Configure NetScaler Console server as the Flexed or Pooled license server

Last published : Sep 21, 2026
Important:
File-based licensing system (also referred to as manually managed entitlements), traditionally used for activating various on-premises components, will be End of Life (EOL) on April 15, 2026. License Activation Service (LAS) is the next generation technology for product activations across the suite of Citrix products. LAS will be the only way to activate and license NetScaler instances after April 15, 2026, supporting NetScaler Flexed licenses (CPL/UHMC), legacy NetScaler Pooled licenses, and NetScaler Fixed term Bandwidth licenses. To remain supported, your NetScaler and NetScaler Console deployments must be on a LAS compatible version.
The minimum required NetScaler® versions that are LAS compatible are:
  • NetScaler ADCs: 14.1-51.x, 13.1-60.x, 13.1-37.246 (FIPS), 14.1-66.68 (FIPS)
  • NetScaler SVM: 14.1-51.x, 13.1-60.x
  • NetScaler Console Service: Supported from early September 2025.
  • NetScaler Console on-prem: 14.1-51.x
    Note: LAS support for Console on-prem is from release 14.1-51.x onwards. However, file-based licensing is deprecated as of April 15 2026 from Console on-prem releases 14.1-51.x onwards and 13.1-60.x onwards. If you upgrade to Console on-prem release 14.1-51.x or release 13.1-60.x or later, you can continue using file-based licensing until 15th April 2026. However you must upgrade to Console on-prem release 14.1-51.x or later, and switch to LAS before 15th April 2026 because Console on-prem 13.1 does not support LAS.
All the other forms of legacy NetScaler licenses such as Pooled vCPU, CICO, perpetual will not be supported with LAS. NetScaler instances leveraging perpetual licenses without an active maintenance will become unlicensed upon upgrade to the above mentioned software versions.
LAS-based licenses may not be available to customers where prohibited by law or regulations.
If you have questions or concerns, contact Customer Care. Citrix may limit or suspend your Citrix Maintenance for non-compliance with these requirements without liability in addition to any other remedies Citrix may have at law or equity. These requirements don’t apply where prohibited by law or regulation.
As an administrator, you can configure NetScaler Console server only as the Flexed or Pooled license server. With this configuration, NetScaler Console server only receives licensing data from NetScaler instances.
Sometimes, you might have the regulatory mandate that requires restricting NetScaler instances’ data from leaving the regulatory zone. In such situations, you can deploy a local instance of the NetScaler Console on-prem server in your regulatory zone to use management, monitoring, and analytics capabilities. When you follow the same approach to use the Flexed or Pooled licenses feature, you have to split Flexed or Pooled licenses across various NetScaler Console license servers. This approach does not provide you the flexibility to allocate Flexed or Pooled licenses across your globally deployed NetScaler instances.
Therefore, configure NetScaler Console server only as the Flexed or Pooled license server. NetScaler Console server receives only licensing data from all NetScaler instances. So, you can adhere to the regulatory mandate and dynamically allocate Flexed or Pooled capacity licenses across globally deployed NetScaler instances.
Related information

How to configure NetScaler Console server only as the Flexed or Pooled license server

Before you begin, ensure that no NetScaler instances are added to NetScaler Console server. Add NetScaler instances only after you complete step 4.
Do the following to configure NetScaler Console server only for the Flexed or Pooled license server:
  1. Navigate to Settings > Administration.
  2. In the System Configurations section, select System Deployment.
  3. In ADM Deployment, select NetScaler Console only as a flexed/pooled licensing server.
    NetScaler Console only as license server
  4. Click OK.
    This action keeps only the Flexed or Pooled licensing feature and disables the following NetScaler Console features:
    • NetScaler Console backup
    • Event management
    • SSL certificate management
    • Network reporting
    • Network functions
    • Configuration audit
    Note
    By default, the NetScaler Console analytics feature is disabled. Make sure to disable this feature if you have enabled it.
    In the confirmation box, click Yes.
    The NetScaler Console GUI now displays only the Flexed or Pooled licensing feature. And, the remaining features do not appear.
  5. After you configure NetScaler Console only for the licensing feature, add NetScaler instances in the Infrastructure > Instances page.
Note
  • You can add a NetScaler instance in one or more NetScaler Console servers. When you change the password of such NetScaler instances, ensure to update the password on all NetScaler Console servers where the instance is discovered.
  • A user can still do some operations of the disabled features in the NetScaler Console GUI. For example, event polling and NetScaler backup. As a super administrator, If you want to restrict such operations, disable user access for other administrators using an appropriate access policy. For more information, see Configure Access Policies on NetScaler Console.
You can also deploy NetScaler Console server only for Flexed or Pooled license server with the following lower specifications:
Component Requirement
RAM 8 GB
Virtual CPU 4
Storage 120 GB