Overview

Print Roaming is an extension of pull-printing (print job after authentication at the MFD). With pull-printing, after user sends a job to a printer, user "pulls" the job to the printer — user goes to a printer, authenticates and prints the job. This feature brings several important advantages:

Flexibility: Users can send a print job and choose any MFD for pick up
Costs and environment: Reduced paper waste which results from printouts left at printers uncollected
Security: Users have to authenticate at the printer before documents are printed out

With both Print Roaming and pull-printing, users can release their print jobs at any printer which is connected to Dispatcher Paragon system.

Print Roaming is one of the key needs of companies with multiple locations - users who move between the locations frequently need the ability to manage their print, copy and scan jobs without any additional changes in their habits. In practical terms - wherever the user is and needs to print, copy or scan, they can do so using combination of Print Roaming and Pull-Printing features of Dispatcher Paragon.

Print roaming in the Dispatcher Paragon is built on top of SpoolerController and FlexiSpooler technologies. Roaming is established among two or more Spooler Controller components acting as peers, or among multiple Spooler Controllers and multiple FlexiSpoolers.

Description

Print roaming is designed to meet the following requirements:

The user can pick up submitted print jobs at any device connected to Dispatcher Paragon without any significant impact on the wait times.
The system administrator has an option to decrease system overhead by increasing waiting times before jobs are available in more distant locations.

Two print roaming modes are available: near roaming and far roaming. Because peers need to share certain types of information (in a group), an Spooler Controller can belong only to one roaming group (members of which have access to all jobs in the group much faster), configured by the system administrator. The system provide multiple near-roaming and far-roaming groups in order to support variety of environments.

Print Roaming within single server (LAN)

In organizations with one server, no additional configuration is needed. Dispatcher Paragon provides print roaming, the ability to release the jobs, with all connected devices.

Dispatcher Paragon does not modify print job data, so PDL-level compatibility between printers must be ensured by other means.

Print Roaming with multiple servers within LAN (Near-roaming mode)

In organizations with multiple servers, each being hosted in its own location, Spooler Controller groups can be set up among the site servers. This requires additional CPU power and network resources in order to allow fast synchronization of print jobs among the group peers without noticeable delays to end users. This roaming mode uses synchronization protocols which efficiently distribute job metadata among all members of the Spooler Controller group. Print job data are kept in the storage of FlexiSpooler that received it and are delivered to the device where user is standing (using Spooler Controller managing that particular device and Spooler Controller managing FlexiSpooler holding the print job data). This requires availability of the Spooler Controller servers, so that the information can be shared and delivered.

This is typically required in case of hundreds/thousands of users in a relatively small area on a high-speed, low-latency network (such as LAN or sometimes even buildings co-located in one city).

Read Configuring Print Roaming about more details on how to configure the system to allow this behavior.

Print Roaming with multiple servers within WAN (Far-roaming mode)

When company operates with several subsidiaries, even across multiple continents, the users need the print/copy/scan services to be available at all times. Users may need to (re)print a job sent to the Dispatcher Paragon after travelling a longer distance. Because of that, system administrators may consider decreasing network and CPU load, where users may notice delays (seconds to minutes, depending on the network and system configuration) before their jobs are available at devices connected to the destination.

This roaming mode sends job metadata over management server and support for UDP multicasting is not required for standard operation. However, the infrastructure will still provide high-performance networking to minimize the delay to job availability. This mode of operation is more robust, but is useful in situations where only a fraction of the users requires roaming for their operations (such as travelling salesmen, etc.).

Dependencies / non-functional requirements

Each printer must be equipped with a terminal (embedded, mobile terminal or one of hardware terminals).
At least one Dispatcher Paragon Management server must have connection, with a Spooler Controller and FlexiSpooler server(s) in every location required for near roaming or far roaming printing.
Global identity management (common for all Dispatcher Paragon servers in the network) must be established.
No extensions in desktop application or any other client workstation tool is necessary. On the other hand, print roaming may introduce additional pop-up messages to be handled by Dispatcher Paragon Desktop Interface.
The origin and the destination Spooler Controller servers in a near roaming or a far roaming must be visible to each other on the network. The network must also provide the necessary bandwidth and low latency to eliminate any impact of the network on the availability of print jobs. Without network visibility and sufficient performance, near roaming or far roaming does not produce correct results and cannot be used!
To use far roaming, all Spooler Controller servers must have installed FlexiSpooler in server mode.
For Spooler Controller group with more than 10 Spooler Controller servers, UDP Multicast must be enabled among servers!

Caveats and limitations

Printer compatibility is defined based on the System Tags in management interface. The tag represents the capability of the printer, such as PDL-compatibility (PCL, PostScript, ...) or feature such as Color, Duplex, Paper Size (Large/Small).
For a near roaming mode, it is recommended to to use fiber optics network.

If FlexiSpooler with print jobs fails, all print jobs stored on the failed FlexiSpooler are unavailable for release at terminals and users must re-submit the jobs from their workstations.
- Shared network storage for print jobs can solve this problem. In this case all print jobs are stored locally on FlexiSpooler and remotely on network shared storage.

With far roaming mode:
- When using the Print Roaming feature (enabled by the license), all Spooler Controller servers are automatically configured for far roaming. Far roaming also works in near roaming (Spooler Controller group) and among Spooler Controller groups and standalone site servers. It is not possible to limit print roaming to only selected Spooler Controller servers or groups of them.
- The following components of the Dispatcher Paragon system must be online, configured (both mentioned Spooler Controller servers are not in the same near-roaming group) and working properly: Management server, FlexiSpooler the prints will be sent to, Spooler Controller the FlexiSpooler is connected to, Spooler Controller the printer/MFD is connected to, and the printer/MFD where the print job will be printed.
- Users may notice delays (seconds to minutes, depending on the system configuration) in job availability at the terminals connected to the remote (other than origin of print) destination Spooler Controller, because Spooler Controller downloads information (metadata) about user's print jobs every 5 minutes (by default).
- Users may notice delays (depending on the size of the print job and a network speed) in printing (i.e. time from pressing print button on terminal to time when the first paper comes out from the printer/MFD), because print job data are downloaded from remote locations on demand. Print job data are not regularly synchronized. Only print job metadata are synchronized.