Pharos Beacon Update: June 2021 Release Notes

This release represents the latest version of the Beacon platform and Sentry Print. This update includes the following new features:

• New Device Discovery Utility

• Lexmark Sentry Print Client

• Cloud Release Sentry Print Setting (HP devices only)

• Security Updates

• Print Scout for macOS Support for Big Sur and Apple M1 CPU

• Universal Print Integration*

• Direct Print UX Improvements*

• Guest Printing UX Improvements*

* Universal Print Integration, Direct Print, and Guest Printing are in preview mode - let us know if you want to participate in this preview program.

New Features

New Device Discovery and Deployment Utility

Deploying Sentry Print on cloud-enabled devices can be quite challenging using the command line MFP Deployment tool. To make it easier for IT admins to deploy Sentry Print on cloud-enabled devices, this release introduces the new Device Discovery and Deployment Utility (DDU).

DDU is a stand-alone utility that allows you to do the following:

• Scan the network for printers that can be later be used for zero-infrastructure cloud printing.

• Secure and unsecure HP integrated printers with Sentry Print Cloud Connector.

The DDU also includes advanced options that allow you to modify the network ranges that are used with the device scan and to configure SNMP. 

The DDU replaces the command-line tool (MFP Deployment Tool) that was used to operate on cloud-enabled devices. This new utility provides a consistent approach for securing and unsecuring cloud-enabled devices. Using the Secure Printers dialog in the web portal, the DDU allows you to operate on cloud-enabled devices in the same way you operate on on-premises devices.

Downloading the Discovery and Deployment Utility

Using the Device Discovery and Deployment Utility is straightforward. If your site is configured for the Cloud Connector (meaning Cloud Site Service is enabled), you can download the Device Discovery and Deployment Utility from the Secure > Setup Guide tab of the web portal. You will need your organization’s Site Encryption Key to download the DDU.

Running the DDU

After downloading and extracting the DDU to your workstation and configuring the IP ranges, follow these steps to run the DDU.

1. Run the DDU on any workstation that has a line of sight to the printers that you wish to discover.

2. Initiate a device discovery by selecting the Initiate Device Scan on the DDU interface. All discovered devices are added to the Fleet and Secure Printers grid.

3. Select the Launch Web portal button to start securing devices with Sentry Print Cloud Connector.

Notes:

• The utility must remain open when securing or unsecuring devices. If the utility is not running in the background, you will not be able to secure or unsecure cloud-enabled devices from the web portal.

• Only HP devices are currently cloud-enabled. If you have other device manufacturers (e.g. Ricoh, Lexmark), you can use the Device Scout to scan your network and secure your devices for Sentry Print.

Changes on the Web Portal

• The Secure Printer dialog has a new Select Deployment Connector field. The Select Deployment Connector’s “Automatic” option is recommended, but you can  select from the list of local connectors and cloud connectors as shown below.

• The Secure Printers tab includes the following new columns:

  • Deployment Connector - Displays the local connector or cloud connector name selected.

  • Secured Assembly – When a device is secured with the DDU (cloud connector), the field shows discovery-deployment-utility. When a device is secured with Local Device Scout, this field shows Mps.Client.Mfp.Service.

  • Secured Version - shows the version of the DDU used to secure the device.

• The Secure > Setup Guide now includes a new Download Device Discovery and Deployment Utility section.

Pharos Sentry Print on Lexmark devices

The Pharos Sentry Print application interfaces with Beacon to provide print release, photocopy, fax, and scan services. It provides a simplified and consistent look and a better user experience across all the supported manufacturers.

Lexmark devices now support Pharos Sentry Print, joining other supported manufacturers (HP, Konica Minolta, Xerox, and Ricoh).

Refer to the Pharos Sentry SE50 Deployment Guide for information regarding deployment and troubleshooting of the Pharos Sentry SE50 embedded software.

New Cloud Release Setting

A new Cloud Release setting has been added to the Secure > Settings screen. This option is available in the Advanced option of the Secure > Settings > Sentry Print Settings section of the web portal.

The Cloud Release (also known as Pull Print) setting can be enabled only when both Cloud Connector (i.e., Cloud Site Service) and Cloud Storage are enabled. Cloud Release is a print job delivery mechanism where a cloud-aware printer requests and downloads documents directly from the cloud storage.

Note: Cloud Release is supported on HP printers only.

Security Updates

To maintain the highest security standards and ensure customer information is kept safe, we have updated Sentry Print components to deprecate TLS 1.0 and 1.1 protocols, allowing only TLS 1.2 connections. This means that after this update, Sentry Print components will only be able to connect to the cloud when the hosting device is enabled to support TLS 1.2 connections. 

• Moving to TLS 1.2 only support will impact Microsoft Windows 7 and Server 2008/2008R2 unless these versions have been updated. See the Transport Layer Security Best Practices from Microsoft.

