How to monitor globally distributed sites
As a network administrator, you might have to monitor and manage network instances deployed across geographical locations. However, it is not easy to gauge the requirements of the network when managing network instances in geographically distributed data centers.
Geomaps in NetScaler ADM provides you with a graphical representation of your sites and breaks down your network monitoring experience by geography. With geomaps, you can visualize your network instance distribution by location and monitor network issues.
The following sections explain how you can monitor data centers in NetScaler ADM.
Monitoring globally distributed sites in NetScaler ADM
NetScaler ADM site is a logical grouping of Citrix Application Delivery Controller (NetScaler) instances in a specific geographical location. For example, while one site is assigned to Amazon Web Services (AWS) and another site might be assigned to Azure™. Still another site is hosted on the premises of the tenant. NetScaler ADM manages and monitors all NetScaler instances connected to all sites. You can use NetScaler ADM to monitor and collect syslog, AppFlow, SNMP, and any such data originating from the managed instances.
Geomaps in NetScaler ADM provides you with a graphical representation of your sites. Geomaps also breaks down your network monitoring experience by geography. With geomaps, you can visualize your network instance distribution by location and monitor all network issues. You can click Infrastructure on the menu and this displays the Instances Dashboard for a visual representation of the sites created on the world map.
Use case
A leading mobile carrier company, ExampleCompany, was relying on private service providers for hosting their resources and applications. The company already had two sites - one at Minneapolis in the United States and another in Alice Springs in Australia. In this image, you can see that two markers represent the two existing sites.
The markers also display the count of the following components on the site:
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Instances: Indicates the number of instances available.
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Applications: Indicates the number of applications hosted.
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Virtual Servers: Indicates the number of virtual servers available.
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Critical Events: Indicates the count of critical events occurred on the instances.
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Major Events: Indicates the count of major events occurred on the instances.
Click Applications to see all custom applications created in each site.
Click Details to see a list of NetScaler instances added in each site. Click the tabs to view more information:
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Instances tab: View the following in this tab:
- IP address of each network instance
- Type of the NetScaler instance
- Number of critical events
- Significant events and all events raised on a NetScaler instance.
- Events tab: View a list of critical and significant events raised on the instances.
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Certificates tab: View the following in this tab:
- List of certificates of all the instances
- Expiration status
- Vital information and the top 10 instances by many certificates in use.
- Agents tab: View a list of agents to which the instances are bound.
Configuring Geomaps
ExampleCompany decided to create a third site in Bangalore, India. The company wanted to test the cloud by offloading some of their less-critical, internal IT applications to the Bangalore office. The company decided to use the AWS cloud computing services.
As an administrator, you must first create a site, and next add the NetScaler instances in NetScaler ADM. You must also add the instance to the site, add an agent, and bind the agent to the site. NetScaler ADM then recognizes the site that the NetScaler instance and the agent belong.
For more information on adding NetScaler instances, see Adding Instances.
To create sites:
Create sites before you add instances in NetScaler ADM. Providing location information allows you to locate the site precisely.
- In NetScaler ADM, navigate to Infrastructure > Instances > Sites , and click Add.
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On the Create Site page, update the following information, and click Create.
- Site Type. Select Data Center.
Note
The site can function as the primary data center or as a branch. Choose accordingly.
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Type. Select AWS as the cloud provider from the list.
Note
Check the Use existing VPC as a site box accordingly.
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Site Name. Type the name of the site.
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Search Location. Type the name of the city. Click Get Location to place the site precisely at the location. The City, Zip code, Region, Country, Latitude, and Longitude fields are filled in automatically.
- Click Create to create a site in Bangalore.
To add instances and select sites:
After creating sites, you must add instances in NetScaler ADM. You can select the previously created site, or you can also create a site and associate the instance.
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In NetScaler ADM, navigate to Infrastructure > Instances > NetScaler.
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Select the VPX, and click Add.
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On the Add NetScaler VPX page, type the IP address and select the profile from the list.
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Select the site from the list. You can click the Add button next to Site field to create a site or click the Edit button to change the details of the default site.
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Click the right arrow and select the agent from the list that displays.
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After choosing the agent, you must associate the agent with the site. This step allows the agent to be bound to the site. Select the agent and click Attach Site.
- Select the site from the list and click Save.
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Optionally, you can enter key and value fields for Tags.
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Click OK.
You can also attach an agent to a site by navigating to Infrastructure > Instances > Agents.
To associate a NetScaler ADM agent with the site:
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In NetScaler ADM, navigate to Infrastructure > Instances > Agents.
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Select the agent, and click Attach Site.
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You can associate the site and click Save.
NetScaler ADM starts monitoring the NetScaler instances added in the Bangalore site along with the instances at the other two sites as well.
To export the report of this dashboard:
To export the report of this page, click the Export icon in the top right side of this page. On the Export page, you can do one of the following:
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Select Export Now tab. To view and save the report in PDF, JPEG, PNG, or CSV format.
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Select Schedule Export tab. To schedule the report daily, weekly, or monthly and send the report over an email or a slack message.
Note
- If you select Weekly recurrence, ensure that you select the weekdays on which you want the report to be scheduled.
- If you select Monthly recurrence, ensure that you enter all the days that you want the report to be scheduled separated by commas.