Sometimes setting up a NetScaler may seem an impossible. What do you do when you hit a roadblock at an early stage? In this session, Ronan will step through the most common issues you can experience at an early stage of your NetScaler deployment, and how to diagnose them using on-box tools. During this session you will learn: - Troubleshooting basic setup issues - Health Checks - Introducing redundancy and removing single point of failure - Logging – what happened historically

1. May 2013
Ronan O’Brien – EMEA Field Readiness
Citrix Support Secrets
Webinar Series
Common Pitfalls when Setting up a NetScaler for
the First Time

2. © 2012 Citrix | Confidential – Do Not Distribute
BIO
• Rónán O’Brien – EMEA NetScaler Field Readiness
• Working exclusively with NetScaler since 2006
• Training Content & Lab Development
• Training Delivery in Support, Field & Synergy
• Support mentor
• Deliver Monthly webinars in the NetScaler MasterClass
• http://www.citrix.com/events/netscaler-master-class.html
• Set a reminder to sign up each month.

3. © 2012 Citrix | Confidential – Do Not Distribute
Agenda
• Connecting to a NetScaler
• Architecture
• Licensing
• IP Addresses
• USIP (here be dragons!)
• Policy Expressions
• Load Balancing
• Diagnostics
• Popping the hood

4. © 2012 Citrix | Confidential – Do Not Distribute
Connecting to a NetScaler
• Connection options
• NSIP
• SNIP (when configured)
• Console
• LOM
}
Interface
VLAN
Routing
Firmware Upgrades
ACLs
NSIP

5. © 2012 Citrix | Confidential – Do Not Distribute
Traffic Flow Architecture
5
Vserver A
SNIPVIPClient IP Server IP

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Licensing
• License files are for features, or throughput.
• Must end in .lic , and be located in: /nsconfig/license
• Loaded at boot time only for the MPX Platforms.
• ‘Warm’ reboot will load a new license on an MPX – saves
time on a reboot – but connectivity will be lost.
• Licenses for the SDX do not require a reboot.
• The license log file will tell you everything (I,.e.Why isn’t
this feature licensed?)

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License Troubleshooting
incl. 5 free CCU
GUI view of licenses: http://blogs.citrix.com/2012/03/02/netscaler-lizenzen-gui-sichtweise/
NetScaler VPX Licensing Guide: http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx122426

8. © 2012 Citrix | Confidential – Do Not Distribute
License check
ONLY NetScaler Gateway (a.k.a. AGEE) functions are licenced by
free-text based HOSTNAME
How to set Hostname on NetScaler Gateway:
> set ns hostname vpn.training.local
> save config
> shell echo hostname=vpn.training.local > /flash/nsconfig/rc.conf
> reboot
http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx113028

9. © 2012 Citrix | Confidential – Do Not Distribute
License check
Demo or trial licenses are mapped to the MAC address of the appliance.

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IP Addresses you *must* configure
NetScaler IP (NSIP)
Subnet IP (SNIP)
Virtual IP (VIP)
http://www.citrix.com/tv/#videos/1066

11. © 2012 Citrix | Confidential – Do Not Distribute
Use Source IP
• Uses Client Sourse IP and NS MAC to initiate TCP
conversation to the back end.
• Configured on the service.
• If traffic is not routed back through the NetScaler, the
connection fails

12. © 2012 Citrix | Confidential – Do Not Distribute
Use Source IP
12
Vserver A
SNIPVIPClient IP Server IP

13. © 2012 Citrix | Confidential – Do Not Distribute
Use Source IP
• When adding a service, it
inherits settings from what
is globally enabled. (e.g.
USIP, Compression etc.)
• If you create a service with
a setting turned off, and then
enable the setting – the
service will not re-inherit.
• This is by design.

14. Policy Expressions
Let’s hit a NetScaler!

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Policy Expressions
1. Creating Policy Expressions.
2. Verify that they are being hit
3. Troubleshooting Policy Expressions
4. Troubleshooting Rewrite actions

16. Load Balancing
Let’s hit a NetScaler!

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Load Balancing
1. Why is my service down?
2. Is load balancing working?
(It is – It just looks like it isn’t  )
3. Why is it stuck in Round Robin?

18. On-Box Diagnostic Tools
Let’s hit a NetScaler!

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Diagnostics
1. Show Tech Support
2. Performance Monitoring
3. Network tracing
4. Connection Viewer
5. Config Comparison
6. Persistence Table

20. © 2012 Citrix | Confidential – Do Not Distribute
About
Citrix Services
Citrix Services make sure
you succeed with your
virtualization programs.
How we can help
Citrix Education – The fastest, most efficient way to
get your team the virtualization skills they need. Online,
on-site or in class.
citrix.com/training
Citrix Consulting – Intensive engagements for
complex, critical or just plain massive projects.
citrix.com/consulting
Citrix Support – Always-on support services that
leverage everything we know about best-practice
deployment and maintenance.
citrix.com/support
Educate | Guide | Support | Succeed

21. © 2012 Citrix | Confidential – Do Not Distribute
• 40 insider troubleshooting tips
• Covering XenDesktop, XenServer, XenApp and NetScaler
• Citrix Support top engineers
• FREE eBook
• Citrix Auto Support
• Now available!
Secrets of the Citrix Support Ninjas

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Premier Support Calculator
Check it out

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Next Webinar: June
• Title: Top Troubleshooting Tips and Techniques for Citrix XenServer
Deployments
• Description: This session will provide an expert insight into the most common
issues encountered by Customers, Partners and Support engineers. It’s a
feature packed agenda which gets to the point quickly and concentrates on the
issues we encounter continuously with XenServer deployments.
• When: June 27th
• Registration Now!

24. Work better. Live better.