Presto Administration

The Presto Admin UI is the command center of your printing infrastructure.  From here, you can perform the bulk of management tasks.

Table of Contents
Overview
Dashboard
Alerts
Printers
Jobs
Users
Hosts
Rules
My Jobs
Station
DNS

Note: The contents of this article are specific to Presto Server version 2.7 and later.  If you are running an earlier version of Presto 2, we encourage you to upgrade as soon as possible.  Your purchase of the Presto 2 license entitles you to free upgrades to all Presto 2.x versions.

Overview

Accessing the Presto UI

Access to the Presto service is available in the following ways:

  • The Presto Application on the host computer
  • A browser on a Presto Host using the loopback address in the following format: https://127-0-0-1.collobos.net:9631
  • A browser pointed to the IP address of a system running either the Primary Presto instance or an Extender in the following format: https://192-168-5-1.collobos.net:9631
  • The Presto App installed on a Mobile and logged in as an Administrator.

Note: If the Admin UI fails to load, see Troubleshooting the Admin UI in Presto Troubleshooting.

Communication Indicator

The triangle icon in the lower right corner indicates whether or not the Presto Application is communicating with the Presto Service on the hosting system.  If it is showing as red with a line through it, this indicates that it is not communication.

If the Presto Application is not communicating with the Service, the information in Presto will not be up-to-date and any edits will fail.

For information about troubleshooting an instance of Presto that is not communicating, see Troubleshooting Hosts in  Presto Troubleshooting.

Presto Administrator Menu
Item Description
Site Name Listed below the name of the logged in user
About Presto Shows the version number of Presto
Change Password Allows the logged in User to change their password
Deactivate Deactivates the license on the Primary instance of Presto
Resetting the Admin Password

To reset the Admin password to the factory default, follow these steps on the Presto Server host system:

Windows

  1. Close the Presto Admin Application
  2. Open a Windows command line window using "Run as administrator"
  3. Navigate to the folder C:\Program Files\Collobos\Presto\Service
  4. Stop the presto service with this command: .\prestod64 --stop
  5. Optional: To backup backup the database, issue this command: copy .\data .\data%random:~-4%.bck
  6. To reset the password, issue this command: .\prestod64 --reset-admin-password
  7. Restart the presto service with this command: .\prestod64 --start

Mac OS

  1. Close the Presto Admin Application
  2. Open a command line window as an administrator
  3. Navigate to the folder /Applications/Presto.app/Contents/usr/bin
  4. Stop the presto service with this command: ./prestod --stop
  5. Optional: To backup backup the database, issue this command: copy ./data ./data_ %random:~-4%.bck
  6. To reset the password, issue this command: ./prestod --reset-admin-password
  7. Restart the presto service with this command: ./prestod --start

Dashboard

Your Dashboard gives you an at-a-glance view of the state of your printing infrastructure.  

This information is continually being refreshed and, where applicable, reflects the last 24 hours; e.g. Finished Print Jobs.

Notifications

If there are issues or actions that you must take to enable Presto to do its job, it will appear here. Administrative Notifications will appear for all Administrative Users. 

Each Notification has the option to clear it permanently. When a Notification is cleared, it will be cleared for all Users

At A Glance

From here you get an overview of your printing infrastructure.

Item Description
Printers
Active # of Printers that have been set to 'Active'.  These printers can be made available to Users.  If this number is 0, printing will not be possible in your network.
Inactive # of Printers that have not been set to 'Active'.  These printers can not be made available to Users.
Online A Printer is considered online if it is reporting itself as online to Presto.
Offline A Printer is considered offline if a) it is not reporting itself as online to Presto, or b) the Printer is reporting a state that suggests that printing may not be possible; e.g. out of paper.
Jobs
Held Print Jobs that are pending release, typically with Presto Secure Release
Active Print Jobs that are currently in process/printing
Finished # of Print Jobs completed successfully in the past 24 hours
Cancelled # of Print Jobs that were cancelled, either manually or by a system process, in the past 24 hours.
Failed # of Print Jobs that failed to complete in the past 24 hours
Users
Active # of Active Presto Users.  For more details and the definition of an Active User, see  Users.
Remaining Indicates how many remaining Active Users can be supported based on your license tier.
Hosts
Online Reflects the Primary intsance + the number of Presto instances that are in active communication with the Primary instance.
Offline Reflects the number of Presto instances that are not in active communication with the Primary instance.  To troubleshoot an offline Host,  see Hosts in Troubleshooting Presto

