Manage product usage, license servers, and notifications
Product selection
To view licensing details for a different product, click the arrow next to the product name and select the product or service you want to view.
Customer notifications
Monitor solution health across multiple customers without having to visit each deployment individually. The Notifications area in Citrix Cloud aggregates notifications across customers on your dashboard so you can ensure alerts are addressed and services keep running.
- From the Citrix Cloud management console, click the Notifications icon and then click My Customers. A list of the most recent notifications appears.
- To view a complete list of customer notifications, click View all notifications.
License server status
To be compliant with Citrix Service Provider license guidelines, all active license servers must be updated and reporting. The license server status shows the license servers you have and whether or not they’re updated for use with License Usage Insights.
The service displays a list of active license servers using the license allocation data stored in the Citrix back office. If the license server is updated and successfully reporting, License Usage Insights displays the “Reporting” status and includes a timestamp of the most recent upload.
License server information included in uploads
When Call Home is activated on a license server, the following information is uploaded daily:
- License server version
- License file information:
- License files installed on the server
- License file expiration dates
- Product feature and edition entitlement information
- License quantities
- License usage:
- Licenses used in the current calendar month
- Usernames associated with license checkout
- Product features and editions activated
View a license server upload
CSP partners can inspect the last uploaded payload on their license server to fully understand all of the details that the license server sends to Citrix. A copy of this payload is stored as a .zip file on the license server. By default, this location is C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\Licensing\LS\resource\usage\upload_1456166761.zip.
Note:
Successful uploads are deleted except for the last one. Unsuccessful uploads linger on the disk until a successful upload occurs. When that happens, all but the last upload are deleted.
Usage collection
Usage collection helps you understand product usage through automated data collection and aggregation. There’s no need to deploy additional tools.
License Usage Insights automatically aggregates product usage across all Citrix License Servers to provide a complete view of usage across all deployments. You can also create licensing usage breakdowns by associating specific users with the customers or tenants to whom they belong.
The license servers collect and track product license usage and report it back to Citrix using a secure phone home channel. This automated approach provides you with a constant stream of updated usage data, saving time and helping partners better understand usage trends within their deployments.
Create a customer breakdown of Virtual Apps and Desktops product usage
To break down licensing usage by customer, you must first associate users with the customers or tenants to whom they belong. If you don’t have any customers defined in your Customers dashboard, you can add new ones or you can connect with existing Citrix Cloud customers.
- If applicable, add customers to the Customers dashboard: From the Citrix Cloud management console home page, click Customers, click Add or Invite, and then follow the onscreen instructions.
- Click the menu button and then select My Services > License Usage Insights.
- With the Virtual Apps and Desktops product selected, click Users.
- Select the users you want to associate and then click Bulk Actions > Manage Link to Customer.
- From the list, select the customer with which to you want associate the users.
- Click Save.
- To view the per-customer breakdown, click the Usage view.
Free user management
License Usage Insights provides a comprehensive view of product usage across deployments while still allowing you to take full advantage of the Citrix Service Provider license program that supports trial, test, and administrative users.
To ensure you are billed appropriately for paid users in a given billing cycle, you can designate certain users as free users during that cycle. During a given month in your current billing cycle, you can select free users at any time, up to the 10th day of the following month. For example, in March, you can select free users at any time until April 10th.
Between the first and 10th days of each month, you can also select free users for the previous billing cycle. During this period, you can turn on the Previous Term setting and select the free users for that billing cycle. After the 10th day of the month, Citrix Cloud no longer displays the Previous Term setting.
The free users that you select in a given month are accounted for when you are billed for paid users. When you change the status of a free user to a paid user, Citrix records the date of the change and includes that user in the billing cycle during which the change occurred.
Historical trends
You can view a complete historical record of all of your past business with Citrix. Check the usage you reported last month, last year, or over a configurable time period.
Historical views deliver valuable business insight. As a Citrix Service Provider, you can quickly understand how your business with Citrix is trending and which products are seeing the most growth across your customers and subscribers.
Export usage and allocations data
You can export the following types of data as a CSV file from License Usage Insights:
- Virtual Apps and Desktops product usage and user list for a specified month
- Current ADC VPX allocation details
- Select Virtual Apps and Desktops or Networking from the product list.
- If applicable, select the view you want to export. For example, to export Virtual Apps and Desktops usage details, click the Usage view.
- If applicable, select the month and year you want to export.
- On the right side of the screen, click Export.
Access licensing data with APIs
Citrix provides several APIs that you can use to access your licensing data outside of Citrix Cloud. To learn more about these APIs, see APIs to manage Citrix cloud licensing in the Citrix Developer documentation.
To use these APIs, you must first create a secure client and generate a bearer token. To create a secure client, you must have the Secure Client permission in Citrix Cloud. For more information, see Console permissions.
For more information about the required tasks for using Citrix Cloud APIs, see Get started with Citrix Cloud APIs in the Citrix Developer documentation.
Distributor access to APIs
You can allow your Citrix distributor to access your licensing data through Citrix Cloud APIs without granting them full administrator access to your Citrix Cloud account. You might do this so your distributor can validate your usage reports and ensure accurate billing.
To provide distributor access to your licensing data, you create a custom access administrator with permission only to create secure clients and access the License Usage Insights service. This account has limited access to Citrix Cloud APIs and no access to other Citrix Cloud functions. After the account is created, you can share the account credentials with your distributor so they can sign in to your Citrix Cloud account and create the secure client required for using Citrix Cloud APIs. Alternatively, you can sign in as the custom access administrator, create the secure client, and then share the secure client details with your distributor.
To create the custom access account for your distributor:
- Create a new administrator account specifically for your Citrix distributor. For instructions, see Invite individual administrators.
- In Set Access, select Custom access and then select the following permissions:
- General > Secure Client
- License Usage Insights > License Usage Insights: Distributor Access
To create the secure client:
- Sign in to Citrix Cloud using the new account’s credentials.
- Create a new secure client as described in Get started with Citrix Cloud APIs.
- Note the Client ID and Client Secret that Citrix Cloud generates. These details are required inputs for all Citrix Cloud APIs.
Licensing data available to distributors
This section describes the licensing data and APIs your Citrix distributor can access using the secure client details you provide. Use the links below for more details about each API.
CSP reporting of monthly and historical Virtual Apps and Desktops license usage (License Usage Insights):
CSP reporting of Single-Tenant and Multi-Tenant cloud license usage (License Usage Insights):
CSP’s cloud license usage (Licensing):
Tenant’s cloud license usage (Customer Dashboard -> View Licensing)