Citrix NetScaler load balancer discovery

Discovery and Service Mapping find Citrix NetScaler load balancers including Server Load Balancing (GSLB).

Note:

For information on Probe to Pattern migration see the knowledge article KB0694477.

Requirements and support

Important:

Discovery treats load balancers as licensable entities and attempts to discover them primarily using SNMP. If a load balancer in your system, running on a Linux host, has SNMP and SSH ports open, Discovery might classify it based on the SSH port. This classification has priority over SNMP. To ensure that Discovery properly classifies your hardware load balancers, create a Discovery behavior for load balancers that includes SNMP but not SSH. Software load balancers are treated as applications.

Virtual NetScaler load balancers are not fully supported. Discovery supports local server load balancers and GSLB.

Credentials

• Configure SNMP credentials. The SNMP community string requires read-only access to the Citrix NetScaler MIB (1.3.6.1.4.1.5951).
  Note:

  You also have the option of using SSH credentials. The SSH user requires permission to run NetScaler show commands only. However, if the payload size of the data that's returned to the instance is large, the discovery process can fail. In this case, use SNMP credentials instead.
• (Optional) When using the NS.CONF pattern, provide a user with read-only access to the NS.conf configuration file if you don't want to provide SNMP or SSH credentials.
• Use basic authentication credentials for discovery via REST. Configure the credential as a credential alias. The NITRO API user requires read-only access to the following resources:
  • lbvserver
  • csvserver
  • service
  • servicegroup
  • interface
  • lbvserver_binding
  • csvserver_binding
  • nspartition
  • nshardware
  • nshostname
  • nsconfig
  • hanode

For a list of privileged commands that you need for Discovery and Service Mapping, see Service Mapping commands requiring a privileged user. This list includes commands that require elevated rights to discover and map Unix-based hosts in your organization.

Classifier, pattern, and probes

Classifier	Trigger probes	Patterns
NetScaler Load Balancer	Horizontal discovery probe: launches patterns (see the Patterns column) NetScaler - Network Path Information (multiprobe) NetScaler - ARP Information NetScaler - Route Information SNMP - NetScaler - Identity SNMP - NetScaler - Identity - Serial SNMP - NetScaler - Identity Info SNMP - NetScaler - System	NetScaler Load Balancer NetScaler Load Balancer NS.CONF NetScaler Load Balancer SSH Netscaler Loadbalancer NITRO

To use probes for the horizontal discovery, make sure that the NetScaler - Network Path Information multiprobe is active on the Trigger probes related list for the NetScaler Load Balancer classifier. Then deactivate or remove the Horizontal discovery probe from the Trigger probes related list.

To use patterns, verify that the correct pattern is specified in the horizontal pattern probe on the classifier. See Add the Horizontal Pattern probe to a classifier for instructions.

Note:

When using probes and sensors and the system properties glide.discovery.hostname.snmp_trusted and/or glide.discovery.hostname.dns_nbt_trusted are set to false, the system uses dns_name as the load balancer name. When using the Netscaler Load Balancer pattern, the system currently doesn’t recognize these system properties when they are set to false.

Connections discovered by Service Mapping during the top-down discovery

Service Mapping performs the top-down discovery of the NetScaler Global Server Load Balancer in the context of application services. It discovers configured URLs of the NetScaler Global Server Load Balancer.

