Positive Thinking Company
This post has been generously sponsored by Positive Thinking Company (PTC). They are known for their automated NetScaler health checks via The Xpand Config Analyzer. In the process of the Hardware refresh that is going on this year this issue has been encountered several times. The below issue get’s checked as part of the manual steps in the health scan PTC offers, as the information for this check is not accessible through the automated health scan.
What is going on?
Using pooled capacity? Do a quick check to save yourself a possible outage.
There have been issues where the Citrix Licensing portal has had a seemingly invisible bug.
There is no recorded timeframe for this issue, so do the check to see if you are affected.
What happens is that when you reboot the NetScaler your license becomes invalid, because the expiration date and the ‘grace period’ end date are the same
The unwanted behavior only occurs when you reboot the NetScaler after the expiration date, during the ‘missing’ grace period.
Example of an erroneous license file (grace period end is same as license end):
Example of a proper license file (month difference between license & grace period end):
The tricky thing about this issue is that you won’t notice that the license file is invalid until a reboot occurs. After the reboot your licensed features will be deactivated, possibly creating an outage.
How to check the license file?
NetScaler
GUI Scenario
Browse to:
- Configuration -> System -> Licenses
- Press “Managed Licenses”
- Download the applicable license and open with a text editor
SSH Scenario
Use a SSH client, like Putty and connect to the NetScaler.
Enter the following commands after logging in:
shell cd /nsconfig/license/
There should be at least one license file present, they end in .lic
You can view them by entering:
ls Then read the file:
cat FID_yourfilename.lic If you have multiple file names, check which files might have already expired. These are probably old license files no longer in use and can be cleaned.
ADM
GUI Scenario
Browse to:
- Infrastructure -> Pooled Licensing
- Download the applicable license file(s)
- Open with a text editor
SSH Scenario
Use a SSH client, like Putty and connect to the ADM.
Enter the following commands after logging in:
shell cd /mpsconfig/license/
There should be at least one license file present, they end in .lic.
You can view them by entering:
ls
Then read the file:
cat FID_yourfilename.lic
I’m affected, what now?
The fix is easy, just go to your licensing portal again and re-allocate the license and redownload it.
Replace it on the NetScaler and delete the old one.
If the license is no longer available in your portal for unknown reasons, contact Citrix support.
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