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Citrix NetScaler ADC Reports
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The objective of the Citrix NetScaler ADC reports is to aid administrators in analyzing the usage trends of the NetScaler appliances in their organization, including any Load Balancers and Gateways running under the NetScalers.
For a selected time frame and selected appliances (NetScalers, Load Balancers, Gateways), the reports present data about past activity and performance, either individually for each appliance or in summary form for all selected appliances.
Three reports are available for this purpose:
- Citrix NetScaler ADC report
- Citrix NetScaler Load Balancing report
- Citrix NetScaler Gateway report
Figure 1: Citrix NetScaler ADC report
Examples of questions these reports are designed to answer are:
- Which NetScalers were available during the selected time period?
- Is the workload shared evenly among the organization’s NetScalers?
- Were there any configuration changes on our NetScaler appliances and, if so, when did they occur?
- Is NetScaler X itself causing bottlenecks?
- Should we add more capacity to serve the Load Balancers?
- How many requests does Load Balancer X usually handle during business hours?
- Are the Load Balancers traffic and behavior influencing user experience?
- How many users does Gateway X usually handle during a selected time period?
Sections of the NetScaler Reports
Each of these reports is composed of three sections:
- Section 1: Report parameters
- Section 2: Graphs presenting data about the selected appliances (NetScalers, Load Balancers, Gateways ) over the selected time period
- Section 3: Grid containing additional details about each appliance of the selected type (NetScalers, Load Balancers, Gateways ) that is included in the report
Report Parameters
Section 1 of each report contains controls with which you can select the scope of the report.
Figure 2: Section 1: Parameters section of the Citrix NetScaler Load Balancing report
Select the parameters as follows :
Time frame: On the upper-right, choose the period of time to include in the report.
NetScalers: From the first dropdown list, choose the NetScalers to include in the report. (By default, all are selected.) When you are finished, select OK.
Figure 3: Selected NetScalers in the dropdown listLoad Balancers (Load Balancing report) or Gateways (Gateway report): From the second dropdown list, choose the Load Balancers or Gateways to include in the report. (By default, all are selected.) When you are finished, select OK.
This dropdown list does not exist in the Citrix NetScaler ADC report.
- Mode: From the display-mode dropdown list, choose the display mode for the graphs, as follows:
Figure 4: Display-mode dropdown list
- One-line – summary: Each value shown in a graph represents the values of all the selected NetScalers combined. If the metric is a percentage, each value is the average of the percentages of all the selected appliances. If the metric is any other type of quantity, each value is the sum of the average values of all the selected appliances.
Figure 5: “One line – summary” mode
- One line per appliance: The values in the graphs are plotted separately for each selected NetScaler.
Figure 6: “One line per appliance” mode
Citrix NetScaler ADC Report: Graphs and Grid
Sections 2 and 3 of the Citrix NetScaler ADC report contain the charts described below.
Graphs (NetScaler Report)
The following graphs appear in section 2 of the Citrix NetScaler ADC report.
Graph | Contents |
Traffic In/Out | The total (average) rate at which incoming and outgoing traffic were handled by the NICs of all (each) of the selected NetScaler appliances together (individually), in Mbps |
Packet CPU | Average packet-CPU utilization of all (each) of the selected NetScaler appliances, as a percentage |
Memory | Average memory utilization of all (each) of the selected NetScaler appliances, as a percentage |
HDX Sessions | Total (average) number of HDX sessions underway on all (each) of the selected NetScaler appliances together (individually) |
Management CPU | Average utilization of management CPU on all (each) of the selected NetScaler appliances, as a percentage |
Grid Contents (NetScaler Report)
The last section of the Citrix NetScaler ADC report is a grid that presents additional data about each of the NetScalers included in the report. The data in the grid relates to the timeframe of the report. Some of the metrics’ values in the grid are also links that can be used to access more information, as explained below.
Some of the columns described below are hidden by default. To see them, in any of the column headings, select , and then select Columns to open the column settings. Select the columns you want to see, and then click outside of the list of columns to close the settings.
The grid of the Citrix NetScaler ADC report contains the metrics and functionality described below.
