Integrating your branch office successfully with optimized printing solutions

1. Integrating your branch office successfully with optimized printing solutions Gary Barton Principal Architect, Receivers and Gateways Group, Citrix Systems Ramzy Mansour Manager, Tech Support EMEA, Citrix Systems Conor Scolard Technical Support Engineer, Tech Support EMEA, Citrix Systems

2. Agenda • Print pathways and data flows • Printer drivers and PDLs • Print optimization solutions • Project Laser • Project Phaser (Universal Print Server) • Branch Repeater • Multistream ICA and QOS

3. Print Pathways and Data Flows

4. Types of Printers – XenDesktop and XenApp • Local Printer (Host) • Locally defined TCP/IP port printer • Network Printer Connection • Traditional shared network printer • Redirected Client Printers • Printer redirected using ICASPL virtual channel protocol • Printer using bus-level USB redirection

5. Local printers XenDesktop or XenApp Host USB, LPT, or TCP port PDF, XPS or Fax virtual printer Endpoint ICA

6. Network printer connections XenDesktop or XenApp Host Print server SpoolSS RPC USB, LPT, or TCP port ICA Endpoint

7. USB redirected client printers XenDesktop host End point USB port ICA

8. Redirected client printers (ICASPL) XenDesktop or XenApp Host USB, LPT, or TCP port End point ICA USB, LPT, or TCP port Print server SpoolSS RPC

9. Printing and wide area networks • Print devices generally live near end-points • Directly connected to the end-point… or at least on same local network • Print speed dramatically impacted by limited bandwidth and high latency • Print data can be extremely verbose • Screen rasters: 75-120 DPI • Print rasters: 600-1200 DPI • 100x expansion for same raster content • Thankfully, print data is… • Very compressible • Does not need real-time delivery

10. Redirected client printers and WANs • Print data WAN traversal occurs through the ICA tunnel • Advantages: • ICA reducer will compress data • Print data will be lower priority than interactive data within a session • ICA virtual channel bandwidth limit policies can limit BW consumption • Disadvantages: • USB redirection performs poorly when there is significant latency (ICA SPL will perform better) • Print data through ICA are harder to segregate from other traffic for QOS

11. Common network print delivery protocols • Most network ready print devices support at least one of the following: • JetDirect (raw TCP data dump, typically port 9100) • LPR/LPD (RFC 1179, typically port 515) • IPP (RFC 2910/2911 and others, typically port 631) • Common attributes: • All stream data fairly efficiently (not too chatty) • All are easily identified/prioritized by QOS hardware (e.g. independent TCP connections to well-known ports) • Not usually compressed unless using WAN accelerator

12. Local TCP/IP port printers? • Raw TCP print performance is reasonable • No data compression… but data streams well • Works fine for small XenApp deployments where printers are defined directly on servers • Can also work for XenDesktop users with admin access • Users must know where to find printers and how to construct them • For usability/manageability, most organizations prefer IT managed print servers

13. Network printing and WANs • Protocol traversing the WAN depends upon where printer servers are deployed • Print server deployed in data center(s): • OK: WAN traversed by JetDirect, LPR, IPP, etc. • Print server in branch: • Client print path OK: WAN is traversed by ICASPL • Network print path  BAD: WAN is traversed by SpoolSS-RPC protocol

14. Network printing and WANs - The wrong approach ICA Session Remote data center with XenDesktop or XenApp hosts End point Print data spooled directly to network print server SpoolSS RPC protocol Print Server This configuration will perform poorly, especially with significant network latency

15. Network printing and WANs - The better approach XenDesktop or XenApp host ICA Session Remote data center with application hosts AND print servers End point SpoolSS RPC JetDirect, LPR, IPP Print Server Better user experience, but no compression w/o WAN accelerator

16. Print servers in the branch? ICA Session Print data delivered through ICASPL virtual channel Host End point Today: Use client print path (with UPD) Future: Use Universal Print Server Print Server

17. Compression Technology • Most data compression technologies employ same bag of tricks • Shared dictionaries • Examples: LZW, gzip, ICA Reducer • Algorithms differ in how they build and share dictionaries • Variable bit length encoding • Fewer bits used to encode more frequently occurring tokens • Example: Huffman coding

