Citrix Provisioning

Licensing

The Citrix License Server must be installed on a server within the farm that is able to communicate with all Provisioning Services servers within the farm. You need one license server per Provisioning Services farm. 

Important

Provisioning Services servers must be connected to the license server to operate successfully, it will not work out-of-the-box. You must use the most recent version of the Citrix License server to get the latest features. Citrix recommends that you upgrade the License Server before upgrading PVS to avoid any licensing conflicts related to grace periods.

Consider the following options when deciding which server to use as the license server:

  • Single system: install the license server on the same system as Provisioning Services. This option is suitable for evaluations, test labs, or implementations with one Citrix product.
  • Stand-alone: install the license server on a separate system. This option is suitable for larger implementations or implementations using multiple Citrix products.
  • Point to an existing license server.

For detailed Citrix licensing information, see Licensing.

Licensing grace periods

There are two types of grace period:

  • Out-of-box grace period is 30 days (720 hours). Initial installation of the licensing server provides startup licenses for all Citrix products. Startup licenses expire after 30 days. The 30-day countdown begins when the product prompts you for the startup license for the first time. Provisioning Services product licenses must be installed during this period. A startup license for a Citrix product is voided if a license for that product is installed, regardless of whether it is valid or invalid.
  • License server connectivity outage grace period is 30 days (720 hours). If connectivity to the Citrix License Server is lost, Provisioning Services continues to provision systems for 30 days.

When Provisioning Services is in a grace period, administrators are notified through warning messages in the Provisioning Services console.

When a grace period expires, all target devices are shut down. 

Note

When you upgrade an existing environment to the newest version of Provisioning Services, you must also upgrade to the latest version of the licensing server or the product license will enter a 30-day grace period and new product features will be unavailable.

Installing the License Server

Download the latest version of Citrix Licensing from the download page at http://www.citrix.com/downloads/licensing.html.

Note

If Provisioning Services is installed after the license server or if new licenses are added, you must restart the Stream Service.

Licensing