Symptoms
A specific product server is failing to limit the maximum number of licenses that it can allocate; even though the "MAX" parameter has been set in the CITRIX.opt file for that server.
Cause
The correct syntax parameter for the "MAX" value has not been set in the CITRIX.opt file.
Resolution
Verify that the CITRIX.opt file has the following parameter set format.
Example 1 below is correct as it shows "5" as the maximum number of licenses that the specified server can allocate at a given time. The server name is listed at the end of the parameter value. This name should be identical to what is displayed from the command line HOSTNAME. Example 2 shows a complete example of the CITRIX.opt file.
Example 1
MAX 5 MPS_ENT_CCU HOST mps_server1
Example 2
* NOLOG IN
* NOLOG OUT
GROUPCASEINSENSITIVE ON
MAX 1 MPS_ENT_CCU HOST ftlrcmcmillan02
If your Citrix license server contains single or multiple license files with different Subscription Advantage dates, you must specify each MAX statement to apply to each license pool with a specific Subscription Advantage date.
That is, if your license file(s) contains the following different Subscription Advantage dates for the same presentation connection license as shown below:
INCREMENT MPS_ENT_CCU CITRIX 2004.0501 permanent 35
INCREMENT MPS_ENT_CCU CITRIX 2006.0701 permanent 120
You can specify using the date shown in Example 3 below:
Example 3
MAX 35 MPS_ENT_CCU:VERSION=2004.0501 HOST ftlrcmcmillan02
MAX 0 MPS_ENT_CCU:VERSION=2006.0701 HOST ftlrcmcmillan02
So in Example 3, the ftlrcmcmillian02 server is allowed to check out a maximum of 35 licenses from the license pool with a Subscription Advantage date of 2004.0501. It is not allowed to check out any license from the license pool with a Subscription Advantage date of 2006.0701
In addition, if specifying using hostname (that is, ftlrcmcmillan02) does not work, you can try using the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) name of the server (that is, ftlrcmcmillan02.local.lan).
More Information
The "MAX" parameter does not guarantee that a license will be available. Instead, it prevents a product server from consuming more than a specified number of licenses. It sets a limit on how many licenses can be consumed by a particular host.
If you would like to guarantee a minimum number of licenses available for a particular product server, you can use "RESERVE" instead of "MAX." But use “RESERVE” with caution because if you reserve too many licenses for one host, there may not be enough licenses left for other servers to check out.
See Presentation Server Licenses May Be Prematurely Depleted When Using the Citrix Options File (citrix.opt) to Reserve Licenses for more information on using the "RESERVE" statement.