18. ICA Reducer • Citrix patented general purpose data compression algorithm applied to data flowing through ICA • Algorithm uses variable sized history buffer for dictionary string matching coupled with Huffman coding of unmatched data • Each ICA session employs at least two reducers • Server  Client (512K History) • Client  Server (512K History) • Since Citrix Presentation Server 4, ICAPSL can negotiate a private reducer instance with up to 16MB history

19. ICA reducer performance • Typical compression of 75-90% on arbitrary data • Expect between 4-to-1 and 10-to-1 compression depending on input • Even better when entire print jobs fit within reducer history (16MB) • Printing same print job usually sends only a handful of bytes • Reducer efficiency for very large print jobs (hundreds of megabytes) • Typically 65-75% • Not too bad… …but 25% of 400 MB is still 100MB !

20. DemonstrationLAN/WAN spooling comparison

22. LAN/WAN Spooling Demo - Takeaways • LAN – All technologies work well • ICA or TCP port printing work well on WAN • Observed experience on 1.5mbps, 150 ms WAN: • ICA: 11s to printer on, 33s pg1, 45s pg2, subsequent pages at printer speed • TCP: 10s to printer on, 33s pg1, 57s pg2, can’t keep printer busy • Only ICA compresses data 5-to-1 (or better) compression • Only ICA provides for bandwidth limits • SpoolSS-RPC not suitable for traversing WAN • Experience: 0:42/1:29/1:44 • Excessive delays mapping printers, displaying preferences U/I, etc.

23. Printer Drivers and PDLs

24. Traditional Drivers and PDLs • Majority of drivers emit PCL3/4/5, PCL6 (PCLXL), or Postscript • But many others PDLs in use • Postscript and PCL dialects are fairly efficient • Wide range of graphics primitives • All have facilities for efficient bitmap and font encoding • Verbosity: PostScript > PCL3/4/5 > PCL6 • After compression, all are roughly equal • Other PDLs: • Size of print jobs can vary significantly • Beware of “host-based” drivers – may be all raster output

25. Optimizing output of traditional drivers • Selected print quality usually has an impact on print file size • Most print drivers select highest possible quality by default • Suggestion: Use printer settings overrides to dial down quality • Available for Session Printers and Driver Mapping & Compatibility policies • Color/monochrome setting may have significant effect • Can be overridden by same policies as above • TrueType font settings can have measurable effect on print file size • Print as bitmap  increase file size • Substitute device font  reduces file size, but you may not like the results • Download as soft font is usually the best choice

26. Printer driver mapping and compatibility

27. Settings tabs

28. Universal Printing • Reduces administrative burden to maintain a working set of printer drivers in your XenDesktop or XenApp images • Drivers are still needed on print servers and Windows clients. • No additional drivers are needed on application hosts when using UPD • Citrix provides full-featured universal printing for Windows end-points • EMF and XPS print file formats • Access to printer/device specific features • Network print data optimizations (Project Laser) • Legacy PCL/Postscript UPDs available for Mac/Linux/Java clients • Engineering team is actively developing Universal Print Server • Will bring same UPD capabilities network print path

29. Universal printing solutions from partners More complete universal printing solutions are available today from our partners 1st class solutions available from ThinPrint, Tricerat, and UniPrint All support network print path today All feature optimized print data and delivery protocols Many options for thin-clients with embedded support for these products

30. Citrix Universal Printer driver (EMF) • EMF can be substantially more verbose than other PDLs • EMF is device independent. Other PDLs can optimize for device limits. • EMF was designed for fast spooling… not compact storage • Recording (journal) of application GDI/DDI calls • Spool file size depends on how an application presents content • Example: Adobe Reader renders everything itself and presents hi-res raster strips to GDI • EMF compresses extremely well • General purpose data compression  75-85% compression • With recent Laser improvements  as much as 99% compression

31. Citrix XPS Universal Printer driver (XPS) • XPS format is more compact than EMF • Spool file container is ZIP compressed • Embedded images are encoded as PNG or JPEG • Repeated images are included only once per print job • Windows XPS consumer does not handle interleaved XPS • Must download entire XPS package to client before printing can begin • Project Laser now gives EMF advantage of XPS packaging plus page-by-page streaming

