Can the Cirrato server be clustered to provide failover?
The Cirrato printing service is not cluster-aware. DNS failover can be used to direct clients to a live server or a secondary server can be brought online using the same IP address.
The database may be mirrored or may use log shipping for redundancy. Driver files can be placed on shared high-availability storage.
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How do we migrate from Windows XP to Windows 7 while retaining the queues?
The migration MSI package is installed on to the XP clients. On each workstation, it creates an inventory of the existing printers and configurations and uploads this to the Cirrato server.
Once the new workstation (Windows 7) is in place, the operator / user runs the migration tool in restore mode. This restores all printers and configurations on each workstation. This will provide the user with the same printers and (if driver is the same) the same configurations as previously.
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What happens if the Cirrato server is offline?
It depends on how the Cirrato environment has been configured.
Direct printing: The Cirrato client recognizes that the server is down and preforms ordinary printout without the server having to confirm. End users won't notice any difference. pull print: The Cirrato client presents the user with a list of previously used pull print queues. When you select one of the queues the print job will then be printed out as if that pull print queue were a direct printer. In both cases, statistics will be stored by the client and uploaded to the server once the server is back online. Payment solution (users pay for each print job): Cirrato can be configured to deny printing while the server is offline.
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Which methods are available to install printer queues?
Printer queues can be installed using login scripts by calling the command line program cirrato.exe, the graphical user interface program Cirrato Printer Search, helpdesk...
personnel can push printer queues to PCs using the Cirrato webGUI and end users can install printer queues using a web based tree view. None of these methods require the users to be local administrators.
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Is it possible to pre-distribute drivers to client PCs?
Yes. Cirrato driver archives are normally downloaded from the server when needed to perform a printer queue installation on a client PC.
These driver packages are then kept on the client PCs in case they should be needed again to avoid unnecessary downloads. Any method that simply copies these driver archives to the client PCs in the directory where the Cirrato client expects to find them will work. It is also possible to use the drivers that are included with Windows.
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Is it possible to submit print jobs from server applications to Cirrato?
Yes. If the application runs on Windows, the Cirrato client can simply be installed to facilitate that.
If not, one option is to set up a Windows server with the Cirrato client and associated Cirrato printer queue and share the queues using "Print services for UNIX". Another option is to use the Cirrato EUT_API to submit jobs using our submit_job.dll interface. This API requires that the Cirrato client software is installed. Spooled print job files from any source can be submitted as any user using this interface.
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Does Cirrato have any built-in mechanisms to install and update the client software?
No. Installation and upgrades of the Cirrato client software can be done by assigning or redeploying to a Group Policy Object (GPO).
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Can printouts be charged to a department or project?
Yes, printouts and in some cases copying, scanning and faxing can be charged to a Client Billing code.
A Client Billing code can represent a project or department. Reports are available that show how much has been printed for a given client billing code. If the user´s department is available as an attribute in LDAP, the attribute value can be used as the client billing code.
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What network ports need to be open for Cirrato to work?
The Cirrato client listens for incoming TCP connections from the server on port 5001. The Cirrato server listens for incoming TCP connections from the workstations and laptops on port 5000.
The Cirrato server also listens for incoming TCP connections from administrators on port 5005. The Cirrato monitoring service needs to be able to query all printers using SNMP (usually port 161). Since Cirrato is a direct printing solution, all end-user workstations and laptops need to be able to connect to all printers on TCP port 9100 or 515 depeding on if LPR is used or not. All port numbers are possible to change if needed.
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How do we migrate our workstations from using legacy print spool servers to using Cirrato?
The Cirrato client can send information regarding installed printer queues to the Cirrato server. There is also a stand alone binary called cirratoinventory.exe that fulfills the same purpose.
If no local TCP/IP-port printers are installed on workstations, this inventory only needs to take place on print spool servers, if not, the workstations also need to execute the inventory. Cirratoinventory.exe can be placed on a network share end executed from a logon script (negating the need to install the Cirrato client software in order to perform the inventory). When the inventory is complete, Cirrato provides administrative tools to view and use the inventoried data to create printer queues in Cirrato. It is also possible to configure the Cirrato server to instruct the Cirrato clients to delete the old printer queues or UNC-printer connections when installing the corresponding Cirrato queues. Printer drivers are not extracted in the inventory process, these need to be manually uploaded to the Cirrato server using a wizard application called CirratoPak. The same is true for printer configuration settings.
