A brief look at NetScaler address types

In this section, we will briefly go over the various address types in NetScaler:

A brief look at NetScaler address types

IP addresses used in a regular NetScaler deployment.

NetScaler IP

NetScaler IP (NSIP) is the Management IP address, unique to each unit. The following are some of the features:

  • Needs to be configured as part of the initial setup
  • Any subsequent changes will require a reboot
  • Typically is a private IP address for security reasons

Note

Authentication requests will be sourced from this IP by default

Virtual IP

Virtual IP (VIP) is the IP that users land on and is usually added as part of configuring a feature.

Mapped IP

Mapped IP (MIP) is an IP that the NetScaler can also use to talk to the Server. Its features are as follows:

  • Essentially relaying requests and receiving responses on behalf of the client.
  • You can add as many MIPs as you like but only if they are from the same subnet as the NSIP.
  • MIP only exists these days for legacy reasons; everything you can do with a MIP you can do with a SNIP. So follow on to the next.

Subnet IP

Subnet IP (SNIP) is the defacto IP for NetScaler to Server communication. This IP is everything the MIP is, but without the limitation of having to be in the same subnet as the NSIP.

As a bonus, adding a SNIP will also add a direct route on the NetScaler to facilitate communication with the Servers. Check out the illustration with a routing table, as follows:

Subnet IP

Here, 192.168.1.150 is the NSIP that evidently sits in a different subnet from 172.16.1.151, which is the SNIP. In this case, the NetScaler will add a direct route to 172.16.1.0 with itself as the gateway.

You can, also use the SNIP to manage the NetScaler (among other IPs) by enabling management access. This especially helps in the HA environment by ensuring you always arrive at the primary when logging in to make any changes:

> set nsip 172.16.1.151 -mgmtAccess ENABLED

GSLB Site IP

A GSLB Site IP (GSLBsiteIP), in general terms is a Data Center. This IP only comes into play if you use GSLB.

This exists to enable communication between different sites allowing them to exchange operational information via a customer protocol called Metric Exchange Protocol (MEP).

Note

You would also use the –mgmtAccess command with the GSLBsiteIP for one specific use case. Thus enabling the GSLB configuration to be synchronized between sites. Failure of the GSLB config sync functionality has very often come down to just this.

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