Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops

Citrix Universal Print Server (UPS)

August 19, 2025

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UPS is an optional Citrix component designed to optimize and manage network printing. It consists of two parts:

UPServer component is installed on one or more Windows Print Servers in the network.
UPClient component, which is part of the VDA installation. When enabled via policy, VDAs communicate with the UPServer to establish connections to network printers, typically leveraging the Citrix Universal Print Driver (UPD).

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UPS offers several advantages, particularly for network printing across WAN links or in large environments:

Network Optimization: Print data sent between the VDA and UPServer is optimized and compressed, reducing bandwidth consumption, especially important over WAN connections.
Centralized Driver Management: Allows leveraging the Citrix UPD for network printers, reducing the need to install and manage numerous native printer drivers on the VDAs.
High Availability: Supports load balancing across multiple UPServers and automatic failover if a server becomes unavailable.

Requirements

Microsoft Visual C++ 2015–2022 Redistributable
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8 (minimum)
OS requirement for UPServer
- Windows Server 2025
- Windows Server 2022
- Windows Server 2019

Configuration/ Steps to setup

This functionality is disabled by default. Related settings and configurations can be found in the “Universal Print Server” template. The policy settings in this template can be used to further customize and optimize the Universal Print server experience.

Beyond the enable setting, several policy settings fine-tune UPS behavior:

Port configuration for communication (HTTP/SOAP, CGP, and their SSL/TLS equivalents).
Input bandwidth limits for print streams.
List of UPServers for load balancing. Out-of-service threshold for failover detection.
Web service connection timeouts.
SSL/TLS configuration settings for secure communication.

For more information, see Citrix UPS policy settings.

Best practices

Use UPS for network printing across WAN links to optimize performance.
Utilize the Citrix Universal Print Driver (UPD) to reduce driver management on VDAs.
Configure load balancing across multiple UPServers for high availability.

Use cases

Citrix explicitly recommends UPS for remote print server scenarios involving WAN links.It’s also ideal for environments seeking to minimize VDA driver footprint, improve network printing performance, provide high availability for network printing, or implement proximity printing based on network location. Thin clients that cannot directly connect to network printers can leverage UPS via the VDA.

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Citrix Universal Print Server (UPS)

August 19, 2025

Contributed by:

August 19, 2025

Contributed by:

Citrix Universal Print Server (UPS)

Requirements

Configuration/ Steps to setup

Best practices

Use cases

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