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Troubleshooting - NetScaler Load Balancing & Packet Drop

The document provides steps to troubleshoot NetScaler load balancing issues. Key steps include: 1. Check the VIP traffic statistics and service status in the GUI to identify any down services or low traffic. 2. Use the CLI to check VIP and service details and identify any configuration issues. 3. Take a packet capture to analyze traffic and identify drops or errors. 4. Check the NetScaler license for expiration, type, and that current throughput is within limits. 5. Search log files for error messages containing terms like "packet", "drop" to help identify the root cause.

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256 views8 pages

Troubleshooting - NetScaler Load Balancing & Packet Drop

The document provides steps to troubleshoot NetScaler load balancing issues. Key steps include: 1. Check the VIP traffic statistics and service status in the GUI to identify any down services or low traffic. 2. Use the CLI to check VIP and service details and identify any configuration issues. 3. Take a packet capture to analyze traffic and identify drops or errors. 4. Check the NetScaler license for expiration, type, and that current throughput is within limits. 5. Search log files for error messages containing terms like "packet", "drop" to help identify the root cause.

Uploaded by

ajit
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Troubleshooting - NetScaler Load Balancing

Troubleshooting - NetScaler Load Balancing

Contents
Check VIP Traffic Statistics GUI ............................................................................................................................................... 2
Check VIP and Services using CLI ............................................................................................................................................ 2
Take a Packet Capture............................................................................................................................................................. 4
Basic Packet Capture ........................................................................................................................................................... 4
Traffic capture showing TO and FROM traffic .................................................................................................................... 4
Check License .......................................................................................................................................................................... 5
License expiration ............................................................................................................................................................... 5
Check License Type ............................................................................................................................................................. 6
Check Current Throughput ................................................................................................................................................. 6
SSL Throughput info ............................................................................................................................................................ 8
Check for Packet Drops ........................................................................................................................................................... 8
Troubleshooting - NetScaler Load Balancing

Check VIP Traffic Statistics GUI

 Go to Configuration > Traffic Management > Load Balancing > Virtual Servers
 Right click the VIP then choose Statistics.

 Virtual Server Summary shows status and health. If Green and UP this is good.

 Scroll to the bottom and view Bound Services to see the Service status. This displays the load balanced backend
servers and Service Hits. Service Hits will show real-time traffic.

 If anything is Red or Down, check the IP addresses are correct.

Check VIP and Services using CLI

 Connect to NetScaler CLI using Putty and login as nsroot.


 Type sh lb vserver VIPname and check information as highlighted in yellow.
Troubleshooting - NetScaler Load Balancing

 Type sh service Servicename and check information.


Troubleshooting - NetScaler Load Balancing

Take a Packet Capture


 Connect to NetScaler CLI using Putty and login as nsroot.

Basic Packet Capture


Basic capture will capture ALL traffic.

start nstrace (Captures all traffic)


show nstrace (Shows the status/location of nstrace and if it is running etc.)
stop nstrace (Stops the packet capture)

Traffic capture showing TO and FROM traffic


Will capture specific traffic to IP.

start nstrace -size 0 -filter "CONNECTION.IP.EQ(1.1.1.1)" -link ENABLED

 You can grab the packet capture file and open with Wireshark - Use WinSCP to grab the file.
/var/nstrace/nstrace1.cap
Troubleshooting - NetScaler Load Balancing

Check License

License expiration
 Check license file via #Shell cd /nsconfig/license
 Is and CAT to the .lic file.
 Check the license is Permanent (license should not expire)

Troubleshooting - NetScaler Load Balancing

Check License Type


Login to the GUI and go to System > Licenses check the Model ID, this number is the throughput.

Check Current Throughput


Go to the Dashboard and view Throughput as below.

The example below is running 25MB license so we can see the throughput is nearly maxed out.
Troubleshooting - NetScaler Load Balancing

 Clicking on the Throughput shows the interface.

 You can also click counters and add others.


Troubleshooting - NetScaler Load Balancing

SSL Throughput info

When deciding on the appropriate NetScaler platform the key resource metric that should be targeted is SSL
throughput. SSL throughput – is the gigabits of SSL traffic that may be processed per second (Gbps).

To determine the SSL throughput required by NetScaler platform multiply the maximum concurrent bandwidth for a
datacenter by 1.02.

Maximum Concurrent Bandwidth x 1.02 = SSL Throughput

Assuming 128Mbps maximum concurrent bandwidth, the appropriate NetScaler model would be:

128Mbps x 1.02 = 130Mbps

Check for Packet Drops

1. Login to Netscaler with suspected packet drop.


2. Go to shell, navigate to this location  /var/log

a. Grab the details about the time stamp when packet drop occurred, this info would be present in the
event link which is attached to the SNOW ticket.
Go to the bottom of the snow ticket you will get the EM7 event link open it at Citrix browser of QS jump
server.

Let’s suppose the drop occurred on July 15, an event must be triggered from NetScaler box for the
knowledge of our monitoring system. Since the event is triggered from Netscaler box itself, so it will have
a logged event for the same in its log files.

b. Back to the Shell prompt at this location (/var/log):


i. Run this command ls –lart, this will fetch the details about each file present in the directory
along with its time stamp of its creation date.
ii. We at this point are interested to find the file named
ns.log OR ns.log.1gz OR ns.log.2.gz with creation date as 15th July.
iii. If there is no file which is generated on 15th July, look for ns.log file generated on 16th and keep
looking till you find the next ns.log which is generated after 15th July.
c. Once you have the located ns.log or ns.log.gz, unzip it if required.
d. Cat the file with the grep keywords like these  (packet, Throughput , drop, license)

You should see an error similar to below:

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