Citrix XenDesktop Licensing

Citrix XenDesktop Licensing Explained

Overview
This document provides an overview of XenDesktop licensing and related technical insights. It explains the following areas of XenDesktop licensing: Editions. Citrix XenDesktop editions and features that are packaged with the product. General Licensing Information. Detailed explanation of the XenDesktop licensing model, Subscription Advantage, license retrieval, available upgrades from previous releases or Editions, and Microsoft related licensing. XenDesktop Components. Provides licensing details of specific XenDesktop components. Technical Insights. Explains some technical aspects that need to be considered as part of a XenDesktop implementation for virtual desktop delivery.

Citrix XenDesktop Editions

The table below specifies the editions of XenDesktop and the features associated with each. Feature Desktop Delivery Controller Virtual Machine Infrastructure VM Resource Pooling & XenMotion Secure Remote Access Desktop Provisioning Profile Management Integrated App Delivery Virtual Desktop Performance Monitoring Virtual Desktop Support
* XenDesktop ICA only

Express (10 users)

Standard

Advanced

Enterprise *

Platinum

Feature WAN Optimization EasyCall Several important items to note:

Express (10 users)

Standard

Advanced

Enterprise

Platinum

The Virtual Machine Infrastructure may be used only for hosting virtual desktops and Citrix provided XenDesktop infrastructure. Integrated App Delivery (powered by XenApp for Virtual Desktops) may be used only for delivering applications to virtual desktops. Secure remote access for the Standard, Advanced and Enterprise editions may be used only for securing ICA XenDesktop traffic; For XenDesktop Standard, Advanced and Enterprise, the customer may only purchase the Standard Edition of the Access Gateway appliance; For XenDesktop Platinum, the customer may choose any Access Gateway appliance. Secure Remote Access and WAN Optimization each require the purchase of appliances to enable their respective capabilities. A license of Virtual Desktop Remote Support (powered by GoToAssist) is provided as a benefit of active Subscription Advantage for every 200 XenDesktop Platinum licenses purchased. At least 200 XenDesktop Platinum licenses with SA must be purchased to receive a Virtual Desktop Support license and they must be purchased within a single order.

Licensing
XenDesktop Standard, Advanced, Enterprise and Platinum editions are licensed based on the number of concurrent virtual desktops in use. XenDesktop Express edition is free of charge. The following XenDesktop Platinum components make use of the standard Citrix Licensing infrastructure and as such require the use of a Citrix License Server: Virtual Desktop Delivery Controller Virtual Desktop Provisioning (powered by Provisioning Server for Desktops) Integrated App Delivery (powered by XenApp for Virtual Desktops) Virtual Desktop Performance Monitoring (powered by EdgeSight for Endpoints) EasyCall Secure Remote Access (powered by Access Gateway)

The licensing framework for the remaining components is specified below: The Virtual Machine Infrastructure component (powered by XenServer) does not support centralized licensing with the Citrix License Server, though this functionality is on the roadmap. In the interim, each physical host system must be individually licensed with a license key. The Profile Management feature (powered by Portable Profiles) is available through an eligible Subscription Advantage membership. The WAN Optimization component (powered by WANScaler) is enabled with the appliance purchase and requires no additional license at this time. Although the roadmap for this functionality is to leverage the standard Citrix Licensing infrastructure. The Virtual Desktop Support (powered by GoToAssist) feature is a subscription-based service linked to Subscription Advantage membership status and expiry date that is managed by the Citrix Online division.

General Information
XenDesktop Standard, Advanced, Enterprise and Platinum Edition are available under two retail licensing options perpetual retail licenses and expiring retail licenses. For XenDesktop, expiring retail licenses are referred to as annual licenses because they are valid for a period of one year (see the explanation below). Retail License. A perpetual XenDesktop license never expires. These XenDesktop licenses include 12 months of Subscription Advantage membership beginning at the time of purchase, entitling the customer to all XenDesktop software updates within the eligibility period. After 12 months the subscription needs to be renewed and an upgrade license must be allocated and placed on the license server in addition to the original license file. The original license file must not be deleted. Annual License. This license is valid for 12 months after which the license will expire. Note that during this annual license period, customers are entitled to all XenDesktop software updates. When the annual license expires, the following components will cease to function: Virtual Desktop Delivery Controller Virtual Desktop Provisioning (powered by Provisioning Server for Desktops) Integrated App Delivery Virtual Desktop Performance Monitoring (powered by EdgeSight for Endpoints) EasyCall Secure Remote Access (powered by Access Gateway) The Virtual Desktop Support (powered by GoToAssist)

The remaining components may continue to function, but the customer must cease all use of components as per the XenDesktop EULA. Customers who opt for the XenDesktop annual license must purchase a new annual license before the expiration date to extend the validity of the product.

