Active/standby group for cloud printing: the setup that avoids production stoppages

01

What a growing company gets

An active/standby group keeps the same print destination available even when one workstation becomes unreachable, is disabled, or loses its authorization. Multiple authorized Print Clients share the same group, and the Print Gateway always assigns a single leader through a renewable lease, so documents keep printing without immediate manual intervention.

02

How to configure the group

Steps

1. Install Nebulas Print Client on at least two workstations that can reach the same printers.
2. Complete login and MFA in the browser and authorize each PC separately.
3. Verify that each workstation exposes the same exact local queue names used by the management software.
4. In the Nebulas Portal, assign the clients to the same group and set different priorities.
5. Check heartbeat, status, detected queues, and the active client before going into production.

03

What you need before starting

Prerequisites

• Supported systems: Windows x64, macOS Intel or Apple Silicon, Linux x64.
• Documents in PDF format and printers with queues installed and visible to the operating system.
• Outbound HTTPS access to Nebulas services.
• A Nebulas account with the Cloud Printing module active.

04

Hypothetical example: two workstations in an administrative office

Hypothetical example. The administrator assigns priority 1 to the main workstation and priority 2 to a backup workstation, both connected to the same invoice printer. If the main workstation stops while downloading a PDF, once the recovery lease expires the job returns to pending and is picked up by the new leader; if the PDF had already reached the spooler, the job becomes DELIVERY_UNKNOWN and must be checked manually, avoiding duplicate copies.

05

Checks to perform before and after activation

• Verify that queue names are identical across all group members: a missing queue remains a configuration error, and the job is not redirected.
• Check heartbeat, status, and active client before using the group in production.
• Watch for PRINTED, FAILED, and DELIVERY_UNKNOWN statuses to verify the outcome of each job.
• Recheck security: the client uses only outbound HTTPS and does not open inbound ports into the company network.

06

What Nebulas Print Client actually does

Nebulas Print Client downloads PDFs through the authenticated Print Gateway, sends them to the exact operating system queue, and returns a verifiable outcome to the cloud. The native package includes Java 17, so it does not need to be installed separately. Each workstation's authorization is renewable and revocable by the administrator in the Nebulas Portal, and the renewal credential remains protected by Windows DPAPI, macOS Keychain, or Linux Secret Service.

07

Maintaining the group over time

Steps

1. When a workstation needs to be replaced, disable, remove, or deauthorize the client from the Nebulas Portal.
2. The gateway immediately excludes the workstation and another eligible member takes over leadership.
3. When a client with better priority returns, the group can shift back to the preferred workstation in a controlled way.
4. Repeat the heartbeat and queue checks whenever you change priorities or group members.

08

Next step

If your company depends on invoice or critical document printing, consider configuring at least two Print Clients in the same group before going into production, so operations don't depend on a single workstation.