Please note: This tool isn’t available anymore
Background
Since the new licensing model for Citrix XenDesktop, which is based on named users and devices, I have customers asking questions like :
- We are running out of licenses but how do we know which users or devices claimed them?
- We have a tight budget and don’t want to buy any more licenses then strictly necessary, how can we get better control and insight in the current usage?
- What is the balance between User licenses and Device licenses?
- We created some temporary accounts for testing purposes, how can we release them?
UDadmin commandline tool
Citrix provides a command line tool named UDadmin to control the license usage, it’s part of the Citrix Licensing server software and installed by default. You can find it in the LS directory of your license server installation directory. With this tool you can view and reclaim licenses, but it’s not really user friendly mainly because it runs in a cmd box and it requires the right parameters. To provide something easier to this customers I created a GUI around UDadmin :
UDadmin GUI
UDadmin GUI is a lightweight .NET application that visualizes the output of UDadmin, and provides an easy way to release single- or multiple licenses at once, just select them and hit release. I also added some additional features like exporting the current usage to PDF for reporting purposes. When you launch UDadmin GUI it determines the licensed feature for you, no configuration is required at all. Below is a screenshot of UDadmin GUI in action :
The XenDesktop named license usage is updated every 15 minutes, in UDadmin GUI you can see when the next update schedule occurs (in blue). So after releasing licenses the changes are reflected when the next update schedule runs. If you don’t want to wait that long there is also an option in UDadmin GUI to restart the Citrix Licensing service to reflect the updated usage directly afterwards :
Prerequisites
There are only 2 prerequisites
- Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5
- Citrix License Server installed (UDadmin GUI is tested with version 11.10 and 11.11, but every edition which supports the new licensing model should work)
In other words, you need to run UDadmin GUI on the same machine as where Citrix License Server is running, this is because Citrix doesn’t support running UDadmin remotely. UDadmin GUI works with XenDesktop Enterprise and Platinum edition, support for App edition will be included in a future version (very soon!).
Just like the UDadmin command line tool, UDadmin GUI needs administrative privileges to run properly. But don’t worry UDadmin GUI is UAC aware and will prompt you when necessary.
Availability
UDadmin GUI isn’t available and supported anymore at the moment. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Version history
= 1.0 =
– Initial version
= 1.1 =
– Multiple fixes and enhancements
= 1.2 =
– Added an option to restart the Citrix licensing service and refresh usage afterwards
= 1.3 =
– Added export to PDF functionality
= 1.4 =
– Changed the window layout so UDadmin GUI also looks good on lower screen resolutions
– Added support for multiple license files and SA dates
– Added support for mixed XenDesktop Editions (both Enterprise and Platinum on same license server), if UDadmin GUI detects multiple editions a Combobox is visible to switch between editions :
= 1.5 =
– Added support for XenDesktop VDI Edition
– Fixed an issue with releasing user\device licenses which contains whitespaces
= 1.6=
– Added support for XenApp Advanced Edition (named licensing model)
– This version can only release one license at a time to be compliant with Citrix licensing terms
– This version is portable, just place and run the executable on your Citrix license server
BramWolfs.com 
Hi, nice work. However I’m having 2 issues: 1) I have a mixture of Platinum & Enterprise licenses. The GUI only shows my Enterprise licenses. 2) The GUI window is wider than my screen and will not allow resizing. My current screen resolution is 1024×768.
Hi Chris,
Mixing license types came across my mind when building UDadmin GUI, but I thought it would be so rare that it wasn’t needed to deal with it.
I will send you an e-mail so we can collaborate further, also on the low resolution issue.
Bram
Great work, thank you!
Reblogged this on Robert Skinner and commented:
This is a nice little tool.
Great work. Well done!
Thank you! Appreciate your work!
Great Job Bram!!
