I have recently been
asked to learn the Citrix NetScaler platform and get the Citrix Certified
Professional (CCP) credentials. My first port of call was to download the
virtual appliance of the NetScaler to get some expsoure to it. If you have a
Citrix account you can download a free 90 day trial. You must choose which
hypervisor the appliance is going to run on to ensure you get the correct
download. I am using VMware Workstation, and the ESXi edition seems to work
fine.
When you have it
downloaded extract the zip file, an in this instance as I am using VMware the
appliance is in the form of an OVF file, right click on the OVF and
select Open with VMware Workstation.
When the appliance
has been imported it will appear like any other Virtual Machine in Workstation,
it is initally provisioned with the following virtual resources.
Boot the VM and let it
POST and then you will be prompted with the inital configuration screen, you
set an IP at this screen to allow remote management of the NetScaler with a web
browser.
Once you have saved
the settings browse to the IP via any Java enabled web browser. By default the
root credentials are nsroot/nsroot.
Next you have to
convert the code you received when the appliance was downloaded into a Citrix
License File, highlight and copy the License Code from the following
screen.
Login to the My
Citrix website and select All Licensing Tools, click the Activate
and Allocate Licenses tab. If you do not see any available licenses listed
click Don't see you product?
Then copy the License
Code into the website and click Continue.
You will get a
warning about the Host Name/ID the Citrix NetScaler is tied to the MAC
Address of the Virtual Appliance, I found this misleading at first as it
references Host ID which you would think meant the hostname. Click Continue.
To get the MAC
Address of the Citrix NetScaler Appliance I used ping on my Domain Controller
and then viewed the ARP cache on the machine to view the Layer 2 address of the
NetScaler.
Move back over to
the Citrix website and populate the Host ID field with the MAC Address,
it should be in the following format 000c29d7e7a9 with no dashes or
colons.
If the Citix website
accepts the license code it will give you the following prompt. Click OK.
Click the Download
button to save a local copy of the LIC file.
Browse to the
management IP of the NetScaler and login with the nsroot account, from
the Welcome screen you will be prompted to Update Licenses. Click
the Browse button and select the downloaded license file.
The appliance will
accept the license file if the MAC Address matches the hash contained within
the file, please note if you remove the VM's network adapter and readd a new
one the MAC Address will change and you will break your licensing.
Click Continue and the NetScaler will infom
that it requires a reboot, click Yes.
When the appliance
reboots log back in using nsroot and click on the Configuration tab,
if you click on the Show Unlicenses Features link, it will show nothing
is unlicensed this is due to it being a trial.
Expand System
and click on Settings, from here click Configure Basic Features.
For my next post I
will be using NetScaler to Load Balance Exchange 2013 Client Access Server's,
so I enabled the Load Balancing feature.
Now configure NTP
by clicking on the NTP Servers link, use the Add button. I
personally have pointed my NetScaler to one of my Domain Controllers to
synchronize time.