32. Project Laser

33. Project Laser • Improvements designed to improve print speed • Especially with lots of embedded and repeated rasters • PowerPoint, Adobe Reader, Photo printers, GIS apps, etc • How  Apply print domain specific compression before general purpose data compression • Lossy and lossless image compression • Cached object protocol for large objects (images and fonts) • Shipped in Q4 last year • XenDesktop 5 – Built in • XenApp 6 - Printing Optimization Pack

34. hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. — John Hancock hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. — John Hancock XenDesktop VDA or XenApp Server Endpoint Device hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. — John Hancock hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. — John Hancock SSL 001000111010101 SSL 001000111010101 SSL 001000111010101 SSL 0010

35. Baseline XenApp 6 versus XenApp 6 + POP

36. WAN spooling comparison

37. UPD UI - Advanced settings

38. Policies

39. New optimization settings

40. Project Laser Demonstration

41. Laser - Takeaways • EMF used by Citrix UPD can be verbose • Device independent format • Recording of application drawing requests • Project Laser optimizes UPD EMF • Graphical content reduced by as much as 90% • Redundant graphics objects removed • Observed experience (1.5 mbps, 150 msec): • 10s to printer on, 30s pg1, 42pg2, subsequent pages at printer speed

42. Project Phaser (Universal Print Server)

43. Project Phaser - Universal Print Server Goal: Extend universal printing capabilities to network printing scenarios • Network print server solution providing • Ability to use Citrix universal printing regardless of client capabilities • Efficient, open, and firewall friendly protocols • Optimized print traffic flows (host  print server) • Removes need for printer drivers on the XA/XD hosts! • Significant WAN performance improvements • Less sensitive to latency than printing using SPOOLSS-RPC protocol • Greater print speed and less bandwidth consumption (Laser optimizations)

44. Phaser Elements • Protocols • UP-WS: Web service protocol for non-streaming protocol elements • SOAP based application protocol over HTTP/HTTPS • UPP: Universal Printer Port protocol • Compressed print streams tunneled to via CGP over TCP • UPClient package • Adds network printing capability to XenDesktop or XenApp hosts • UPServer package • Add on package installed on a Windows print server

45. Print Server Architecture UPServer Spooler UP-WS S DK Print Provider Network Print Service SOAP over HTTP(S) UP Web Service RPC CGP/SSL TCP Print Data (XPS/EMF) UPS Configuration UPD Driver WINSPOOL.DRV Driver Drivers App VQ1 VQ2 PQ2 PQ1 Spooler Driver Driver Driver Driver UPClient StdNetwork Port Monitor UPS Virtual Port Monitor Rendered Print Data

46. UPServer Component Services • UP Web Service • Non-privileged network web service • Hosted in XTE • Apache 2.2 derivative with Citrix specific protocol modules (CGP, Authentication, etc) • Same platform used by Secure Gateway, Session Reliability, and SSLRelay • Network Print Service • Executes with Spooler Admin rights only… but is otherwise non-privileged • Provides all the typical remote Windows printer operations, plus… • Printer settings & capabilities interrogation methods used by UPDs • Rendering EMF or XPS input stream  device ready output stream

47. UPS Deployment XenApp/XenDesktop Farm Print Server plus UPServer UP-WS over HTTPS UP-WS SpoolSS-RPC Print Data (XPS/EMF) ICA TCP Tunneled via CGP/SSL Compressed print data TCP ICA

48. Project Phaser Status • HDX printing team’s #1 priority since Laser release • Phaser Community Tech Preview Announcement • Tech preview test iteration scheduled to finish Nov 1. • Look for CTP bits on MyCitrix website first week of November! • Phaser Tech Preview components: • Print client add-on for XenDesktop 5.5 and XenApp 6.5 hosts • Minor hotfix updates for print components of XenDesktop 5.5 and XenApp 6.5 • Add-on package for Windows print server for Windows Server 2008 x86 • Updated GPMX policy console to support UPS policies • GA Target: 1H12, based on beta feedback

49. Project Phaser Demonstrations

50. Phaser - Takeaways • Enables UPD usage for network printing • Works with any endpoint type • Brings Laser performance to network printing • Observed experience (1.5mbps, 150ms): • 11s to printer on, 33s pg1, 45s pg2, subsequent pages at printer speed • Community Tech Preview first week of November