Director Load Balancing – NetScaler 11

Navigation

• Monitor
• Servers
• Service Group
• Responder
• Load Balancing Virtual Server
• SSL Redirect
• SSL Warning
• CLI Commands

Monitor

1. On the left, expand Traffic Management, expand Load Balancing, and click Monitors.
   
2. On the right, click Add.
   
3. Name it Director or similar.
4. Change the Type drop-down to HTTP.
   
5. If you will use SSL to communicate with the Director servers, then scroll down and check the box next to Secure.
   
6. Switch to the Special Parameters tab.
7. In the HTTP Request field, enter GET /Director/LogOn.aspx?cc=true
8. Click Create.
   

Servers

1. On the left, expand Traffic Management, expand Load Balancing, and click Servers.
   
2. On the right, click Add.
   
3. Enter a descriptive server name. Usually it matches the actual server name.
4. Enter the IP address of the server.
5. Enter comments to describe the server. Click Create.
   
6. Continue adding Director servers.
   

Service Group

1. On the left, expand Traffic Management, expand Load Balancing, and click Service Group.
   
   
2. On the right, click Add.
   
3. Give the Service Group a descriptive name (e.g. svcgrp-Director-SSL).
4. Change the Protocol to HTTP or SSL. If the protocol is SSL, ensure the Director Monitor has Secure enabled.
5. Scroll down and click OK.
   
6. Click where it says No Service Group Member.
   
7. If you did not previously create server objects, then enter the IP address of a Director Server. If you previously created a server objects, then change the selection to Server Based and select the server objects.
8. Enter 80 or 443 as the port. Then click Create.
   
9. On the right, under Advanced Settings, click Monitors.
   
10. On the left, in the Monitors section, click where it says No Service Group to Monitor Binding.
    
11. Click the arrow next to Click to select.
    
12. Select the Director monitor and click Select.
    
13. Then click Bind.
    
14. To verify that the monitor is working, on the left, in the Service Group Members section, click the Service Group Members line.
    
15. Highlight a member and click Monitor Details.
    
16. The Last Response should be Success – HTTP response code 200 received. Click Close twice.
    
17. Then click Done.
    

Responder

Create a Responder policy to redirect users from the root page to /Director.

1. Go to AppExpert > Responder and enable the feature if it isn’t already enabled.
   
2. Go to AppExpert > Responder > Actions.
   
3. On the right, click Add.
   
4. Give the Action a name (e.g. Director_Redirect).
5. Change the Type to Redirect.
6. In the Expression box, enter "/Director", including the quotes.
7. Click Create.
   
8. Go to AppExpert > Responder > Policies.
   
9. On the right, click Add.
   
10. Give the Policy a name (e.g. Director_Redirect).
11. Select the previously created Action.
12. In the Expression box, enter HTTP.REQ.URL.PATH.EQ("/")
13. Click Create.
    

Load Balancing Virtual Server

1. Create or install a certificate that will be used by the SSL Virtual Server. This certificate must match the DNS name for the load balanced Director servers.
2. On the left, under Traffic Management > Load Balancing, click Virtual Servers.
   
   
3. On the right click Add.
   
4. Name it Director-SSL-LB or similar.
5. Change the Protocol to SSL.
6. Specify a new internal VIP.
7. Enter 443 as the Port.
8. Click OK.
   
9. On the left, in the Services and Service Groups section, click where it says No Load Balancing Virtual Server ServiceGroup Binding.
   
10. Click the arrow next to Click to select.
    
11. Select your Director Service Group and click Select.
    
12. Click Bind.
    
13. Click Continue.
    
14. Click where it says No Server Certificate.
    
15. Click the arrow next to Click to select.
    
16. Select the certificate for this Director Load Balancing Virtual Server and click Select.
    
17. Click Bind.
    
18. Click Continue.
    
19. On the right, in the Advanced Settings column, click Persistence.
    
20. Select SOURCEIP persistence.
21. Set the timeout to match the timeout of Director. The default timeout for Director is 245 minutes.
22. The IPv4 Netmask should default to 32 bits.
23. Click OK.
    
