Recently, I have received more Citrix licensing issues and questions than usual. In this article, I will provide some answers and solutions. The increase in questions is mainly due to recent changes in our licensing models (from March 2024).
I want to thank the following persons for their contributions to this article:
- Wolfgang Thürr
- Maximilian Lorich
- Cristian Guacaneme Garcia
- Adolfo Montoya
- Enzo Razo
- Andreas Lorenzen
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Change Log |
Setting the scene
Before going into specific issues, let’s take a look at the new licensing offerings from Citrix. In March 2024, Citrix massively reduced the number of SKUs and replaced these with only a few. All stand-alone offerings (e.g., Citrix Analytics for Performance and Citrix Endpoint Management) have been deprecated. The three most important new SKUs are:
- Citrix for Private Cloud (CPC)
- Citrix Universal Hybrid Multi-Cloud (UL HMC)
- Citrix Platform License (CPL)
For more details on these offerings please see the official website.
In the sections below I go deeper into the various commercial and technical changes (and challenges) since March 2024.
In this article, I use certain terms and abbreviations. Here is the glossary:
- CPC = Citrix for Private Cloud (one of the new offerings since March 2024).
- CVAD = Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops.
- License and subscription: I use these definitions interchangeably throughout this article, but from a commercial perspective all new Citrix licenses are subscriptions. Perpetual licenses (something you buy and then own) are no longer sold. All entitlements are now subscription-based. Customers renewing from older, perpetual, licenses will move to a subscription model, invalidating the older perpetual licenses.
- CPL = Citrix Platform License (one of the new offerings since March 2024)
- PVS = Citrix Provisioning Server
- Site and Farm = a single Citrix environment (one Citrix site database). In this article, I use site and farm interchangeably.
- SKU: Stock Keeping Unit, a purchasable instance of a product. Customers do not purchase products; they purchase SKUs.
- UL HMC = Citrix Universal Hybrid Multi-Cloud (one of the new offerings since March 2024).
I am confused about my entitlements after purchasing CPC, UL HMC, or CPL
So what exactly am I entitled to? Which products or features did I gain and which ones am I missing? For a quick overview please see the official listing of our current offerings.
Also, you find both a high-level and detailed overview in the new feature matrix.
Below I listed further insights from discussions I had with customers.
| Note: changes in the offerings and features are at the sole discretion of Cloud Software Group. The information in this section is not official, does not replace the official current offerings overview or the feature matrix, and can be outdated at some point (I will do my best to keep this article up-to-date though). |
Citrix for Private Cloud (CPC)
In general, this license is meant for (smaller) customers who choose to remain 100% on-prem (both the control plane and the workers/VDAs).
All new subscriptions offer all Premium features within the specific product, but only on-prem features. This means that CPC is the equivalent of CVAD Premium. Besides some basic Citrix Cloud functionality such as connecting your on-prem license server, Citrix Cloud is not available to CPC customers.
Customers previously on Advanced or Standard editions can now leverage Premium features such as:
- Provision single-session Windows 10/11 virtual machines
- Director Premium (customer reporting, 365 days of data retention, and more)
- Provision virtual machines using PVS
XenServer Premium is included.
NetScaler (Gateway) is not included. If remote access is a requirement, NetScaler entitlements must be purchased separately. Contact your partner or Citrix Account Executive for more information.
Citrix Endpoint Management (and XenMobile on-prem) is not included.
Citrix App Protection is not included.
Important: CPC does not allow you to host workers at public cloud providers like Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Service, and Google Cloud Platform. CPC does not include hybrid rights. The CPC license file does not contain the SaaS bit required for hybrid scenarios. If you try to register a VDA in for example Azure this will result in an error. For more information see the section VDA fails to register in Azure (CVAD control plane) in this article. This is a change for CVAD customers currently on version 1912 (EOL in December 2024) and for CVAD customers running 2203 LTSR and later.
