Netscaler 12 VPX installation on ESXi and Licensing

Citrix Netscaler is available as a physical appliance and virtual appliance. Netscaler Virtual appliance is available for XenServer, VMWare ESXi, Hyper-V and KVM. This post will cover the installation of Netscaler VPX on VMWare ESXi host. Even though we are using netscaler 12.x build here, the procedure is same for almost all versions of Netscaler VPX appliances for VMWare ESXi.

NetScaler VPX Installation on ESXi

We need to download the netscaler VPX for ESXi from citrix.

Pre-requisites: 

  • My citrix login credentials to download media and license.
  • Two free IP ( with subnet mask gateway)  One for Netscaler IP ( NSIP) and another for subnet IP (SNIP)
  • DNS server details (optional)
  • Time Zone
  • Necessary ESXi resources and login credentials for ESXi host.

Importing Netscaler OVF

Extract the downloaded zip file which will contain mf, ovf and vmdk files as shown below.

Login to ESXi host or VCenter server- Select new vm  in web console or file – deploy / import ovf in vsphere client

Select deploy OVF – Next

Provide the Name for VPX and select or drag and drop all 3 files as shown below, only two files will show after selecting.

Select the datastore

select the network card for VPX

view and finish

With this Netscaler VPX will be created on ESXi and it will be powered on.

Netscaler VPX initial Configuration

once VPX is powered on – Open console and provide the ip details

  • Netscaler IP – This is NSIP, used for management
  • Subnet Mask
  • Gateway

enter 4 for save and quit – Enter

Check the login nsroot/nsroot

Now the VPX is installed and we can manage from web browser.

Netscaler VPX assigning SubnetIP and Hostname

Login to netscaler by entering the NSIP provided earlier. default login details are user nsroot and password nsroot

skip the ceip

select the subnet IP

provide the Subnet IP and Mask, Subnet IP is used for internal servers and services communication

Similarly click on host name, provide hsotname for netscaler, DNS server IP’s ( click on + sign for multiple DNS) and time zone.

Netscaler will reboot to apply changes, select Yes

Login to Netscaler after reboot.

Click on license

If you have license bound to host id import else select do it later , Will cover below how to license VPX.

Review all the IP’s and details and continue.

Netscaler VPX is ready, But need to license it.

 

Licensing Citrix Netscaler VPX

License Netscaler Licenses are bound to Host ID which is the MAC address of the network interface in case of VPX. For Physical appliances, login to portal and download directly the license file as host ID is not required, its already hoard coded.

Identifying Netscaler Host ID

Netscaler host ID can be identified in 2 ways in GUI as shown below. Configuration – system – Host ID

The second way of getting host ID and the best way is using CLI. Configuration – System – Diagnostics – Command line interface.

Run below commands as shown below.

  • shell
  • lmutil lmhostid

Then Host ID will show as below.

Login to Mycitrix portal – allocate – select your vpx license – provide Host id taken from above step and download license.

Adding Netscaler Licenses

After downloading the license – Configuration – System – License – Select Manage license

Select add license

Browse the license in local computer as shown below – open

Select reboot to apply the license.

Confirm reboot

After reboot login to verify the edition and license features, in my case its platinum.

Hope this post is useful. Your suggestions and comments are most welcome.

Siva Sankar

Siva Sankar works as Solution Architect in Abu Dhabi with primary focus on SDDC, Automation,Network Virtualization, Digital Workspace, VDI, HCI and Virtualization products from VMWare, Citrix and Microsoft.

3 thoughts on “Netscaler 12 VPX installation on ESXi and Licensing

  • November 22, 2018 at 5:06 pm
    Permalink

    Very useful , Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  • September 19, 2019 at 12:11 pm
    Permalink

    Thanks for your sharing

    Reply
  • December 26, 2019 at 11:07 am
    Permalink

    Explained very well…Thank u so much.

    Reply

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