Mastering NetScaler VPX™
By Roetenberg Rick and Sandbu Marius
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Mastering NetScaler VPX™ - Roetenberg Rick
Table of Contents
Mastering NetScaler VPX™
Notice
Credits
About the Authors
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Support files, eBooks, discount offers, and more
Why subscribe?
Free access for Packt account holders
Instant updates on new Packt books
Preface
What this book covers
What you need for this book
Who this book is for
Conventions
Reader feedback
Customer support
Downloading the example code
Downloading the color images of this book
Errata
Piracy
Questions
1. Configuring the Standard Features of NetScaler®
The basic features
NSIP
MIP
SNIP
VIP
IP set
Net profile
Load balancing
Active/active load balancing
Active/passive load balancing
Load balancing StoreFront™
Configuring authentication
LDAP integration
Two-factor integration
Configuring NetScaler® AAA
Citrix Receiver™ authentication
Troubleshooting
NetScaler Gateway™
Session policies
Integration StoreFront™
Citrix Receiver™
Receiver for Web
Citrix® StoreFront™
Group policies
SmartAccess filters
Summary
2. Using the Features of NetScaler® AppExpert
AppExpert applications and templates
HTTP Callouts
How HTTP Callout works
Configuring HTTP Callout
Rate limiting
Configuring rate limiting
Policies and expressions
Policy binding
Evaluation order
Parsing policies
Rewrite
The working of the rewrite feature
The GoTo expression
Rewrite actions
Configuring a rewrite policy
Responder
Configuring a responder policy
Rewrite versus responder
Summary
3. Integration with Citrix® Components
NetScaler® Insight Center
Licensing
Reporting
Web Insight
HDX Insight
WAN Insight
Installation
Configuration
System menu
Authentication
Insight deployment management
Thresholds
Updating NetScaler® Insight Center
Troubleshooting
CloudBridge™
Appliances
Link capacity
User capacity
Disk capacity
Deployment modes
CloudBridge™ Connector
Installation
Compression
Encrypted traffic acceleration
SSL compression
Traffic shaping
XenApp®/XenDesktop® acceleration
The Citrix® Command Center
Software
Supported devices
Hardware appliances
High availability
Distributed agents
Device profiles
Device groups
Port settings
Device discovery
Automatic back-up
Tasks
Change management
SSL certificate management
Reporting
Citrix NetScaler® syslog
AppFirewall Signature syslog analytics
Summary
4. Traffic Management
Content switching
DNS
Global Server Load Balancing
Load balancing methods
Active/passive GSLB
Troubleshooting GSLB
DataStream
Setting up generic SQL load balancing
Master/slave deployment
AppQoE
Summary
5. Tuning and Monitoring NetScaler® Performances
Tuning the network and virtual environment
TCP and SSL profiles
HTTP/2 and SPDY
Monitoring network traffic
nstrace
nstcpdump
Analyzing network trace files using Wireshark
Analyzing network traffic using Citrix NetScaler® Insight
Troubleshooting NetScaler® Insight
Summary
6. Security Features and Troubleshooting
Management best practices for security
Security features in NetScaler®
HTTP DoS protection
Access-lists
SSL settings
Admin partitions
Analyzing issues using Citrix® Insight Services
Setting up AAA – authentication and authorization
Authentication policy
Authorization policy
Authentication profiles
Troubleshooting AAA and setting up audit policies
Summary
7. Real-World Deployment Scenarios
A small PoC VDI environment
An enterprise VDI multisite environment
Citrix® StoreFront™ multisite configuration
Citrix® StoreFront™ optimal NetScaler Gateway™ routing
Citrix® StoreFront™ subscription synchronization
An enterprise VDI active-passive environment
A global web services environment
An active-active data center for application hosting
An active-passive data center for disaster recovery
Reverse proxy
Summary
Index
Mastering NetScaler VPX™
Mastering NetScaler VPX™
Copyright © 2015 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
First published: November 2015
Production reference: 1161115
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
Livery Place
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Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-78528-173-0
www.packtpub.com
Notice
The statements made and opinions expressed herein belong exclusively to the author and reviewers of this publication, and are not shared by or represent the viewpoint of Citrix Systems®, Inc. This publication does not constitute an endorsement of any product, service, or point of view. Citrix® makes no representations, warranties or assurances of any kind, express or implied, as to the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability, availability, or currency of the content contained in this publication or any material related to this publication. Any reliance you place on such content is strictly at your own risk. In no event shall Citrix®, its agents, officers, employees, licensees, or affiliates be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of profits, business information, or loss of information) arising out of the information or statements contained in the publication, even if Citrix® has been advised of the possibility of such loss or damages. Citrix®, XenApp®, XenDesktop®, CloudBridge™, StoreFront™, and NetScaler® are trademarks of Citrix Systems®, Inc. and/or one or more of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Some of the images in the chapters are taken from the Citrix® website and documentation.