Citrix Universal Hybrid Multi-Cloud (UL HMC)
UL HMC allows customers flexibility concerning the control plane. You can run the control plane where you see fit. Possible options are:
- In your on-prem data center (CVAD)
- In Citrix Cloud (DaaS service)
- Customer-managed at a public cloud provider (e.g., CVAD in Azure)
- A combination of the above options
All new subscriptions offer all Premium features within the specific product. This means that UL HMC is the equivalent of CVAD Premium and DaaS Premium. Customers previously on Advanced or Standard editions can now leverage Premium features such as:
- Provision single-session Windows 10/11 virtual machines
- Provision multi-session W10/W11 and W365 virtual machines in Azure (a customer-owned Azure tenant is required and consumption of Azure resources is not included in the Citrix licenses). Only possible in Citrix DaaS, not CVAD.
- Director and Monitor Premium (customer reporting, 365 days of data retention, and more)
- Provision virtual machines using PVS
- Increase your security using App Protection
- Increase your security using Session Recording
- Create workflows in ServiceNow using the Citrix ITSM adapter (Citrix Cloud)
The UL HMC license includes the SaaS bit, allowing customers to host virtual machines in Citrix Cloud from a customer-managed CVAD control plane.
XenServer Premium is included.
Citrix Endpoint Management (CEM) is included, both Endpoint Management (Citrix Cloud service) and XenMobile (on-prem)! Please note that you can only manage mobile devices up to the total number of purchased UL HMC licenses.
NetScaler Premium is included as well. You can run 999 NetScaler software instances (VPX) with a maximum throughput capacity of 1000 Gbps. The fact that you can use all premium features of NetScaler means you can expand your use cases. Many Citrix CVAD customers use NetScaler as a reverse proxy to allow users to connect to their resources (virtual apps and desktops) remotely, but NetScaler can do so much more.
Many of my customers are now looking at features such as load balancing, Web Application Firewall (WAF), API protection, Kubernetes traffic management, and more.
NetScaler Console (previously called ADM) is also included, both on-prem and as a service in Citrix Cloud.
Citrix Platform License (CPL)
CPL includes anything that UL HMC has to offer and more (I recommend reading the previous section first). CPL is meant for larger organizations and includes all products and features Citrix has to offer in an unlimited capacity:
- CVAD Premium and DaaS Premium
- Secure Private Access (e.g., Citrix Enterprise Browser)
- Observability:
- Analytics for Performance
- Analytics for Security
- uberAgent (ESA and UXM)
- NetScaler Premium unlimited (no limit on instances or bandwidth)
- Endpoint Management (both Endpoint Management as a Citrix Cloud service and XenMobile for on-prem)
Did the new Citrix offerings from March 2024 change anything concerning product, edition, and model?
Yes, it sure did.
Let us quickly recap how a Citrix license is constructed. Let me use CVAD (from before March 2024) as an example:
- Product: this concerns the various offerings, such as Citrix Virtual Apps, Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, and Citrix Virtual Desktops.
- Edition: this concerns the feature-richness of each of the products. The editions available until March 2024 were Standard, Advanced, and Platinum.
- Model: this concerns the entitlement (how licenses are issued to the users). The two possibilities here are concurrent and user/device.
- Type: type is the combination of a product and edition.
Starting March 2024, the main change in our new SKUs is a massive simplification whereby product and edition have been reduced to only one option.
The product in CPC, UL HMC, and CPL is CVAD (+ DaaS for UL HMC and CPL). Products (SKUs) such as Citrix Virtual Apps and Citrix Virtual Desktops are no longer available for purchase. The same applies to all stand-alone products such as Citrix Analytics for Performance, Citrix Analytics for Security, Citrix Endpoint Management, and more. These products can no longer be purchased. Please note that this software is not gone. It is included in the new offerings.
The edition for all offerings is now Premium. None of the new offerings can be purchased in the Standard or Advanced edition.
So what about the XenServer entitlement?
XenServer entitlement is automatically included in all new subscriptions (CPC, UL HMC, and CPL) if purchased after June 3rd.
So what exactly does this mean? What do you get?
- This entitlement concerns XenServer 8.0 (released in May 2024). Why only XenServer 8.0 you wonder? Because Citrix XenServer (“Citrix Hypervisor”) versions before XenServer 8.0 require either a standalone XenServer license file or an active CVAD license (I explain this in more detail below). And with XenServer versions before 8.0, I mean version 8.2 and older (yes I know, the versioning is a bit confusing).
