Bulk onboarding cloud-connected printers

Introduction

You can onboard a fleet of printers to WXP at once by uploading a CSV file containing the serial numbers and product numbers of your printers to the portal. When you upload a CSV file, WXP validates the contents to remove invalid or duplicate entries, then adds the printers to the portal. Finally, WXP attempts to contact the printers to complete the onboarding process.

Note

To be fully onboarded to WXP through the cloud, a printer must have HP cloud connection enabled (known as web services on some printers). You can use the MPS Printer Onboarding tool to help enable this setting for an entire fleet of printers at once. For more information, see Enabling HP cloud connection using the MPS Printer Onboarding tool.

Target Audience

• IT administrators who onboard and manage printers.

• Printer Administrators who onboard and manage printers.

Creating a CSV File for Bulk Onboarding Printers

A printer onboarding CSV file contains a list of printers identified by their serial number and printer number. The file format is basic: The file must contain at least two columns with headers labeled Serial Number and Product Number. WXP only parses the content in these columns; if other columns are present in the file, they are ignored.

For example, a CSV file based on the template available through the portal might look like this:

Serial Number,Product Number
ABCDE12345,ABC123
PQRST12345,ABC123

However, the following file, exported from the MPS Printer Onboarding tool, is also valid:

"Host Name/IP Address","Reachable","Is Printer","Model","Serial Number","Product Number","Firmware Check","Firmware","Firmware Date"

"15.4.4.150","true","true","HP OfficeJet Pro 9120b Series","TH2AR1Z260","403V0A","true","6.26.0.4985e697c68","202408050520"

"15.4.4.152","true","true","HP LaserJet color flow MFP M575","MX2CD7B0PG","CXXXXA","true","2411226_066602","20230202"

Note

Currently, due to a limitation in WXP, HP recommends limiting the number of printers in a single CSV file to 1000.

There are two ways you can create a CSV file. These are identified in the Add Printers dialog.

Method 1: Export a List of Discovered Printers from the MPS Printer Onboarding Tool

The MPS Printer Onboarding tool is an external tool provided by HP to assist customers with onboarding printers to various HP services. Although the MPS Printer Onboarding tool was not designed for use with WXP and is not capable of fully onboarding printers to the platform without user intervention, it still offers significant benefits, especially when dealing with larger fleets of printers:

• It can automatically discover printers on your network and export them (with their serial and product numbers) to a CSV file, which you can upload to the WXP portal.

• It can automatically enable HP cloud connection/web services for each printer, which is required before the printers can be fully onboarded to WXP.  

You can download and install the MPS Printer Onboarding tool to create a CSV file for your fleet of printers and to enable HP cloud connection/web services. For information on how to use the tool, see Bulk onboarding printers using the MPS Printer Onboarding tool.

Method 2: Create your own CSV

If you have the serial number and product number for the printers you want to onboard, you can create your own CSV file. From the Add Printers dialog, you can download a template CSV file. Modify it with values specific to your fleet, then upload it to the portal.

Tip

If you intend to create your own printer onboarding CSV file but will still need to enable HP cloud connection/web services on some or all of the printers, include a column for the hostname. This way, you can upload the same file to both the WXP portal for onboarding and the MPS Printer Onboarding tool to enable HP cloud connection/web services.

Bulk Onboarding a Fleet of Printers

To bulk onboard printers using a CSV file:

1. Log in to WXP.

2. From the left menu of WXP, click Devices > Printers.

3. On the Printers or Pending Printers tab, above the printers list, select Add printers.

4. Select Connect through the cloud.

5. Select Upload CSV file.

6. In the Choose File field, browse to the location of your printer CSV file, then select Upload and validate.

Note

For information on creating a CSV file, see Creating a CSV file for bulk onboarding printers.

After validating the file, WXP provides a summary of the validation. This summary informs you of any invalid printers (that is, printers unsupported by WXP) included in the list. Invalid printers are immediately excluded from the onboarding process.

There may also be issues with valid printers that can prevent a printer from being onboarded (for example, if a printer was previously added to another account). Select Download details to download a CSV-based report that describes any issues with each issue. For example:

 A CSV-based report that describes any issues

7. Select Add printers to add the valid printers to WXP.

The WXP portal displays the Pending Printers tab and attempts to contact each added printer to complete onboarding. WXP adds the printers to the Pending Printers list and displays their onboarding status (Connected, Action needed, or Error).

Contact Us

For any assistance, create a support case or email support@wxp.hp.com.