ICA Session launches may fail with reason "Licensing" in Citrix Director after the controller has entered an emergency license caching mode but it still within grace period.
Article ID: CTX696464
Updated On:
Description
ICA Session launches may fail with reason "Licensing" in Citrix Director after the controller has entered an emergency license caching mode but is still within grace period.
Event ID 1163 from Citrix Broker Service reporting "No connection license available" , indicating launch failures is reported in the DDC application event logs.
Follow the below steps to identify if you are hitting this known issue.
1. Log into Citrix Director and view trends for connection failures. If you see the Failure Type as "No License Available" and Failure reason "Licensing"
| Associated User | Failure Type | Failure Reason | Failure Time | Launch Time | Endpoint IP | Receiver Version | Machine Name | VDA Version | Delivery Group |
| xxx | No License Available | Licensing | 4/2/2026 6:42 | 4/2/2026 6:41 | 10.6.1.176 | n/a | yyy | xxxx | zzz |
2. Check the Application event logs on the Delivery controller and filter the event ID's 1154,503,504,1163,1156 with Event Sources Citrix Broker Service, Citrix High Availability Service, Citrix ConfigSync Service as shown below. If a Citrix Site has multiple DD's then the event sequence may be seen on one or more DDC's that exposed this behaviour with its interaction with its Citrix High Availability Service.
3. Check if the events are logged in below sequence.
Note:
During this process, Event IDs 503 and 504 from the Config Sync Service may or may not be observed.
The Config Sync Service can increase the likelihood of the issue occurring; however, the Citrix High Availability Service may independently detect the end of the grace period before the Citrix Broker Service. This timing difference can result in a race condition.
The key here is that Citrix High Availability Service reports that the controller is no longer in an emergency license caching mode with event ID 1156 before Citrix broker service reports the same with event ID 1156.
1. Event ID 1154 from Citrix Broker Service indicating the controller has entered an emergency license caching mode
2. Event ID 1154 from Citrix High Availability Service indicating the controller has entered an emergency license caching mode
3. Event ID 503,504 from Citrix ConfigSync Service for receiving and importing the updated configuration
4. Event ID 1156 from Citrix High Availability Service reporting "The Citrix Broker Service is successfully communicating with the license server 'xxx'. This controller is no longer in an emergency license caching mode."
5. Event ID 1163 from Citrix Broker Service reporting "No connection license available" , indicating launch failures.
6. Event ID 1156 from Citrix Broker Service reporting "The Citrix Broker Service is successfully communicating with the license server 'xxx'. This controller is no longer in an emergency license caching mode."
Here is the detailed event Log output for each of the event ID's listed above:
Log Name: Application
Source: Citrix Broker Service
Date: 02-04-2026 06:43:44
Event ID: 1154
Task Category: None
Level: Warning
Keywords:
User: NETWORK SERVICE
Computer: yyy
Description:
This controller has entered an emergency license caching mode because it could not contact the license server 'xxx'.
You have 716 hour(s) remaining before this controller stops providing desktop and application sessions.
Log Name: Application
Source: Citrix High Availability Service
Date: 02-04-2026 06:43:49
Event ID: 1154
Task Category: None
Level: Warning
Keywords:
User: NETWORK SERVICE
Computer: yyy
Description:
This controller has entered an emergency license caching mode because it could not contact the license server 'xxx'.
You have 720 hour(s) remaining before this controller stops providing desktop and application sessions.
Log Name: Application
Source: Citrix ConfigSync Service
Date: 02-04-2026 06:49:08
Event ID: 503
Task Category: None
Level: Information
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: yyy
Description:
The Citrix Config Sync Service received an updated configuration.
Log Name: Application
Source: Citrix ConfigSync Service
Date: 02-04-2026 06:50:44
Event ID: 504
Task Category: None
Level: Information
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: yyy
Description:
The Citrix Config Sync Service imported an updated configuration.
Log Name: Application
Source: Citrix High Availability Service
Date: 02-04-2026 06:50:51
Event ID: 1156
Task Category: None
Level: Information
Keywords:
User: NETWORK SERVICE
Computer: yyy
Description:
The Citrix Broker Service is successfully communicating with the license server 'xxx'. This controller is no longer in an emergency license caching mode.