• This also affects Sentry Print component versions. Ensure that the following minimum versions are installed. 

  • Print Scout (Windows): 7.7

  • Print Scout (macOS): 2.2

  • Device Scout: 1.11

Print Scout for macOS

A new version of the Print Scout for macOS(2.17.9.100) provides support for the recently released macOS Big Sur (version 11) as well as the new Apple M1 CPU.

Universal Print Integration (Preview)

*This feature is currently in preview mode – let us know if you want to participate in this beta test program.

Universal Print is a Microsoft 365 cloud-based print infrastructure that simplifies office printing for IT administrators and employees. Universal Print eliminates on-premises print servers and does not require print drivers.  If your organization is using Microsoft 365 in an Azure AD environment, Universal Print provides an easy way to manage printers via group policy. Beacon Sentry Print provides several extra capabilities on top of Universal Print:

• Provides secure printing, including end-to-end encryption. Users need to authenticate at a printer to collect their documents. Only users who submitted the document can release them.

• Installs a single queue that users can print to and then release anywhere.

• Supports proximity cards, email authentication, and mobile app release (for Beacon Sentry Print jobs).

• Supports internet-only environments (sometimes referred to as zero-trust networks).

• Identity management and federated authentication.

• Support for mixed device environments. The integration supports printers from multiple manufacturers and their various device models.

How it works

The following workflow assumes that you have both Beacon Sentry Print and Universal Print configured.

1. IT admin enables Universal Print integration on the web portal. Enabling integration creates a single global queue (called Secure Printer) in Universal Print and creates a printer share for this queue.

2. Users add the created Universal Print queue (Secure Printer) to their workstations.

3. Users print to the Universal print queue or the Sentry Print queue from their workstations. Print jobs are sent to either Microsoft 365 storage or Beacon Sentry Print.

4. Users walk up to any printer to authenticate. Sentry Print pulls all the print jobs held by Universal Print and all print jobs held by Beacon Sentry Print. The user’s job list from both sources is presented on the device panel for print release.

Prerequisites

• The organization has a Beacon account.

• Users and IT administrators must have a Universal Print license.

• An administrator must be assigned a Printer Administrator or a Global Administrator role in the Azure Active Directory.

• Users’ workstations require Windows 10 version 1903 or later.

Configuring Universal Print Integration

When all the prerequisites are met, the process of connecting Beacon Sentry Print to Universal Print is simple:

1. An IT admin navigates to the Universal Print tab on the web portal.

2. If the IT admin is not already logged in, they will be prompted to sign in with their Azure AD account.

3. The IT admin toggles the ON switch to enable Universal Print. Enabling the integration does the following:

   • Creates a global single queue called Secure Printer within Universal Print.

   • Shares the Secure Printer (create a printer share) for users in your organization. All users print to that single shared printer object.

4. Depending on your printer manufacturer or whether you want Cloud Release, an IT admin will need to either do one of the following options:

   • Enter a Document Proxy URL under the Document Proxy section of the Universal Print tab. This is suitable for sites with HP printers with Cloud Release.

   • Install a Universal Print compatible Print Scout. This is suitable for sites with non-HP printers and those with HP printers but does not want Cloud Release.

Direct Print Improvements (Preview)

In the March 2021 release, we introduced the preview version of Direct Print, the cloud-based solution that allows employees in your organization to send their print jobs directly to a selected printer).

This update includes the following changes and improvements to the Direct Print feature:

• A new Invite tab has been added to the Direct tab. This tab allows any logged-in user to enter their email address to receive a template that they can use as a starting point to invite users to use Direct Print.

• Chrome Direct Print reporting. In this release, Sentry Print now includes reporting on direct print jobs sent via the Chrome Print extension.

  • Documents printed to managed printers (i.e., printers added by an administrator) on the Chrome extension are now reported. The Documents printed per employee report shows Chrome Extension for Pharos under the Application column.

• • Documents printed to printers added by users locally are reported as “Unknown devices”.

Note: You will need a Print Analytics license to view Direct Print job reports.

Guest Printing UX Improvements (Preview)

*This feature is currently in preview mode – if you would like to participate in the preview program, please reach out to beacon-beta@pharos.com.

Guest Printing allows non-employees (visitors, contractors, etc.) to print documents without requiring a user account in your directory system. The first version of Guest Printing was introduced in the March 2021 release.

This update includes the following changes and improvements to Guest Printing:

• The Invite Guest link has been removed from the Secure > Settings > Guest Print tab of the web portal. You can now invite a guest user from the new Secure > Invite > Invite Guests tab on the web portal.

• Added support for new document formats for upload: JPEG, PNG, and Text, in addition to the already supported PDF file.

Component Release Version

This release is comprised of the following software components and release versions.