- Licensing for XenServer 8.0 is per socket (not core). To be absolutely clear here: a CVAD license does not entitle you to XenServer 8.0.
- You are entitled to 10,000 XenServer Premium Edition socket licenses for XenServer 8.0, This version only recognizes per-socket licenses and not CVAD/DaaS licenses.
- Citrix XenServer 8.0 can be used for both Citrix and non-Citrix workloads. Still, you must ensure that XenServer meets your needs as no Request for Enhancements (RFEs) for general server virtualization needs will be accepted. All customers will be eligible for XenServer support, regardless of whether the support issue relates to a Citrix or non-Citrix workload. For non-Citrix workloads, best-effort support will be provided.
- XenServer 8.0 supports Windows 11 virtual machines!
I want to clarify my statement that either an active XenServer stand-alone or a CVAD license is required for XenServer version 8.2 and older. What this means exactly is that at least one of the license files installed on your on-prem Citrix license server must contain one of the following abbreviations:
- CDIAB_ADV_UD
- CDIAB_ADV_CCS
- CXS_CCLD_CCS (= stand-alone XenServer license file)
- MPS_ADV_CCU
- MPS_ENT_CCU
- MPS_PLT_CCU
- XDS_STD_UD
- XDS_STD_CCS
- XDS_ENT_UD
- XDS_ENT_CCS
- XDS_PLT_UD
- XDS_PLT_CCS
- XDT_APP_UD
- XDT_ADV_UD
- XDT_STD_UD
- XDT_STD_CCS
- XDT_ENT_CCS
- XDT_ENT_CCS
- XDT_PLT_UD
- XDT_PLT_CCS
Customers who renewed their licenses to either UL HMC or CPL only need to install one of the following licenses:
- Virtual Apps & Desktops SaaS OPT […]
- CVAD Compatibility license […]
It is possible to install both license files on your Citrix license server at the same time, but this is not necessary for XenServer.
URLs:
- https://www.citrix.com/platform/xenserver.html
- https://www.xenserver.com/support
- https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2024/06/05/announcing-the-inclusion-of-xenserver-8-in-all-new-citrix-subscriptions/
Many customers are currently running Citrix Hypervisor 8.2 (CU1). Please note that this product will be End Of Life on the 25th of June 2025. Citrix will continue to recognize Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops or Citrix DaaS licenses until this date.
I have new licenses (since March 2024) and my hypervisor is XenServer. Do I need to change or do something?
Possibly yes.
Before continuing, I recommend first reading the previous section that explains the (new) XenServer entitlement.
After purchasing one of the new CPC, UL HMC, or CPL licenses you will see a new XenServer license file in your Citrix license portal. The file name is:
Citrix Hypervisor Term License-Premium-Socket
This license file is the same for all customers and contains 10’000 XenServer socket licenses. Allocate, download, and install this license file on your Citrix license server if you plan to use the latest XenServer version 8.0.
XenServer versions before 8.0 (XenServer 8.2 CU1 and older) check for a valid CVAD license file. Versions before 8.0 are not licensed on a per-socket basis. This new licensing method only applies to XenServer 8.0 and newer.
Check the next section if you cannot find the XenServer license in the Citrix license portal.
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Important!
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I cannot find my XenServer licenses in the Citrix license portal
You probably purchased your new subscription before the 3rd of June 2024. Your XenServer entitlement may not have been automatically added. However, this was recently changed and you should now find your new XenServer socket licenses in your Citrix license portal.
If this is not the case, talk to your partner or Citrix Account Executive to apply for the free XenServer promo.
Check the previous section for more information on the new XenServer entitlement.
I purchased one of the new subscriptions: which
license file should I use for CVAD? Why is there a compatibility license file?
After purchasing CPC or UL HMC you will find multiple licenses in the Citrix licensing portal. The screenshot below shows the two license files for UL HMC:
- Virtual Apps & Desktops SaaS OPT License-Premium-Concurrent
- CVAD Compatibility license for HMC-None-None
Let’s take a closer look at both of these.
