Pharos Blueprint 5.4 - Update 4.1 Release Notes

Release Notes

Important: If this release will be used to install or update an Administrator Only product using the MSI, use this Update 4 release rather than a previous version. Additional instructions are found in the readme in the Utilities\AdministratorOnlyPackage folder.

If updating from Blueprint 5.4 Update 3.4 or earlier, this update should be applied to all machines hosting Blueprint components, i.e. the Analyst, Collector, Administrator.

If updating from Blueprint 5.4 Update 4, this update should be applied to all machines hosting Blueprint Analyst or Collector. There is no need to update any Administrator Only machines, as there are no changes in the Administrator. Consequently, Administrator Only MSI included with this update is 5.4 Update 4.

This update should be applied to all machines hosting Blueprint components, i.e. the Analyst, Collector, Administrator.

The components included in this update are:

The Print Scout package should be distributed to all Workstations where Serverless Printing feature will be used.

What is new in 5.4 - Update 4.1 Release

• Fix: Thread Safety in Terminal Manager. Potential to corrupt connection to SQL server.

• Fix: IPP Server refuses to accept jobs if unable to update settings from Blueprint.

• Fix: Possible deadlock in MSSQL when securing multiple devices.

• Fix: Timeout error with Ricoh devices with new firmware.

• Fix: All Ricoh devices have a spinning circle on the physical printer and users are unable to log on.

What is new in 5.4 - Update 4 Release

Prerequisite Changes:

• Minimum .Net Core version is 8.0.4 (This is due to the end of life of .Net Core 6)

• Minimum .Net Framework is 4.6.2. (Was 4.6.1)

• Print Scout no longer supports Windows 8 or Windows 8.1.

• Discontinued development of macOS Print Scout

New Features:

• Improved printer credential management for Sentry Print.

  • No longer need to specify printer credentials individually for each device.

  • Instead, specify the credentials used on site, and Blueprint figures out which credential each device is using.

  • Handles rollover of credentials.

• Ethernet 241 hardware support for Sentry Print.

• Improvements to Models context in Blueprint:

  • Added ability to export displayed models to a CSV file.

  • Added "Date Added" property to models, so it's now possible to identify the new models after downloading the models list from the Pharos website.

• Sites where users have multiple Network IDs can now specify the preferred Network ID to use in Blueprint reports.

• After provisioning a device, no longer need to wait for nightly replication to propagate device's information before it can release jobs.

• Speed up obtaining a user's jobs when they log into an iMFP.

Bug Fixes:

• Fix: No longer able to delete an SNMP configuration if it's being used by a Global Credential.

• Fix: No longer able to print non-MICR jobs on MICR device.

• Fix: Securing multiple devices simultaneously no longer intermittently fails to add a terminal record for the device.

• Fix: Restarting a device in middle of a session no longer results in device coming online with user still logged in.

• Fix: HP device's OXPd logging now records User's ID.

• Fix: Sentry Icon no longer blurry on some HP models with high resolution displays.

• Fix: Improved labelling of "Sentry Print Button Name".

• Fix: User with 4 or more network IDs is now able to log on using a card swipe.

• Fix: Device Scout Discovery. Saving a changed range no longer fails.

• Fix: Print Center UI no longer offers to allow changing finishing options for IPP jobs.

• Fix: Sentry Print iMFPs show "wait" icon on display when busy.

Known Issues:

• With the addition of Global Credentials, any customers who are using Xerox devices for Secure Release will need to add the devices' credentials into the Global Credentials after updating the Blueprint Analyst.

• Running the Uninstaller for the Stand Alone Administrator will open a dialog asking for the Uninstaller to be closed to allow the Uninstaller to run. The warning can be ignored when it appears.

How to apply this Update

Warning: Blocked Files

Depending on how this update or its files were copied to the target machine, some of the files may have been 'blocked' by Windows. Trying to update a Blueprint component with a blocked file will most likely prevent that component from working correctly. To check whether a file is blocked and/or unblock it, right-click the file in Windows Explorer and select 'Properties'.

Warning: In use Files

Under some conditions, the upgrader may be unable to replace files because they are in use. If this happens,

1. Stop all the Application Pools in IIS.

2. Run the upgrade again.

3. Start all the Application Pools after the patcher succeeds.

Updating Analyst or Collector

Installation Steps

1. If updating Analyst, make sure you have an up to date backup of the psbprint database.

2. Close the Window's Printers window (if it is open). Close any Pharos applications (e.g. Troubleshooter, Blueprint Administrator) that are open.

   Note: you do not need to stop the Pharos Services. The update installer will do this automatically.

3. Open an elevated Windows command prompt and run Patcher.exe from the command line. No additional parameters are necessary.

   • The update installer does not create a log file. It is recommended that you run DebugView (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896647) to capture the output of the installer. This output will include error messages if the installer fails.

   • If the update installer fails, you can correct the cause of the error and run Patcher.exe again.

