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Configure pooled capacity

July 30, 2020
Contributed by:  R G C

The Citrix ADC pooled capacity allows you to share bandwidth or instance licenses across different ADC form factors. For virtual CPU subscription based instances, you can share virtual CPU license across instances. Use this pooled 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 to other ADC instances that need resources.

You can use pooled 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. With the pooled capacity licenses, you can automate the instance provisioning.

To use ADC pooled capacity, ensure to attach an ADM agent to an ADC instance. ADC instances check in and check out licenses from ADM service through an agent.

You can also use pooled capacity licenses for ADC FIPS instances. You can perform the following tasks in ADM service:

  • Upload the pooled capacity license files (bandwidth pool or instance Pool) to the license server.

  • Allocate licenses from the license pool to ADC instances on demand.

  • Check out the licenses from ADC instances (MPX-Z /SDX-Z/VPX/CPX/BLX) based on the minimum and maximum capacity of the instance.

Pooled licensing in ADM service

ADC pooled capacity issues

The pooled capacity states indicate the license requirement on an ADC instance. The ADC instances configured with pooled capacity display one of the following states:

  • Optimum: Instance is running with proper license capacity.

  • Capacity mismatch: Instance is running with a capacity less than the user configured.

  • Grace: Instance is running on a grace license.

  • Grace & Mismatch: Instance is running on grace but with a capacity less than the user configured.

  • Not available: Instance is not registered with ADM for management, or NITRO communication from ADM to the instances is not working.

  • Not allocated: License is not allocated in the instance.

Before you begin

Ensure the following before you configure pooled capacity:

  • Install and register an agent in ADM service. To install and register an agent, see Getting started.

  • The 27000 and 7279 ports are available to check out licenses from ADM to an instance. See, System Requirements

Step 1 - Apply licenses in ADM

  1. In Citrix ADM, navigate to Networks > Licenses.

  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 ADM.

    • 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 ADM from License Settings.

  3. Click Finish.

    The license files are added to ADM. The License Expiry Information tab lists the licenses present in the ADM 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 ADC instances to use the selected license as a pooled capacity.

Step 2 - Register the ADM service as a license server

You can register the ADM service as a license server to a Citrix ADC instance using an agent.

Use one of the following procedures to register the ADM service as a license server:

Use GUI to register an ADM agent

In the ADM GUI, register the ADM agent associated with an ADC instance.

  1. Log in to Citrix ADC GUI.

  2. Navigate to System > Licenses > Manage Licenses.

  3. Click Add New License.

  4. Select Use remote licensing and select the remote licensing mode from the list.

  5. In the Server Name/IP address field, specify the associated ADM agent’s IP address that is registered with the ADM service.

  6. Select Register with Citrix ADM.

  7. Enter your ADM credentials to register an instance with Citrix ADM and click Continue.

    Manage license in ADC

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

    For the first time, allocate licenses in Citrix ADC. You can later change or release the license allocation from the Citrix ADM GUI.

    Allocate licenses from ADC GUI

  9. 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.

Use CLI to add an ADM agent

If an ADC instance has no GUI, use the following CLI commands to add an ADM agent associated with an instance:

  1. Log in to the Citrix ADC console.

  2. Add the associated ADM agent’s IP address that is registered with the ADM service:

    > add ns licenseserver <adm-agent-IP-address> -port <adm-agent-license-port-number>

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

    > sh ns licenseserverpool

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

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

    The license edition can be Standard or Enterprise or Platinum.

    Important

    Warm restart the instance if you change the license edition.

    reboot -w

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

Step 3 - Allocate pooled licenses to ADC instances

To allocate pooled capacity licenses from the ADM GUI:

  1. Log in to Citrix ADM.

  2. Navigate to Networks > Licenses > Bandwidth Licenses > Pooled Capacity.

    The FIPS instance capacity appears only if you upload FIPS instance licenses to ADM.

  3. Click the license pool that you want to manage.

    Note

    The Allocated Capacity field does not reflect the changed bandwidth immediately. The bandwidth change takes effect after the ADC warm restart.

    In Allocation Details, the Requested and Applied fields are updated when you change the instance’s bandwidth allocation.

  4. Select an ADC instance from the list of available instances by clicking the > button.

    Pooled instances in ADM

    The License status column displays corresponding license allocation status messages.

  5. Click Change allocation or Release allocation to modify the license allocation.

  6. A pop-up window with the available licenses in the License Server appears.

  7. You can choose the bandwidth or instance allocation to the instance by setting the Allocate list options. After making your selections, click Allocate.

  8. You can also change the allocated license edition from the list options in the Change License Allocation window.

    Change license allocation window

    Note

    Warm restart an instance if you change the license edition.

Configure pooled capacity on ADC instances

You can configure pooled capacity licenses on the following ADC instances:

Citrix ADC MPX-Z instances

MPX-Z is the pooled-capacity enabled ADC MPX appliance. MPX-Z supports bandwidth pooling for Premium, Advanced, or Standard edition licenses.

MPX-Z requires platform licenses before it can connect to the License Server. You can install the MPX-Z platform license by either of the following:

  • 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 platform license, the pooled-capacity feature is disabled. The instance 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 pooled licenses required for its configured capacity.

Citrix ADC VPX instances

A pooled-capacity enabled ADC VPX instance can check out licenses from a bandwidth pool (Premium/Advanced/Standard editions). You can use the ADC GUI to check out licenses from the License Server.

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

Note

When you restart the instance, the configured pooled capacity licenses are automatically checked out from the ADM server.

Citrix ADC high-availability pair

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

When you allocate the bandwidth to an ADC HA pair, the Citrix ADM checks out the same bandwidth to primary and secondary instances. If you allocate 10 Mbps bandwidth to an ADC HA pair, ADM does the following:

  1. Checks out 20 Mbps bandwidth to the HA pair.
  2. Allocates 10 Mbps to each instance in the HA pair.

To allocate pool license to an ADC HA pair, see Allocate pooled licenses to ADC instances.

The Pooled Capacity page displays the instances and their allocated capacity separately. If you change or release the bandwidth of the primary instance, the secondary instance bandwidth automatically synchronizes with the primary instance. However, the synchronization does not happen if you change or release the secondary instance bandwidth.

Configure pooled capacity

July 30, 2020
Contributed by:  R G C

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