Get started with License Usage Insights

Supported Citrix products

The License Usage Insights service provides usage information for the following Citrix products:

• Virtual Apps and Desktops (on-premises) product usage
• Citrix DaaS Premium (formerly Virtual Apps Premium and Virtual Apps and Desktops Premium services)
• Citrix DaaS Standard for Azure (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Standard for Azure)
• Citrix ADC VPX allocations

Requirements

To capture license and usage information for Citrix on-premises products, Citrix License Server 11.16.3.0 or later is required. Only Windows-based and VPX-based license servers are supported.

Citrix License Server 11.16.3.0 and later contains key features that are important for Citrix Service Provider (CSP) partners:

• Optimized usage collection: License Server contains new functionality that optimizes licensing behavior and tracking to better support CSPs.
• Call home: License Server includes Call Home features that automate product usage collection for CSP partners. These features are exclusive to CSP partners and will only be activated when a CSP license is detected on the license server.

Step 1: Update Citrix License Server

If you’re running license servers older than Version 11.16.3.0, you must upgrade your license servers before using License Usage Insights. Upgrading in-place is simple and fast. Complete the following tasks:

1. Download the latest license server. For more information about the latest version of Citrix License Server, refer to the Citrix Licensing documentation.
2. Upgrade your current license server.
3. Repeat the upgrade process for each of your license servers.

Step 2: Sign in to Citrix Cloud with My Citrix credentials

Before signing in, you’ll need to sign up for a Citrix Cloud account. Follow the steps described in Sign up for Citrix Cloud.

When creating your account, use the same My Citrix credentials that you use to allocate and download Citrix licenses from citrix.com. Citrix Cloud sends you an email at the address associated with your My Citrix credentials to confirm the account.

When your Citrix Cloud account is ready to use, sign in at https://citrix.cloud.com using your email address and password.

Step 3 (optional): Anonymize usernames through the license server

By default, usernames associated with Virtual Apps and Desktops or Citrix DaaS license checkouts are securely phoned home to Citrix.

Usernames are phoned home so CSP partners can take full advantage of License Usage Insights features and the CSP licensing program which supports free users for trial, test, and administrative product use.

User information is limited to a single user@domain entry; no additional personal identifiable data is phoned home. Citrix does not share this information.

Partners sensitive to uploading username information can enable username anonymization. When active, username anonymization converts readable usernames into unique strings using a secure and irreversible algorithm prior to upload.

License Usage Insights uses these unique identifiers to track product usage instead of the actual usernames. This approach allows service providers to take advantage of month-to-month insights without visibility into the actual usernames in the cloud service user interface.

To configure username anonymization

1. On the license server, open the configuration file in a text editor. Typically, the configuration file is located at C:\Program Files\Citrix\Licensing\WebServicesForLicensing\SimpleLicenseServiceConfig.xml.

2. In the Configurations section, add the UsageBasedBillingScramble setting as follows:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <Configurations>
   <EncoreConfiguration>
   <SamplingPeriod>15</SamplingPeriod>
   <RetentionTime>180</RetentionTime>
   <Enabled>true</Enabled>
   </EncoreConfiguration>
   <SARenewalConfigOptions>Notify</SARenewalConfigOptions>
   <UsageBasedBillingScramble>1</UsageBasedBillingScramble>
   </Configurations>
   <!--NeedCopy-->