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An interesting known issue in the NetScaler documentation that can cause an unpleasant surprise after a successful migration to the License Activation Service (LAS).
The problem:
A NetScaler SDX has been successfully migrated from file-based licensing to LAS.
✅ LAS enabled
✅ Licensing works
✅ VPX instances run normally
But old file-based license files remain on the SDX Service VM (SVM).
When these old license files expire, the SDX may lose its licensing despite a successful LAS migration!
This can also affect the VPX instances running on it.
The workaround:
After a successful LAS migration, check the following directory on the SDX SVM:
/mpsconfig/license
Identify any legacy license files and remove them in accordance with the vendor’s recommendation.
⚠️ First verify the active LAS status and back up the old files.
The tricky part:
The issue may appear weeks or months after migration, when an old license file expires.
During troubleshooting, the first suspects will probably be LAS, network communication or the license server.
Yet the cause is a license file that has long since become obsolete.
Citrix documents the issue under NSADM-128298.
💡 My tip: explicitly include old license files in the final checks for every SDX LAS migration.
