Citrix NetScaler SDX discovery

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated June 2, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Citrix NetScaler SDX discovery

    The ServiceNow Discovery application supports discovering Citrix NetScaler SDX devices using a dedicated pattern. This enables automatic identification and data collection of NetScaler SDX devices in your IT environment, populating relevant Configuration Items (CIs) in your CMDB. The discovery process leverages the classification mechanism introduced in the Quebec release, which improves probe reliability by triggering specific classification probes over SSH without causing full probe failures.

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    Prerequisites

    • Ensure the CMDB CI Class Models and Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns applications are updated to the latest versions.
    • Create SSH credentials with appropriate permissions for the NetScaler SDX device to enable secure access during discovery.
    • Verify the Discovery user has admin permissions and shell access to run commands such as show vmdevice and show hardware for comprehensive data collection.
    • If admin or shell access is not available, ensure the user can run limited read-only commands like show systemstatus and show hostname to gather essential system information.

    Data Collected and CMDB Impact

    During discovery, the following key attributes are collected and stored in the CMDB for each Citrix NetScaler SDX device:

    • Name: Device name
    • Serial Number: Unique serial identifier
    • IP Address: Network address
    • Object ID: Combined identifier including serial number and IP address
    • Description: Short description of the device
    • OS Version: Installed operating system version

    Similarly, Citrix NetScaler load balancers are also discovered with key attributes such as name, serial number, and IP address stored in the CMDB.

    CI Relationships and Visualization

    ServiceNow establishes relationships between discovered CIs to reflect dependencies and registrations, such as linking Citrix NetScaler load balancers with their registered NetScaler SDX devices. These relationships are visible on the Dependency Views map, providing a clear view of your Citrix NetScaler SDX infrastructure and its interconnections.

    The ServiceNow Discovery application can discover Citrix NetScaler SDX devices using the Citrix NetScaler SDX pattern. Discovering some of these resources may require updating to the latest version of the Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns application from the ServiceNow Store.

    The classification mechanism introduced in Quebec triggers the pattern. The classification mechanism prevents the whole probe from failing if a sub probe in a multi-probe fails.​

    The classification mechanism includes a trigger_probe_m2m table, which defines which classification probe to trigger in relation to the relevant protocol. For this pattern, it triggers the Interactive Probe Shell over the ssh protocol.​

    Request apps on the Store

    Visit the ServiceNow Store to view all the available apps, and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.

    Prerequisites

    Verify that the following applications are up to date
    • CMDB CI Class Models
    • Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns
    • Visibility Content
    Create SSH credentials
    Create SSH credentials for the Citrix NetScaler SDX device. For more information, see SSH credentials.
    Verify permissions for the following commands
    Verify that the Discovery user has admin permissions and can run the following commands. The show hardware command requires shell access as well.
    Command Description
    show vmdevice Get virtual machine (VM) instances.
    show hardware Provides a quick overview of all configurable settings for the Citrix NetScaler SDX devices.

    If the Discovery user doesn't have shell access or admin permissions, verify that the user can run the following read-only commands in the NetScaler CLI instead:

    Command Description
    show systemstatus Retrieve the current system status of the SDX appliance, including serial number, build number, and product name.
    show hostname Retrieve the hostname of the SDX appliance.

    Data collected by Discovery during horizontal discovery

    Discovery populates the data in the CMDB when running the Citrix NetScaler SDX pattern.

    Table 1. Citrix NetScaler SDX [cmdb_ci_citrix_netscaler_sdx]
    Field Description
    Name [name] The name of the Citrix NetScaler SDX device.
    Serial number [serial_number] The serial number of the Citrix NetScaler SDX device.
    IP Address [ip_address] The IP address of the Citrix NetScaler SDX device.
    Object ID [object_id] The CI identifier of the Citrix NetScaler SDX device, which includes the serial_number and ip_address​.
    Description [short_description] The description of the Citrix NetScaler SDX device.
    OS Version [os_version] The version of the Citrix NetScaler SDX device.​
    Table 2. Citrix Netscaler [cmdb_ci_lb_netscaler]
    Field Description
    Name [name] The name of the Citrix NetScaler load balancer​.
    Serial number [serial_number] The serial number of the Citrix NetScaler load balancer.
    IP Address [ip_address] The IP address of the Citrix NetScaler load balancer​.

    On the Dependency Views map you can see all discovered Citrix NetScaler SDX resources in your organization, and the relationships between them.

    Citrix NetScaler SDX dependency

    CI relationships

    These relationships are created to support Citrix NetScaler SDX discovery:

    CI Relationship CI
    Citrix Netscaler [cmdb_ci_lb_netscaler] Registered on::Has registered Citrix NetScaler SDX [cmdb_ci_citrix_netscaler_sdx]