License Retrieval
Customers that have purchased any of the XenDesktop editions must visit the Citrix Activation System on My Citrix at: www.citrix.com to allocate and generate license files components that use the standard Citrix Licensing infrastructure (the six mentioned above). The activation process for the remaining three components that do not use the standard license server model is described below: Citrix XenServer. The licenses for the Virtual Machine Infrastructure component are currently issued electronically via e-mail. These license entitlements require download via a certified mail site. Licenses are subsequently installed on the physical server(s) that will be used to host the virtual desktops and/or other XenDesktop workloads. Citrix WANScaler. The WAN Optimization capability does not require activation but does require the purchase of a hardware appliance. Licenses are preloaded and delivered with the hardware appliance. GoToAssist. The Virtual Desktop Support account creation is managed by the Citrix Online division.

Upgrades
The customer may choose to purchase an upgrade from an existing XenDesktop edition license in the following instances: Upgrading To Upgrading From Standard Express Standard Advanced Enterprise Advanced Enterprise Platinum

Upon completion of the upgrade transaction, a new license is available on My Citrix for the XenDesktop components that use the Citrix Licensing infrastructure. The original license file for the lesser edition should be discarded when the new upgraded license file is installed.

Microsoft Licensing
Terminal Services Client Access Licenses (TSCAL). These are only required for use with the integrated application delivery feature of XenDesktop for hosted applications. This feature is available with XenDesktop Enterprise and Platinum. TSCALs are not required for XenDesktop Standard and Advanced. Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktop (VECD). Microsoft offers Windows VECD that provides all the license rights to run a Windows desktop operating system in a virtual machine on server hardware. For more information regarding Microsoft licensing for virtual desktops, please refer to http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization/solutionproduct-vdi.mspx.

Citrix XenDesktop Components

Provisioning Server for Desktops
The XenDesktop license provides operating system streaming for the following scenarios for a given XenDesktop user: 1. A virtual desktop in the data center (hosted virtual desktop) Fort this use case, Provisioning Server for Desktops may also be used to deliver an operating system to a Desktop Appliance, Thin Client, or repurposed PC for the purpose of access to the virtual desktop that resides in the data center 2. A physical endpoint for local execution Please note that Provisioning Server may be used only for streaming client operating systems in the above scenarios.

XenServer
The XenServer Virtual Machine infrastructure provided by XenDesktop is to be used solely for the purpose of virtualizing desktop operating systems and other components of XenDesktop provided by Citrix, such as the Desktop Delivery Controller, Provisioning Server, license server, Web Interface server and the XenApp for Virtual Desktops included with XenDesktop Enterprise and Platinum editions. Separately purchased XenApp and all other workloads may not be virtualized using the XenServer licenses included with XenDesktop. Thereby, there is no built-in license limit for the number of XenServer hosts that may be required to host all virtual desktops of a XenDesktop farm. This ensures that required resources to run virtual desktops are not limited by a specific number of XenServer hosts.

XenApp
The delivery of applications (hosted / streamed) with XenApp included in XenDesktop Enterprise and Platinum is limited to XenDesktop delivered desktops only. However, applications from existing XenApp servers can be leveraged for XenDesktop delivered desktops. XenApp may be used to deliver applications directly to endpoints only in the scenario described in section 2 of Provisioning Server for Desktops, i.e. when Provisioning Server for Desktops is used to stream the operating system to the endpoint for local execution. XenApp may not otherwise be used to deliver applications to endpoints.

Profile Management
Profile Management will be available via Subscription Advantage eligibility date for: XenDesktop 3.0 Advanced, Enterprise or Platinum (~ 2/16/09) XenApp 5.0 Feature Pack Enterprise or Platinum (~ 3/09/09).

