Master NetScaler Monitoring with ControlUp

At ControlUp we aim to provide you with the best infrastructure management capabilities for virtual environments, and NetScaler is a critical component for many organizations. Starting with ControlUp 7.1 fully integrated NetScaler monitoring and remediation capabilities were introduced to the ControlUp real-time platform.

Let’s take a deeper look at some of ControlUp’s NetScaler-specific monitoring. In the ControlUp Real-Time Console you will notice an “Add NetScaler” button, and clicking it will prompt you to provide connection information to the NetScaler appliance.

Information provided in this screen will allow the “Data Collector” to communicate through NetScaler’s NITRO API, and will enable data visualization in the Console.

The required fields are straightforward;

• Protocol – The network protocol that ControlUp’s Data Collector uses to communicate with the NetScaler appliance – either HTTP or HTTPS.
• Management Address – The management interface’s IP address for the NetScaler appliance, which is the same IP address that’s used to access the NetScaler management dashboard.
• Name – The name that will appear as the NetScaler connection in the Console. This field has no influence on the connection, and is just a descriptive label of the NetScaler connection.
• Credentials – Username and password for an account that has permissions to access NetScaler management. ControlUp uses these credentials in order to collect the NetScaler’s management information, to add a new connection or credentials, or to choose a user.

Once connected, you will notice that the NetScaler appliance and its features are fully integrated into the Console in a continuous and natural flow.

Let’s explore the NetScaler sub-entities which you can monitor and drill down into:

NetScaler Monitoring

• The NetScaler entity shows appliance’s metrics, such as its health and stress levels.
• The Network Interface “Card View” is used to investigate NetScaler network interfaces. In this NIC view you will see a list of all the network interfaces and their utilization.

Load Balancer

• The Load Balancer entity shows configuration and stress metrics on the Load Balancer Virtual Server. The Load Balancer entity encapsulates the Load Balancer Service Groups as well as the Load Balancer Service Members with their respective metrics. ControlUp is unique in the ability to carry out remediation actions directly from the Console by right-clicking on any NetScaler name and directly enabling or disabling the load balancer virtual server.

Gateway

• The Gateway entity shows configuration settings and metrics that reflect the stress on the respective gateway. Drilling down to a specific Gateway will take us to a list of all of the STAs configured for it.

Here are some metrics of a specific Gateway Virtual Server:

Out of the box you get the most important metrics which make it easier to identify abnormal stress and behavior on the Gateway, and you can always add custom metrics of your choice.

Citrix XenDesktop/XenApp administrators need to know the actual state of a site. With the introduction of NetScaler monitoring, ControlUp now provides an aggregated view of all the layers of the Citrix stack, including the NetScaler Gateway, XenDesktop Site, hypervisor infrastructure, and Windows VDAs.

HDX Sessions

Lastly, the HDX Sessions on the NetScaler Gateway (formerly known as ICA Connections) complete our end-to-end virtual infrastructure monitoring with integrated NetScaler support.

In addition to HDX Sessions monitoring, you can also perform remediation actions, such as “Kill Session”.

Next Steps

ControlUp is the most effective tool for monitoring and managing your environment, finding root causes to issues, and taking remediation actions in your Citrix virtual environment. We believe you will agree. With Integrated NetScaler Monitoring ControlUp now delivers a holistic view of all the components of your Citrix infrastructure, including the NetScaler Gateway, XenDesktop Site, hypervisor infrastructure, and Windows VDAs. Would you like to give ControlUp a try? Our trials are full-featured, free, and quick. It takes longer to watch a couple of YouTube videos on monitoring and troubleshooting than it does to install ControlUp in your environment and start monitoring and troubleshooting in a way never possible before.