NetScaler License Information Test

To ensure continuous application/service delivery, the ADC device should ideally possess a valid license, which should be renewed in time. The license files can either be installed in the target ADC device itself or can be managed by a Citrix license server or the license pool of the Citrix Application Delivery Management service. Regardless of where the licenses are located, invalid/out-dated licenses may disable the key features enabled on the ADC device or lead the ADC to deliver applications with out-dated license information. Sometimes, invalid licenses may completely halt the operations of the ADC leading to the unavailability of the services/applications delivered by the ADC device. This would greatly impact the user experience on the ADC device. To avoid this, administrators should constantly keep a vigil on the validity of licenses and the license usage. This is where the NetScaler License Information test helps administrators! This test continuously tracks the license usage of ADC device, and determines when each license is likely to expire

Target of the test : An ADC VPX/MPX

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each lincense type:model of the target Citrix ADC being monitored.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter	Description
Test Period	How often should the test be executed.
Host	The IP address of the host for which the test is being configured.
NetScaler Username and NetScaler Password	To monitor a ADC device, the eG agent should be configured with the credentials of a user with read-only privileges to the target ADC device. Specify the credentials of such a user in the NetScaler Username and NetScaler Password text boxes.
Confirm Password	Confirm the ADC Password by retyping it here.
SSL	The eG agent collects performance metrics by invoking NITRO (ADC Interface Through Restful interfaces and Objects) APIs on the target ADC device. Typically, the NITRO APIs can be invoked through the HTTP or the HTTPS mode. By default, the eG agent invokes the NITRO APIs using the HTTPS mode. This is why, the SSL flag is set to Yes by default. If the target ADC device is not SSL-enabled, then the NITRO APIs can be accessed through the HTTP mode only. In this case, set the SSL flag to No.
Use API	The eG agent is capable of monitoring the licenses installed in the target ADC device itself or managed by the Citrix license server or the license pool of the Citrix Application Delivery Management service. To enable this, set the Use API flag to Yes. This implies that this test will track the license files and report the availability, usage and license expiry details at regular intervals. If the Use API flag is set to No, it implies that the test will monitor only the license files installed in the target ADC device and itself and report when the license is likely to expire. In this case, the user is required to access the Citrix License file available in the ADC device to collect metrics. To access the Citrix License file, the user should be vested with superuser permission.
Show Expired License	This flag is applicable only when the Use API flag is set to No. By default, the Show Expired License flag is set to No indicating that this test will not monitor the licenses of ADC device that expired. Set this flag to Yes, if the expired licenses are also needed to be included for monitoring. As a result, this test will report -6 against the Days to expire measure to indicate the licenses that expired.
DD Frequency	Refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. The default is 6:1. This indicates that, by default, detailed measures will be generated every time this test runs, and also every time the test detects a problem. You can modify this frequency, if you so desire. Also, if you intend to disable the detailed diagnosis capability for this test, you can do so by specifying none against DD frequency.
Detailed Diagnosis	To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option. The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled: The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement

Description

Measurement Unit

Interpretation

Days to expire

Indicates the number of days by which this license will expire.

Number

This measure will appear only if the Use API flag is set No.

A very low value for this measure indicates that the license is nearing expiry. You may have to request for a license extension if you want to continue using the ADC. If the Show Expired License parameter is set to Yes, this test will display -6 against this measure to denote the expired licenses (if any).

The detailed diagnosis of this measure lists the ADC IP to which each license is mapped to and the feature of the licensed appliance.

Is license server reachable?

Indicates whether/not the license server, that manages the ADC licenses, is reachable.

This measure will appear only if the Use API flag is set to Yes.

The numeric values that correspond to these measure values have been given in the table below:

Measure Value	Numeric Value
Yes	1
No	0

Note:

By default, the measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the availability of the remote license server. However, in the graph of this measure, the same will be represented using the numeric equivalents only.

Is license in grace?

Indicates whether the license of this type is in grace period.

This measure will appear only if the Use API flag is set to Yes.

The numeric values that correspond to these measure values have been given in the table below:

Measure Value	Numeric Value
Yes	1
No	0

Note:

By default, the measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate whether the license of each type is in grace period. However, in the graph of this measure, the same will be represented using the numeric equivalents only.

License grace period left

Indicates the number of days after which the license of this type will expire.

Number

This measure appears only if the Use API flag is set to Yes and the value of Is license in grace? measure is Yes.

Total Licenses

Indicates the total number of licenses of this type managed by the remote license server.

Number

This measure will appear only if the Use API flag is set to Yes.

Available Licenses

Indicates the number of licenses of this type that is currently available to use by the target ADC device.

Number

This measure will appear only if the Use API flag is set to Yes.

Ideally, a high value is preferred for this measure.

Used licenses

Indicates the number of licenses of this type utilized by the target ADC device.

Number

This measure will appear only if the Use API flag is set to Yes.

A low value is preferred for this measure. Compare the value of this measure across the license types to know which type of license is over-utilized.

License utilization

Indicates the percentage of licenses of this type utilized by the target ADC device.

Percent

This measure will appear only if the Use API flag is set to Yes.

A value close to 100% indicates excessive license utilization. Therefore, administrators need to get additional licenses to ensure license availability for uninterrupted operation of the target ADC device.