Log Name: Application
Source: Citrix Broker Service
Date: 02-04-2026 06:51:16
Event ID: 1163
Task Category: None
Level: Warning
Keywords:
User: NETWORK SERVICE
Computer: yyy
Description:
No connection license available. To resolve, free licenses by closing sessions that are not needed, or add more licenses.
Details:
License Server Address: 'xxx'
License Server Port: '27000'
Site License Model: 'Concurrent'
Site Edition: 'PLT'
ProductID: 'XDT'
User:zzz
Client ID: 'FF01753A'
Session Support: 'MultiSession'
Log Name: Application
Source: Citrix Broker Service
Date: 02-04-2026 06:58:34
Event ID: 1156
Task Category: None
Level: Information
Keywords:
User: NETWORK SERVICE
Computer: yyy
Description:
The Citrix Broker Service is successfully communicating with the license server 'xxx'. This controller is no longer in an emergency license caching mode.
Cause
Issue identified in the product.
Resolution
Refer to the below links to access the Hotfixes for different LAS compatible Delivery Controller versions:
Note: If the DLL's are blocked, follow the below steps to unblock them:
- Validate download source of the hotfix package
- Validate the checksums (like SHA-256 hashes), compare them with the SHA-256 hashes listed in individual articles listed below.
- Check digital signatures in properties (on Windows: Properties → Digital Signatures tab).
- Unblock the files only if you trust then, then proceed with the copy/install steps, mentioned in the below articles.
Workaround:
The below workaround can be followed if you are unable to implement the Hotfix for any reason on the delivery controllers.
Note:
- This workaround should be applied only after the issue occurs. It ensures that sessions launch successfully when the controller enters emergency license caching mode; however, a side effect is that Local Host Cache (LHC) will be disabled.
- Once connectivity is restored and the primary Broker is confirmed to be out of the grace period (for example, by verifying Event ID 1156 in the Citrix Broker Service logs), you can restart the Citrix Config Sync Service and the Citrix High Availability Service to restore LHC functionality. However, If the controller enters emergency license caching mode again, these steps will need to be repeated.
Follow the below steps on one of the Delivery Controller:
Step 1: Stop these services:
Citrix ConfigSync Service
Citrix High Availability Service
Citrix Broker Service
In powershell, run:
Stop-Service CitrixConfigSyncService
Stop-Service CitrixHighAvailabilityService
Stop-Service CitrixBrokerService
Step 2: Start Citrix Broker Service In powershell, run: Start-Service CitrixBrokerService
Step 3: Wait 5-10min. Run powershell to check connection: Test-BrokerLicenseServer -ComputerName <license server address> -Port 8083 –CheckLasPE $true
If the result is Compatible, it means the connection to LAS is ok. If the result is NotCompatible/Inaccessible/InternalError, it means the connection to LAS is down.
Step 4: In event log, confirm Citrix Broker Service reports 1154 event again:
Note: The hotfixes in this article are replaced and superseded by the hotfixes listed in CTX696515
Issue/Introduction
ICA Session launches may fail with reason "Licensing" in Citrix Director after the controller has entered an emergency license caching mode but is still within grace period.
Event ID 1163 from Citrix Broker Service reporting "No connection license available" , indicating launch failures is reported in the DDC application event logs.
This impacts Sites Migrated to LAS.
This issue can impact different CVAD versions supporting LAS, listed in https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/licensing/licensing-guide-for-citrix-virtual-apps-desktops.html
Additional Information
1. If the event log sequence matches the sequence listed above collect the below logs:
- Collect System and Application Event logs in .evtx format from all the controllers in the site.
- Confirm the time of launch failures due to Licensing by fetching Historical Connection Failures report from Citrix Director.
2. If the event log sequence does not match but launch failures are still seen during emergency license caching mode then collect the below logs:
- System and Application logs in .evtx format from all the Delivery controllers in the site.
- CDF logs from DDC and VDA. If CDF logs are not available, collect Scout that captures AOT logs.
- Support bundle for LAS: To generate and download a support bundle, go to the Citrix Licensing Manager > Settings > Server Configuration > Support Bundle. Click Generate and Download to download the bundle (.zip file).
- Confirm the time of launch failures due to Licensing by fetching Historical Connection Failures report from Citrix Director.
