When you want to run NetScaler, the question of the right platform quickly arises. Even companies that have been using NetScaler for years are confronted with this question at the latest when the next upgrade is due. The following hardware platforms are available: Citrix NetScaler MPX: NetScaler in hardware, MPX appliances have SSL acceleration chips Citrix NetScaler VPX: NetScaler as virtual...
NetScaler N-Factor flows discontinued, what now
Citrix has announced that the N-Factor Flow Visualizer will no longer be supported in the NetScaler ADC. I personally liked to design my N-Factor Flows using this visualizer, because it is convenient and hides the complexity of N-Factor. I also recommended that my customers design their multifactor authentication using this flow designer. However, later versions of NetScaler 14.1 shows N-Factor...
A tool to recover lost NetScaler passwords
My college Thomas Kötzing did it: He published a tool to recover from lost passwords. You can find this tool from here. Of course, you need to have the content from /nsconfig/keys to do so.
No more CTA
Starting with February 2025, Citrix cancelled both, the CTP and CTA program. So I lost my status as a CTA. This is not just sad for me but for all of the great community we had. I became friends with some of my fellow CTAs and some of the CTPs as well. I am thankful for these 4 years full of exciting projects, friendship and a great community. I hope to see you again, my friends!
A really good WAF for NetScaler AAA/Gateway
Last update: March 2nd 2025 With NetScaler 14.1, Citrix started to allow binding Web Application Firewall (WAF) policies to the gateway and to a AAA vServer or a Gateway. Why does it make sense to bind a WAF to the gateway? The more popular Citrix NetScaler became, the greater the interest of hackers in NetScaler grew. And NetScaler is now a very widely used tool for remote access. Due to the...
Deploy Native OTP on Citrix NetScaler using an n-factor flow
n-factor has been around for a few years now, and n-factor flows have also been on board a Citrix NetScaler for some time. n-factor flows are much clearer than “traditional” n-factor authentication, but there are a few obstacles on the way to a good deployment. One problem that I have failed at is SSO (Single Sign On) when the password is the second factor. The deployment I am...
Changing favicon and header-colour of Citrix NetScaler’s and Citrix ADM’s GUI
One of the most annoying things that can happen to you is making changes to the wrong NetScaler. I don’t know about you, but it happens to me from time to time because I usually have several NetScalers open at the same time, ideally NetScalers with identical configurations: the test environment, the integration environment and the production environment. Experiments and trials in the...
Where did Citrix NetScaler’s dig command go?
In the latest versions of Citrix NetScaler ADC, the dig command is missing. Where did it disappear to and why? The reason is relatively simple: recent versions of BSD from version 10 do not support dig anymore, it has been replaced by drill. The good thing is that drill has almost the same functions and parameters as dig, so you just have to replace dig with drill. The current Citrix NetScaler...
Citrix NetScaler Gateway: How to log on to different domains
A real-world problem: My customer had a gateway that could log on to two different domains (Domain1 and Domain2). For each domain, there was a Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD) environment. If you log on to Domain1, then you should get connected to CVAD1, if you log on to Domain2, then to CVAD2. There was an additional problem: it was possible that the same user with the same password...
How to find out, when a STA went down on Citrix NetScaler ADC
Recently, I came across a question: When did the STA go down? How can we find out? Well, that’s easy to tell, as it gets logged. Unfortunately, the log isn’t that easy to understand. And, of course, like all logs in Citrix NetScaler, it disappears in a bit more than a day due to logfile rollover. Where do we search for these logs? Like always, my first source is Syslog. In a...