Responder Policy Test

Responder supports protocols such as TCP, DNS (UDP), and HTTP. With responder enabled on your appliance, server responses can be based on who sends the request, where it is sent from, and other criteria with security and system management implications.

To use a responder, do the following:

  • Enable a responder feature on the appliance.

  • Configure a responder action. The action can be to generate a custom response, redirect a request to a different webpage, or reset a connection.

  • Configure a responder policy. The policy determines the requests (traffic) on which an action has to be taken.

  • Bind each policy to a bind point put it into effect. A bind point refers to an entity at which the Citrix ADC appliance examines the traffic to see if it matches a policy. For example, a bind point can be a load balancing virtual server.

If the responder feature is enabled on an appliance, then administrators will want to be alerted every time a request matches a configured policy. Most importantly, administrators will want to know if a policy evaluation results in an undefined event. This is a cue to the administrators to scrutinize the policy configuration for errors. Using the Responder Policy test, administrators can achieve both.

This test auto-discovers responder policies and notifies administrators if there are requests matching any of these policies. Likewise, the test also reports if the evaluation of any policy results in UNDEF events. This way, the test turns the spotlight on improperly configured responder policies, thus enabling administrators to amend such policies for optimum results.

Target of the test : A Citrix ADC VPX/MPX

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each responder policy configured on the Citrix ADC VPX/MPX appliance being monitored.

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, NetScaler Password, and Confirm Password

To monitor a ADC device, the eG agent should be configured with the credentials of a user with read-only privileges to the target ADC device. Specify the credentials of such a user in the NetScaler Username and NetScaler Password text boxes. Then, confirm the password by retyping it in the Confirm Password text box.

SSL

The eG agent collects performance metrics by invoking NITRO (ADC Interface Through Restful interfaces and Objects) APIs on the target ADC device. 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 device 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.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Hits

Indicates the number of requests that matched this policy during the last measurement period.

Number

 

Undefined policy hits

Indicates the number of times this policy's evaluation resulted in an UNDEF event, during the last measurement period.

Number

An UNDEF event indicates an internal error condition. This is why, the value 0 is typically desired for this measure.