Bram –
Nice tool. Our “Devices” column has 8 hex characters which I’ve found to be the HardwareID from Powershell’s Get-BrokerSession. Any chance of adding the ClientName parenthetically next to the device value to add meaning to them?
Hi Steve,
The devices listed are the clientnames reported against the license server by the XenDesktop controller, if there is something wrong in this process (can be duplicate names for example) then the device ID is shown instead of the devicename. I also see this sometimes, but just a few and not all devices.
Maybe try and delete them and see if they come back with the right name, also check to see what the devicename should be and look if there are any duplicate names or something like that.
UDadmin GUI pulls the devices list from the license server and if the license is associated with a device ID instead of device name it shows the ID, unfortunately this isn’t something I can change or track back.
Also check your license server version and build, because there where bugs related to device ID shown instead of device name, especially when the Citrix licensing service was restarted. (Fixed Issues in Build 11011)
If all your devices are shown as device ID’s instead of names it’s likely related to this bug.
Bram
Wow Bram, great job on the UDadmin GUI!
excellent. this is really gr8 tool
Hey Bram,
Brilliant post about UDadmin GUI.Your way of writing is awesome.Keep it up.
awesome tool. now can see what’s happening.
Bram, could the export current usage to pdf be extended as follows please:
Maybe from the File Menu, add 2 more menu’s:
Export Users
Export Devices
The menu’s to action the following;
1) Export users to say: users.txt file
2) Export Devices [to say] devices.txt
I am wanting to setup scripts to bulk revoke user licenses and device licenses on a weekly basis, and getting a clean lis tof users and devices are nightmare. You tool is almost there in resolving my issues.
However to automate the users and devices list would be next challenge.
Cheers
Mr Rosh
Hi Mr Rosh,
Thanks for the feedback, regarding your question : I created UDadmin GUI for more granular control and getting better visibility of the user\device license usage, automating removal of licenses is out of the scope of UDadmin GUI, but I will consider building it into UDadmin GUI if it becomes a more requested feature.
Bram
Great Job! Nice Tool!
Bram,
Any chance to just get the following;
1) Export users to say: users.txt file
2) Export Devices [to say] devices.txt
the pdf is helpful, but txt files would be nice, please advise
Hi Bram, and chance to have the reports saved as text files, pdf
Hi Mr Rosh,
I will send you an e-mail so we can discuss your use case further.
Bram
thanks bram, I look forward to your reply!
Hello Bram,
thts very good und helpfull in our Farm.
Thx !!!
I get the following error when trying to run:
——————————————-
UDadmin encountered an error and cannot continue
Please check the following :
– Is the Citrix license server software installed?
– Is the Citrix licensing service running?
– Do you have XenDesktop Enterprise or Platinum licenses installed?
Finally check if UDadmin.exe exists in de Citrix licensing LS folder and you have enough permissions to access it.
Try again after you checked the above, or else leave a message on :
http://www.bramwolfs.com
——————————————-
I have checked everything and all is installed and running normally. I am using XenDesktop Platinum licencing. License server 11.10.0 build 12012
Any ideas?
Hi Neil,
What does the error message say? (beneath the text and above the close button)
It should give an indication what goes wrong.
Bram
Hi Bram
the error message says: “Cannot determine licenced feature(s) or licence server not operational.”
Thanks
Neal.
Hi Neal,
It looks like UDadmin GUI cannot determine which license you use.
I will send you an e-mail so we can troubleshoot further.
Bram
I was directed to your utility and am having the same issue as Bram. We have both advanced and enterprise licenses.
Hi Dan,
There is no advanced named license, so I may think you use concurrent license model.
See comments above, the tool leverages UDadmin from Citrix which is only designed for the named license model.
Please check your license type.
Bram
Hey Bram,
I have the same issue as Neal. I had it working prior to upgrading my license server. Any ideas? This is great tool and I would love to continue using it.
11.11.1 build 13012
Hi Rajen,
This version is validated and tested to work with UDadmin GUI, so it should work.
