Product Documentation
Application Delivery Management
14.1 - Current Release 13.1 13.0
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Configure Flexed licensing

December 17, 2024
Contributed by: 
C S R

Note:

If you have pooled licenses, and have now purchased and applied Flexed licenses, the combined entitlement appears in the Flexed license dashboard.

NetScaler Flexed licensing allows you to share bandwidth or instance licenses across different NetScaler form factors. Use this Flexed capacity for the instances that are in the data center or public clouds. When an instance no longer requires the resources, it checks the allocated capacity back into the common pool. Reuse the released capacity on other NetScaler instances that need resources.

You can use Flexed licensing to maximize the bandwidth utilization by ensuring the necessary bandwidth allocation to an instance and not more than its need. Increase or decrease the bandwidth allocated to an instance at run time without affecting the traffic.

You can perform the following tasks in NetScaler Console:

  1. Upload the Flexed license files (bandwidth pool or software instance pool) to the license server.

    Note:

    License server is the NetScaler Console on-prem server.

  2. Upload the SDX or MPX zero capacity licenses to the SDX or MPX hardware, and allocate licenses from the license pool to NetScaler instances on demand.

    • Check out the licenses from NetScaler instances based on the minimum and maximum capacity of the instance.

You can download Flexed licenses, including bandwidth, instance, and Z-cap licenses from citrix.com. For more information, see Licensing guide for NetScaler.

NetScaler Flexed licensing states

The Flexed licensing states indicate the license requirement on a NetScaler instance. The NetScaler instances configured with Flexed licensing display one of the following states:

  • Allocated: Instance is running with proper license capacity.

  • Grace: Instance is running on a grace license.

  • Connection lost: Communication from NetScaler Console to the instance is not working.

Before you begin

Ensure that the following prerequisite is met before you configure Flexed licensing:

  • The 27000 and 7279 ports are reachable from NetScaler to NetScaler Console, to check out licenses. See, System requirements.

Step 1 - Apply licenses in NetScaler Console

  1. Navigate to NetScaler Licensing > License Management.

  2. In the License Files section, select Add License File and select one of the following options:

    • Upload license files from a local computer. If a license file is already present on your local computer, you can upload it to NetScaler Console.

    • Use license access code. Specify the license access code for the license that you have purchased from Citrix. Then, select Get Licenses. Then select Finish.

    Note:

    At any time, you can add more licenses to NetScaler Console from License Settings.

  3. Click Finish.

    The license files are added to NetScaler Console. The License Expiry Information section lists the licenses present in the NetScaler Console and the remaining days to expiry.

  4. In License Files, select a license file that you want to apply and click Apply licenses.

    This action enables NetScaler instances to use the selected license as a Flexed license.

Step 2 - Register NetScaler Console as a license server and allocate licenses

You can register the NetScaler Console as a license server to a NetScaler instance.

Register a NetScaler Console server using the GUI

In the NetScaler Console GUI, register the NetScaler Console server associated with a NetScaler instance.

  1. Log in to NetScaler GUI.

  2. Navigate to System > Licenses > Manage Licenses.

  3. Click Add New License.

  4. Select Use remote licensing and under Remote Licensing Mode, select Pooled Licensing from the list.

  5. In the Server Name/IP address field, specify the NetScaler Console server IP address.

  6. The default license port is 27000.

  7. Enter your NetScaler Console server credentials to register an instance with NetScaler Console and click Continue. In NetScaler Console, one of the servers is the license server.

    Manage license in NetScaler

    Note:

    Select the Validate Certificate checkbox only if you have a digital Certificate Authority (CA) certificate for validation.

  8. Under Device Profile Name, specify the instance profile that NetScaler Console can use to access the instance. This instance profile contains the user name and password of the instances that you want to add to NetScaler Console. The default profile is ns_nsroot_profile. If you have changed the default admin credentials of your instances, you can define a custom instance profile name.

  9. In Allocate licenses, select the license edition and specify the required bandwidth.

    For the first time, allocate licenses in NetScaler. You can later change or release the license allocation from the NetScaler Console GUI.

    Allocate licenses from NetScaler GUI

    Click Get Licenses.

    Important

    Warm restart the instance if you change the license edition. The configuration changes do not take effect until you restart the instance.

Add a NetScaler Console server using the CLI

If a NetScaler instance has no GUI, use the following CLI commands to add a NetScaler Console server associated with an instance:

  1. Log in to the NetScaler console.

  2. Add the associated NetScaler Console server’s IP address that is registered with NetScaler Console. The default license port is 27000.

    > add ns licenseserver <adm-server-IP-address> -port <adm-server-license-port-number>
<!--NeedCopy-->

  3. View the license bandwidth available in the license server:

    > sh ns licenseserverpool
<!--NeedCopy-->

  4. Allocate the license bandwidth from the required license edition:

    > set ns capacity -unit gbps -bandwidth <specify-license-bandwidth> edition <specify-license-edition>
<!--NeedCopy-->

    Important

    Warm restart the instance if you change the license edition.

    reboot -w

    The configuration changes do not take effect until you restart the instance.

Step 3 - Edit Flexed Throughput Capacity for NetScaler instances

  1. Navigate to NetScaler Licensing > Flexed Licensing > Dashboard.
  2. In the Licensed NetScalers section, select an instance and click Edit Throughput Capacity.
  3. In the Edit Throughput Capacity page, enter a number in the Allocate column.
  4. Click Submit.

NetScaler MPX-Z

MPX-Z is the Flexed-capacity enabled NetScaler MPX appliance. MPX-Z supports bandwidth pool for only Premium edition licenses.

MPX-Z requires a license before it can connect to the License Server. You can install the MPX-Z license by using one of the following ways:

  • Uploading the license file from a local computer.
  • Using the instance’s hardware serial number.
  • The License Access Code from the System > Licenses section of the instance’s GUI.

If you remove the MPX-Z license, MPX becomes unlicensed. The licenses are released to the license server.

You can dynamically modify the bandwidth of an MPX-Z instance without a restart. A restart is required only if you want to change the license edition.

Note:

When you restart the instance, it automatically checks out the Flexed licenses required for its configured capacity.

NetScaler SDX-Z

SDX-Z is the Flexed-capacity enabled NetScaler SDX appliance. SDX-Z supports bandwidth and instance pool for the Premium edition licenses.

SDX-Z requires a license before it can connect to the License Server. You can install the SDX-Z license by using one of the following ways:

  • Uploading the license file from a local computer.
  • Using the instance’s hardware serial number.
  • The License Access Code from the System > Licenses section of the instance’s GUI.

If you remove the SDX-Z license, SDX becomes unlicensed. The licenses are released to the license server.

You can dynamically modify the bandwidth of an SDX-Z instance without a restart.

Note:

When you restart the instance, it automatically checks out the Flexed licenses required for its configured capacity.

NetScaler high-availability pair

Before you begin, ensure that the NetScaler Console server is configured as a license server. For more information, see Configure NetScaler Console as a license server

When you allocate the bandwidth to a NetScaler HA pair, the NetScaler Console checks out the allocated bandwidth to the primary instance. You must repeat the process for the secondary instance.

To allocate pool licenses to a NetScaler HA pair, see Allocate Flexed licenses to NetScaler instances

The Flexed Capacity page displays the instances and their allocated capacity separately.

Configure Flexed licensing
December 17, 2024
Contributed by: 
C S R
December 17, 2024
Contributed by: 
C S R

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