OES environment.

iPrint Map Designer: Use this tool to create map displaying the location of printers. Users can identify and install printers that are nearest to their location.

Ganglia: You can access various real-time monitoring statistics for all of the Ganglia-enabled machines on your network segment.

Accounting With iPrint

Print Accounting: Micro Focus iPrint integrates with third-party print accounting solutions to provide full support for accounting the print jobs including tracking all the print jobs and keeping a tab on the paper consumption. The print accounting feature enables the print administrator to have a clear understanding of who is printing what and when, and apply charge back capabilities if required.

Direct Print Accounting: A printer that is enabled for iPrint Direct sends print jobs directly to the printer instead of sending the job to the print server first. The print job is sent to the printer in LPR or raw 9100 format, depending on the setting in the gateway autoload command for the printer. Although this greatly reduces server communication, the ability to audit print jobs is lost. However, if you are running a third-party print accounting solution, Micro Focus iPrint client can integrate with the third-party print accounting solution to provide support for accounting print jobs to direct printers.

To install and configure third-party print accounting solution, refer to their documentation.

Identity Source

It works with LDAP directories such as Active Directory and eDirectory. Micro Focus iPrint makes secure printing easy by integrating its data store with your identity directory.

iPrint Appliance

Print and mobile server are the main components of appliance which handle all print jobs and all print infrastructure.

Renderers

Local Renderer

iPrint Appliance is bundled with an in-built document renderer (local renderer). The local renderer converts documents to the PDF format, then converts them to the print ready format using CUPS. The renderer supports Open Office, Microsoft Office and image formats, and also has a multithreading feature.

Remote Renderer

iPrint Appliance ships with a remote renderer. For desktop-quality printing, it is highly recommended that you install the remote renderer. You can download the remote renderer from the iPrint Appliance Management Console.The remote renderer provides high quality rendering for Microsoft Office and PDF document formats.

Printers

Users can send print jobs through iPrint to both new and legacy printers from all the major print vendors.