The Virtual Apps & Desktops SaaS OPT License-Premium-Concurrent contains licenses for the following product types and models:
- Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Premium Concurrent
- Citrix Provisioning Concurrent
- Citrix Provisioning for Desktops Concurrent*
*This is for image streaming to physical endpoints
The CVAD Compatibility license for HMC-None-None contains licenses for the following product types and models:
- Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Premium User/Device
- Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Advanced Concurrent
- Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Advanced User/Device
- Citrix Virtual Apps Standard Concurrent
- Citrix Virtual Apps Advanced Concurrent
- Citrix Virtual Apps Premium Concurrent
- Citrix Virtual Desktops Standard Concurrent
- Citrix Virtual Desktops Standard User/Device
The license file has to match the licensing configuration in your Citrix farm!
You can check the current licensing configuration (the product, edition, and model) in the Licensing node in Citrix Studio.
Configuring the Citrix site for CVAD Premium Concurrent is considered best practice. You must download and install the Virtual Apps & Desktops SaaS OPT License-Premium-Concurrent and ensure that your Citrix site is configured to use CVAD Premium Concurrent licenses.
Note: when changing the site-wide licensing configuration please review any changes you may have made on the Delivery Group level. You may need to change or remove these. You can use either PowerShell or, in newer versions of CVAD and DaaS, the GUI in Citrix Web Studio. |
If the Citrix site has not been configured for CVAD Premium Concurrent and cannot be changed at this time, the CVAD Compatibility license for HMC-None-None must be downloaded and installed.
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Important!
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There may be different reasons why the licensing configuration cannot be changed, for example, because you have to wait for an upcoming maintenance window or because other, older, licenses are still in use. Please keep in mind that different editions (Standard, Advanced, and Premium) cannot be mixed in a single Citrix site. See the official Citrix article Multi-type licensing for more information.
Please also take a minute and read the official Citrix documentation Compatibility license – avoid mixed editions when renewing Universal HMC or Citrix for Private Cloud.
I have new licenses (since March 2024). Do I need to change something on my on-prem CVA(D) site or in DaaS?
The short answer is perhaps, depending on the entitlement you renewed from.
Let’s start with on-prem CVAD. As explained in the previous section, the license file has to match the licensing configuration in your Citrix site. If there is a mismatch, you will see the message “Required product licenses are not installed”.
As you can see in the screenshot below, the site is set to CVAD Premium Concurrent, but only CVAD Premium User/Device licenses (+ some other product licenses) are available. But there are no CVAD Premium Concurrent licenses available.
In the example above the license Virtual Apps & Desktops SaaS OPT License-Premium-Concurrent has not been installed (this is the one containing the CVAD Premium Concurrent licenses). Only the CVAD Compatibility license for HMC-None-None is installed, but none of the editions and models in this license included match the site-wide licensing settings.
Best practice dictates installing the Virtual Apps & Desktops SaaS OPT License-Premium-Concurrent which contains the currently missing CVAD Premium Concurrent license file. Optionally you could change the licensing settings to CVAD Premium User/Device. Please see the previous section for more details.
In a DaaS environment, you may need to make some changes as well. If the site-wide licensing settings do not match the assigned DaaS licenses no licenses will be checked out. See the section No licenses are being checked out in Citrix DaaS in this article for more information.
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Important!
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I have new licenses (since March 2024) and am running XenMobile on-prem. Do I need to change or do something?
Yes, you do.
After purchasing your new UL HMC or CPL license a new XenMobile license file is available in your Citrix license portal.
Allocate, download, and install this license file on your Citrix license server.
Ensure your XenMobile environment is running at minimum version 10.15 RP 7. The recommended version is 10.16 (or higher) so you can use the latest features.
For more information on XenMobile license configuration please see the following article:
https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/xenmobile/server/system-requirements/licensing.html
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Important!
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I have new licenses (since March 2024) and am running App Protection on-prem. Do I need to change or do something?
Yes, after purchasing UL HMC or CPL you need to download a new license file. This license file is separate from the CVAD licenses. Download and allocate the App Protection licenses in the Citrix license portal (see screenshots below). Then install the license file on your on-prem license server.
