Application Delivery Management

Create a composite StyleBook

December 31, 2023

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An important and powerful feature of StyleBooks is that they can be used as building blocks for other StyleBooks. A StyleBook can be imported into another StyleBook and it can be referred to as a type that is used by components of the second StyleBook similar to a Nitro built-in StyleBook.

For example, you can use the basic-lb-config StyleBook that you built in the previous section, to build another StyleBook called composite-example. To use the “basic-lb-config” StyleBook, you have to import it in the new StyleBook in the import-stylebooks section.

Build your StyleBook

The new StyleBook would look as follows:

name: composite-example
namespace: com.example.stylebooks
version: "0.1"
display-name: Load Balancing Virtual Server (HTTP/RoundRobin)
description: This StyleBook defines a RoundRobin load balancing configuration with a monitor.
schema-version: "1.0"
import-stylebooks:
  -
   namespace: netscaler.nitro.config
   version: "10.5"
   prefix: ns
  -
   namespace: com.example.stylebooks
   version: "0.1"
   prefix: stlb
parameters:
  -
    name: name
    type: string
    label: Application Name
    description: Give a name to the application configuration.
    required: true
  -
    name: ip
    type: ipaddress
    label: Application Virtual IP (VIP)
    description: The Application VIP that clients access
    required: true
  -
    name: svc-servers
    type: ipaddress[]
    label: Application Server IPs
    description: The IP addresses of all the servers of this application
    required: true

  -
    name: response-code
    type: string[]
    label: List of Response Codes
    description: List of Response Codes - Provide a list of response codes in integer.

components:
  -
    name: basic-lb-comp
    type: stlb::basic-lb-config
    description: This component's type is another StyleBook that builds the NetScaler lbvserver, servicegroups and services configuration objects.
    properties:
     name: $parameters.name
     ip: $parameters.ip
     svc-servers: $parameters.svc-servers
  -
     name: monit-comp
     type: ns::lbmonitor
     description: This component is a basic Nitro type (a Builtin StyleBook) that builds the NetScaler monitor configuration object.
     properties:
       monitorname: $parameters.name + "-mon"
       type: HTTP
       respcode: $parameters.response-code
       httprequest: "'GET /'"
       lrtm: ENABLED
       secure: "YES"

     components:
        -
          name: monit-svcgrp-bind-comp
          type: ns::servicegroup_lbmonitor_binding
          properties:
            servicegroupname: $components.basic-lb-comp.outputs.servicegroup-comp.properties.servicegroupname
            monitor_name: $parent.properties.monitorname
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In the import-stylebooks section, you import the basic-lb-config StyleBook by using its namespace and version, referred to with the prefix “stlb”.

In the components section, two components are defined. The first component is of type stlb::basic-lb-config, where “basic-lb-config” is the name of the StyleBook you created in StyleBook to create a basic load balancing configuration. The properties that are defined for this component correspond to the mandatory parameters declared in the basic-lb-config StyleBook. You can, however, use any parameter of the StyleBook (both required and optional.) Instead of re-building a lbvserver, a service group, and service and service group bindings, you import the StyleBook that does all of this as a component and use it to create these configuration objects in the new StyleBook.

StyleBook adds a second component “monit-comp” that uses the attributes of the Nitro resource “lbmonitor” (a built-in StyleBook) to create a monitor configuration object. It also has a sub-component “monit-svcgrp-bind-comp” to create the binding configuration object that binds the monitor to the servicegroup created in the first component. Because the servicegroup component created in the “basic-lb-config” StyleBook is exposed as an output, this StyleBook can access it using the expression $components.basic-lb-comp.outputs.servicegroup-comp. This is an example of how the outputs section can be used by the importing StyleBooks to have access to components in the imported StyleBooks that they would not have been able to access otherwise.

Next, copy and paste the StyleBook content to a text editor, and then save the file as composite-example.yaml. Ensure to validate the YAML content before you import the file in Citrix ADM. Then, import it to Citrix ADM and create one or several configurations by using this StyleBook.

Citrix recommends that you use the built-in YAML validator in StyleBooks to validate and import the YAML content.

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Create a composite StyleBook

December 31, 2023

Contributed by:

December 31, 2023

Contributed by:

Create a composite StyleBook

Build your StyleBook

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