Configure Edge Printing with Coreza Print cloud

• What is Edge Printing with Coreza Print?
• What are the prerequisites for Edge Printing with Coreza Print?
• What are Edge Accounts?
• How do I create an Edge Account?
  • Creating your first Edge Account
  • Creating additional Edge Accounts
• What are Edge Nodes?
  • How do I configure Edge Nodes? 
    • 1. Creating the Edge Node on Coreza Print
      • Pre-requisites
      • Adding an Edge Node
      • Printer allocation
    • 2. Configuring the Edge Node Device
      • System Requirements
      • Setting up the Edge Node
      • Providing Redundancy
• How do my users send Edge Print Jobs?
• Local vs Edge Print Auto Selection
• Advanced Use Cases
  • Creating additional Edge Accounts
  • Why would I need multiple Edge Accounts?
  • Adding additional Edge Nodes
  • Why would I need multiple Edge Nodes?

What is Edge Printing with Coreza Print cloud?

Edge Print enables users to print when they are not on the same network as the printer. Examples include:

• Your printers are on a secure network and are not exposed to BYOD devices or guests.
   
• Your printers are in a different location and not connected to the same network/LAN.
   
• Remote workers printing to the office or printing documents between branch offices.

What are the prerequisites for Edge Printing with Coreza Print?

• An active trial or licensed version of Coreza Print
   
• Directory synchronization between Azure Active Directory and Coreza Print or Coreza Print internal directory setup**
   
• An always-on, always-connected device that has direct IP access to Edge-enabled printers.

**If you would like to use Coreza Print Cloud with Google Workspace (or multiple IDPs) please raise a support ticket and we can configure your account with this feature. By default Google Workspace will use Google Drive as storage for Edge printing.

What are Edge Accounts?

Edge Accounts act as secure storage and transfer buckets for Edge Prints.

Edge Accounts are bound to regions. We currently support the option of the following regions;

A Coreza Print account may use multiple regions.

• Contact support@directprint.io to request a different region for your deployment. 

How do I create an Edge Account?

Creating your first Edge Account

• Navigate to the Edge Print configuration screen.
   
• On the right-hand card digest, the information, and when ready hit the 'Get started' button.
   
• Give your Edge Account a name and select a region.
   
• Click the 'Create' button.
   
• If successful you will be directed to create an Edge Node.

Creating your first Edge Account.

What are Edge Nodes?

Edge Nodes are always-on, always-connected devices running the Coreza Print app in Edge Node mode. 

Edge Nodes are responsible for receiving print jobs from Edge Accounts and forwarding them to Edge-enabled printers.

How do I configure Edge Nodes?

There are two steps required to configure an Edge Node.

1. Creation of the Edge Node on the Coreza Print admin console.
2. Configuration of the Coreza Print app to turn it into an Edge Node

1. Creating the Edge Node on Coreza Print

Pre-requisites

• An Edge Print Account has been created.

Adding an Edge Node

• If you have successfully created an Edge Account you will be prompted to create an Edge Node.

Prompt to create an Edge Node

• Click the 'Create Edge Node' button and give your Edge Node a name and click 'Create.

Modal to create an Edge Node

• Next, you will be prompted to allocate printers to your Edge Node

Prompt to allocate printers to the Edge Node

Printer allocation

• Use the printer allocation screen to select the printers you would like to enable for Edge Printing.

Printer allocation to Edge Node

• Once printers are allocated you will see them listed in a table along with an Edge Node sign-in token. Take note of your sign-in token, you will need it when configuring your Edge Node.
  
  
  Printer list and sign-in token
   

• It's possible to duplicate printers in your system to have a local version and an Edge Print version, which can then be allocated to users as required.
• You will need to ensure your Edge Node is configured before full end-to-end remote printing will work.

2. Configuring the Edge Node Device

• An Edge Node is responsible for receiving & sending print jobs from the Edge Account to the Edge Printer.
   
• An Edge Node must have direct IP access to the printers it's been allocated. 
   
• An Edge Node must be configured on one of the following operating systems;

System Requirements

Setting up the Edge Node

• Choose your favored configuration and install the Coreza Print application
   
• Once installed ensure the Coreza Print application is running
   
• Next, navigate to the config tab and click on the Coreza Print icon 5 times to reveal additional administration-specific configuration options.