Data collected by Discovery during horizontal discovery

Table and field	Description
DNS name [cmdb_ci_dns_name]
Name [name]	The name or the DNS name alias of the NetScaler Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB).
IP address [ip_addresses]	Management IP address of the NetScaler Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB).
Port [port]	The DNS port that Global Server Load Balancer listens to.
Citrix NetScaler [cmdb_ci_lb_netscaler]
Serial Number [serial_number]	The serial number of the NetScaler device and its current operational status.
Operational Status [operational_status]
Load Balancer Pool [cmdb_ci_lb_pool]
Name [name]	The name of the pool and the method of load balancing it enables.
Load Balancing Method [load_balancing_method]
Load Balancer Pool Member [cmdb_ci_lb_pool_member]
Name [name]	The name, IP address and service port that each pool member uses.
IP Address [ip_address]
Service Port [service_port]
Load Balancer VLAN [cmdb_ci_lb_vlan]
Name [name]	The name of the VLAN and the tag that is associated with this VLAN to identify it.
Tag [tag]
Load Balancer Services [cmdb_ci_lb_service]
Name [name]	Details about the service running on the load balancer, including
IP Address [ip_address]
Port [port]
Operational Status [operational_status]
Install Status [install_status]
Hit count [hit_count]
Exit Interface Routing Rules [dscy_route_interface]
Router Interface [router_interface]	Details about the routing rules for the exit interface, including the interface on the router that ...
Configuration item [cmdb_ci]
Destination IP network [dest_ip_network]
Next Hop Routing Rules [dscy_route_next_hop]
Next hop IP address [router_interface]	Details about the routing rules on the load balancer, including the IP addresses of the next hop router on the network. The Configuration item field is the router which is the next hop device.
Router Interface [router_interface]
Configuration item [cmdb_ci]
Destination IP network [dest_ip_network]

Table 1. cmdb_ci_lb_netscaler

Column name	Type	Reference
ip_address	IP Address (Validated IPV4, IPV6)
name	String
operational_status	Integer
serial_number	String

Data collected during Netscaler Loadbalancer NITRO.

Table 2. cmdb_serial_number

Column label	Column name	Type	Reference
Configuration Item	cmdb_ci	Reference	Configuration Item (Load Balancer)
Serial Number	serial_number	String
Serial Number Type	serial_number_type	String
Valid	valid	True/False

Table 3. cmdb_ci_lb_vlan

Column label	Column name	Type	Reference
Load balancer	load_balancer	Reference	Configuration Item (Load Balancer)
Name	name	String
Tag	tag	Integer

Table 4. cmdb_ci_lb_interface

Column label	Column name	Type	Reference
Load balancer	load_balancer	Reference	Configuration Item (Load Balancer)
Name	name	String
Operational status	operational_status	Integer
MAC Address	mac_address	String

Table 5. cmdb_ci_lb_service

Column label	Column name	Type	Reference
IP Address	ip_address	IP Address (Validated IPV4, IPV6)
Load balancer	load_balancer	Reference	Configuration Item (Load Balancer)
Name	name	String
Port	port	Integer

Table 6. cmdb_ci_lb_pool

Column label	Column name	Type	Reference
Load balancer	load_balancer	Reference	Configuration Item (Load Balancer)
Name	name	String

Table 7. cmdb_ci_lb_pool_member

Column label	Column name	Type	Reference
IP Address	ip_address	IP Address (Validated IPV4, IPV6)
Load balancer	load_balancer	Reference	Configuration Item (Load Balancer)
Name	name	String
Pool	pool	Reference	Load Balancer Pool
Service port	service_port	Integer

To see the DNS names and alases for a NetScaler load balancer, you must configure the form and add the DNS Names for CIs related list. DNS names also include aliases.

Note:

Discovery populates load balancer interface information that is necessary to map the network path in Service Mapping.

Configuration item (CI) Relationships

These relationships are created to support NetScaler Global Server Load Balancer discovery:

CI	Relationship	CI
DNS name [cmdb_ci_dns_name]	Uses:Used by	IP address [cmdb_ci_ip_addresses]

These relationships are created to support NetScaler Loadbalancer NITRO:

CI	Relationship	CI
Netscaler [cmdb_ci_lb_netscaler]	Owns::Owned by	interfaces [cmdb_ci_lb_interface]
Netscaler [cmdb_ci_lb_netscaler]	Owns::Owned by	vlan [cmdb_ci_lb_vlan]
Netscaler [cmdb_ci_lb_netscaler]	Owns::Owned by	service groups [cmdb_ci_lb_pool]
service groups [cmdb_ci_lb_pool]	Owns::Owned by	lbvservers [cmdb_ci_lb_pool_member]
services [cmdb_ci_lb_service]	Runs on::Runs	Netscaler [cmdb_ci_lb_netscaler]

NetScaler device sysName

To verify the NetScaler device sysName, check the snmp mib and verify the sysName value by running the command: show snmp mib.

To change the value of the sysName, run the command: set mib -name <DNS_NAME or NAME_OF_THE_NETSCALER_LB> to set the name of the SNMP MIB.