So after a successful first webinar here at the Networking SIG, as mentioned in the webinar we wanted to follow up with a blog post containing all the questions in a summary to make sure that all questions get answered.
Now instead of posting all the single questions, we are going to do a summary of them instead.
How is the MAS licensed?
The NetScaler MAS (Management and Analytics System) is licensed pr virtual servers which are monitored. By default it is free to monitor 30 virtual servers (which can for instance be 10 load balanced virtual servers, 10 content switching virtual servers, 10 NetScaler Gateway virtual servers). If you want to monitor more then 30 virtual servers you need to buy additional licenses which are available in 100, 200, 1000 virtual server packs and so on.
But take note that if you have more than 30 virtual servers on your NetScaler appliances which are managed by MAS, it will randomly allocate licenses to the virtual servers discovered. So important to remember that you can add an unlimited amount of instances (VPX, CPX, SDX, MPX and so on), and they will not consume a license, only virtual servers do.
How does the MAS compare to Insight / Command Center?
MAS is the unification of Command Center and Insight; however, it is a licensed product (for over 30 virtual servers) while Command Center is free and Insight is also free depending on the existing NetScaler license that you have. As of now, there are some features missing from MAS which are available in Command Center and Insight, for instance Citrix Director integration is not possible with MAS but there is not a feature matrix list available which shows the direct differences. However there are also a lot of new features available in MAS which are not in the current editions of Command Center and Insight for instance:
- Record and Play (Which Dave showed in the webinar)
- Integration with VMware NSX
- Integration with Container ecosystem (Docker hosts and Mesosphere)
- Stylebooks
Does MAS have AppFW monitoring capabilities?
Yes, this is part of the Security Insight feature which is also included in NetScaler Insight. It requires that you have a platinum license on your NetScaler and that you enable Security Insight data in the AppFlow settings, more information can be found here –> http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/netscaler-mas/11-1/security-insight.html
Is the CPX available for Download?
Yes It can be found on mycitrix.com (Requires a valid account, but note however that CPX will soon be available on the docker software repository. As mentioned in the webinar, it comes in two editions CPX free and CPX standard (which is the licensed one).
Can we still use the classic landing page on our Gateway virtual servers?
Even if the RfwebUI is a good addition to the UI changes in 11.1 it is not enabled by default, so if you want to use the classic UI it is still the default setting. If you want to change to RfWebUI you need to change the theme in the Virtual server settings.
Is Westwood still the desired TCP congestion algorithm for ICA traffic?
Not quite, Westwood+ which is the implemented version of WestWood in NetScaler, is quite suitable for mobile devices. The best-suited algorithm is based upon different rules, you have a good chart here which shows which congestion algorithm you should use –> http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX211877 but the better option anyways is to use the nstcp_xa_xd TCP profile.
With Unified Gateway, can we skip client choices and go right into Clientless Access with access to both webpages and Citrix web appliances?
Yes you can, you just need to set Clientless access to YES, ICA-proxy to NO and remove the client choices option. Even if you set the ICA-proxy to NO the vServer will still process Citrix applications using an ICA-proxy tunnel. The ICA-proxy option in a session policy, is only there to forward requests to Storefront.
Will MAS work with older versions of NetScaler?
Yes, AppFlow is tied back to 10.1, but Monitoring will go back to 9.3 versions of NetScaler.
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So hope this answers most of the questions that came up during the webinar, if anyone has other questions related to the webinar, let us know using the comment button on this blogpost! And of course feedback is wanted for upcoming webinars!