Printer Supply Monitor Technical Specifications

PRINTER SUPPLY MONITOR

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Technical Specifications

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Printer Supply Monitor (PSM) - Technical Specifications

PSM Rack Appliance V5 / PSM VMWare V5 (64 Bit Image)

PSM does not deal with customer business data at all. PSM does only request page counter data and consumable status / error message data from the printer by using SNMP V1/2 GET requests.
SNMP requests will be sent out in intervals from 5 minutes to 5 hours to each printer, depending on the configuration of the scheduler.
SNMP traffic: Average 30 queries per device (can be reduced by 50% if "low network load" mode is used).
PSM sends out emails with the printer orders and/or error messages. Printer IP addresses in all outgoing communication (email orders / reports) can be masked.
A DIRECT COMMUNICATION OR VPN OVER THE INTERNET IS NOT NEEDED !
Outgoing communication
PSM is using the following ports for outgoing communication:
Port	Protocol	Service	Description
123	TCP	NTP	used to synchronize with a time server
160/161	UDP/TCP	SNMP	used to gather information from the printers
53	UDP/TCP	DNS	DNS queries to get the printer host names
25	TCP	SMTP	used to send emails with the orders and reports
Incoming Communication
PSM accepts incoming communication on the following ports:
Port	Protocol	Service	Description
80	TCP	http	used for PSM configuration and operation. Login=PSM password

Configurable communication options:

SMTP email

The SMTP server used for sending alerts can be configured within PSMs web GUI. However, the mail server must be accessible on port 25. The security depends on the mail server. If the mail server allows for unauthenticated mail sending, then PSM can send emails to the outside world.

We recommend to configure the mail server, to not allow unauthenticated mail sending. You can assign a Userid/Password inside PSM and configure that inside PSM to allow authenticated mail sending.

The Destination Email recipients for Orders/Alerts can be configured in the PSM Administration > Email Setup, on the Groups, or on each configured Printer inside PSM.

FTP

An outgoing FTP connection by PSM is made, if one or both of the two Options is configured:

- Automatic Backup by FTP (in the PSM Administration > Backup/Restore). If configured, PSM will try to send a .tar File containing the MySQL Database and the PSM Program Files to the configured Destination

- Automatic Import (in the Printers > Add Printer Section). If specified, PSM tries to import a csv File containing the Printers for import into PSM from the Source Address configured.

DNS

Up to 2 DNS Servers can be configured to allow Name Resolution. The Name Servers can be configured in the PSM Program Administration > Network Setup Section.

NTP

To allow Time Synchronization, you can configure a Time Server. This can be done in the PSM Program Administration > Network Setup Section

Security Considerations / Risks

The 64 Bit Version of PSM is very restricted in terms of access. The only incoming Port allowed is Port 80, which is used to configure and Monitor PSM. All other Services are either disabled, or restricted to console access only.

The Console (VMWare Console if VMWare or VGA Port if Rack Appliance) is restricted as well. Only the configuration of IP Address, Shutdown and Reboot is possible from there.

Security Advice:

We recommend to change the PSM admin Password as soon as possible, and use a complex password for the Userid "admin". Since the http communication runs unencrypted, you may want to allow access to PSM only from a certain IP Addresses and protect it with a Firewall. However you have to make sure, that PSM is still able to query all configured Printers by SNMP, and that it has access to the Mail server.