ThinPrint Management Center – Documentation

Installation preparations

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What is required for Management Center?

You need:

  • the Management Center on a separate Windows 7 computer at the data center; the driver pool and the template server can be set up here too. The Management Center can also be installed on the central print server if it isn’t installed as a Microsoft Failover Cluster (Windows 2008 x86 and 2008 R2 only).
  • an SQL Server; the Management Center installer only creates a new database on an existing SQL server.
  • a ThinPrint Engine on each central print server or cluster node
  • at least one ThinPrint Client in every branch office (TCP/IP type)
  • ThinPrint Clients on workstations of mobile or home users with local attached printers (RDP or ICA type)
  • the TP Output Gateway printer driver on all Windows computers that will use the central print servers with Driver Free Printing or V-Layer – for example, on RD Session Hosts, virtual desktops, or workstations
    (Output Gateway, AutoConnect and Virtual Channel Gateway are installed on remote desktops using the ThinPrint Engine installer.)
  • all (native) printer drivers – regardless of the desired configuration – either on the central print servers or on the workstations and / or local print servers run­ning Windows (except for non-Windows hosts); see also the section Printer driv­ers and Template Server
  • optional AutoConnect on all Windows computers that will automatically map the printer shares from the central print servers (which are created and shared using the Management Center) – for example, on RD Session Hosts, virtual desktops, or workstations
  • optional Virtual Channel Gateway on RD Session Hosts or virtual desktops, if print jobs are to be delivered to mobile or home users via RDP or ICA

How does the licensing for Management Center work?

You need ThinPrint licenses for both the ThinPrint Engine and – additionally – the Management Center. During the installation of Management Center, you can select if you want to enter a productive license key you’ve already purchased, or allow a demo license to be installed automatically.

Starting with ThinPrint version 10.0, Management Center is a part of the ThinPrint Engine license – with separate Management Center license keys. In case License Server and Management Center are installed on different machines, the license keys of ThinPrint Engine (TLUS) are to be installed on the License Server but the one of the Management Center (TPMC) on the Management Center machine.

Note! With the Cortado Enterprise Portal, you can retrieve free license keys for the Management Center as a ThinPrint Engine component. On this, see also Products and license types.

All license keys are valid for 30 days after they have been entered. They must be activated within this time to continue printing. Demo license keys cannot be acti­vated. A license key’s expiration date can be found in License Manager under Valid Until.

Once you have successfully tested the ThinPrint Engine, you can purchase a pro­ductive license. You will receive new license keys, which are then entered in the License Manager.

To activate the license keys upload them together with their registration keys to the Enterprise Portal (enterpriseportal.cortado.com→ Customer View). For further infor­mation about license activation see Licensing.

System requirements

Client computers and devices

  • PCs or local print servers on which a ThinPrint Client that supports AutoConnect can be installed (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X)
  • Devices or appliances with an integrated ThinPrint Client (= ThinPrint Client Gateways or ThinPrint gateways), preferable with AutoConnect, for example:
    • ThinPrint Hub
    • TPG-125 from SEH
    • internal or external print server devices from SEH

A list of supported devices can be found at https://help.thinprint.com/support/supported-devices/devices-with-integrated-thinprint-clients/.

Central print servers

  • Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, 2012, 2012 R2 or 2016
  • Microsoft Failover Clusters and Server Cores are supported
  • .NET Framework Version 2.0 or higher
  • ThinPrint Engine 8.0 or later installed on each print server or cluster node

Management Center machine

  • Windows Server 2016, 2012 R2 Update 1 or 2012
  • Windows 2008 R2 SP1 with Microsoft hotfix KB24931152 installed
  • Windows Server 2008 x86 SP2
  • Windows 10, 8.1 or 8
  • Windows 7 SP1 with Microsoft hotfix KB2493115 installed
  • Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 has to be enabled or installed
  • except Failover Clusters and Core servers

SQL server

  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (Express) or higher

Active Directory (domain)

  • All servers have to be members of the same domain (Active Directory).
  • In DNS a Reverse Lookup Zone has to be set up, in which all computers, devices and appliances are registered.

Template Server and Driver Pool

  • See computers with Management Center or central print servers (except failover clusters)

Note! Management Center, Template Server, Driver Pool, SQL server, and Connection Service can be set up on the same computer.

Preparatory work

If you are installing the Management Center for the first time, follow the Quick Installation Guide for the actual installation.

  • Local Administrator permissions are required for all installation and configura­tion steps. The Management Center must also run with an account that has administrative permissions on both the print servers and the Template Server.
  • Although the Management Center remotely can install and update the required printer drivers on the central print servers it is recommended that you pre-install these on the print servers (because not every printer driver can be installed remotely).
  • Make sure that on all central print servers, on the computer that the Manage­ment Center is to be installed on, and on the Template Server at least one printer is permanently shared. So printers can be created per RPC remotely.
  • Make sure that a ThinPrint Engine with version 8.0 or later is installed on all central print servers.

Note! The ThinPrint Port ThinPort: which is created by the ThinPrint Engine installer must not be removed.

Preparing an SQL server for Windows authentication

With Management Center installation you can choose between SQL server authenti­cation and Windows authentication. For Windows authentication assign the privi­leges for creating a database to the account used for installation before. To do so, assign the roles dbcreator, securityadmin, serveradmin and sysadmin to this account as well as master with User Mapping including the role member­ships db_datareader, db_datawriter and db_securityadmin.

SQL server: server roles for the installation account

SQL server: server roles for the installation account

SQL server: database role memberships for the installation account

SQL server: database role memberships for the installation account

 

1. With SP2 or Microsoft hotfixes KB958741 (Print Job Owner) and KB958656 (Client Side Ren­dering)
2. Also for all terminal servers (with Windows Server 2008 R2) and desktops (with Windows 7) which use the central print server(s)

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