Let me begin by saying I’m not an Epicor guru in the least, but I’ve worked with similar ERP systems in the past. We’re currently migrating from on-premises Kinetic to Kinetic GovCloud, and are at the point where we’re Pilot testing. I need to make sure print capabilities are configured using the best option for our usages, now and going forward. More specifically, should I go with Local or Network Edge Agent? At this point I haven’t chosen a preferred option but I want to make sure I’m making the right choice given we’re moving to GovCloud and the Kinetic Smart Client is going away (at least I think it’s going away). I’m leaning towards Edge Local, but only because I’m trying to avoid maintaining servers on-prem unless it’s actually the best option.
Edge Agent - Local
In this mode printers installed to a user’s local PC are made available to either the desktop or browser Kinetic clients (not virtual printers like PDF). The user can choose their preferred locally connected printer (e.g. either USB direct or a network connection - but not via a central print server).
Edge Agent - Network
Similar as Local, except this mode is meant to support printers that are controlled via a printer server (or just printers mapped to an application server & shared out).
Do I have this summed up correctly?
Given our long-term goal is to eliminate as much on-premises infrastructure, is Edge Local the way to go? I’ve validated the silent install via PowerShell is working as expected.
Local edge agent shows all printers available for current machine, including virtual printers like PDF, it runs in current user’s session, so virtual printers are just fine.
It is not used in the desktop client, only in the browser, but the code for both cases practically the same.
Each user should have it installed to be able to do client printing.
Network edge agent is a service installed somewhere on the server one for all users, it will see all printers available on that server for the service, but not virtual printers because no UI is involved here.
You need to add its printers to the system using Network Printer maintenance and then users can select that printers when they click Network Print in UI.
One thing about the Local version (in my experience) is that if you have computers that are shared, meaning people Switch User and don’t log out, only the first person who logs in can use the EA, everyone else will get an error that it cannot start as it is already running.
In the Network Installer there is a mode called multi user mode and this one installs it as a services on the client and allows multiple users to use the computer and switch between them without the unable to start error.
you should report this. Technically yes, EA still continue to run in the first session, it was not supposed to be shared like this, user logout is expected.
There is an option to install EA for virtual desktops but it is for something like Terminal server. Autoupdate won’t be done for such mode though.
So that is not the expected behavior, its been my experience with numerous versions of EA from 2024.1-2025.1, I stopped trying a long time ago though tbh, once I figured out the multi user mode (designed for virtual desktops) I just deploy with that.
Yeah, I understand it wants the first user to log out but shared machines are not really used like that, at least not here.
Ah…ok I think I have a better understanding now.
To keep this less complicated, at least for the short term, I’ll go with a Network Edge Agent. Thankfully each of our locations really only has a few printers that would be used for this, so not a huge effort to make that work.
I reported it to EpicCare and received the following response on Case CS0005252733:
“The Edge Agent is machine-specific and operates on a per-user-session basis.
As a result, multiple users cannot use the Edge Agent simultaneously on the same terminal server.”
I will try what others have mentioned for multi-user mode. EpicCare support was not helpful when I asked.
well then apparently someone decided that it is not worth the pain
In any case i did not even look what is the way to stop app on session lock and restart on unlock..
Shameless plug for my idea here. Factories don’t have a computer for every welder or machine operator. Shared equipment and logins is the norm. You can’t wait 3 minutes to log out and log back into windows to report that you made 20 widgets. This is a prime example of vendors needing to understand real world use cases of their product.
(Not picking on you @Olga , I know you probably didn’t make the decisions, and we 100% truly appreciate your engagement! I love that you do work so hard to understand us!)
After mulling this over last night, I think I may go with the Local Edge agent. First reason, we’re using just the browser after we migrate to GovCloud. Since the Kinetic desktop client will be phased out, we’re not going to deploy that. This way all I need to do is install the local agent and they’ll have the same printers they have today. Second, I’m ok with losing automatic updates as I have an application deployment tool that can handle that from time to time easily. Third, we don’t currently define printers within Kinetic. We may in the future, but not anytime soon.
The local EA client 2025.1+ should auto update fine it’s the Network one that would need manual updating.
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aidacra
(Nathan your friendly neighborhood Support Engineer)
20
To install the Edge Agent on a multi‑user machine in Local mode for Kinetic 2025.2:
In the Kinetic main menu, search for Edge Agent Configuration and open it.
In the overflow menu, select Download Network Edge Agent for Windows. Note: I know.. I know..I’m just a simple hyper-chicken from a backwoods asteroid…
Run the installer, and when prompted for the installation mode, choose Local installation for virtual desktops.
