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ADC license not valid after upgrading to 13.1 33.47


Joost Sannen

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Well I just upgraded my ADC HA pair (VPX) to 13.1 33.47 . Both instances lost it's license. I checked the MAC address and if the license is still valid. It's a match and it's valid. Luckily this is in my test environment only.

 

WARNING: If you need to upgrade please do a staged upgrade and check the license afterwards.

 

Already opened a support case.

 

 

 

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What version were you upgrading FROM?

And what type of license is it: standard, adv/ent, premimum/platinum or gateway only (or universal license).

Check system clock and timezone too.

Which you transferred the license file did you use the "binary file" option with scp/sftp or other?

 

Licensing diagnostic commands and some information in this article:  https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX116444/troubleshooting-netscaler-and-netscaler-gateway-license-issues

Some additional troubleshooting here:  http://terenceluk.blogspot.com/2018/11/troubleshooting-citrix-netscaler-vpx.html

A lot of the regular licensing troubleshooting commands such as lmstat and lmdiag may apply. may still be a bug, but the above info will help determine if it is a config issue or the age of license issue.

 

 

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More than likely it is a bug and will require escalation or a downgrade to resolve.

One more thing you can look at is the console messages during boot or the dmesg in the diagnostics pane and see if specific events are shown related to licensing that gives more info.

 

If you'd been coming from 12.1 or earlier it might have been version related.  I would still reconfirm the licensing mac by retrieving the lmhostid in case there was a change. Sorry, I don't have any useful info for you.

 

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When we downgraded the ADC to N-1 version the same license was valid again. This let me think it was about the ADC version, not the license.

 

But in the end it appeared to be a license portal glitch. The license, valid up to a date in the future, appeared to not be really valid. Allocating new licenses for both ADCs is the solution.

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58 minutes ago, Joost Sannen said:

When we downgraded the ADC to N-1 version the same license was valid again. This let me think it was about the ADC version, not the license.

 

But in the end it appeared to be a license portal glitch. The license, valid up to a date in the future, appeared to not be really valid. Allocating new licenses for both ADCs is the solution.

Glad you found a fix.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I have the same problem, with 2 different versions. 13.1-33.49 and 13.1-33.52. Both files successfully upgrade the Netscaler but neither read the license file so I end up with no features which breaks everything, forcing me to restore from backup or snapshot.

Citrix online says it's a bug in the GUI and to upgrade to 13.1-37.x but that version doesn't exist???

 

[Upgrade per GUI] Unable to upgrade to 13.1-27.59 onwards build by GUI (citrix.com)

 

Workaround

Upload the firmware to ADC and trigger the upgrade from CLI mode.

Solution

Upgrade the system to 13.1_37.X

 

My license file shows as permanent and if I go to the licensing webpage, it also says there's no expiry.

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10 minutes ago, Carl Stalhood1709151912 said:

Go to /nsconfig/license and edit the license file. There is a date in the file.  Is the date in the future? Or is it in the past?

Wow.. I got a reply from Carl himself. I think I can die now while feeling completely fulfilled. ?

 

The dates in the license file are in the past, which I thought was normal as it would show the install date. Here's a sanitized version;

 

INCREMENT CNS_AGEE_SERVER CITRIX 2018.0630 permanent 1 \
        VENDOR_STRING=;LT=Retail;GP=720;CL=AGEE;SA=1;ODP=0 \
        ISSUED=23-mar-2018 NOTICE="COMPANY NAME" \
        SN=LA-000XXXXXXX-11XXX:FID__23f6bf6d_16246a58c2d__6539 \
        START=11-may-2015
 

Which date do I change? Start date? Issued date? I've never had to edit a license file in over 10 years of dealing with VPX's.

 

Thanks Carl!

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3 minutes ago, Carl Stalhood1709151912 said:

Go to http://citrix.com/account, login, go to licenses, and download the latest license file for your NeScaler. The new file should have a newer date than your current file. Apply it to your NetScaler and you should be able to upgrade.

That's too easy. I downloaded the file and it shows updated dates. There's a first for everything.

 

Thanks Carl! You're a god amongst men.

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5 hours ago, Carl Stalhood1709151912 said:

Go to http://citrix.com/account, login, go to licenses, and download the latest license file for your NeScaler. The new file should have a newer date than your current file. Apply it to your NetScaler and you should be able to upgrade.

 

Citrix seems to be devolving. Stuff that used to be manual and then was automated is now manual again. Licenses going AWOL and having to be reapplied. Citrix for fun and profit! Carl, you are the man.

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Thanks - installing the latest licence from the portal fixed this issue. However, I got a new problem after I upgraded the first node, I logged on OK with MFA, but when I tried to start a Citrix desktop it didn't start and HA failed back to the un-upgraded node. Usually I am able to fail over to the upgraded node, test to make sure it works and then upgrade the other node. Reverting to snapshot got it back to normal. I will try upgrading to 13.1.33.52 this time, but I'm worried in case it does the same thing again then it's missing the patches for the recent CVEs.

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On 11/8/2022 at 5:10 PM, Carl Stalhood1709151912 said:

Go to http://citrix.com/account, login, go to licenses, and download the latest license file for your NeScaler. The new file should have a newer date than your current file. Apply it to your NetScaler and you should be able to upgrade.

Should the date definitely change on a re-download of the license? The only change I'm seeing when re-downloading is to the NLS section at the end with the new product names and applying it seems to make no difference, the VPX remains in Freemium mode

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We got this to work on 2 Netscaler Premium ADC instances however we have 2 other VPX Express Licensed Netscalers that are now showing freemium if we upgrade them.

We still get the new licenses with date of 2016 even after returning and reallocating the licenses.

 

Reverting to 13.1 30.52.nc version Netscaler has no issues with the same VPX Express License.

 

Appreciate any help i could get on this.

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To all.

 

The latest versions appear to have a stricter license check. But it's not the actual software which invalidates your license. The license you are using is, in fact, no longer valid. Despite it still may work on older software versions.

 

The best help you can get is to contact customer services. Please create a new thread when you experience another problem.

 

Thank you!

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