Column | Description |
NetScaler Name | Name of the NetScaler
|
Management IP | IP address used to connect to the NetScaler |
Packet CPU | Average CPU utilization of the NetScaler appliance, as a percentage |
Memory Used | Average memory utilization on the NetScaler appliance, as a percentage |
% of LBs Up | The average proportion of active Load Balancers relative to the total number of Load Balancers on the NetScaler appliance, as a percentage
|
% of GWs Up | The average proportion of active Gateways relative to the total number of Gateways on the NetScaler appliance, as a percentage
|
Traffic In | The average rate of incoming traffic through all the NICs on the NetScaler appliance, in Mbps |
Traffic Out | The average rate of outgoing traffic through all the NICs on the NetScaler appliance, in Mbps |
HDX Sessions | The average number of HDX sessions on the NetScaler appliance |
Version | The version number of the NetScaler software running on the NetScaler |
Management CPU | Average management-CPU utilization of the NetScaler appliance, as a percentage |
# of LBs | The average count of Load Balancers on the NetScaler appliance
|
# of GWs | The average count of Gateways on the NetScaler appliance
|
Config | Click the Config info link to open a list of configuration events that occurred on the NetScaler in the timeframe of the report. Note |
HA Current Node State | High Availability state of the NetScaler (primary, secondary) |
HA Sync Failures | Number of times the configuration of primary and secondary failed to synchronize since the last transition Note This counter resets when a connection between the pair of nodes is established. |
HA Heartbeats Receive Rate | The average number of heartbeat packets the NetScaler received from its High Availability peer node |
HA Heartbeats Send Rate | The average number of heartbeat packets the NetScaler sent to its High Availability peer node |
NetScaler Configuration History
Changes in NetScaler configuration can cause unexpected problems to arise. Ascertaining when changes were made can help you identify the sources of these issues. The grid in section 3 of the Citrix NetScaler ADC report contains links to information about when NetScaler configuration changes were saved, and when they were implemented, within the timeframe of the report. The list of changes can also be exported to a CSV file, which can be opened by spreadsheet applications like MS Excel and/or saved for future reference.
To see a list of configuration changes that were made on a NetScaler:
- In the Config column, click the Config info link of the NetScaler. The Configuration changes window opens and displays the list.
Figure 7: Configuration changes window
Citrix NetScaler Load Balancing report: Graphs and Grid
Sections 2 and 3 of the Citrix NetScaler Load Balancing report contain the elements described below.
Graphs (Load Balancing Report)
The following graphs appear in section 2 of the Load Balancing report.
Graph | Contents |
Connections | Total (average) number of client connections to all (each) of the selected virtual servers together (individually) |
Traffic In/Out | Total (average) rate of request/response bits, for all (each) of the selected load balancers together (individually), in Mbps |
vServer Health | The average percentage of services bound to all (each) of the selected virtual servers that were in an Upstate |
Grid Contents (Load Balancing Report)
The last section of the Citrix NetScaler Load Balancing report is a grid that presents additional data about each of the Load Balancers included in the report. The data relates to the timeframe of the report, and the averages are calculated for the entire timeframe.
The grid of the Citrix NetScaler Load Balancing report contains the metrics described below.
Column | Description |
Load Balancer Name | Name of the Load Balancer
|
Primary IP Address | The IP address of the vServer |
Primary Port | The port on which the service is running |
Protocol | Protocol used by the Load Balancer for connections (HTTP, SSL, etc.) |
Traffic In | The average rate of request bits for the Load Balancer, in Mbps |
Traffic Out | The average rate of response bits for the Load Balancer, in Mbps |
vServer Health | The average percentage of services bound to this virtual server that were in an Upstate |
Active Services | The average number of active services bound to this virtual server |
Inactive Services | The average number of inactive services bound to this virtual server |
Hit Rate | Average rate per second of total requests received by this Load Balancer |
Spill Over | Maximum number of spillovers experienced by the virtual server |
Surge Count | The average number of requests in the surge queue |
Method | The load-balancing method used by this Load Balancer (Round Robin, Least Connection, etc.) |
Citrix NetScaler Gateway Report: Graphs and Grid
Sections 2 and 3 of the Citrix NetScaler Gateway report contain the elements described below.
Graphs (Gateway Report)
The following graphs appear in section 2 of the Gateway report.
Graph | Contents |
Concurrent Users | Total (average) number of user connections to all (each) of the selected gateway services together (individually) |
Traffic In/Out | Total (average) rate of request/response bits, for all (each) of the selected gateways together (individually), in Mbps |
Request/Response Rate | Total (average) rate of requests/responses, for all (each) of the selected gateways together (individually) |
Grid Contents (Gateway Report)
The last section of the Citrix NetScaler Gateway report is a grid that presents additional data about each of the Gateways included in the report. The data relates to the timeframe of the report, and the averages are calculated for the entire timeframe.
The grid of the Citrix NetScaler Gateway report contains the metrics described below.
Column | Description |
Gateway Name | Name of the Gateway
|
IP Address | The IP address on which the service is running |
Primary Port | The port on which the service is running |
Traffic In | The average rate of request bits received by the Gateway, in Mbps |
Traffic Out | The average rate of response bits received by the Gateway, in Mbps |
Concurrent Users | The average number of concurrent user connections to the Gateway service |
Request Rate | The average rate of incoming requests to the Gateway |
Response Rate | The average rate of outgoing responses from the Gateway |
Certificate Name | The name of the certificate |
Certificate Expiration Date | The expiration date of the certificate |
Troubleshooting
In some cases, a NetScaler report will not open when you select it from the Insights menu. In these cases, error pages are displayed instead.
The most common cause of this problem is that the ControlUp software needs to be upgraded to a version that supports this report (version 7.1 and higher).
Figure 8: Error page