High Availability considerations

[Royce Mendoza1709160095]

Hi

 

I have a 1 existing Citrix ADC VPX 12.1 appliance and currently use for load balancing and ICA proxy. My question is we're planning to implement a new Citrix ADC VPX for High Availability.

 

My question is, can I configure HA with different Citrix ADC version? For example my existing 12.1 and my newly installed 13.0 Appliance?  

[Daniel Weppeler1709159306]

Hey,

 

I would say that this is not supported because the configuration will synchronize with the secondary node during creating the HA. This means that the firmware must match.

 

After you have created your Netscaler HA pair, you can first update the secondary node. 

See more details here: How to Set Up a High Availability Pair on ADC (citrix.com)

 

Cheers,

Daniel

 

[Johannes Norz]

The most precise answer would be:

 

Yes we can (trump-fans, sorry for a political incorrect joke).

 

BUT! It's not supported and, like Daniel mentioned, there is no synchronization going on, so both boxes will not synchronize configuration. However, they will form an HA pair.

To successfully create HA,

• both ADCs should be on exactly the same hardware (VPX, MPX, SDX, CPX, BLX). Should is different from must!
• they need the same firm-ware.
• they should have equivalent cabling (so 0/1 and 0/1 connected to each other as well as traffic interfaces like 100/10 and 100/10 connected to each other. HA synchronization may fail, If they don't, or traffic packets may get lost).

It's wise to set the "original" ADC, meaning, the one you already used, to stay primary (set ha node -hastatus STAYPRIMARY) prior to actual setting up HA. Otherwise you risk to get the "new", the not configured box primary, ald loose all configuration (the ns.conf files will still be there, but it's 10 minutes of fun to get back to the original state.

 

Greetings from Austria

 

Johannes Norz

CTA, CCI, CCE-N

https://blog.norz.at

https://wonderkitchen.network

[Royce Mendoza1709160095]

6 hours ago, Johannes Norz said:

The most precise answer would be:

 

Yes we can (trump-fans, sorry for a political incorrect joke).

 

BUT! It's not supported and, like Daniel mentioned, there is no synchronization going on, so both boxes will not synchronize configuration. However, they will form an HA pair.

To successfully create HA,

• both ADCs should be on exactly the same hardware (VPX, MPX, SDX, CPX, BLX). Should is different from must!
• they need the same firm-ware.
• they should have equivalent cabling (so 0/1 and 0/1 connected to each other as well as traffic interfaces like 100/10 and 100/10 connected to each other. HA synchronization may fail, If they don't, or traffic packets may get lost).

It's wise to set the "original" ADC, meaning, the one you already used, to stay primary (set ha node -hastatus STAYPRIMARY) prior to actual setting up HA. Otherwise you risk to get the "new", the not configured box primary, ald loose all configuration (the ns.conf files will still be there, but it's 10 minutes of fun to get back to the original state.

 

Greetings from Austria

 

Johannes Norz

CTA, CCI, CCE-N

https://blog.norz.at

https://wonderkitchen.network

 

Hi Johannes,

 

Just an additional question. As stated on my post, I have an existing NetScaler VPX version 11.1 Build 50.10. My another concern is would it be possible if they are on a different build? Can both NetScaler synchronize? The only available on Citrix downloads is NetScaler VPX  11.1 Build 65.12. 

 

 

After doing HA, i'm also planning to Upgrade to version 13.

 

Thank you.

 

[Johannes Norz]

2 hours ago, Royce Mendoza1709160095 said:

 

Just an additional question. As stated on my post, I have an existing NetScaler VPX version 11.1 Build 50.10. My another concern is would it be possible if they are on a different build? Can both NetScaler synchronize? The only available on Citrix downloads is NetScaler VPX  11.1 Build 65.12.

 

 

No. They won't synchronize. Command propagation and the synchronization of the configuration is only possible if they share the same built number. You have to upgrade to the same built version first and create HA than.

I would avoid using version 13, as there is no stable built. I consider version 13 to be a beta version. I would go with 12.1 and upgrade to version 13 as soon as 13.1 is there.

Greetings

Johannes
CTA, CCI and CCE-N
https://blog.norz.at

https://wonderkitchen.network