5-click reveal method

• The 5 clicks reveal method will display a link to 'Sign in as dpio Edge Node'. It is placed just above the log.

Edge Node sign-in link

• Click the link and when prompted enter your Edge Node token into the input field and click 'Enter'

Edge Node sign-in token modal

• If sign-in as an Edge Node is successful, you will see a notification informing you of the number of printers allocated. Navigate back to the Printers tab to see them. 
   
• When signed in as an Edge Node, printers can be identified by a cloud icon with a downward pointing arrow. 

Edge Node Printer List

Providing Redundancy

It's recommended that you never have a single point of failure for Edge Printing and that you consider having a duplicate Edge Node configured.

To achieve this, simply use the same Edge Node sign-in token and configure an additional device to run the Edge Node.

If you don't want to use a different device, it's possible to run the Coreza Print native application on Windows and the Coreza Print Chrome Application on the Chrome web browser in parallel.

How do my users send Edge Print Jobs?

Edge Printing for your end-users couldn't be easier.

The print workflow for your users is exactly the same whether they are sending a print job to a locally networked printer vs an Edge-enabled printer.

When allocating printers to an Edge Node, if those printers are already allocated to your end-users then simply within 30 minutes the printers will change from a direct IP / local print to an Edge Print sending the print job to the printer via the cloud.

Edge-enabled printers will display on the Coreza Print application with a cloud upload icon along with the printer name.

Local vs Edge Print Auto Selection

You can choose between two modes of operation for Edge Printing;

• Always route jobs via Edge Print (default) - This mode will send all print jobs for Edge-enabled printers via the cloud regardless of whether the user has direct IP connectivity to the printer. 
   
• Attempt local printing first, fall back to Edge Print - This mode will attempt to send all print jobs for Edge-enabled printers directly, if local/direct printing fails, then the print job will be sent via the cloud.

To change this setting, click the cog icon next to the 'Add account' button. This will present a modal window allowing you to make your selection. Your choice will autosave when you close the modal.

Advanced Use Cases

Creating additional Edge Accounts

• Use the Edge Print map and ensure that you have the root item'Edge Printing with Coreza Print' highlighted.
   
• The right-hand card will display a list of Edge Accounts. Use the 'Add account' button in the card header to add additional accounts and follow the instructions in the modal.

Creating additional Edge Accounts 

Why would I need multiple Edge Accounts?

Depending on your requirements, you may wish to have more than one Edge Account. You may wish to split Edge Accounts for the following reasons;

• Location Splitting 
  As Edge Accounts essentially act as a queue for remote print jobs, you may wish to separate queues per location.
  
  For example, you may wish to have an account per separate office sites giving you one to one relationship between print queues and office locations. Examples;
  • Edge Print Queue - New York - us-west-2 (Oregon)
  • Edge Print Queue - Chicago - us-west-2 (Oregon)
  • Edge Print Queue - San Francisco - us-west-2 (Oregon)
     
• Data Policies 
  As Edge Accounts are bound to regions, you may wish to separate accounts based on location due to data policies.
  
  As an example, if you have an office based in the EU, you may wish to consider EU GDPR and choose a region based in the EU. In this case, print jobs would never leave the EU. 
  • Edge Print Queue - Amsterdam - eu-central-1 (Frankfurt)
  • Edge Print Queue - Berlin - eu-central-1 (Frankfurt)

Adding additional Edge Nodes

• Use the Edge Print map and ensure that you have the Edge Print Account that you wish to add more Edge Nodes to selected. 
   
• The right-hand card will display a list of Edge Nodes associated with the Edge Account. Use the 'Add node' button in the card header to add an additional node and follow the instructions in the modal.

Adding additional Edge Nodes

Why would I need multiple Edge Nodes?

You may wish to create multiple Edge Nodes for the following reasons; 

• Load balancing
  If you have a large printer fleet, you may wish to consider splitting them between different Edge Nodes.
  
  As Edge Nodes are responsible for sending print jobs to the printers they are processed one at a time on a first in first out basis.
  
  With this in mind, you may wish to split your printer fleet between different Edge Nodes.