Alerts

The Alerts tab is where you can view, manage and configure triggers for externally delivered notifications

A set of ALERTS are pre-configured at install, but are not yet associated with printers or destinations.

Create an Alert

Select 'Create an Alert' (when there are none created) or select 'New' from the vertical ellipsis menu.  Enter settings and click 'Save' from the same menu to save the Alert.

Search for an Alert

The search bar will allow you to search within the list of existing configured Alerts.  It accepts a single, non-case sensitive term and will match the pattern across Alert names

Managing Alert Settings

To view the settings of a single Alert, select the name of the Alert.  To view the settings of multiple Alerts, use the radio buttons to multi-select. To change settings for selected Alert(s), click Edit from the vertical ellipsis menu.  To save any changes, click Save from the same menu.  To cancel changes, select Cancel from the same menu. 

Deleting an Alert

To delete an Alert, select it from the list and select 'Delete' from the vertical ellipsis menu

Alert Settings

Item Description
Name Unique Alert name as it will appear to users. Editable.  
Type Indicates which Notification type will trigger the Alert. Editable.  
Source Indicates tags that, for each printer the tag is applied, will trigger the alert
Destination(s) The set of destinations for the Alert.  Each item in the distribution can be one of the following:
  • The URL of a Slack channel
  • An Email address
Created Indicates the date the Alert was created.
Modified Indicates the date the settings of the Alert were most recently changed.

Printers

The Printers tab is where you can view, manage and configure your printers.

Search for a Printer

The search bar will allow you to search for Printers.  It accepts a single, non-case sensitive term and will match the pattern across Printer names and tags.

Managing Printer Settings

To view the settings of a single Printer, select the name of the printer.  To view the settings of multiple Printers, use the radio buttons to multi-select. To change settings for selected Printer(s), click the vertical ellipsis from the upper-right corner and click Edit.  To save any changes, click Save from the same menu.  To cancel changes, select Cancel from the same menu. 

Adding a Printer

To add a Printer to your Presto environment, install the Printer on a printer server with an instance of Presto running on it.  This event will cause the Printer to be added to the list.  If a new print server is required, a new instance of Presto must be installed on it.  See  How to Install and Configure Presto.

Deleting a Printer

A printer can be deleted in one of two ways;

  • Uninstalling the Printer from the print server.  This event will cause the Printer to be deleted from the list.
  • Selecting a Printer(s), clicking the vertical ellipsis menu and clicking delete.   This will remove the Printer(s) from the list, but if it is not uninstalled from the print server the Printer(s) will reappear the next time the Presto Service runs its Printer detection process.
Description of Printer Settings
Item Description
Name Unique printer name as it will appear to users. Editable.  
Active Indicates whether or not this printer has been set to 'Active'.  Only printers that have been set to 'Active' can be made visible to Users. Editable
Pages Only available if reported by the Printer . For details of the number and how it is calculated, see the Printer manufacturer's information. Read-only
Levels If available, Presto will show ink, toner, and paper levels of the printer.  This is queried and updated several times per hour. Read-only
Location Shows the specific Geolocation (validated against Google maps) that the printer is currently mapped to.  Editable.
QR Code This is automatically generated and is unique to the printer.  It is used only for Presto Station/Secure Release.  If supported by your printer, and you want the QR Code to visible on the printer's display, clicking the QR Code will copy the URL to the image file to your clipboard.
Tags Arbitrary strings added to Printer(s) to be used for configuring printer access  Rules.  Editable.
Authentication Indicates whether or not users are required to authenticate uniquely to print. Editable.
  • None Required - No user authentication necessary to print to this printer
  • Required - User is required to authenticate uniquely against their directory creds.
  • Strict - User is required to authenticate every time they print. 
Access Indicates which user groups, if any, are the only ones that can print to this printer. Editable.
Station Indicates whether the printer is set up as a Presto Secure Release printer. Editable.  For more details, see  Presto Secure Release.
Created Indicates when the Printer was first added to Presto. Read-only
Modified Indicates the most recent change to a Printer's information, whether modified manually or by an internal or external system event. Read-only

