NetScaler ‘Counters’ Grab-Bag!

Andrew Redman

11 years ago

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

Done

Drop to the SHELL:

> shell

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