This continues to be a topic of interest. Not only is it interesting and fun (right?) to know what is going on underneath the hood once you fill in your user credentials, it can also be very helpful when it comes to troubleshooting certain issues. While I have written about the login, enumeration and launch processes before, again I managed to include a couple of subtle changes/details.
Citrix NetScaler… The basics continued, part seven. Split Tunneling!
It has been a while but here is some more NetScaler madness for you, on Spilt Tunnelling this time. Hopefully I’m not boring you guys just yet (because there are a few more coming). Split tunnelling is a feature specific to SSL VPN’s and controls how the client (plugin) decides what traffic must (or may) be sent through the VPN tunnel and what traffic may be sent out directly on its local network, usually involving Internet facing traffic.
Citrix NetScaler… The basics continued, part six. Content Switching!
If you have been following this series up till now, meaning you actually have read part one through five, then Content Switching should be a relatively easy concept to grasp. If you understand what a vServer is, how a service and server object are bound to each other and that we use monitors to constantly check if all is up and running then you are basically good to go. All we need now is a content switch vServer and a basic load balance setup and take it from there.
Citrix NetScaler… The basics continued, part five. Global Server Load Balancing!
From a NetScaler perspective Global Service Load Balancing (GSLB) can seem pretty intimidating. In short, GSLB is used as a way to manage and control the traffic flow between two (or more) separate physical locations (data centers) that are, in most cases, geographically dispersed. This can be for either load balancing purposes, high availability, fault tolerance, disaster recovery and so on. The mechanism behind GSLB is based on Microsoft DNS.
Citrix NetScaler… The basics continued, part four. What about SSL?
I think we all know port 443 and the SSL (Secure Socket Layer) protocol that goes with it right? When securing our inbound (incoming) as well outbound (outgoing) network traffic we have to deal with things like certificates, public and private key’s, certificate authorities (CA), and so on and so forth. This can be confusing. Where do certificates get applied, what is a CA, what types of certificates are there and which ones do we use? Also, once applied, how does the NetScaler actually know who it is communicating with and how is traffic secured? Using the NetScaler to offload SSL you say? Let’s have a look.
The ultimate Citrix XenDesktop 7.x internals cheat sheet!
Ever wondered what happens after a user fills in his or her username and password? What the difference is between internal and external user authentication, resource enumeration and the accompanying launch process? Or what about Web-Interface and StoreFront, do they both have the same authentication mechanism? What are the differences between the server and desktop VDA’s? What about the VDA and XenDesktop internals, what happens inside a VDA when a resource is launched? How does a connection get brokered? Read about this and more during the next 8 (mini) chapters.
Continue ReadingCitrix NetScaler Gateway, the basics!
Average time to read: 7 minutes
I don’t want to spend to much time talking about the different kinds of editions and or licenses available, if you want to know about those I suggest you check out one of my previous articles here, or just give citrix.com a visit. Throughout this article I’d like to briefly focus on some of the basic terminology and traffic flow that comes with the NetScaler Gateway edition providing our users with secure remote access. This (the Gateway edition) is probably one of the most popular NetScaler implementations today, although, and as you might know, the NetScalers ADC edition also has the Gateway functionality build-in and can provide us with a bunch of additional features as well. Let’s have a look shall we?!