Make sure to download the correct license file. There are two: one for User/Device and one for Concurrent User. Depending on how your Citrix site is configured (the license model to be precise) you need one or the other.
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Important!
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Cloud customers (DaaS) do not have any action items. The App Protection licenses are automatically provided.
Please note that App Protection is not available for CPC customers.
URL: https://www.citrix.com/platform/citrix-app-and-desktop-virtualization/feature-matrix.html
I have new licenses (since March 2024). Do I need to change something on my PVS site?
Possibly yes, depending on the entitlement you renewed from.
Please check the licensing section in the official PVS documentation:
The screenshot below is from a UL HMC license file, or, to be more precise, a Virtual Apps & Desktops SaaS OPT License-Premium-Concurrent. It shows the new PVS abbreviations, which are PVS_STD_CSS and PVSD_STD_CSS (for Provisioning for Desktops = image streaming to physical endpoints).
Use the PVS licensing wizard to set the licensing to on-premises.
| Note: for full disclosure, select the option Cloud only in case your current license file contains the abbreviation PVS_CCLD. |
One more thing: make sure to update your Citrix on-prem license server before using the new PVS license file. Newer versions of PVS check for new license abbreviations in the license file.
See the section below if you downloaded a compatibility license file and cannot find your PVS license.
The PVS license file is missing
Please be aware that the PVS licenses are only available in the main license file, not the compatibility license file. For example UL HMC:
- Virtual Apps & Desktops SaaS OPT License-Premium-Concurrent
Contains PVS licenses yes - CVAD Compatibility license for HMC-None-None
Contains PVS licenses no
Here is an extract from the Virtual Apps & Desktops SaaS OPT License-Premium-Concurrent license file. The file contains both the PVS licenses for virtual devices and the PVS for Desktops licenses (for image streaming to physical endpoints).
If you need compatibility licenses in your environment and your Citrix workers are provisioned using PVS you must install both license files.
For more information see the section I purchased one of the new subscriptions […].
I cannot find my uberAgent licenses in the Citrix license portal
First of all, uberAgent is not offered as a stand-alone product. Only CPL customers are entitled to uberAgent.
For CPL customers: a separate link for downloading the uberAgent licenses is available in the Citrix license portal.
No licenses are being checked out in Citrix DaaS
You recently transferred to one of our new subscriptions, UL HMC or CPL, users are working without incident, and active sessions are visible in Citrix Monitor, but no licenses are checked out!
This issue only happens when the site-wide licensing settings do not match the assigned DaaS licenses. Starting from March 2024, after a license renewal, you will either have UL HMC or CPL licenses. Both of these include the entitlement DaaS Premium. Customers previously on DaaS/UL Advanced or DaaS/UL Advanced Plus may need to change their site-wide licensing settings (in the future this may be changed automatically, this is why I am writing “may need to change”).
The screenshots below show how you can change your site-wide licensing settings.
Make sure that the correct license, DaaS Premium Concurrent is assigned. In the screenshot below the wrong edition and model are configured.
Please note that although the license assignment may be set to an incorrect edition or model, users will still be able to launch sessions.
VDA fails to register in Azure (CVAD control plane) -> VMNotCompatibleWithDdc
If your VDA running in Azure cannot register to your on-prem (CVAD) Delivery Controller with the error 1023 and the text “The Citrix Desktop Service was refused a connection to […]” and the keyword “VMNotCompatibleWithDdc” then this points to a licensing issue.
I explicitly wrote “Azure” instead of “public cloud” because this issue seems to affect Azure, but not AWS.
This particular registration error can have two causes. The main cause is the missing SaaS bit in the license file. This SaaS bit, as shown in the screenshot below, allows VDAs running in public cloud to register with on-prem CVAD Delivery Controllers. If the SaaS bit is missing then the VDA registration will fail with the error “VMNotCompatibleWithDdc”.
The second cause is a bit more tricky. I had some customers experiencing this issue although they had a valid license file including the SaaS bit. However, they did not assign this license file to the CVAD site. Instead, they assigned the license to a Delivery Group.
The VDA registration process runs on a machine level, not a user level. Assigning a license to a Delivery Group only affects users launching resources from that particular Delivery Group. The VDA registration always checks the site-level license file. Therefore, if the SaaS bit is not present in the site-level license file, the registration fails.