Jobs

The Jobs tab delivers full visibility of printer usage to administrators.

We recommend leaving all print jobs intact and not deleting. They will be archived automatically.

Item Description
Source The user or IP address of the device that originated the print job. Read-only
Destination The printer that the print job was sent to. Read-only
Pages Total number of pages in the print job. Read-only
Created Indicates when the Print Job was submitted Read-only
Modified Indicates the most recent change to a Print Job's information, whether modified manually or by an internal or external system event. Read-only

Users

The Users tab is where you can view all users, both active and inactive.

Adding Users

There are two events that cause a user to be added to the Users list, if not already on it:

  • A User logs into the Presto application
  • A User prints, whether or not they have authenticated.

All authenticated Users will appear as their full name, as it appears in the authentication directory.  Unauthenticated users will appear as 'Guest'.  All Users have the IP address of the most recent system on which they either logged in or printed.  When a user is authenticated, if the IP address matches the IP address of an existing Guest User, the Guest User is removed from the list.

We recommend setting printers to 'Require Authentication' to allow administrators the greatest degree of visibility and control. For more information, see  Printers.

Active vs. Inactive Users

A User will appear as active if they have either logged in the Presto application or have printed, whether authenticated or not, in the past 30 days.

A user becomes inactive when they haven't logged in the Presto application or printed in the past 30 days.

Administrator Users

An Administrator have the ability to administer Presto wherever/whenever they are logged in.  They are also able to set any other user to be an Administrator.

Search for a User

The search bar will allow you to search for Users.  It accepts a single, non-case sensitive term and will match the pattern across User names and tags.

Managing User Settings

To view the settings of a single User, select the name of the user.  To view the settings of multiple Users, use the radio buttons to multi-select. To change settings for selected User(s), click the vertical ellipsis from the upper-right corner and click Edit.  To save any changes, click Save from the same menu.  To cancel changes, select Cancel from the same menu. 

Description of User Settings
Item Description
Admin Indicates whether the selected user is an Administrator. Editable for authenticated users.
Provider Indicates the service that most recently authenticated the User.  For Guests, it will always say Presto. Read-only
Last Login Indicates the most recent login to Presto from any location. Read-only
From Indicates the device the User most recently logged in from. Read-only
Tags Arbitrary strings added to user(s) to be used for configuring printer access  Rules.  For authenticated users, directory groups that they are members of will appear as tags. Editable
Created The date the User was created. Read-only
Modified Indicates the most recent change to a User's information, whether modified manually or by an internal or external system event. Read-only

Hosts

The Hosts tab allows you to view and configure your federated instances of Presto, both the Primary and Extenders.  Initial settings for each instance will generally be determined during setup, but can be edited here.  

Adding a new Host

Steps for adding a new Host are explained in the following video:

For complete details about setting up additional Presto instances, see Hosts in  How to Install and Configure Presto.

Search for a Host

The search bar will allow you to search for Hosts.  It accepts a single, non-case sensitive term and will match the pattern across Host names.

Managing Host Settings

To view the settings of a single Host, select the name of the Host.  To view the settings of multiple Hosts, use the radio buttons to multi-select. To change settings for selected Host(s), click the vertical ellipsis from the upper-right corner and click Edit.  To save any changes, click Save from the same menu.  To cancel changes, select Cancel from the same menu. 

