The NetScaler ADC is a fantastic appliance for doing a host of different things as we all know. But did you know that the NetScaler has a wide range of counters and other detail that can be used to troubleshoot various systems on the appliance?
Simply log into the NetScaler via your favorite SSH client, drop to the SHELL, navigate to the /var/nslog directory, and then use the following ‘nsconmsg’ command to see comprehensive statistics via the different counters available.
Example:
For this example I used the popular and free PUTTY SSH client to log into the NetScaler.
LOGIN to the NetScaler CLI:
Using username “nsroot”.
Using keyboard-interactive authentication.
Password:
Last login: Fri May 2 18:23:05 2014 from 10.54.156.40
Copyright (c) 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Done
Drop to the SHELL:
> shell
Copyright (c) 1992-2008 The FreeBSD Project.
Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Change to the /var/nslog directory with the following command:
root@netscaler# cd /var/nslog
Issue the following ‘nsconmsg’ command to look at NIC-related statistics:
root@netscaler# nsconmsg -g nic_err -d current
Displaying performance information
NetScaler V20 Performance Data
NetScaler NS10.1: Build 122.17.nc, Date: Dec 5 2013, 17:46:04
reltime:mili second between two records Fri May 2 19:14:46 2014
Index rtime totalcount-val delta rate/sec symbol-name&device-no
0 7000 159248567 50 7 nic_err_dropped_pkts interface(0/1)
1 0 256797467 146 20 nic_err_dropped_pkts interface(0/2)
From the above example you can see live statistics about the NIC. There are a host of different counters for each respective system that can yield excellent data to help you understand the health of your appliance, or even give you critical insight when troubleshooting an issue.
As a note, the counters will refresh every (7) seconds with new data for stats averaged over the (7) second interval.
Finding different NetScaler counters is rather simple just by leveraging a Google search for an appropriate CTX article. But to make it easier for you, I’ve put together a really helpful list of the most common counters that you may be interested in examining.
The Most Common Counters:
NetScaler AppFlow Counters
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX132769
NetScaler Compression (CMP) Counters
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX131798
NetScaler Internet Protocol (IP) Counters
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX131805
NetScaler SSL Counters
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX132779
NetScaler System Counters
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX133887
NetScaler TCP Counters
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX133888
NetScaler UDP Counters
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX133889
NetScaler Virtual Server Counters
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX133891
NetScaler Audit Log Counters
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX132770
NetScaler SNMP Counters
http://support.citrix.com/article/ctx132778
Netscaler IPv6 Counters
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX131806
NetScaler Logging Facility
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX123977
NetScaler SSLVPN Counters
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX133884
NetScaler Priority Queuing Counters
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX132774
Netscaler High Availability Counters
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX131802
Netscaler HTTP Denial of Service Protection Counters
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX131800
NetScaler Integrated Caching Counters
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX131793
NetScaler ICMP Counters
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX131804
How to Determine the Time Since the Last High Availability Node State Change from a NetScaler Newnslog File
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX121847
NetScaler High Availability Synchronization Failure Counter – ha_err_sync_failure
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX135217
FAQ: Can the NetScaler Generate an HTTP 503 Response?
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120240
Port Allocation Error not Caused by Port Exhaustion
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX122808
Netscaler NIC Counters
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX125102
HTTP Reuse and Non-Trackable Connections
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120674
NetScaler DNS Counters
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX131799
NetScaler RNAT Counters
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX132775
NetScaler HTTP Counters
