NetScaler Freemium

Good morning

I have had a few people ask me about test licenses for NetScaler. It usually starts with. something like this:

Andrew, I urgently need (multiple) evaluation licenses to test xyz with NetScaler!

Now I can go back and say:

Javier, its not a problem as an ‘unlicensed’ appliance can be used for testing now.

Okay, so how do I get that?

Assumptions

• This really applies to VPX more than anything. Having a 20meg limit on a MPX16000 (a 250Gbps chassis) would be a bit weird…Although for testing, you can do a lot with a VPX.
• I did the following process with a 14.1 & 13.1 build.

Process

Step 1: Download an appliance from the download site.

In this case, I am spinning up the latest 14.1-34.xx VPX build & a 13.1-56.18 on a hypervisor under my desk. This is sometimes called the ‘London’ data centre.

Step 2: Assign some resources and spin it up.

You will need a management address and mask, plus a gateway.

Step 3: Just wait while it comes up and then login to the GUI

You will see this:

Opening up the licensing module it will show all the features that you get

In this case the model ID is ‘20’, so there is a 20meg throughput limit on this appliance. I appreciate that isn’t a lot of capacity, but is pretty good for testing.

You can test all the features that are enabled! Things like GSLB, AppFirewall and SSL interception..etc.

I use 13.1, does this work for that too?

Yes, the 13.1-56.18 fixes this to allow Freemium on this build too. Thanks to Daniel Marsh for highlighting this.

The crosses mean that features are not enabled.

What if I put a license file in?

You don’t need a license at all, honest. Here is the license folder on my free 14.1 NetScaler.

Unless, of course you need more capacity/throughput.

What about cloud?

The behaviour is the same with the BYOL in public cloud too.

I love this NetScaler thing! I want to go LIVE with it.

Do you want to release the shackles of a 20meg limit? Obviously, some money will need to change hands….

You can take the ‘test’ NetScaler with its freemium license and have it become a licensed appliance and there will not need to be any sort of rebuild process. There will be a reboot, for the license service to see what you bought. There are two options:

1. Buy a fixed term license, add that local file to the appliance and reboot. There are only three options now a VPX1000 advanced which has 1000meg of throughput. The other model is the VPX5000 Premium which has, yes you guessed it 5000meg of throughput. There is also a VPX 5000 Premium FIPS for customer(s) that need that certification.
2. Install a copy of NetScaler Console and have that host your Universal Hybrid Muti-cloud capacity or Citrix Platform capacity. I wrote about how to set that up, see the comments for the link.

Summary

I hope that helps…