Description of Host Settings
Item Description
Name Editable.
Type Indicates whether this is the Primary instance or an Extender instance.  Read-only
Version Installed version of Presto.  Read-only
OS OS version of the system hosting the Presto instance.  Read-only
Network Indicates which network interfaces Presto will listen on.  By default, this is set to all detected network interfaces. Editable.
DNS Primary only.  Indicates the addresses that are populated in the collobos.net DNS server for that site.  Read-only.
Directory Provider Indicates if the Host is included in the list of authentication authorities.  If yes, it will be the last authority checked. Editable
Print Provider Indicates if this Host is advertising its installed Printers.  Not required if the Host is not a print server. Editable
mDNS Advertising Indicates whether the printers in this subnet are being broadcast via mDNS.  Editable
Proxy Proxy settings.  Typically configured during install of Presto.  Editable.
Created Date that the instance of Presto was installed. Read-only
Modified Indicates the most recent change to a Host's information, whether modified manually or by an internal or external system event. Read-only

Deleting a Host

Delete an Extender by selecting the Host, clicking the vertical ellipsis and selecting Delete from the menu.  This will terminate the connection.  You can then proceed to uninstall Presto from the hosting system.

Rules

This tab will allow you to create, view and manage Rules.  Rules deliver Administrators a powerful toolkit to serve their users the right printers under a specific set of criteria.  This logic will scale to the largest environments.

Rules Overview
  • Rules use boolean logic to manage printer advertisement in coordination with Tags, which are arbitrary strings added as identifiers to Printers and/or Users.  See also Printers and Users.
  • A generic default printer sharing rule is enabled upon installation of the Primary instance of Presto. Deactivate this rule prior to implementing custom Rules.

Note: Rules can be eliminated altogether through the use of Presto Secure Release, which is included with Presto.  For more details, see  Presto Secure Release.

Search for a Rule

The search bar will allow you to search for Rules.  It accepts a single, non-case sensitive term and will match the pattern across Rule names.

Managing Rules

To view the settings of a single Rule, select the name of the Rule.  To view the settings of multiple Rules, use the radio buttons to multi-select. To change settings for selected Rule(s), click the vertical ellipsis from the upper-right corner and click Edit.  To save any changes, click Save from the same menu.  To cancel changes, select Cancel from the same menu. 

Description of Rules Settings
Item Description
Name Editable.
Enabled Indicates whether this rule is in use by Presto in enabling access to Printer(s) to User(s). Editable.
Created Date the Rule was created. Read-only
Modified Indicates the most recent change to a Rule's information, whether modified manually or by an internal or external system event. Read-only
Creating a Rule

To create a new Rule, click the vertical ellipsis in the upper-right corner and click New.  Adjust the settings as required and select Save from the same menu.

Example Rules

The following are two example rules that cover the majority of situations we encounter:

Example 1 - Directory Service/Policy based Rules (iOS printing not supported)

  • Goal: Advertise specific printers to specific user groups.
  • Overview: Advertise "Staff" printers to "Faculty" Directory Group. 
    • Begin with a default printing rule.
    • Edit the name as appropriate.
    • Add Condition: Printer Tag = Staff
    • Add Condition: User Tag = Group: Faculty
    • Save the Rule

Example 2: Subnet based rules (iOS printing supported).

Note: iOS performs printer discovery prior to Presto knowing who the user is.  As such we will bind the subnet to a user type.  If you want to restrict printing so only specific users can print to a particular printer, add the authorized user groups to the Access field under Printer Settings. More details about printer settings can be found  here.

  • Goal: Advertise specific printers to specific subnets. A "student wireless subnet" is 192.168.5.0.
  • Overview: Advertise "High School Student" printers to 192.168.5.0 Subnet.
    • Begin with a default printing rule.
    • Edit the name as appropriate.
    • Add Condition: Printer Tag = HS Students
    • Add Condition: User Tag = 192.168.5.0
    • Save the Rule
Deleting a Rule

To delete a Rule, select the Rule, click the vertical ellipsis and click Delete from the same menu.

