Provisioning Services 5.1 SP1 Licensing and XenApp 5 FP2

Citrix has changed licensing for Provisioning Services with the release of Provisioning Services 5.1 Service Pack 1 and XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2.  The license change comes from the new VM Hosted Applications feature in XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2.  With this change I can see how XenApp Enterprise and Platinum Edition licensed customers can be confused on Provisioning Services licensing and what XenApp workloads they can provision.  In this post I will go over the differences in Provisioning Services licensing for XenApp Enterprise and Platinum Editions.

XenApp Platinum Edition

Earlier this year Citrix included Provisioning Services licensing for XenApp workloads in XenApp Platinum Edition.  To use Provisioning Services with XenApp Platinum Edition a patch had to be installed for Provisioning Services 5.0.  You also had to return and reallocate your Citrix licenses and have current Subscription Advantage.  Provisioning Services 5.1 included this fix so XenApp Platinum Edition workloads could be provisioned out of the box.  With Provisioning Services 5.0 and 5.1, the licenses for XenApp Platinum Edition allow you to provision XenApp workloads without the need for stand alone Provisioning Services Data Center licenses installed on your Citrix license server.

The only change to Provisioning Services 5.1 Service Pack 1 for XenApp Platinum Edition is the ability to use the new XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 VM Hosted Applications feature.  Provisioning Services 5.1 Service Pack 1 includes the ability to provision VM Hosted Applications workloads on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 desktops for seamless one to one applications without the need to have stand alone Provisioning Services Desktop licenses installed on your Citrix license server.

XenApp Enterprise Edition

Citrix has never included Provisioning Services licensing for XenApp workloads in XenApp Enterprise Edition.  To use Provisioning Services with XenApp Enterprise Edition to provision XenApp workloads you need stand alone Provisioning Services Data Center licenses installed on your Citrix license server.  This doesn’t change with Provisioning Services 5.1 Service Pack 1 and XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2.

The only change to Provisioning Sevices 5.1 Service Pack 1 for XenApp Enterprise Edition is the ability to use the new XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 VM Hosted Applications feature.  Provisioning Services 5.1 Service Pack 1 includes the ability to provision VM Hosted Applications workloads on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 desktops for seamless one to one applications without the need to have stand alone Provisioning Services Desktop licenses installed on your Citrix license server.

Provisioning Services 5.1 Service Pack 1 Licensing

XenApp Platinum Edition

• Provision XenApp Workloads
• Provision VM Hosted Applications Workloads – Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 desktops for seamless one to one applications

XenApp Enterprise Edition

• Provision VM Hosted Applications Workloads – Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 desktops for seamless one to one applications

So as you can see XenApp Enterprise Edition licensed customers can get confused on what workloads they can provision with Provisioning Services Service Pack 1 and XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2.

If you have found this article interesting or if you have any other insights, please feel free to leave comments on this article.