24. On the right, in the Advanced Settings section, add the Policies section.
    
25. On the left, in the Policies section, click the plus icon.
    
26. Select Responder in the Choose Policy drop-down and click Continue.
    
27. Select the previously created Director_Redirect policy and click Bind.
    
28. If you haven’t enabled the Default SSL Profile, then perform other normal SSL configuration including: disable SSLv3, bind a Modern Cipher Group, and enable Strict Transport Security.

    bind ssl vserver MyvServer -certkeyName MyCert
    
    set ssl vserver MyvServer -ssl3 DISABLED -tls11 ENABLED -tls12 ENABLED
    
    unbind ssl vserver MyvServer -cipherName ALL
    
    bind ssl vserver MyvServer -cipherName Modern
    
    bind ssl vserver MyvServer -eccCurveName ALL
    
    bind lb vserver MyvServer -policyName insert_STS_header -priority 100 -gotoPriorityExpression END -type RESPONSE

SSL Redirect

1. Right-click the Director SSL Load Balancing Virtual Server and click Add.
   
2. Change the Name to Director-HTTP-SSLRedirect or something like that.
3. Change the Protocol to HTTP.
4. Click OK. This HTTP Virtual Server uses the same VIP as the SSL Load Balancer.
   
5. Bind the AlwaysUp service. See SSL Redirect – Responder Method for more information.
   
6. Bind the http_to_ssl_redirect_responderpol Responder Policy.
7. That’s all this LB vServer needs. Click Done when done.
   

SSL Warning

1. If you are doing SSL Offload (SSL on front end, HTTP on back end), when connecting to Director it might complain about “You are not using a secure connection”.
   
2. To turn off this warning, login to the Director servers and run IIS Manager.
   
3. On the left, navigate to Server > Sites > Default Web Site > Director.
4. In the middle, double-click Application Settings.
   
5. Change UI.EnableSslCheck to false.
   

CLI Commands

Here is a list of NetScaler CLI commands for Director Load Balancing:

add server Director01 10.2.2.18
add server Director02 10.2.2.100
add server 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1
add service AlwaysUp 127.0.0.1 HTTP 80
add serviceGroup svcgrp-Director-HTTP HTTP
add ssl certKey wildcom -cert WildcardCorpCom_pem -key WildcardCorpCom_pem
add lb vserver Director-SSL-LB SSL 10.2.2.210 443 -persistenceType SOURCEIP -timeout 245
add lb vserver Director-HTTP-SSLRedirect HTTP 10.2.2.210 80 -persistenceType NONE
add responder action Director_Redirect redirect "\"/Director\"" -responseStatusCode 302
add responder action http_to_ssl_redirect_responderact redirect "\"https://\" + HTTP.REQ.HOSTNAME.HTTP_URL_SAFE + HTTP.REQ.URL.PATH_AND_QUERY.HTTP_URL_SAFE" -responseStatusCode 302
add responder policy Director_Redirect "http.REQ.URL.PATH.EQ(\"/\")" Director_Redirect
add responder policy http_to_ssl_redirect_responderpol HTTP.REQ.IS_VALID http_to_ssl_redirect_responderact
bind lb vserver Director-HTTP-SSLRedirect AlwaysUp
bind lb vserver Director-SSL-LB svcgrp-Director-SSL
bind lb vserver Director-SSL-LB -policyName Director_Redirect -priority 100 -gotoPriorityExpression END -type REQUEST
bind lb vserver Director-HTTP-SSLRedirect -policyName http_to_ssl_redirect_responderpol -priority 100 -gotoPriorityExpression END -type REQUEST
add lb monitor Director HTTP -respCode 200 -httpRequest "GET /Director/LogOn.aspx?cc=true" -LRTM DISABLED -secure YES
bind serviceGroup svcgrp-Director-SSL Director01 443
bind serviceGroup svcgrp-Director-SSL Director02 443
bind serviceGroup svcgrp-Director-SSL -monitorName Director
set ssl serviceGroup svcgrp-Director-SSL -tls11 DISABLED -tls12 DISABLED
bind ssl vserver Director-SSL-LB -certkeyName wildcom
bind ssl vserver Director-SSL-LB -eccCurveName P_256
bind ssl vserver Director-SSL-LB -eccCurveName P_384
bind ssl vserver Director-SSL-LB -eccCurveName P_224
bind ssl vserver Director-SSL-LB -eccCurveName P_521