Licensing
Citrix Provisioning is available under the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops™ and DaaS entitlement. Individual VDAs streamed by Citrix Provisioning are considered licensed if an active PVS entitlement is found. There are two ways such an entitlement can be found:
- If the License Server is registered to Citrix Cloud and there is an active Cloud Licensing entitlement, then PVS streamed VDAs are considered entitled.See License Activation Service for details of configuring Cloud Licensing with the Citrix License Server.
- If the License Server is not registered to Citrix Cloud or there is no active Cloud Licensing entitlement, then Citrix Provisioning™ falls back to checking for active legacy license files installed in the License Server.
In both cases, Citrix Provisioning reports actual usage through the License Server.
The Citrix License Server must be installed on a server that can communicate with all Citrix Provisioning servers within the farm. You need one license server per Citrix Provisioning farm. You can use the same license server for multiple Citrix Provisioning farms.
If you have neither a valid Cloud License Service entitlement nor a legacy Citrix License File installed, then Citrix Provisioning streamed VDAs are considered unlicensed and automatically shut down after 30 days of grace.
- Provisioning servers must be connected to the license server to operate successfully. You must use the most recent version of the Citrix License Server to operate Citrix Provisioning. Citrix recommends that you upgrade the License Server before upgrading Citrix Provisioning to avoid any licensing issues.
- As outlined in Required License Server Update, Cloud Software Group has updated the licensing requirements that require you to upload telemetry.
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 Citrix Provisioning. 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.
Required license types
To use Citrix Provisioning, you must have a valid Citrix Virtual Apps™ and Desktops or DaaS entitlement that includes Citrix Provisioning. The following products include a Citrix Provisioning entitlement:
- DaaS
- Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops SKUs:
- Virtual Desktops Standard
- Virtual Apps Advanced
- Virtual Apps Premium
- Virtual Apps and Desktops Advanced
- Virtual Apps and Desktops Premium
- Universal Multi Cloud license (UHMC) or Platform License (PL)
License caching modes
There are two types of License caching modes:
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Out-of-box License caching mode 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. A valid Citrix Provisioning entitlement must be acquired during this period.
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License server connectivity outage License caching mode is 30 days (720 hours). If connectivity to the Citrix License Server is lost, Citrix Provisioning continues to provision and stream systems for 30 days after which streamed VDAs is gracefully shut down.
When Citrix Provisioning is in a License caching mode, you are notified through a message in the Event Viewer of the Citrix Provisioning server.
When a License caching mode expires, targets display popups indicating they are not licensed and shut down in a further 30 days if licensing is not re-established.
Important:
When you upgrade an existing environment to the newest version of Citrix Provisioning, also upgrade to the latest version of the licensing server or the product license. Failure to perform this upgrade results in Citrix Provisioning entering a License caching mode.
Installing the license server
Download the latest version of Citrix Licensing from the download page at http://www.citrix.com/downloads/licensing.html.
Note:
Restart the stream service if Citrix Provisioning is installed after the license server, or if new licenses are added.
Specify a license to communicate with the license server
Use the Configuration Wizard to specify a license. For information, see Select the license server.
You can view the license server information on the Farm Properties screen. For information, see the Licensing tab.
Use accelerated Microsoft office activation
Activate the license on every boot of each target device using either GPO or a startup script configured in the vDisk. To activate, run script <Office install location>\ospp.vbs" /act.
Troubleshooting LAS licensing
When configuring Citrix Provisioning, the License Server version must be 11.17.2 build 53100 or later. As you run the Configuration Wizard on each Citrix Provisioning Server curing upgrade, the tool prompts for License Server configuration if not set and check that this Citrix Provisioning Server can communicate with the named License Server.
In addition, if the License Server is using a self-signed certificate, you are prompted to accept the certificate. If this certificate changes later on, then the Citrix Provisioning deployment becomes unlicensed until you run the Configuration Wizard again to check the new certificate.
The following examples show what you can see while running the Configuration Wizard for the various cases:
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License Server cannot be contacted or is running an incompatible version:
If the License Server cannot be contacted but is running, then it is possible that the TLS cipher suites supported by the License Service are not enabled on the Citrix Provisioning Server. The following cipher suites are supported:
ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 -> TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 -> TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305 -> TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256 ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305 -> TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256 ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 -> TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 -> TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 <!--NeedCopy-->These are not enabled by default in some Windows server versions and can also be controlled through local or GPO settings.
