NetScaler ADC and Amazon Web Services Validated Reference Design Part 6

September 21, 2022

Author:  Luis Ugarte, Beth Pollack, Dave Potter

Continued from Part 5

NetScaler ADC configuration

Step 6:

Log in to your AWS resource group and navigate to EC2. Within EC2 navigate to Instances.

Step 7:

Click Launch Instance using the details below configure the Amazon AMI instance.

Elastic IP configuration

Note:

NetScaler ADC can also be made to run with single elastic IP if required to reduce cost, by not having public IP for the NSIP. Instead attach elastic IP to SNIP which can cover for management access to the box, as well as GSLB site IP and ADNS IP.

Step 8:

Log in to your AWS resource group and navigate to EC2. Within EC2 navigate to NETWORK & SECURITY and then configure Elastic IPs.

Click Allocate new address to create a new Elastic IP address.

Configure the Elastic IP to point to your running NetScaler ADC instance within AWS.

Configure a second Elastic IP and again point it to your running NetScaler ADC instance.

Elastic Load Balancer

Step 9:

Log in to your AWS resource group and navigate to EC2. Within EC2 navigate to LOAD BALANCING and then Load Balancers.

Step 10:

Click Create Load Balancer to configure a classic load balancer

Your Elastic Load Balancers allow you to load balance your back end Amazon Linux instances while also being able to Load Balance additional instances that are spun up based on demand.

Configuring Global Server Load Balancing domain-name based services

Traffic management configurations

Note:

It is required to configure the NetScaler ADC with either a nameserver or a DNS virtual server through which the ELB/ALB Domains will be resolved for the DBS Service Groups.

https://developer-docs.citrix.com/projects/netscaler-command-reference/en/12.0/dns/dns-nameserver/dns-nameserver/

Step 1:

Navigate to Traffic Management > Load Balancing > Servers.

Step 2:

Click Add to create a server, provide a name and FQDN corresponding to the A record (domain name) in AWS for the Elastic Load Balancer (ELB).

Repeat step 2 to add the second ELB from the second resource location in AWS.

GSLB configurations

Step 1:

Navigate to Traffic Management > GSLB > Sites.

Step 3:

Click the Add button to configure a GSLB Site.

Name the Site. The Type is configured as Remote or Local based on which NetScaler ADC you are configuring the site on. The Site IP Address is the IP address for the GSLB site. The GSLB site uses this IP address to communicate with the other GSLB sites. The Public IP address is required when using a cloud service where a particular IP is hosted on an external firewall or NAT device. The site should be configured as a Parent Site. Ensure the Trigger Monitors are set to ALWAYS and be sure to check off the three boxes at the bottom for Metric Exchange, Network Metric Exchange, and Persistence Session Entry Exchange.

Recommendation is to set Trigger monitor setting to MEPDOWN. For more information, see Configure a GSLB service group.

Step 4:

Below is a screenshot from our AWS configurations, showing where you can find the Site IP Address and Public IP Address. They are found under Network & Security > Elastic IPs.

Click Create, repeat steps 3 and 4 to configure the GSLB site for the other resource location in Azure (this can be configured on the same NetScaler ADC)

Step 5:

Navigate to Traffic Management > GSLB > Service Groups.

Step 6:

Click Add to add a new service group. Name the Service Group, use HTTP protocol, and then under Site Name choose the respective site that was created in the previous steps. Be sure to configure AutoScale Mode as DNS and check off the boxes for State and Health Monitoring.

Click OK to create the Service Group.

Step 7:

Click Service Group Members and select Server Based. Select the respective Elastic Load Balancing Server that was configured in the start of the run guide. Configure the traffic to go over port 80.

Click Create.

Step 8:

The Service group Member Binding should populate with two instances that it is receiving from the Elastic Load Balancer.

Repeat steps to configure the Service Group for the second resource location in AWS. (This can be done from the same location).

Continued on Part 7