Installing Citrix ADC (NetScaler) on Proxmox

A few days ago, I did a thing and one of the first issues I had was getting a NetScaler (Citrix ADC) appliance up and running on the new host…because, you know….priorities. This scenario is certainly supported as the hypervisor is KVM, but on the initial boot, it got stuck here: And that’s no good. How did we get here? Let’s go through the basics as it’s slightly different than just importing an OVF template. … Read more…

Home Lab: Migrating from ESX to Proxmox

I recently converted my home lab virtualization environment from vSphere\ESX to Proxmox and documented some of the useful tools and commands I used to do so. A little history My lab environment has gone through MANY iterations, both in hypervisor and storage: https://blogs.serioustek.net/post/2016/04/25/homelab-a-few-weeks-with-xenserver-and-nutanix https://blogs.serioustek.net/post/2016/04/04/upgrades-lab-local-ssd-hypervisors https://blogs.serioustek.net/post/2015/07/16/backup-vmware-with-veeam-free-powershell-and-freenas https://blogs.serioustek.net/post/2014/07/01/backing-up-vmware-virtual-machines-on-freenas-aspx https://blogs.serioustek.net/post/2014/06/14/vmware-on-freenas-the-right-way-aspx https://blogs.serioustek.net/post/2013/09/07/starwind-san-v8-beta-initial-testing-aspx https://blogs.serioustek.net/post/2013/02/20/freenas-esx-and-nfs-synchronous-writes-and-the-zil-aspx Learning a variety of hypervisors was due mostly to my background in consulting and I’ve tried or used most of the major hypervisors available: HyperV, XenServer, … Read more…

Troubleshooting Tips for Citrix ADC (NetScaler)

I’ve collected numerous Citrix ADC (NetScaler) troubleshooting tips and commands over the years, so here they are. Note that some of these tools, file paths or methods may have changed over time. Also note: single\double quotes are inconsistent (sorry) and usually not needed. Note a third time: don’t copy paste from the web to cli\gui – things will likely get mucked up. Log File Locations ns.conf configuration file /flash/nsconfig ns.conf.x older configuration file; increments after … Read more…

Powershell Duplicate file Cleanup for Plex Camera Uploads

Some time ago, my wife had her phone stolen and we had not setup any sort of backup for the pictures, so a good number of photos and videos of our kids were lost that day. We now both use Google devices, so we have automatic backup to Drive for free, but I didn’t want to rely only on that. Enter Plex Camera Upload We use Plex a lot in our house – one of … Read more…

Duo Prompt and NetScaler nFactor Auth

Update Sept 10 2019: After some updates to both sides of the code, this now works natively! For details, see the updated blog post here: https://blogs.serioustek.net/post/2019/09/10/duo-mfa-with-netscaler-nfactor-part-2 —– Duo Security provides a rich identity management and authentication platform and it is commonly used to enable multi-factor authentication in enterprise networks. Duo is very flexible and has examples for integrating with NetScaler here – you will see that there are two different configuration examples: one for using the … Read more…

NetScaler nFactor Authentication

In case you hadn’t noticed, lots of web services have been changing how they do authentication lately…maybe you’ve heard of some of them: Google …or Microsoft What is really going on here? The forms are applying some intelligence based on who you are or what company you work for. For example, if you work for a company that uses federated authentication for Office 365, you will be redirected back to your company’s IdP. How does … Read more…

Sophos XG Firewall LTE Backup

I work a good bit from my home office so obviously internet access is pretty important – so important that I have 2 carriers: Comcast via coax and AT&T via bonded pair DSL. As you may also know, I use the Sophos XG firewall home edition as a full-featured firewall and internet gateway – the conversion from Sophos UTM to XG was a bit tricky due to the UI of XG being…let’s just say not … Read more…

‘Thank you’ to Citrix and the Community

I started my professional technology career as a help desk administrator supporting a small healthcare organization that was still using something that was called Citrix Metaframe XP – it was the first time I had dealt with a real IT infrastructure, and also the first time I interacted with a Citrix product. That was nearly 13 years ago. After that, I interacted with Metaframe and XenApp (among other products) on and off until I started … Read more…

Enabling Horizon View PCoIP Connections via NetScaler

This post is probably not necessary because the configuration is pretty simple and easy to get it working – all you need are a NetScaler running 12.0 code or later, and a view connection server v7.0.1 or later. Currently, it is limited to proxying PCoIP traffic only. NetScaler Settings for PCoIP There are two parts to the configuration on the NetScaler: PCoIP VServer Profiles – located in NetScaler Gateway > Policies > PCoIP ; this is … Read more…

Getting Started with NetScaler SD-WAN

I’ve been talking and working a LOT with NetScaler SD-WAN lately – and I noticed that my first post (here) still has the name of Cloudbridge VWAN. If you don’t know what it is, the best way to explain it is with a short video. It’s cutting edge technology for your WAN!! So to make things right, and add to the previous post – I’ll be covering how to build a simple, initial SD-WAN configuration for … Read more…