NetScaler Status Test

Citrix ADC appliance provides Level 4 load balancing to deliver better performance for applications and services. The ADC appliance optimizes, secures, and controls the delivery of applications, providing the required flexibility for businesses to improve performance and continuity. If the ADC is unavailable or connections to the NetScaler are not available, then end users will not be able to login to the ADC either using web console or NITRO API. As a result, the users will not be able to access the applications in the target environment. Furthermore, load balancing and incoming network traffic distribution to available resources will become difficult for administrators. This in turn will lead to a single point of failure or negative performance of the application and seriously impact user experience and productivity. This is why, it is important for administrators to periodically verify whether/not ADC connections are available to users. This check can be easily done using the NetScaler Status test.

The test reports whether/not ADC connectivity to the users is available. If the ADC connectivity is available, then the measure additionally reports how much time it took for the users to connect to ADC. This way, the test promptly alerts administrators to the unavailability of ADC connections and latencies occurred while connecting to applications. In the process, this test also reveals the availability of the ADC appliance when the appliance is accessed via the web console or API processor.

Target of the test : An ADC VPX/MPX

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the target ADC appliance

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter Description

Test Period

How often should the test be executed.

Host

The IP address of the host for which the test is being configured.

NetScaler Username and NetScaler Password

To monitor a ADC appliance, the eG agent should be configured with the credentials of a user with read-only privileges to the target ADC appliance. Specify the credentials of such a user in the NetScaler Username and NetScaler Password text boxes.

Confirm Password

Confirm the ADC Password by retyping it here.

SSL

The eG agent collects performance metrics by invoking NITRO (ADC Interface Through Restful interfaces and Objects) APIs on the target ADC appliance. Typically, the NITRO APIs can be invoked through the HTTP or the HTTPS mode. By default, the eG agent invokes the NITRO APIs using the HTTPS mode. This is why, the SSL flag is set to Yes by default. If the target ADC appliance is not SSL-enabled, then the NITRO APIs can be accessed through the HTTP mode only. In this case, set the SSL flag to No.

Detailed Diagnosis

To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.

The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

  • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability
  • Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

NetScaler availability

Indicates whether/not the NetScaler is available.

Percent

If the value of this measure is 0, it indicates that the NetScaler is unavailable. The value 100 on the other hand indicates that the NetScaler is available.

The detailed diagnosis of this measure lists the NetScaler version, NetScaler IP address, Netmask, Node, Time zone, Last configuration change time, Last configuration saved time, Platform, Manufactured on, CPU, Host ID, Serial number and Encoded serial number.

Total execution time

Indicates the time taken to connect to the ADC.

Seconds

A high value indicates connection latencies. This can be caused by a faulty network connection, excessive bandwidth usage by traffic over the connection, and poor network configuration.

Login availability

Indicates whether/not the ADC is available for login.

Percent

 

Login execution time

Indicates the time taken to login to the ADC.

Seconds

A very low value is preferred for this measure.

API processor availability

Indicates whether/not the ADC is available for connection via the API processor.

Percent

 

API execution time

Indicates the time taken to connect to the ADC via the API processor.

Seconds

A very low value is preferred for this measure.

Time since last config saved

Indicates the time elapsed since the last time the configuration of the NetScaler was saved.

 

This measure displays the number of years, months, days, hours, minutes and seconds since the last time the configuration of the NetScaler was saved.

Time since last config change

Indicates the time elapsed since the last time the configuration of the NetScaler was changed.

 

This measure displays the number of years, months, days, hours, minutes and seconds since the last time the configuration of the NetScaler was changed.

Has config been saved since last change?

Indicates whether/not the configuration of the NetScaler has been saved after the last change.

 

The numeric values that correspond to these measure values have been given in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Yes 1
No 0

Note:

By default, the measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate whether/not the configuration of the NetScaler has been saved after the last change. However, in the graph of this measure, the same will be represented using the numeric equivalents only. 

The detailed diagnosis of the NetScaler availability measure lists the NetScaler version, NetScaler IP address, Netmask, Node, Time zone, Last configuration change time, Last configuration saved time, Platform, Manufactured on, CPU, Host ID, Serial number and Encoded serial number.

Figure 1 : The detailed diagnosis of the NetScaler availability measure