Credits
Authors
Rick Roetenberg
Marius Sandbu
Reviewer
Yugandhar Ananda
Commissioning Editor
Dipika Gaonkar
Acquisition Editor
Harsha Bharwani
Content Development Editor
Sumeet Sawant
Technical Editor
Tanmayee Patil
Copy Editors
Stephen Copestake
Vikrant Phadke
Project Coordinator
Shweta H Birwatkar
Proofreader
Safis Editing
Indexer
Tejal Soni
Graphics
Jason Monteiro
Production Coordinator
Aparna Bhagat
Cover Work
Aparna Bhagat
About the Authors
Rick Roetenberg is a technical consultant at ITON ICT in the Netherlands. He has more than 5 years of experience in implementing products available from Citrix, especially networking products. He is also responsible for pre-sales with customers at ITON ICT. Recently, he succeeded the Citrix Networking for Datacenter Specialist Practicum. Rick has also presented at DuCUG, the Dutch Citrix User Community, where he explained that NetScaler is more than just an ICA proxy. He has always had a lot of interest in technology, and his current focus is on Citrix network products.
Rick posts blogs at www.rickroetenberg.com, where he shares more information about Citrix's products and all that is necessary in addition to these products. He can be contacted at
Marius Sandbu is a senior consultant from Norway. He has over 10 years of experience in IT. He has worked as an architect and instructor at Veeam, Microsoft, and Citrix. He has also presented at the NetScaler master class and been to local Citrix user groups' events. Marius is the author of other NetScaler books as well, including Implementing NetScaler VPX™, Packt Publishing.
He is also a Microsoft MVP, Veeam Vanguard, and PernixPro.
Marius posts blogs on https://msandbu.wordpress.com/, where he shares information from the software-defined space. He can be contacted at
About the Reviewer
Yugandhar Ananda works as a Citrix consultant. This has helped him get good exposure to Citrix technologies, real-time issues with production servers, XA/XD/PVS, and NetScaler.
He is a quick learner and can easily adopt new technologies, which is his strength. His hobbies are making new friends and reading new technical articles.
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Preface
NetScaler is becoming more and more essential in many environments and is often crucial for many of the services it offers. Mastering NetScaler VPX™ is a book that covers many advanced topics, such as optimizing traffic, setting up redundant web services, and integrating with other Citrix products, as well as many best practices.
This book starts out with an easy introduction to the product, what it can offer, and how to do an initial setup on an on-premise deployment.
Later, it goes into some of the more advanced features, such as remote access against Citrix, different VPN features, and optimizing network services.
It also covers features of high availability such as GSLB, redirecting traffic using content switching, and different real-life scenarios and deployments.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Configuring the Standard Features of NetScaler ®, covers the basic setup of NetScaler, load balancing, and integration with XenDesktop.
Chapter 2, Using the Features of NetScaler ® AppExpert, explains many of the different features found within AppExpert such as deployments of different templates, HTTP callout, rate limiting, rewrites, and responder policies.
Chapter 3, Integration with Citrix ® Components, covers different integration possibilities with products such as Insight Center, CloudBridge, and Command Center.
Chapter 4, Traffic Management, illustrates many traffic management features, such as compression/caching, how to use content switching, and setting up GSLB.
Chapter 5, Tuning and Monitoring NetScaler ® Performances, teaches you how to perform network optimization using TCP and SSL. This chapter also dives into the use of different tools for monitoring performance.
Chapter 6, Security Features and Troubleshooting, teaches you how to set up AAA, the use of security features such as HTTP DDoS, application firewalls, admin partitions, and lastly how you can troubleshoot using built-in tools and Wireshark.
Chapter 7, Real-World Deployment Scenarios, covers many real-life scenarios and shows how we can use NetScaler to set up a solution such as NetScaler Gateway for a small VDI environment, large web services spanning globally, and more.
What you need for this book
You can download a trial of the NetScaler virtual appliance from Citrix here: https://secureportal.citrix.com/MyCitrix/login/EvalLand.aspx?downloadid=1857216&LandingFrom=1005.
You should also have a virtual environment running any one of VMware, Citrix XenServer, or Hyper-V. If you do not have a virtual environment, you can test it on a client hypervisor.
For instance, if you are using Windows 8.1/10, you can use Client Hyper-V, which is an add-on that needs to be added from Programs and features under Control Panel.
Alternatively, you can use VMware Player (https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/free#desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_player/6_0).
Who this book is for
This book is intended for system administrators who work with either Citrix or networking and want to learn more advanced topics around Citrix NetScaler, such as integrating with other Citrix components or setting up advanced features such as GSLB and traffic optimization.
Conventions
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: The expression will be SYS.HTTP_CALLOUT(NAMEOFTHECREATEDHTTPCALLOUT ).
A block of code is set as follows:
Default
/>
When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:
Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
show vpn icaconnection show vpn stats
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: Go to AppExpert | HTTP Callouts and click on Add.
Note
Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.
Tip
Tips and tricks appear like this.
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Questions
You can contact us at <questions@packtpub.com> if you are having a problem with any aspect of the book, and we will do our best to address it.
Chapter 1. Configuring the Standard Features of NetScaler®
Welcome to the first chapter of this book. Throughout the course of this book, we will cover how to master Citrix NetScaler. This chapter will cover the most commonly used features of Citrix NetScaler.
Throughout this book, we will be focusing mostly on how to use the most common features of Citrix NetScaler. These features make Citrix NetScaler one of the best Application Delivery Controller (ADC). The features will be available depending on the installed license. So, to sum it up, here's what we will cover throughout this chapter:
Load balancing
The NetScaler Gateway
StoreFront integration
Authentication
The basic features
During the installation, it's required to install the purchased license. Then, depending on the installed license, you will get the purchased functionality. The load balancing functionality is one of the most commonly used features in Citrix NetScaler. This is because of support from third-party vendors, which provide support and specific templates for particular services. These