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Can I print from laptops?
Yes, users can print from their laptops. If the users shuts the laptop down, Pull Print jobs will not be available for printing until the laptop is powered on...
and available on the network again. For customers with a lot of laptop users we recommend that Cirrato Handover Points be set up that will handle the file transfer to the printer on behalf of the laptop.
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What happens if the end-user PC changes IP addresses?
Cirrato keeps track of IP address changes so that the Cirrato server knows on what PC a printout is stored.
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Is it possible to restrict color use?
Yes, you can do this in many ways.
Some examples:
- Use Rules functionality to enforce restrictions for certain user groups. (Please note: Cirrato uses information provided by the printer driver to decide if the printout is color or B&W.Printer drivers may report color even for B&W printouts. It is therefore important to verify the correctness of the driver before deciding to implement color restriction rules).
- Set up dedicated color queues which are only pushed out to certain user groups while hidden from others.
- Set defaults to B&W and Duplex, but allow users to configure printer settings on a job-by-job basis, then use reports to see who printed in color. We typically recommend option C because it achieves the required savings while being the least restrictive.
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How much network traffic is generated by Cirrato?
About 1 kB of application layer data is transmitted between the Cirrato server and client during a basic direct printout. As more functions are added, a few more kilobytes are added.
1 kB/s is communicated between the Cirrato printing service and the database continuously. About 20 kB of TDS data is transmitted between the Cirrato printing service and the database during a printout. If you have Pull Print, then an additional 3.5 kB per pull print job is communicated between the printer and the Web Service API.
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How does the licensing work?
Cirrato is licensed per printer. On top of that there is yearly support. There is also a basic Pull Print license which allows simple "release all" type Pull Print.
Embedded Pull Print is licensed per device. Cirrato also offers a subscription model where the cost of the solution is charged per month. This is an all in fee. For more information, contact EOMInfo@lrs.com.
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What protocols are used?
Besides using our patented Cirrato protocol (which is the core functionality of Cirrato itself, ticket based printing using single server, driver deployment and so on)we use the standard TCP/IP layer.
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Which traffic is encrypted?
As a general rule, all forms where the user has to enter their credentials are encrypted.
Examples are: The Cirrato Web GUI (if HTTPS has been enabled), almost every machine terminal has the option to encrypt credentials (HTTPS), Cirrato MMC Snap-in, Cirrato Client (if user confirmation has been enabled), Self Service (if HTTPS has been enabled).
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How can Cirrato deal with processing jobs from business applications like Citrix, VDI, SAP etc?
Cirrato One provides software to accept print jobs originating from Citrix, Terminal Server, Mainframe, SAP, Oracle or other data center applications.
Cirrato will compress these print jobs, transmit them over the WAN, uncompress and print at the remote location. This speeds up printing and is excellent for clients using Thin Client Terminals, Virtual Desktop and remote desktop access.
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What is phased driver rollout?
Phased Driver Rollout is a feature that was introduced in March 2016. It allows IT administrators to test print drivers prior to deploying them.
Testing can be done based on version (32 or 64 bit) or operating system. Testing can be done per print queue or region. It avoids a new driver from causing disruptions. If a driver is not performing as it should, it can be deleted and the region or print queue that it was tested in, automatically goes back to using the previous version.
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Can I scan a document to my home directory?
Yes. Scanning to a shared folder or home directory is possible on most platforms where Cirrato One Embedded is available.
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How do we allow guests to print from a wireless network or a public computer?
Cirrato can be configured to display an authentication dialog to users printing from computers with specific IP addresses or subnets. The guest user may then authenticate using an account available in LDAP or a custom user database.
To this account a short ID can be associated, which allows the user to authenticate and retrieve his printout at a pull print terminal (embedded or external). Cirrato client software should be installed on the public computer or made available for download to guests who bring their own laptops. Alternatively, one PC with the Cirrato client installed could be configured to share printers using IPP (Internet Printing) with authentication.
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Can I scan a document to my own email?
Yes. Scanning to our own or someone elses email address is possible on most platforms where Cirrato One Embedded is available.
In a lot of cases restrictions can be put on who you may send emails to.
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How does Cirrato's reporting work?
Cirrato saves information in an SQL database. We provide a set of standard reports created in SQL Reporting Services. These reports cover most our customers' needs.
Using SQL Reporting Services, you can schedule reports that are generated and sent out in various formats automatically. Of course, you can contact us if you want to create custom reports.
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