Expected behaviors when issues arise

Last published : Sep 21, 2026
Following are the expected behaviors of the license servers and NetScaler instances when they experience the issues described:
Related information

License server stops responding

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.
Read the following note before proceeding further.
Warning
The license server is not responding. NetScaler continues to operate with the current capacity for 30 days. After 30 days, if the connectivity to the license server is not restored, NetScaler loses its current capacity and stops processing traffic. If connectivity is restored within 30 days, NetScaler continues to operate at current capacity and continues to process traffic.

NetScaler Pooled instance stops responding

If the NetScaler Pooled instance stops responding and the license server is in a healthy state, the license server checks in all the NetScaler instance’s licenses after 10 minutes. When the instance reboots, it sends a request to check out all the licenses from the licensing server.

Both license server and NetScaler Pooled instance stop responding

If both the license server and the NetScaler Pooled instance restart and reestablish the connection, the license server checks-in all its licenses after 10 minutes, and the NetScaler Pooled instances automatically checkout the licenses after the reboot is completed.

The NetScaler Pooled instance shuts down gracefully

During a graceful shutdown, you can choose to check-in the licenses or keep the licenses that were allocated before the graceful shutdown. If you choose to check-in the licenses, the NetScaler Pooled instance is unlicensed after it restarts. If you choose to keep the licenses, they are checked in to the licensing server when the instance shuts down. After the instance restarts, it reestablishes the connection with the licensing server and checks out the licenses as specified in the saved configuration.
If the system reboots and the checkout fails due to no capacity available in the pool, NetScaler checks the inventory of NetScaler Console pool licenses and checks out any available capacity. An SNMP alarm is raised to notify this condition to the user if NetScaler is not running at full capacity as per the configuration. If no capacity is available in the bandwidth pool, the pool instance becomes unlicensed.

Network connectivity issues

Error message (syslog)
License server is not responding.
If the license server and NetScaler Pooled instances are in a healthy state but the network connectivity is lost, the instances continue to operate at their current capacity for 30 days. After 30 days, if the connectivity to the license server is not restored, the instances lose their capacity and stop processing traffic, and the license server checks-in all its licenses. After the license server reestablishes connectivity with the NetScaler instances, the instances checkout the licenses again.

Grace period

When a NetScaler Pooled instance is in a healthy state and the license server stops responding, the instance continues to operate with the current capacity for 30 days. If the connectivity to the license server is not restored after 30 days, the instance loses its capacity and stops processing traffic.