Welcome to the second part in this blog post series covering Citrix ADC (formerly NetScaler) installation and configuration. In this post we will be covering the Subnet IP Address and allocating licences. The previous post can be found here – https://www.virtualmanc.co.uk/2019/05/17/deploying-citrix-application-delivery-controller-13-on-vmware-workstation-15/

Subnet IP Address

So what exactly is the Subnet IP Address (alternatively know as SNIP)? The ADC uses the SNIP Address to allow the ADC to communicate with servers on other subnets where there is not a route available. When communicating with those subnets the NetScaler uses the SNIP Address as the source address.

So in this example below (taken from https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/netscaler/12/networking/ip-addressing/configuring-netscaler-owned-ip-addresses/configuring-subnet-ip-addresses-snips.html) any communication between the ADC and S1 will be sent through 192.0.1.10. Any communication between ADC and S2 will be sent through 192.0.2.10.

I do not have multiple VLANs and subnets in my lab environment so I have just configured an IP on same subnet.

In the next screen we need to select a few options which will be different for your environment. You need enter a host name for the ADC, a DNS IP address, time zone & NTP Server.

After these have been entered the ADC will be rebooted and the configuration changes will take effect

Licensing

So at this stage we have a ADC Appliance which has been deployed and basic configuration performed. The next step before we can actually start deploying services to the ADC is to deploy a licence to it. Without having a license deployed the ADC Appliance operates in a reduced functionality mode known as VPX Express mode. The basic features you get are (taken from https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/netscaler/12/licensing/netscaler-licensing-overview.html):

20 Mbps bandwidth
All ADC standard license features, except Citrix Gateway
Maximum 250 SSL sessions
20 Mbps SSL throughput

Allocation of licences needs to be done via the MyCitrix portal and navigating to the licensing section. From here you can input your licence code which was received when you purchased your license or when you signed up to the 90 day trial. To generate the licence code you will need to enter the MAC address of the ADC Appliance. This is know as the HostID and can be found on the Hardware Information tab.

Once you have your HostID then from the Citrix portal you can generate your licence file to install onto the ADC Appliance. Make sure you save this somewhere safe just in case you need to re-apply it sometime. I have come across a few occasions where a licence is urgently required and nobody could remember the password to the MyCitrix portal!

Once you have the license head over to your ADC Appliance config page and under the System –> Licenses section you should see an option to upload your generated licence file