   • At completion, the Patcher may automatically force a restart. Follow the remaining instructions after the restart.

   • To log the installation of MSI files associated with the update, edit <MsiLogFileDirectory> in the Patcher.xml file with a folder path.

   • If Site Monitor with a lite license is installed and the logged on user does not have permissions to remove the Site Monitor database, the DbAdminUser and EncryptedDbAdminPassword elements can be populated in the patcher.xml to allow full uninstallation of Site Monitor.

     • Open an elevated command prompt and type in patcher /encrypt:MySecretPassword to retrieve the encrypted version of the Db Admin Password.

4. On Analyst, open the Blueprint Analyst, go to Reporting -> Publications and click on "Publish to Data Warehouse" on the toolbar.

Automated Server Deployment

Customers with a large number of Blueprint Servers may want to deploy this update using an automated software deployment tool (e.g. IBM's Tivoli).

To help with this process, the Patcher can be configured to send an e-mail at the end of the patching process indicating the patching attempt's success or failure. The configuration is held in the file Patcher.xml. Modify the file as follows:

1. Change the <automated> element from "false" to "true".

2. Set "to" to the e-mail address you want the notification sent to.

3. Set "from" to the e-mail address you want the notification to claim it was sent from.

4. Set smtpServerHost to the FQDN of the mail server.

5. Leave smtpServerPort alone, unless the mail server is using a non-standard port. Or you want the communication encrypted using SSL.

6. If the mail server and its Host are configured to support SSL, you can change useSSL to "true" and smtpServerPort to the SSL port (usually 465).

7. Set smtpUserName and smtpPassword to the user and password needed to use the mail server.

8. If you do not want to put an unencrypted password in the Patcher.xml file, you can put the password as encrypted text into smtpEncryptedPassword. You can encrypt the password by calling Patcher.exe from the command line with the flag "/encrypt:". e.g. Assume your mail server's password is "MySecretPassword".

   1. Open an elevated command prompt and type in patcher /encrypt:MySecretPassword

   2. Patcher.exe will return EncryptedPassword:L9EMZX9r1CkvI8rNybP/dikf09zwBPLMfl6OMk7/nXOCgZQpaePQDoGDULN3eAbe"

   3. Set smtpEncryptedPassword="L9EMZX9r1CkvI8rNybP/dikf09zwBPLMfl6OMk7/nXOCgZQpaePQDoGDULN3eAbe"

9. If your deployment tool will run the patcher under an account that has permission to send e-mails, then you can set useDefaultCredentials to "true" and leave smtpUserName, smtpEncryptedPassword and smtpPassword blank.

Updating standalone installations of the Blueprint Administrator

Note - The Administrator only can be updated via the patcher - described here - or using the dedicated MSI - see the readme in the Utilities\AdministratorOnlyPackage folder

If Workstation Tracker is installed along with the Blueprint Administrator, applying the update will NOT update the Tracker.

1. Close the Window's Printers window (if it is open).

2. Open an elevated Windows command prompt and run Patcher.exe from the command line. No additional parameters are necessary.

   Note: The update installer does not create a log file. It is recommended that you run DebugView (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896647) to capture the output of the installer. This output will include error messages if the installer fails.

3. A reboot might be required after the update is run. This is done automatically so make sure you save any open files prior to applying the update.

4. If the update installer fails, you can correct the cause of the error and run Patcher.exe again. Alternatively, you can contact Pharos for manual upgrade instructions.

Updating Tracker on Print Servers

On all the Windows Print Servers where tracking is required, use the Blueprint Print Scout package contained in the Tracker directory to install or upgrade the Tracker.

Updating Tracker on Windows Workstations

Print Scout packages should be distributed to all workstations hosting the Blueprint Tracker, so you can take advantage of the new features and improvements.

Integrations

MobilePrint

MobilePrint version 2.5.0 was updated to work with the updated security measures implemented in the Print Center in Update 2. If you are using Mobile Print, ensure that your MobilePrint is at least version 2.5.0.

MobilePrint won't be able to retrieve changes to its configuration until it is updated because it won't be able to establish communication with the Pharos API. Failing to update to the latest version might also lead to a situation where multiple logon requests are generated by MobilePrint. These logon requests do not present a substantial risk. Standard MobilePrint operations, such as file uploads and print release will continue to work.

Other

VPSX, HP ePrint, and Apple UTF-8 Integration

• Any previously installed version of these Integrations will stop working once the update is applied.

• After applying this update, you will need to re-install the integration using the version included with this Update. i.e. replace the deployed DLLs with the new versions.

• If TLS 1.2 is the ONLY cipher suite enabled the VPSX SRH integration will not work.

Limitations

If "Integrated Security" is used to connect to MS SQL, the Print Center won't work after applying this release. To fix, set the Pharos ASP.NET v4.0 App Pool in IIS to use an account that has MS SQL permissions. Refer to the "New Features" document in the Pharos Community for more information.