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 one. VIP’s, Monitors and other objects!
When dealing with the Citrix NetScalers there is a lot to get your head around, especially when you are still relatively new to the product / technology. The different licensing models, all of the ADC (Application Delivery Controller) features (and there are a lot) the secure remote access gateway functionality and a whole bunch of abbreviations like NSIP, SNIP, MIP, VIP and so on and so forth, which will have your head spinning in no time. You have to know about monitors, static routes, load balancing, HA and more. A very interesting, powerful but potentially confusing product when starting out.
Citrix NetScaler Gateway, the basics!
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?!