604: Automating NetScaler Deployments and Monitoring using the NetScaler 10.5 NITRO API Hands-on Lab Exercise Guide

Transcription

1 604: Automating NetScaler Deployments and Monitoring using the NetScaler 10.5 NITRO API Hands-on Lab Exercise Guide Brian Tannous May

2 Table of Contents Table of Contents... 2 Overview... 3 Lab Preparation:... 6 Attach XenCenter to Your XenServer... 6 Exercise 1: Becoming Familiar with REST... 9 Exercise 2: Getting Started with NITRO...18 Exercise 3: Getting Configuration and Statistics...29 Exercise 4: Adding, Updating, and Deleting Configurations...43 Exercise 5: Enable Interceptor...54 Exercise 6: NITRO Web Client...55 Exercise 7: Interceptor...60 Exercise 8: Advanced NITRO Automation via Python

3 Overview Hands-on Training Module Objective This training will provide hands-on experience with using NetScaler VPX virtual appliances to automate monitoring and the configuration of NetScaler via the RESTful NITRO API. Prerequisites This training focuses on automating the configuration and monitoring of NetScaler. It is assumed that the student already knows the basics of NetScaler configuration, basic load balancing, web servers and web traffic flow. While not necessary, it is recommended that the student already knows the basics of HTTP methods, JSON, and XML. o Please note that we will be working extensively with the above technologies and some familiarity is recommended but not completely necessary. Each configuration request we make to NITRO will utilize the raw JSON data type. Keep this in the back of your mind, raw JSON. Whitespace in JSON is not vital, but double quotes and brackets are. An example is: { example :true} Is equal to { example : true } While not necessary at this time, I encourage everyone to check out these resources to further your NITRO experience and knowledge. o o Audience Citrix Partners, Customers, Sales Engineers, Consultants, Technical Support. 3

4 Lab Environment Details The system diagram of the lab is shown below: The Student Desktop is accessed remotely using Citrix Receiver running on your workstation. All Windows applications such as the XenCenter (the XenServer GUI management tool), are accessed from the Student Desktop. The tools required for this lab, POSTMAN and Chrome, are also accessed from the Student Desktop. The last lab section covers automation via python, which will be accessed from the Debian TOOLS server. Lab Guide Conventions This symbol indicates particular attention must be paid to this step reboot Start Special note to offer advice or background information Text the student enters or an item they select from a dropdown menu is printed like this Bold text indicates reference to a button or object Focuses attention on a particular part of the screen (R:255 G:20 B:147) Shows where to click or select an item on a screen shot (R:255 G:102 B:0) 4

5 List of Virtual Machines Used VM Name IP Address Description / OS AD.training.lab Active Directory Server / Win 2012 R2 StudentDesktop Student Desktop / Win 7 NetScaler: NS NetScaler 10.5 VPX (NSIP) NetScaler: NS NetScaler 10.5 VPX (NSIP) NetScaler: NS NetScaler 10.5 VPX (NSIP) WebServer: WWW Debian 6 Web Server WebServer: WWW Debian 6 Web Server ToolsServer: TOOLS Debian 6 Tools / Web Server Required Lab Credentials The credentials required to connect to the environment and complete the lab exercises are shown within the step by step instructions and are summarized below: VM Name Username Password Description NetScaler: NS1 NS3 nsroot nsroot NetScaler 10.5 VPX Appliance WebServer: WWW1 WWW2 citrix Password1 Debian 6 Web Server ToolsServer: TOOLS1 citrix Password1 Debian 6 Tools / Web Server Reserved IP Ranges IP range Description NetScaler SNIPs and VIPs 5

6 Lab Preparation Attach XenCenter to Your XenServer Overview XenCenter is a graphical user interface application used for managing one or more XenServers. You will be using XenCenter to manage the XenServer needed for the lab. Step by step guidance Step Action 1. Before we begin, if you encounter a dialog requesting an update do Java or a request to restart your computer to apply changes during the lab, please select No or Restart Later. 2. From your Student Desktop, launch Citrix XenCenter. 6

