Application Delivery Management

Licensing

Citrix Application Delivery Management (ADM) requires a verified Citrix ADC license to manage and monitor the Citrix ADC instances, when the instances are discovered through the https protocol.

You can manage and monitor any number of instances and entities without a license. However, you can only manage 30 discovered applications on the App Dashboard and view analytics data for 30 virtual servers without applying a license. Beyond 30 discovered applications or 30 virtual servers, you must purchase and apply a license.

  Citrix ADM Feature [FREE] Citrix ADM License is not required irrespective of the virtual server count Citrix ADM License is Required for > 30 virtual servers Citrix ADC License Requirement
Analytics Web Insight No Yes Not Applicable
  HDX Insight* No Yes Advanced (reporting < 1 hour) Premium (reporting = Unlimited)
  Security Insight No Yes Premium (or) Advanced with App Firewall license
  SSL Insight No Yes Not Applicable
  Gateway Insight No Yes Advanced (reporting < 1 hour) Premium (reporting = Unlimited)
  TCP Insight No Yes Not Applicable
  Video Insight No Yes Premium (Citrix-T 1000 series, VPX-T)
  WAN Insight No Not Applicable Use Citrix SD-WAN instance Optimization Edition (WANOP)
Applications        
  Application Statistics (App Dashboard, App Security Dashboard) No Yes Citrix ADC Web App Firewall related information on App dashboard and app security dashboard needs Premium (or) Advanced with App Firewall license.
  StyleBooks Yes No Not Applicable
Networks        
  License Server Yes No Not Applicable
  Inventory Management –, Infrastructure Dashboard, Instance groups, Instance Dashboard & Sites Yes No Not Applicable
  Event Management & Syslog Yes No Not Applicable
  Configuration Jobs, Configuration Audit & Configuration Advice Yes No Not Applicable
  Network Reporting (instance level) Yes No Not Applicable
  Network Reporting (virtual server level) Yes No Not Applicable
  Network Functions (visibility & management of virtual servers, services, service groups, server) Yes No Not Applicable
  SSL Certificate Management, Monitoring, and Dashboard (instance level) Yes No Not Applicable
  SSL Certificate Dashboard (virtual server level) Yes No Not Applicable
System        
  RBAC & External Authentication (instance level) Yes No Not Applicable
  RBAC & External Authentication Yes No Not Applicable
Orchestration        
  OpenStack Integration Yes No Not Applicable
  VMware NSX Integration Yes No Not Applicable
  Cisco APIC Integration Yes No Not Applicable
  Container Integration Yes No Not Applicable
Third Party Load Balancers        
  HAProxy: Visibility across host/ instance/ backend/ servers/ front end, Download or upload configuration, and Restarting appliance. Yes No Not Applicable
  App Dashboard No Yes(requires a separate license) Not Applicable

*For Citrix Director integration with Citrix ADM support – Citrix Director must have Premium license.

Licenses for more virtual servers are available in virtual server packs of 10. You can obtain a valid license and add the licenses on the Citrix ADM servers through the Citrix ADM GUI.

High Availability

The Citrix ADM server can contain VIP, CICO, and pooled capacity licenses. When the licenses are issued to an ADM server, the licenses are bound to the host ID of the server. And, assigning licenses to a different ADM server is restricted.

If you configure an ADM high-availability pair as a license server, the primary and secondary servers must have the same license files. Therefore, in the ADM high-availability deployment, Citrix ADM supports you assign the same license files to both servers.

Note

  • If you have installed Citrix ADM 12.1.49.x or earlier releases, you get a grace period of 30 days to maintain the licensing on the secondary node. After the grace period, you must contact Citrix to rehost the original license.

  • For 12.1.50.x or later releases, the Citrix ADM license is automatically synchronized to the secondary node.

  • Pooled licenses are automatically synchronized to the secondary node from 12.1.50.x or later release.

How licenses are synchronized between ADM high-availability nodes?

Whenever a failover occurs, the secondary server assumes the role of the primary server. The real host ID of the primary server is configured as the virtual host ID of the new primary server. The license files recognize the new primary server using virtual host ID.

  • Real Host ID - This ID is generated from a MAC Address of the ADM server. Each ADM standalone deployment has a unique host ID.

  • Virtual Host ID - This ID is auto generated during HA deployment. The real host ID of an ADM primary server is used as the virtual Host ID of a secondary server. This ID is stored in the ADM database in an encrypted format and modifications to this ID is restricted. The virtual Host ID is preferred over the real Host ID.

Licenses synchronized between ADM high-availability nodes

Assume Node-1 is the primary server and Node-2 is the secondary server. The virtual Host ID of Node-1 is synchronized with Node-2.

  1. License files available in Node-1 are synchronized to Node-2.

  2. Any new license files on Node-1 are synchronized to Node-2 periodically.

  3. ADM ensures that the License Server is running only on Node-1 to avoid doubling of license capacity.

  4. Citrix ADC instances check out licenses from Node-1 using the floating IP address.

Licenses are locked to ADC instances. To check out licenses from a Citrix ADM HA, instances require the specific appliance’s IP address. When you apply licenses on a primary server, that will be in charge of licensing, and it applies all future licenses on that instance. You can delete licenses only from the server on which you have installed the licenses.

Orchestration

The Orchestration module is independent of licensing and is always available.

Upgrade the virtual server licenses

You can upgrade the licensing on Citrix ADM to monitor and manage more virtual servers hosted on the Citrix ADC appliances.