My Jobs

Within My Jobs is a personal Document Center, a feature accessible to every Authenticated user.  My Jobs is designed to be used in conjunction with Secure Release / Presto Station and lists all Print Jobs created by the User.  After printing to the Magic Queue printer a users will see all jobs pending release.

Held Jobs

While in a held state a user can do the following:

  • Release the print job to the printer.
  • Release multiple print jobs to the printer, by selecting one or more of the jobs
  • Modify the attributes of the print job.
  • Delete the print job.

Pending jobs not released within 24 hours are deleted automatically from the queue.

Station

The Station tab is the location to configure a Presto Secure Release Station and is only available on mobile devices.  Complete details can be found in  Presto Secure Release.

DNS

Implementing uDNS is simple, effective, and tremendously robust.  Only a single conditional forwarding record is required for all client devices with uDNS.  Only iOS clients require additional records.  Records are added to DNS servers that are answering requests from your client devices.  Any DNS infrastructure can be used for Presto. 

Note regarding DHCP 

Regardless of your DNS infrastructure, the ordering of the DNS servers handed out by DHCP must order internal DNS servers before external DNS servers. 

This example uses 8.8.8.8 as the IP address of the external DNS server.

  • Correct: 10.10.0.1, 10.10.0.2, 8.8.8.8
  • Incorrect: 8.8.8.8, 10.10.0.1, 10.10.0.2
Configuring DNS

Select the DNS tab in Presto, select your DNS server Environment and proceed to the appropriate section below.

Windows DNS

Add the conditional forwarding record to the DNS servers:

  1. Add the IP address of the primary DNS server answering client requests. This generates the Conditional Forwarding record.
  2. Copy the record and paste the record into a Windows Command Prompt on the DNS server with Admin rights.
  3. If supporting iOS, swipe and add the wireless subnet where you wish to discover printers on the client.  It is best to enter the CIDR e.g  10.10.10.0/24
  4. Click icon to copy to the desktop and then paste those records generated into the command prompt of the Windows DNS server.

Repeat the above steps for each wireless subnet where you wish to support iOS printing.

BIND

Note: This is not intended to be a tutorial on how to set up a BIND server. We recommend referencing a definitive resource if required.  An example can be found  here

After configuring your BIND server and creating and testing your named config files and DNS Zone files, perform the following steps to enable DNS interoperability with Presto:

  1. Add the following lines to your named.conf.local (or equivalent) file. Replacing the IP address with that of your Presto server:
  2. zone "presto."
    type forward;
    forward only;
    forwarders { 10.10.241.21; };
    	
  3. Ensure there is a reverse lookup zone file for each subnet you wish Presto to service. Here is an example of a reverse lookup zone file with the required entries:
  4. @ IN SOA ns1.collobostest.com
    admin.collobostest.com. ( 
    ; Serial
    604800 ; Refresh
    86400 ; Retry
    2419200 ; Expir
    604800 ) ; Negative Cache TTL
    ; name servers - 
    NS records IN NS ns1.collobostest.com.
    ; PTR Records
    $origin 145.241.192.in-addr.arpa.
    93 IN PTR ns1.collobostest.com. ; 192.241.145.93
    101 IN PTR host1.collobostest.com. ; 192.241.145.101
    102 IN PTR host2.collobostest.com. ; 192.241.145.102
    $origin 0.145.241.192.in-addr.arpa.
    ; Required to support Presto
    b._dns-sd._udp IN PTR 0.145.241.192.dnssd.presto.
    lb._dns-sd._udp IN PTR 0.145.241.192.dnssd.presto.
    	
Unbound

Add the conditional forwarding record to the DNS servers:

  1. Add the IP address of the primary DNS server answering client requests. This generates the Conditional Forwarding record.
  2. Copy the record and paste the record into a Command Prompt on the DNS server with Admin rights.
  3. If supporting iOS, swipe and add the wireless subnet where you wish to discover printers on the client. It is best to enter the CIDR e.g. 10.10.10.0/24

Repeat the above steps for each wireless subnet where you wish to support iOS printing.

Infoblox

To configure Infoblox with Presto, please review our Guide.

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