Any customer whose Subscription Advantage is valid on this date and has a qualifying edition level will be entitled to download and use Profile Management. Downgrade rights are provided to these customers using Profile Management on previous versions back to: XenDesktop 2.1 Advanced, Enterprise, or Platinum XenApp 4.5 Enterprise or Platinum

License enforcement is done through the End User License Agreement (EULA). There is no feature specific license file. Customers have the ability to manage usage using Active Directory domain groups. By assigning Portable Profile users to an Active Directory group, any user not in that group will be ignored and the normal Windows profile will be applied to that user. Normal means whatever profile the admin has assigned that user within Active Directory and/or Windows.

Access Gateway
All editions of Access Gateway will work with XenDesktop Standard, Advanced, and Enterprise Editions. Existing Access Gateway implementations can be added with the Access Gateway licenses shipped with XenDesktop since Access Gateway Standard is capable of managing multiple license files. Smart Access is only available for customers that purchase Access Gateway Advanced licenses and deploy these instead of the Access Gateway licenses that are part of XenDesktop. Please note that not all SmartAccess features available in XenApp are available in XenDesktop.

Technical Insights
XenDesktop Components using Citrix License Server
The following table describes licensing related events and the associated result that can occur under a specific scenario. This can help planning the implementation of a Citrix License server in regards of its availability and threshold configuration for reporting. XenDesktop Components using the Citrix License Server Event Result General: No user connections allowed License Server not installed Provisioning Server: 5 minute shutdown warning message Grace Period 720 hours (30 days) General: No further user connections can be provided Running sessions will not be impacted License Count Exceeded Provisioning Server: 5 minute shutdown warning message for all new started target devices General: 720 hours (30 days) Connections will be provided during grace period Running sessions will not be impacted Connection Loss to License Server Provisioning Server: Active target devices will keep working unless they get rebooted Target devices being rebooted or started will go to grace period without getting 5 minute shutdown warning message

XenDesktop Components with Individual Licensing

XenDesktop Components with Individual Licensing Component Profile Management License not available Not applicable EULA enforced Express edition features only XenServer Not applicable (license is embedded into appliance) Not applicable License Expired Not applicable EULA enforced Running virtual machines will continue to run as long as host is not rebooted or disrupted New virtual machines cannot be started Does not expire No service available

WANScaler GoToAssist

TCP Ports
The Citrix License Server uses default TCP ports for communication with XenDesktop components in order to provide licenses. These should be considered as part of the XenDesktop implementation for Firewall and Security. Component License Server Vendor Daemon TCP Port 27000 7279

References
Citrix XenDesktop Licensing Explained (http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx117586) Getting Started with Citrix Licensing (http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/licensing/lic-library-nodewrapper.html) Provisioning Server Licensing and Grace Period Overview (http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx117793) Provisioning Server and Citrix License Server Interaction FAQ (http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx116776) XenServer 4.1 and 5.0 Licensing Overview (http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx116776) Citrix User Profile Manager 2.0 Licensing FAQ (http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX119747)

Notice The information in this publication is subject to change without notice. THIS PUBLICATION IS PROVIDED AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NONINFRINGEMENT. CITRIX SYSTEMS, INC. (CITRIX), SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR TECHNICAL OR EDITORIAL ERRORS OR OMISSIONS CONTAINED HEREIN, NOR FOR DIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR ANY OTHER DAMAGES RESULTING FROM THE FURNISHING, PERFORMANCE, OR USE OF THIS PUBLICATION, EVEN IF CITRIX HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES IN ADVANCE. This publication contains information protected by copyright. Except for internal distribution, no part of this publication may be photocopied or reproduced in any form without prior written consent from Citrix. The exclusive warranty for Citrix products, if any, is stated in the product documentation accompanying such products. Citrix does not warrant products other than its own. Product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright 2009 Citrix Systems, Inc., 851 West Cypress Creek Road, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 33309-2009 U.S.A. All rights reserved.

Version History
Author(s) Tarkan Koolu Version 1.0 Change Log Initial documentation Date February 10, 2009

851 West Cypress Creek Road

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309

954-267-3000

http://www.citrix.com

Copyright 2009 Citrix Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Citrix, the Citrix logo, Citrix ICA, Citrix MetaFrame, and other Citrix product names are trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. All other product names, company names, marks, logos, and symbols are trademarks of their respective owners.