To upgrade your appliance licenses:

  1. Log on to Citrix ADM using the administrator credentials.

  2. Navigate to Networks > Licenses > Settings.

  3. In the details pane, go to License Files, and select one of the following options:

    • Upload license files from a local computer. If a license is already present on your local computer, click Browse and select the license file (.lic) that you want to use to allocate your licenses. Click Finish.

    • Use License Activation Code. Citrix emails the license access code for the license that you purchased. Enter the license access code in the text box and then click Get Licenses.

    Note

    If you select this option, the Citrix ADM must be connected to the Internet, or a proxy server must be available.

    licensing

  4. You can add more licenses from the License Settings page at any time.

    licensing

Verification

You can verify the licenses installed on your Citrix ADM by navigating to System > Licensing & Analytics.

Licensing

Manage virtual servers

You can select the virtual servers or third party virtual servers you want to manage and monitor through Citrix ADM.

Points to note

  • By default, Citrix ADM automatically licenses the virtual servers randomly after each virtual server poll cycle.

  • If the total number of virtual servers discovered in your Citrix ADM is lower than the number of installed virtual server licenses, Citrix ADM, by default, licenses all the virtual servers.

To select the virtual servers manually, or to restrict licensing to limited virtual servers, you have to first disable auto licensing the virtual servers, and then select the virtual servers you want to manage.

Disable auto-licensing virtual servers

  1. Navigate to System > Licensing & Analytics.

    The dashboard displays the virtual server licenses available, the managed virtual servers along with the virtual server type, and license expiry information.

  2. In Virtual Server License Allocation, disable Auto Licensed Virtual Servers and Auto-select non addressable Virtual Servers.

    Disable auto-licensing

Select third party virtual servers for licensing

  1. Navigate to System > Licensing & Analytics.

    The dashboard displays the virtual server licenses available, the managed virtual servers along with the virtual server type, and license expiry information.

  2. In Third Party Virtual Server Summary, disable Auto-select Third Party Virtual Servers.

    Select third party virtual servers

Apply virtual server licenses manually

You can manually apply licenses to an individual virtual server.

  1. In Virtual Server License Allocation, select Configure Licenses.

    The All Vitrual Servers page is displayed.

  2. Filter unlicensed virtual servers using the property: Licensed: No.

  3. Select the virtual server that you want to license.

  4. Click License.

Configure policy based virtual server licensing

You can configure a policy to apply license to virtual servers. This policy controls the number of virtual servers you want to auto-license. It also applies licenses to selected instances’ virtual servers only.

Click Edit Policies and you can specify the following:

  • Set virtual servers limit on CPX instances separately to apply licenses. The ADM applies license to virtual servers on CPX instances up to a specified limit.

    Important

    This limit applies to CPX instances except sidecar deployment types.

    To view CPX instances of sidecar deployment types, filter the virtual servers using the property: License Type: Freely Managed.

  • Set virtual servers limit on selected ADC instances (MPX/VPX/BLX) to apply licenses. The ADM applies licenses to virtual servers on ADC instances up to a specified limit.

  • Select the priority ADC instances to apply virtual server licenses. Therefore, the ADM can apply license to selected instances’ virtual servers only.

Edit policy to apply licenses to virtual servers

View the licensed virtual servers

After the licenses are applied to the virtual servers, you can view the licensed virtual servers or third-party virtual servers from the Licensing & Analytics page. To view the licensed virtual servers, perform the following:

  1. Navigate to System > Licensing & Analytics.

  2. Click the virtual server type in the Total Licensed section in the Virtual Servers License Summary.

Configure auto license support for non-addressable virtual servers

Citrix ADM, by default, does not automatically apply licenses to non-addressable virtual servers. For licensing non-addressable virtual servers, you must disable the auto-license option and manually select the non-addressable virtual servers. This increases your effort to manually select the non-addressable servers initially when you apply the licenses. You also need to manually select the new non-addressable virtual servers whenever they are added to your network.

Citrix ADM provides an option in Citrix ADM under Virtual Server License Allocation. If you enable Auto-select non addressable Virtual Servers option, automatically apply licenses non-addressable virtual servers.

Note

  • Citrix ADM, by default, still does not automatically select non-addressable virtual servers for licensing.

  • Application analytics (App Dashboard) is the only analytics supported currently on licensed non-addressable virtual servers.

Expiry Checks for virtual server licenses

You can now view the status of and set alerts for virtual server license expiry in Citrix ADM.

To view the status of the licenses:

  1. Navigate to Networks > Licenses > System Licenses.

  2. In the License Expiry Information section, you can find the details of the licenses that are going to expire:

    • Feature: Type of license that is going to expire.

    • Count: Number of virtual servers or instances that are affected.

    • Days to expiry: Number of days remaining before expiry.

To configure the notification settings of licenses:

  1. Navigate to Networks> Licenses > Settings.

  2. In the Notification Settings section, click the pencil icon and edit the parameters.

    • Email profile: Email profile or distribution list for sending notifications when licenses reach the threshold, or going to expire.

    • SMS (Text Message): SMS profile or distribution list for sending notifications when licenses reach the threshold, or going to expire.

    • Slack - Specify Slack profile details.

    • PagerDuty alerts - Specify a PagerDuty profile. Based on the notification settings configured in your PagerDuty portal, a notification is sent when your certificates are about to expire.

    • Notify me: Set the percentage of pooled licenses to notify administrators by Email or SMS.

    • License Expiry Threshold: Number of days before the number of licenses determined by Alert Threshold expire.

    • Expiry of licenses: Number of days remaining before expiry.