Neil’s issue was that he is running concurrent license type and UDadmin GUI is written for the user\device license type.
But if it worked before upgrading the license server I don’t think this is the case with your issue, so I think there went something wrong in the upgrade process.
I will send you an e-mail so we can take some troubleshooting steps, thanks for your feedback.
Bram
This worked beautifully. Thanks so much.
Hey Bram,
Thank you for taking the time working with me. We ended up building a dedicated license server to manage all licenses and UDAdmin GUI tool works beautifully.
I was wondering if there was a way to get a timestamp when a license is checked out or last used by a user.
Great work! Incredibly useful. Works great with XenDeskop 7.
Works perfect, thank you very much! XenDesktop 7.1 approved 😉
Thanks for creating such a great tool.
Pingback: Citrix XenApp or XenDesktop: A decision tree » Ingmar Verheij - The dutch IT guy
Awesome tool, thanks
Unfortunately VDI-Edition licenses are not supported. Am I right?
Correct, only Enterprise and Platinum at the moment.
Are you using XenDesktop VDI User\Device license model? Then it would be easy to add support to UDadmin GUI, can I send you an e-mail so you can look something up for me on the license server?
Hi, yes, we are using VDI U/D licenses. No problem, surely you can send me an e-mail. Thanks in advance! 🙂
Hi Bram,
nice tool – great work!
When do you plan to add XenApp-Licenses?
Hi Marco,
Thanks, XenApp licenses are already supported by UDadmin GUI as long as you use the User\Device license model (included in XenDesktop Enterprise and above).
Remember that XenApp user\device licenses aren’t sold separately from XenDesktop (XenApp is only sold separately with the concurrent license model).
Bram
Hi Bram,
you´re right, we´re using XenApp CCU licenses here.
Is it ok for you if I link to your tool in my blog?
Of course Marco, thanks.
Pingback: Tool: XenDesktop-Lizenzen übersichtlich verwalten | marcozimmermann.com
Wow that was unusual. I just wrote an really long comment but
after I clicked submit my comment didn’t appear.
Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Anyway, just
wanted to say superb blog!
Thank you for the GUI. Hugh improvement over the cmd line stuff.
Frank
hey man! this a great tool! but i have the same trouble:
“Cannot determine licenced feature(s) or licence server not operational.”
i have in my LS Platinum licenses, but dont work…
thanks in advance!
Hi Seba,
Thanks and sorry for the delayed reply, are you sure you are using named licenses and not concurrent?
Bram
Hi. is the download link broken?
Hi Dave,
It’s working here, maybe try another pc\connection.
Bram
get the following error when trying to run:
——————————————-
UDadmin encountered an error and cannot continue
Please check the following :
– Is the Citrix license server software installed?
– Is the Citrix licensing service running?
– Do you have XenDesktop Enterprise or Platinum licenses installed?
Finally check if UDadmin.exe exists in de Citrix licensing LS folder and you have enough permissions to access it.
Try again after you checked the above, or else leave a message on :
http://www.bramwolfs.com
Checked everything – all good from my end.
11.10.0 build 12012 and Use Citrix XD 56 Enterprise version
Error: Cannot determine licensed feature(s) or license server not operational.
Any ideas?
Hello Gopi,
Do you use the named license model of XenDesktop Enterprise?
Hi Bram,
Thanks fir getting back.
No we don’t use named license model. We use concurrent model.
Hi Bram,
Any ideas? As to why I am not able to launch UDADmin GUI?
Thanks and Regards
Hi Gopi,
UDadmin GUI is designed for the named license model (UD stands for User\Device), so it will only work with user and device licenses.
Bram
Thanks thanks thanks !!!! Great work !
Hello Bram
It works fine. Great work!
Thanks
Bram
Thanks for the great tool. Comes in extremely handy for our customers!