Therefore, make sure to assign the correct site-wide license file as described here:
For the official communication from Citrix on the SaaS bit see the article below:
I recently purchased new UL HMC or CPL licenses. Do I need to change something in my NetScaler configuration?
The short answer for many customers is yes. Existing NetScaler customers with either a perpetual or Fixed-Term subscription assigned to their (individual) NetScaler instances need to switch to the new Flexed Licensing.
To summarize, the biggest changes are:
- You can no longer assign NetScaler licenses to individual NetScaler instances. UL HMC and CPL include NetScaler entitlement, but only in the Flexed Licensing model. Customers currently on perpetual licenses or Fixed-Term subscriptions must switch to the new Flexed Licensing.
- You need NetScaler Console to assign licenses to your NetScaler instances. Both UL HMC and CPL entitle you to either choose NetScaler Console Service (in Citrix Cloud) or a customer-managed NetScaler Console on-prem. NetScaler Console is the new name for Citrix ADM.
If you want to use the NetScaler Console Service, read the following documentation and execute all necessary steps:
- Set up NetScaler Console
https://docs.netscaler.com/en-us/netscaler-console-service/getting-started
Note: ignore the option “Configure the built-in agent to manage instances”. Instead, use the custom deployment instead of the built-in agent. - Migrate to Flexed Licensing for NetScaler Console Service
https://docs.netscaler.com/en-us/netscaler-console-service/manage-licenses/license-management
https://docs.netscaler.com/en-us/netscaler-console-service/manage-licenses/flexed-licenses/transition-to-flexed-licensing
If you want to use the NetScaler Console on-prem, read the following documentation and execute all necessary steps:
- Set up NetScaler Console on-prem
https://docs.netscaler.com/en-us/netscaler-application-delivery-management-software/current-release/system-requirements
https://docs.netscaler.com/en-us/netscaler-application-delivery-management-software/current-release/get-started - Migrate to Flexed Licensing for NetScaler Console on-prem
https://docs.netscaler.com/en-us/netscaler-application-delivery-management-software/current-release/license-server/license-management
https://docs.netscaler.com/en-us/netscaler-application-delivery-management-software/current-release/license-server/flexed-licensing/transition-to-flexed-licensing
I hope this article was able to answer some of your questions. Please leave a comment below if your issue was not solved or your question was not answered. I can then add it to this article.
Dennis Span works as a Lead Account Technology Strategist at Cloud Software Group in Vienna, Austria. He holds multiple Citrix certifications (CCE-V). Dennis has been a Citrix Technology Advocate (CTA) since 2017 (+ one year as Citrix Technology Professional, CTP). Besides his interest in virtualization technologies and blogging, he loves spending time with his family as well as snowboarding, playing basketball and rowing. He is fluent in Dutch, English, German and Slovak and speaks some Spanish.
Thanks for this good job.
I have a doubt about Session Reconding in CPC model. As I saw on Citrix Feature Licensing Matrix, it’s not included in CPC (only on HMC and CPL).
Could you confirm this point ?
Hi Julien, thanks for your feedback. And yes, you are right: Session Recording is not included in CPC. I just checked the feature matrix: https://www.citrix.com/platform/citrix-app-and-desktop-virtualization/feature-matrix.html (the section Security & Access Control). I do not know if something changed or if I made a mistake, but in any case thanks for pointing this out to me. I have updated my article accordingly. Bye the way; Session Recording is listed twice: once for cloud and once for on-prem (“Session Recording with Audio”).
Hi Dennis,
if Delivery controllers and VDAs are all on Azure VMs, the saas bit aka hybrid rights is needed right? even though there is no “cross” communication like on-prem with azure.
Hi, yes, that is correct. The VDA will fail to register to the Delivery Controller if the SaaS-bit is missing in the license file. You will see a corresponding error message in the event log of the VDA.
thank you. i feel internally at citrix sales many do not realize this. the only clear-cut explanation I’ve found is your blog and the citrix admin community at reddit for example. No clear-cut warning or explanation in any citrix articles or docs.