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Scenarios for Flexed or Pooled license expiry and connectivity issues behavior

September 10, 2025
Contributed by: 
C

Important:

File-based licensing system (also referred to as manually managed entitlements), traditionally used for activating various on-premises components, will be End of Life (EOL) on April 15, 2026. License Activation Service (LAS) is the next generation technology for product activations across the suite of Citrix products. LAS will be the only way to activate and license NetScaler instances after April 15, 2026, supporting NetScaler Flexed licenses (CPL/UHMC), legacy NetScaler Pooled licenses, and NetScaler Fixed term Bandwidth licenses. To remain supported, your NetScaler and NetScaler Console deployments must be on a LAS compatible version.

The minimum required NetScaler versions that are LAS compatible are:

  • NetScaler ADCs: 14.1-51.x, 13.1-60.x, 13.1-37.x (FIPS)

  • NetScaler SVM: 14.1-51.x, 13.1-60.x

  • NetScaler Console Service: Supported from early September 2025.

All the other forms of legacy NetScaler licenses such as Pooled vCPU, CICO, perpetual will not be supported with LAS. NetScaler instances leveraging perpetual licenses without an active maintenance will become unlicensed upon upgrade to the above mentioned software versions.

LAS based licenses may not be available to customers where prohibited by law or regulations.

If you have questions or concerns, contact Customer Care. Citrix may limit or suspend your Citrix Maintenance for non-compliance with these requirements without liability in addition to any other remedies Citrix may have at law or equity. These requirements don’t apply where prohibited by law or regulation.

LAS-based licenses

Before the term expires

If the license is renewed before its expiration:

  • The NetScaler instance seamlessly switches to the new license after the old one expires, provided the device is up and running.

  • A restart is not required.

  • The NetScaler does not need a manual capacity reconfiguration.

After the term expires

If the license is not renewed before its term expires, the NetScaler instance stops normal operations.

  • It loses its configuration.

  • All traffic processing shuts down completely.

Scenarios for connectivity issues behavior

If connectivity between a NetScaler and the NetScaler Console service is lost, the device enters a 30-day grace period.

During the grace period, licensing functions normally. However, on the thirty-first day, the following occurs:

  • NetScaler VPX, CPX, BLX, and MPX instances undergo a forced reboot and become unlicensed.

  • The throughput for all VPX instances on a NetScaler SDX is reduced to 1 Mbps.

Manually managed license (file-based license)

This document presents different scenarios of license expiry and connectivity issues behavior in NetScaler MPX, NetScaler SDX, and NetScaler VPX/NetScaler BLX/NetScaler CPX.

Components of Flexed licenses

  • Software instance (VPX/BLX/CPX, SDX, MPX, VPX FIPS)
  • Bandwidth capacity

Scenario: MPX form factor

You are using Flexed or Pooled licensing and the licenses are due to expire soon. The following scenarios explain the behavior when a new license is uploaded on NetScaler Console before and after the term expires, or when a license file is not present.

Before the term expires

If the new license is uploaded before the term expires and the old license is still valid, two different pools of capacity (old and new) are available.

  • If NetScaler is up and running, it switches to the new Flexed or Pooled license seamlessly after the old license expires.
  • A restart is not required.
  • NetScaler does not require a manual capacity reconfiguration.

After the term expires

NetScaler instance stops its normal operations after the license expiry, including configuration loss and complete shutdown of traffic processing.

Before or after term expiry if license edition of old and new are different

If the license edition of old and new are different, then irrespective of before or after the term expires, you must perform the following:

  • Bandwidth must be manually reconfigured. In NetScaler GUI:

    1. Navigate to System > Licenses > Manage Licenses.
    2. Click Release Allocation to release the allocation.
    3. Click Change Allocation to reallocate the bandwidth and change the bandwidth to premium.

  • Restart NetScaler.

Scenario: SDX form factor

You are using Flexed or Pooled licensing and the licenses are due to expire soon. The following scenarios explain the behavior when a new license is uploaded on NetScaler Console before and after the term expires, or when a license file is not present.

Before the term expires

If the new license is uploaded before the term expires and the old license is still valid, two different pools of capacity (old and new) are available.

  • If NetScaler is up and running, it switches to the new Flexed or Pooled license seamlessly after the old license expires.
  • A restart is not required.
  • NetScaler does not require a manual capacity reconfiguration.

After the term expires

NetScaler instance stops its normal operations after the license expiry, including configuration loss and complete shutdown of traffic processing.

If license edition of old and new are different

Before the term expires

  • Ensure that both old and new license files exist on the Console.

  • Bandwidth must be manually reconfigured. In the NetScaler SDX GUI:

    1. Navigate to System > Licenses > Manage Licenses.
    2. Click Release Allocation to release the allocation.
    3. Click Change Allocation to reallocate the bandwidth and change the bandwidth to premium.

  • Change all the edition of VPX to premium to reboot the VPX instances.

  • Click Change Allocation and retain only premium bandwidth. Delete all other bandwidth allocations.

After the term expires

NetScaler instance stops its normal operations after the license expiry, including configuration loss and complete shutdown of traffic processing.

  • Delete the VPX instances on SDX.
  • Click Change allocation to reallocate the bandwidth for SDX on Console.
  • Reprovision the VPX with premium edition on SDX.

Scenario: VPX/BLX/CPX form factor

You are using Flexed or Pooled licensing and the licenses are due to expire soon. The following scenarios explain the behavior when a new license is uploaded on NetScaler Console before and after the term expires, or when a license file is not present.

Before the term expires

If the new license is uploaded before the term expires, and the old license is still valid, two different pools of capacity (old and new) are available.

  • If NetScaler is up and running, it switches to the new Flexed or Pooled license seamlessly after the old license expires.
  • A restart is not required.
  • NetScaler does not require a manual capacity reconfiguration.

After the term expires

NetScaler instances with expired licenses managed through NetScaler Console stop to process traffic and might result in configuration loss.

Before or after term expiry if license edition of old and new are different

If the license edition of old and new are different, then irrespective of before or after the term expires, you must perform the following:

  • Bandwidth must be manually reconfigured. In NetScaler VPX/BLX/CPX GUI:

    1. Navigate to System > Licenses > Manage Licenses.
    2. Click Release Allocation to release the allocation.
    3. Click Change Allocation to reallocate the bandwidth and change the bandwidth to premium.

  • Restart VPX/BLX/CPX instance.

Scenarios for connectivity issues behavior

If connectivity breaks between NetScaler and agent, or agent and NetScaler Console service, the behavior is as follows:

  • NetScaler goes into grace for 30 days.

  • During this grace period, licensing functionality continues to work until the thirtieth day.

  • On the thirty-first day,

    • NetScaler VPX/NetScaler CPX/NetScaler BLX and NetScaler MPX undergo a forced reboot and become unlicensed.

    • The throughput on all the VPX on NetScaler SDX is decreased to 1 Mbps.

Scenarios for Flexed or Pooled license expiry and connectivity issues behavior
September 10, 2025
Contributed by: 
C
September 10, 2025
Contributed by: 
C

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