Pingback: UDadmin GUI a free tool to manage XenDesktop UserDevice Licenses | The Citrix Guru
Hi bram,
im getting this error message… and im using User/device enterprise license
UDadmin encountered an error and cannot continue
Please check the following :
– Is the Citrix license server software installed?
– Is the Citrix licensing service running?
– Do you have XenDesktop Enterprise or Platinum licenses installed?
Finally check if UDadmin.exe exists in de Citrix licensing LS folder and you have enough permissions to access it.
Tool looks great but I have 1 problem:
On the Citrix LAC Dashboard I see the license count (187) and consumed licenses (112 at the moment). In UDadmin I see the correct Installed license (187) count but “In Use”, “Users” and “Devices” all show 0.
Citrix XenApp 6.5
Licensing is Citrix XenApp Platinum/Concurrent
Any ideas? Thank you in advance for your assistance.
Disregard. I just went back through the above messages and I see that the tool does not support Concurrent licensing model. Tool still looks good. Sorry for the trouble.
Pax,
AJ
great tool, absolutely usefull. I’d only like to see a way to install this tool on a none license server, but a management server for example.
Excellent! Great job!
Hi Bram,
Does it work with .net framework 4.5. i know the Prerequisites say .net 3.5 :).
i try to install the tool on our new 2012 server with the .net 4.5 framework feature installed and receive the following error: Microsoft .net framework 3.5 needs to be installed for this installation to continue.
On the old 2k8r2 licence server it was a nice tool to have.
i hope to hear from you.
Hi Tim,
The only thing you have to do is select the .NET 3.5 feature in the role manager (servermanager console).
UDadmin GUI works fine on 2012R2.
Bram
Thnx it works 🙂
Bram,
Thank you for this tool. I was a life saver in releasing thousands of licenses that we needed back in our pool. A task that would have taken days to verify without it.
Bryan
Great to hear Bryan, cheers!
Hello Bram, very nice tool !
But I have found a problem…
Our setup has “XenDesktop Advanced” and “Platinum” U/D Licenses. And apparantly ONLY the PLATINUM are shown, probably because this tool doesn’t know that “XDT_ADV_UD” allso exists…
I know, this is not standaard, but in the Citrix Sevice Provider (CSP) contract you have “base” licenses, and these correspond to “XenDesktop Advanced”.
So an “udadmin -list” in our config shows “XDT_ADV_UD” and “XDT_PLT_UD”.
An you adapt this in a next 1.6-release ? This would be very handy for us.
Many thanks, and don’t hesitate to contact me if you want to talk about this.
Greetings,
Chris Marreel
Hi Chris,
Thanks for the feedback! I will look into this and come back to you.
Bram
Hello Bram,
Did you already had time to look into this ? If needed, please don’t hesitate to contact me, I can always take some time to test the new version.
Greetings,
Chris Marreel
Hi Chris,
It should work now in version 1.6.
Bram
Hello Bram,
I can confirm this works now in the version 1.6.
Many thanks for this handy tool.
Greetings,
Chris
Hi Chris, thanks for the feedback. Cheers!
Hi, I have tested this tool and I want to say to you it’s fantastic. I was very surprise that citrix doesn’t provide a graphical solution to check the licenses attribution, you did this job, many thanks for your tools!!
Pingback: Tool Time: UDadmin GUI – komfortables Lizenzmanagement für XenDesktop - net2net-Blog
Hi Bram,
I get the following error: cannot determine licensed feature(s) or license server not operational.
Confirmed the existing environment is using Citrix XenDesktop Platinum(User/Device). License server version:10.0.0.14008
Any idea?
Thanks.
Hi Fai,
Please check the license type and output with the UDadmin command line. I think this will give you an indication what might be wrong with the license server.
Bram
THANK YOU VERY much Bram for this wonderful tool for FREE! I work in a private company with a tight purse string and this tool will save us a lot of time without having to muck around with the CMD line. Grateful!