When we want to set up or deploy NetScaler, we need a license in place in order to access the features we want to use. An important point to note here is that three types of licenses are available for NetScaler:
Platform license: This license is used for NetScaler to enable its different features, such as load balancing, content switching, and so on. It also defines the bandwidth.
Universal license: This license is used for NetScaler Gateway features such as SSL VPN, CVPN, SmartAccess, and Endpoint analysis.
Feature license: This license is used for features such as clustering, caching, compression, and so on. The specific features that can be bought as add-ons to an existing platform can be found in the datasheet.
Note
If you do not have access to a regular license, you can download a trial version of the latest NetScaler VPX Platinum edition from Citrix, available at http://www.citrix.com/products/netscaler-application-delivery-controller/try.html.
If you want to download a platform license for NetScaler from https://www.citrix.com/, you need to enter the MAC address of the first NIC on your appliance in the Host ID field on the website.
Note
If you are deploying a NetScaler Gateway VPX, and you want to download a platform license for it or generate universal licenses, both of these should be created with the hostname of the appliance instead of the MAC address. These licenses can be generated from the same website.
The MAC address can be found either via the CLI of the appliance or by using a hypervisor. We will look at CLI in detail in this chapter. To get hardware information from the CLI of the appliance, we have to first log in to the NetScaler System CLI, and then switch to the FreeBSD shell by typing shell and running the following command:
lmutil lmhostid
When using a hypervisor, such as the virtual machine manager PowerShell, run the following command:
Get-VM | Where { $_Name -match "VM" } | Get-SCNetworkAdapter | Select MACAddress
If you are using VMware and have PowerCLI available, you can use a similar command as follows to get the same result:
Get-NetworkAdapter -VM NameofVM
This will give you the host ID/MAC address of the appliance, which needs to be entered on https://www.citrix.com/ to generate a platform license. We will cover installing the license a little later.