Hello Everyone
It’s Andrew again over at Cloud Software Group. One thing I've noticed in my role is the steady stream of questions about NetScaler. This update aims to provide you with valuable pointers to keep you up-to-date and ahead of the curve! 🚀
Your continued engagement and feedback are greatly appreciated.
Agenda for this week:
Build status and updates
Best Practice
Support and Security Bulletins.
NetScaler Community site
Feedback on this newsletter
1. Build status and updates
The details for the various builds have been summarized below, as this helps plan for new releases in your environment. Starting from 13.1 there will be the following:
Firmware will have a 3-year upgrade cycle, where new features are added, called the ‘Feature Phase’.
The ‘Maintenance Phase’ then starts, and it is then supported for another 3 years with bug fixes and security updates.
There will then be 1 year of extended support with security fixes only.
Typically, the guidance for NetScaler & NetScaler ADM build releases is that the Management platform needs to be the same or newer than the NetScaler(s) that it manages. I typically, go with the latest for ADM.
The NetScaler has multiple form factors to support different environments. NetScaler is built on a single operating system with a software-based architecture, so the behaviour will be the same no matter which is used — hardware, virtual machine, bare metal, or container.
Current Build Versions:
No builds were changed this week.
ADM Note:
Notice about upcoming Syslog feature deprecation
The Syslog feature will be deprecated on 15 January 2024. We recommend that you remove any ADM-specific syslog configuration from your NetScaler instances to avoid any unwanted traffic from NetScaler to ADM. Also, export your existing NetScaler syslog data from ADM.
EOS Appliances
To be clear, these Appliances are End of Sale, they will live and run for another 5 years and then….
EOL Appliances
Here is a table showing the significant EOL appliance events for the next 12 months. A common question about EOL is ‘Can I offer you some $ to extend this?’ Unfortunately, EOL is an absolute, there are no extensions, honest.
Some common questions about EOL
2. Best Practice
Feature Status changes
This was on the support site and I wanted to flag it under best practice. The tables list the various ‘old’ features and the corresponding replacements. A handy support doc.
Notice of Status Change Announcement for Netscaler Classic Policy Based Features and Functionalities
Citrix Systems, Inc. announces a Notice of Status Change (NSC) for Citrix ADC Classic policy-based features and functionalities. Modified: 21 Dec 2023
3. Support and Security bulletins
These are the latest articles on the support portal knowledgebase, sorted by modified date. Here are 8 useful articles (IMO). The site is located here.
Security updates:
This is the latest security bulletin, it was last updated on the 27th, so nothing new this week:
NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway Security Bulletin for CVE-2023-4966 and CVE-2023-4967
NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway Security Bulletin for CVE-2023-4966 and CVE-2023-4967 Last Modified: 27 Nov 2023
Support Docs:
NetScaler ns.log Files not Compressed NSCALLHOME-252
NetScaler ns.log Files not Compressed NSCALLHOME-252.
Modified: 21 Dec 2023 | NetScaler,NetScaler Gateway
What is maximum HTTP header length on NetScaler
What is the maximum HTTP header length on NetScaler? There are limits, it’s good to know what can be changed to suit your workload.
Modified: 21 Dec 2023 | NetScaler,NetScaler Gateway
What is "set aaa paramter -apitokencache"
What is "set aaa paramter -apitokencache". A good one to know if you use OAuth
Modified: 21 Dec 2023 | NetScaler,NetScaler Gateway
How to modify knowledge-based question on Netscaler Gateway
How to modify knowledge-based question on Netscaler Gateway
Modified: 21 Dec 2023 | NetScaler,NetScaler Gateway
How does tcp buffering work? Buffering with some links and details for who the NetScaler will tell.
Modified: 21 Dec 2023 | NetScaler,NetScaler Gateway
Meaning of deviation parameter under NetScaler monitor setting
Meaning of deviation parameter under NetScaler monitor setting
Modified: 21 Dec 2023 | NetScaler,NetScaler Gateway
SDX Device Crypto Virtual Functions 0
SDX Device Crypto Virtual Functions 0
Modified: 21 Dec 2023 | NetScaler,NetScaler Gateway
4. Events - NetScaler Community Site
The main site is here, it has tips and helps with your NetScaler setup. Here are three events worth a look at that were delivered in December. The events site is here
NetScaler Live Demo
Seamlessly migrate your existing deployments to NetScaler Cluster
Americas/Europe/Asia Wednesday, Dec 06th, 2023 11:00 AM EDT / 8:00 AM PST / 5:00 PM CE
Watch it on demand here
Agenda
A NetScaler cluster is formed by grouping NetScaler appliances together. NetScaler clustering can provide active-active traffic processing on 2 or up to 32 NetScaler appliances either physical or virtual. Each appliance must be of the same license type, software build, hardware build (MPX/SDX) or virtual build (VPX/SDX).Â
Seamlessly shift the MPX Workload to a BLX running on Bare Metal Linux Servers
Americas/Europe/Asia, Wednesday, Dec 13th, 2023, 11:00 AM EST / 8:00 AM PST / 5:00 PM CET
Watch it on demand Here
Agenda
Join us for a live demonstration session where we will dive into the what NetScaler BLX has to offer and how you can drive seamless migration from NetScaler MPX to BLX. Uncover the techniques and best practices to supercharge your application delivery and network performance . Get ready to explore the keys to achieve top-tier efficiency in this interactive, hands-on session.
NetScaler Connect Webinar
Americas Thursday, Dec 21st, 2023 11.00AM EST / 8:00 AM PST
Europe/Asia Thursday, Dec 21st, 2023 9:30 AM CEST
Agenda:
NetScaler Experts will cover:
1. Importance of TLS
2. Unified AppSec Config
3. NetScaler Next-Gen API (Technical Preview)
4. Best practices to capture traffic on ADC
5. Feedback for this newsletter
Naturally, if there is something that you feel should be added/removed or called out, drop me a note; Andrew.Scott@cloud.com. Any mistakes are all mine.
I would be happy to get some feedback on what you could do with seeing more of or what you find hard to set up. You can get all the previous newsletters plus other articles here:
Have a great holiday!