Part 1: Introduction and getting started.

Part 2: Basic operations and initial configuration.

Part 3: SSL certificates and StoreFront load balancing.

Part 4: NetScaler Gateway with StoreFront configuration.

Part 5: High Availability configuration.
In the previous parts, we went over the basics of connecting and disconnecting as well as some useful operations and initial configuration. As we continue this journey, we’ll look at SSL certificates and load balancing StoreFront servers.

SSL certificates

In order to bind an SSL server certificate to a NetScaler appliance, you must first have a private key file and a certificate file that together form a certificate key pair. There are many ways to achieve this and in the example below we’ll go over a simple scenario to illustrate the process. Additionally, you can also upload the root certificate and link it to the server certificate, which is something we will not cover in the example.

Requesting and configuring a server certificate using a local certification authority
(Add-NSServerCertificate example)

In this example, we do the following:

  • Create the private RSA key
  • Create the CSR
  • Download the CSR
  • Request the certificate
  • Upload the certificate
  • Create the cert/key pair

This can be achieved by calling (which only works on NetScaler 10.5 or higher):

Add-NSServerCertificate -NSSession $myNSSession -CAName "DC.EXAMPLE.COM\EXAMPLE-DC-CA" -CommonName "storefront.example.com" -OrganizationName "My Company, Inc." -CountryName "US" -StateName "Florida" -KeyFileBits "2048"

This also assumes that the call is being executed on a machine that has access to the certification authority of the example domain and by a user that is allowed to request certificates.

Configuring StoreFront load balancing

After installing and configuring a cluster of StoreFront servers (including server certificates), you can configure the NetScaler appliance to load balance the servers.

Creating a new StoreFront load balancing configuration
(New-NSLoadBalancingSFConfiguration.ps1 example)

To create a load balancing configuration that load balances StoreFront servers, you would normally go over the following steps:

  • Enable features
  • Create servers
  • Create services
  • Create LB monitors
  • Bind monitors to services
  • Create LB virtual server
  • Bind services to LB virtual server
  • Bind SSL certificate and key to LB virtual server

This is how we would call the example script which consumes new functions in the example NetScaler Configuration module:

New-NSLoadBalancingSFConfiguration.ps1 -NSAddress "10.1.2.3" -NSUserName "nsroot" -NSPassword "nsroot" -NSManagementProtocol "HTTPS" -StoreFrontServerName "SF1","SF2" -StoreFrontServerIPAddress "10.3.4.5","10.3.4.6" -ServiceType "HTTPS" -ServicePort 443 -StoreName "StoreFrontStore" -VirtualServerName "storefront.example.com" -VirtualServerIPAddress "10.2.3.5" -CertKeyName "storefront.example.com" -NetScalerConfigurationPSModuleLocation "C:\NetScalerConfigurationPart3"

Keep in mind that the values for the parameters in all of the example calls must be modified to fit your configuration.

Get the example PowerShell Module and script (Part 3)

This module is now updated in Scripting: Automating NetScaler configurations using NITRO REST API and PowerShell – Part 4

Coming up next

We’ll continue with additional use cases and examples as part of the NetScaler Configuration PowerShell module example.

Happy Scripting!
Santiago Cardenas

Citrix Solutions Lab

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