Autoscaling of NetScaler instances in public clouds

Autoscaling is a cloud computing method that automatically adds or removes resources depending on their actual usage. Autoscaling is useful whenever your site or application needs an on-demand resource allocation to satisfy the fluctuating number of client requests or processing jobs.

The demand for web applications or services can vary significantly. Maintaining the correct number of NetScaler instances for the different traffic needs is important. You can increase or decrease the network resources on a public cloud depending on the demand. Thus, it provides cost optimization without compromising the performance. NetScaler Console autoscaling maintains the exact number of NetScaler instances for fluctuating resource consumption. NetScaler Console scales out or scales in the NetScaler instances dynamically depending on the traffic flow. Thus, it provides you with the flexibility to maintain the correct number of NetScaler instances.

NetScaler Console monitors the resource usage of NetScaler instances and matches with the configured threshold value. It triggers the scale-out action if one of the configured resources exceeds the specified threshold value. NetScaler Console triggers the scale-in action only when the usage of all the configured resources falls below the normal threshold value.

Important

Autoscaling supports NetScaler features along with NetScaler Gateway - ICA Proxy feature. However, the following features that require a spotted configuration on cluster nodes are not supported:

• GSLB
• Other NetScaler Gateway features
• Telco features

For more information on spotted configuration, see Striped, partially striped, and spotted configurations.

Benefits

High availability of applications. Autoscaling ensures that your application always has the right number of NetScaler VPX instances to handle the traffic demands. Having the right number of instances ensures that your application is available all the time irrespective of the traffic demands.

Smart scaling decisions and zero touch configuration. Autoscaling continuously monitors your application and adds or removes NetScaler instances dynamically depending on the demand. When demand spikes upward, the instances are automatically added. When the demand spikes downward, the instances are automatically removed. The addition and removal of NetScaler instances happens automatically making it a zero-touch manual configuration.

Automatic DNS management. The NetScaler Console Autoscale feature offers automatic DNS management. Whenever new NetScaler instances are added, the domain names are updated automatically.

Graceful connection termination. During a scale-in, the NetScaler instances are gracefully removed avoiding the loss of client connections.

Better cost management. Autoscaling dynamically increases or decreases NetScaler instances as needed. This enables you to optimize the costs involved. You save money by launching instances only when they are needed and remove them when they are not needed. Thus, you pay only for the resources you use.

Observability. Observability is the key to application dev-ops or IT personnel to monitor the health of the application. The NetScaler Console’s Autoscale dashboard enables you to visualize the threshold parameter values, Autoscale trigger time stamps, events, and the instances participating in Autoscale.

Licensing requirements

The NetScaler instances that are created for the NetScaler Autoscale group use NetScaler Advanced or Premium NetScaler licenses.

You can choose one of the following methods to license NetScalers provisioned by NetScaler Console:

• Using NetScaler licenses present in NetScaler Console: Configure pooled capacity, VPX licenses, or virtual CPU licenses while creating the Autoscale group. So, when a new instance is provisioned for an Autoscale group, the already configured license type is automatically applied to the provisioned instance.

  • Pooled Capacity: Allocates bandwidth to every provisioned instance in the Autoscale group. Ensure you have the necessary bandwidth available in NetScaler Console to provision new instances. For more information, see Configure Pooled Capacity.

    Each NetScaler instance in the Autoscale group checks out one instance license and the specified bandwidth from the pool.

  • VPX licenses: Applies the VPX licenses to newly provisioned instances. Ensure you have the necessary number of VPX licenses available in NetScaler Console to provision new instances.

    When a NetScaler VPX instance is provisioned, the instance checks out the license from the NetScaler Console. For more information, see NetScaler VPX check-in and check-out licensing.

  • Virtual CPU licenses: Applies virtual CPU licenses to newly provisioned instances. This license specifies the number of CPUs entitled to a NetScaler VPX instance. Ensure you have the necessary number of Virtual CPUs in NetScaler Console to provision new instances.

    When a NetScaler VPX instance is provisioned, the instance checks out the virtual CPU license from the NetScaler Console. For more information, see NetScaler virtual CPU licensing.

  When the provisioned instances are destroyed or de-provisioned, the applied licenses are automatically returned to NetScaler Console.

  To monitor the consumed licenses, navigate to the Networks > Licenses page.

• Using cloud subscription licenses: Configure NetScaler licenses available in the cloud marketplace while creating the Autoscale group. So, when a new instance is provisioned for the Autoscale group, the license is obtained from the following marketplaces:

  • AWS
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Google Cloud