How to auto-deploy a print queue to specific PDAgents
How to auto-deploy a print queue to specific PDAgents
When only a handful of PCs should get a printer, and they do not share an IP range or a naming pattern, you can pick them individually. PDAgent must be installed on the PCs.
How deployment zones work
A deployment zone describes a group of PCs running PDAgent. Each zone can match PCs in three ways, one tab each in the New deployment zone window:
- Hosts: by PDAgent or by computer name (hostname).
- IP range: by the PC’s IP address.
- User logins: by the users, or Departments, logged in on the PC.
A PC matches a zone only if it matches all of the tabs. Leave a tab on its first option (All hosts, All IP addresses or All users) to ignore it.
A Queue Deployment set to Selected deployment zones is installed on a PC when any of its ticked zones covers that PC. Zones are shared, so one zone can be ticked on several Queue Deployments. The Deployment zones tab lists every zone with its Name, Include or exclude, Match hosts, Match IPs and Match users settings, and when it was created and last modified. Use Edit and Delete to change or remove a zone.
The same zones control self-install: if Self install is set to Allowed for selected deployment zones, users on PCs covered by a ticked zone can install the queue themselves from the Install print queue option in the PDAgent Client.
Set up the deployment zone
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Open Resource Manager.
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In the tree on the left, expand Print Management > Print Queue Management and click Queue Deployments.
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On the right, double-click the Queue Deployment. If it does not exist yet, create it first: see How to manually create a Queue Deployment or How to copy an existing Windows print queue to a new Queue Deployment.
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In the Deployment scope section, set Auto deploy to Selected deployment zones.
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Click the Deployment zones tab, then click Add. The New deployment zone window opens.
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In Deployment zone name, enter a descriptive name for the zone.
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Set Include or exclude:
- Only include those matching search parameters: the zone covers only the PCs that match.
- Include all except those matching search parameters: the zone covers every PC except the ones that match.
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On the Hosts tab, set Match hosts to Specific PDAgents.
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In the list of PDAgents, tick each PDAgent that should get the queue.
If you click OK without ticking any PDAgents, Resource Manager warns you: with Only include those matching search parameters the zone would cover no PCs, and with Include all except those matching search parameters it would cover every PC.
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Leave the IP range and User logins tabs on All IP addresses and All users.
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Click OK to save the zone.
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Back on the Deployment zones tab, make sure the new zone is ticked, then click OK to save the Queue Deployment.
Tip: to give the queue to every PC except a few, set Include or exclude to Include all except those matching search parameters and tick the PDAgents to leave out.
When the queue is installed
Each PDAgent checks for Queue Deployments whenever it refreshes its settings, so PCs that match the zone get the queue automatically. To apply the change straight away:
- to refresh one PC, click PD Agents in Resource Manager, right-click the PDAgent and choose Refresh, or
- to refresh every PC, click PD Servers, right-click the PDServer and choose Send command > Refresh all connected PDAgents.
If Auto remove queues if not in zones or the Deployment is deleted is ticked on the Queue Deployment, the queue is also removed from PCs that stop matching the zone. Queues that users installed themselves with Self install are never removed automatically.
Related articles
- How to auto-deploy a print queue to IP ranges
- How to auto-deploy a print queue to specific users or Departments
- How to auto-deploy a print queue to specific machines using hostname matching
- How to manually create a Queue Deployment
- For every setting on the Queue deployment window, see Queue Deployment Configuration.
| Document revision date: 2026/10/23 Software version: 2.5.15.3 |