Product Documentation
Application Delivery Management
14.1 - Current Release 13.1 13.0
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Getting started

February 9, 2024
Contributed by: 
R C

This document walks you through how to get started with deploying and setting up NetScaler Console on-prem for the first time. This document is intended for network and application administrators who manage Citrix network devices (NetScaler and NetScaler Gateway). Follow the steps in this document irrespective of the type of device you plan to manage using NetScaler Console.

If you are an existing user of NetScaler Console, you are recommended to review the release notes, system requirements, and licensing details before upgrading your server to the latest release of NetScaler Console.

Step 1 - Review the system requirements

Before you begin deploying NetScaler Console in your data center, review the software requirements, browser requirements, port information, license information, and limitations.

  • License information. You can add any number of instances and entities without a license. However, you can view analytics information for only two virtual servers without applying a license. To view analytics for more than two virtual servers, you must purchase appropriate licenses. Learn More.

  • Operating system and receiver requirements. Review this information to make sure you have the correct receiver version for the supported operating systems. Learn More.

  • Browser requirements. To access NetScaler Console GUI, you must make sure you have the required browser and the correct version. Learn More.

  • Ports. Make sure that the required ports are open for NetScaler Console to communicate with NetScaler instances. Learn More.

  • NetScaler instance requirements. Different NetScaler Console features are supported on different NetScaler software versions. Review this information to make sure you have upgraded your NetScaler instances to the correct version. Learn More.

Step 2 - Deploy NetScaler Console

To manage and monitor the applications and network infrastructure, you must first install NetScaler Console on one of the hypervisors. You can deploy NetScaler Console either as a single server or in a high availability mode. If you are using NetScaler Insight Center, you can migrate to NetScaler Console and avail of the management, monitoring, orchestration, and application management features in addition to the analytics features.

  • Single-server deployment. In a NetScaler Console single server deployment, the database is integrated with the server and a single server processes all the traffic. You can deploy NetScaler Console with Citrix Hypervisor, VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Linux KVM. See:

  • High availability deployment. A high availability deployment (HA) of two NetScaler Console servers provides uninterrupted operations. In a high availability setup, both the NetScaler Console nodes must be deployed in active-passive mode, on the same subnet using the same software version and build, and must have the same configurations. With HA deployment the ability to configure the floating IP address on the NetScaler Console primary node eliminates the need of a separate NetScaler load balancer. To learn more, see Configure in high availability deployment.

Step 3 - Add instances to NetScaler Console

In NetScaler Console, you can discover, manage, and monitor all NetScaler instances that are deployed on-premises or on the cloud. You must add instances to the NetScaler Console server if you want to manage and monitor these instances. You can add the following instances to NetScaler Console:

  • NetScaler

    • NetScaler MPX

    • NetScaler VPX

    • NetScaler SDX

    • NetScaler CPX

    • NetScaler BLX

    • NetScaler Gateway

When you add an instance to the NetScaler Console server, the server implicitly communicates with the instances and collects an inventory of these instances.

Learn More

Step 4 - Enable analytics on virtual servers

To view analytics data for your application traffic flow, you must enable the Analytics feature on the virtual servers that receive traffic for the specific applications.

Learn More

Step 5 - Configure NTP server on NetScaler Console

You have to configure a Network Time Protocol (NTP) server in NetScaler Console to synchronize its clock with the NTP server. Configuring an NTP server ensures that the NetScaler Console clock has the same date and time settings as the other servers on the network.

Learn More

Step 6 - Configure system settings for optimal NetScaler Console performance

Before you start using NetScaler Console to manage and monitor your instances and applications, it is recommended that you configure a few system settings that ensure optimal performance of your NetScaler Console server.

  • Configure system alarms. Configure system alarms to make sure you are aware of any critical or major system issues. For example, you might want to be notified if the CPU usage is high or if there are multiple login failures to the server.  

  • Configure system notifications. You can send notifications to select groups of users for various system-related functions. You can set up a notification server in NetScaler Console, and you can configure email and Short Message Service (SMS) gateway servers to send email and text notifications to users. This ensures that you are notified of any system-level activities such as user login or system restart.

  • Configure system prune settings. To limit the amount of reporting data being stored in your NetScaler Console server’s database, you can specify the interval for which you want NetScaler Console to retain network reporting data, events, audit logs, and task logs. By default, this data is pruned every 24 hours (at 00.00 hours).

  • Configure system backup settings. NetScaler Console automatically backs up the system every day at 00:30 hours. By default, it saves three backup files. You might want to retain more number of backups of the system.

  • Configure instance backup settings. If you back up the current state of a NetScaler instance, you can use the backup files to restore stability in case the instance becomes unstable. Doing so is especially important before performing an upgrade. By default, a backup is taken every 12 hours and three backup files are retained in the system.

  • Configure instance event prune settings. To limit the amount of event messages data being stored in your NetScaler Console server’s database, you can specify the interval for which you want NetScaler Console to retain network reporting data, events, audit logs, and task logs. By default, this data is pruned every 24 hours (at 00:00 hours).

  • Configure instance syslog purge settings. To limit the amount of syslog data stored in the database, you can specify the interval at which you want to purge syslog data. You can specify the number of days after which the following syslog data will be deleted from NetScaler Console:

    • Generic Syslog data
    • AppFirewall data

    • NetScaler Gateway data.

      Learn More

What’s next

After you have deployed and set up NetScaler Console, you can start managing and monitoring your instances and applications.

Managing NetScaler instances and applications. All NetScaler Console features are supported on NetScaler instances. You can start using any of the features.

Getting started
February 9, 2024
Contributed by: 
R C
February 9, 2024
Contributed by: 
R C

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