The
ConfigWizard.logshows more information including the following if the License Server can be contacted but is not compatible:[13:48:45.895][0001] ERROR:LICENSING: unexpected error in checking for license server LAS version. Status message: ErrorCheckLsCompatibility [LASClient.cs(694): CheckLSVersion] <!--NeedCopy--> -
Self-signed certificate used by the License Server:
When this happens, the
ConfigWizard.logfile shows an error because the certificate is not yet trusted, followed by something like this (search for strings LICENSING: and TELEMETRY: in the log file):[2026/04/06 14:45:11.079] [0001] DEBUG:LICENSING: LS Version is compatible with LAS [LASClient.cs(688): CheckLSVersion] [2026/04/06 14:45:14.439] [0001] DEBUG:LICENSING: V6 version server:11.17.2.0, client:11.16.6.0, isCompatible True [LASClient.cs(713): CheckLSVersion] [2026/04/06 14:45:14.579] [000B] INFO:TELEMETRY: license server certificate NOT valid, untrusted and not pinned, subject 'CN=muepengmflic01.eng.citrite.net, C=US', issuer 'CN=muepengmflic01.eng.citrite.net, C=US' [LSCertificateValidator.cs(269): CustomCertificateValidator] [2026/04/06 14:45:14.626] [0001] ERROR:TELEMETRY: unexpected exception communicating with license server muepengmflic01.eng.citrite.net: The remote certificate is invalid according to the validation procedure. [TelemetryClient.cs(678): MakePostRequest] … [2026/04/06 14:45:14.751] [0001] INFO:TELEMETRY: muepengmflic01.eng.citrite.net:8083, result NeedsTrust (-3) [TelemetryClient.cs(380): TestConnection] [2026/04/06 14:45:30:189] TestLicenseServerForTelemetry:: pinning the certificate and retesting [2026/04/06 14:45:30.267] [000E] INFO:TELEMETRY: license server certificate valid, is pinned, subject 'CN=muepengmflic01.eng.citrite.net, C=US', issuer 'CN=muepengmflic01.eng.citrite.net, C=US' [LSCertificateValidator.cs(260): CustomCertificateValidator] [2026/04/06 14:45:30.298] [0001] INFO:TELEMETRY: muepengmflic01.eng.citrite.net:8083, result Pass (200) [TelemetryClient.cs(380): TestConnection] <!--NeedCopy-->At the end of the log, you see the licensed state logged:
[2026/04/06 14:47:07.181] [0001] DEBUG:LICENSING: entitlement information: current state NotEntitled, expiration 0001-01-01Z [MapiConnectionLAS.cs(178): GetEntitledState] [2026/04/06 14:47:07.259] [0001] DEBUG:Checking LAS. LS returned activation list with 1 entries [LASClient.cs(415): IsLasEntitled] [2026/04/06 14:47:07.259] [0001] DEBUG:LS returned LAS Activation for PVS with expiration 2026-05-06Z [LASClient.cs(427): IsLasEntitled] [2026/04/06 14:47:07.259] [0001] INFO:LICENSING: LS indicates PVS is LAS Activated. Activation expires on 2026-05-06Z [LASClient.cs(447): IsLasEntitled] <!--NeedCopy-->
Once the Configuration Wizard has run to completion, the Citrix Provisioning Console shows the current licensed state as follows:
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If the License Server is registered with the LAS cloud service and the customer has a valid entitlement for Citrix Provisioning, then the following Farm Properties are displayed:
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If there is no valid LAS entitlement, then Citrix Provisioning falls back automatically to checking legacy licenses and if found, display the following:
If the Citrix Provisioning farm becomes unlicensed, a warning is displayed in the Citrix Provisioning Console and the farm properties contains the following:
Check LAS activation in Citrix Cloud
In Citrix Cloud, you can see the details of the LAS activation:
- In Citrix Cloud, navigate to Licensing > Licensed deployments > License Servers.
- Click the expand button > across Citrix Provisioning Service to see the list of Servers that were activated.
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Click View details across the activation to see the granular details.
The following details are provided:
The
FarmIdis the ID assigned to the Citrix Provisioning farm.You can determine the ID by running the following PowerShell command on a server of each farm:
PS C:\> Get-PvsFarm | fl -Property FarmName,FarmId <!--NeedCopy-->