7 Step 3. Action Double-click on the xenserver entry in the left pane of XenCenter. 4. Enter your physical XenServer parameters from your welcome screen. Username Password admin Your XenServer password You may find it easier to copy and paste the password to ensure it is entered correctly. Click Add. 5. Your Physical XenServer name will be different. XenCenter will connect and synchronize to your physical XenServer. 7

8 Step 6. Action Summary You have connected to your XenServer. 8

9 Exercise 1: Becoming Familiar with REST Module Description and Summary In this exercise, you will get started and familiar with RESTful services within the lab environment. We will begin by looking at a RESTful testing service running within the lab using a standard web browser, then we will move on to becoming acclimated with the REST client POSTMAN. Becoming familiar with RESTful services is important for automating NetScaler via NITRO as NITRO is a RESTful API. You will utilize all of these fundamentals in later exercises. Step by step guidance Estimated time to complete this exercise: 30 minutes. Step Action 1. On the student landing desktop virtual machine, launch Google Chrome. Click the TOOLS bookmark in the bookmark bar. This will open the http-bin REST testing service. 9

10 2. Open the Google Chrome Developer Tools by clicking on the menu at the top right of the browser and heading to More tools, followed by Developer tools. 3. Open the Network tab and be sure that the Record Network Log button is lit red. 10

11 4. Next, click on the /get endpoint. 5. Congratulations! You just completed a REST call. We used the HTTP method GET to connect to the endpoint /get. The server replied with the JSON payload of our headers, args, origin, and url of the request. Look at the Network tab to see the HTTP Method, HTTP Status, and check out the JSON payload replied in the body of the browser. 11

12 6. Now that we have seen that RESTful services operate over standard HTTP methods and we can access some of them by just using a standard web browser, we will open the REST client Postman. Postman is a Google Chrome packaged app extension that allows you to create and intercept REST requests much easier than using some alternatives. Open Postman via clicking on the icon on the Student Desktop. 7. Let s start by running the same HTTP GET to the /get endpoint in Postman. Open the Collections tab and expand Exercise 1: RESTful Services. Finally open the /get endpoint. 12

13 8. Verify the URL endpoint is /get (Hint: In the URL, the endpoint is the section after the FQDN or In our example the URL is therefore the endpoint is /get) and that the HTTP Method is GET (the HTTP Method is defined in the dropdown box). Click on Send. Notice that the body of the response is the same as before, and the HTTP STATUS is a 200 OK. 13

14 9. Now, let s use the HTTP Method GET to request the /status/:statusnumber endpoint. Select the /status/:statusnumber endpoint. Here we place a HTTP GET request to the server specifying which HTTP Status for it to return by requesting the status code in the URL. Verify the request is to the /status/<status> endpoint and the HTTP Method is GET. Finally click on Send and verify the HTTP status returned is 418. Note: HTTP Status Code 418 might look a little funny with the teapot and all, but it is actually a RFC defined status code originally made as an april fools joke. More standard HTTP status codes would be 200, 201, 404, 500, ect Try another HTTP Status in the request. You can try any HTTP Status Number (a few examples would be 200, 201, 302, 401 etc.) in the example we switch 418 to 500. Click Send and verify the HTTP Status returned is what you requested. Note: The tools.training.lab server will just echo your status you requested! That is all this service actually does echo s requests. 14

15 11. Open the /post With Params endpoint. Here we are going to make an HTTP POST to the service. Verify the endpoint URL is /post and click on URL params, if not expanded already. Here we are passing parameters to the server via keys and values. Verify our parameter exampleparam1 is set with the value of examplevalue1. (You might have noticed the?exampleparam1=examplevalue1 after the endpoint in the URL. This is where URL parameters reside. If you add more parameters in the fields below you will notice them appear up in the URL as well.) Click on Send. Verify the response returned has an HTTP Status of 200 OK, meaning all is well and verify that the args returned in the body are the URL parameters we requested. Note: In this example our tools server just echoes back our requested parameters, as expected! 15

16 12. Open the /put With JSON Data endpoint. Here we are going to make an HTTP PUT to the service and in our request we will send some JSON data. Verify the endpoint URL is /put and click on raw, if not expanded already. Here we are passing a payload to the server via JSON data. Verify that the data is specified. Remember that raw json idea at the beginning of this lab guide? Here is the start. We are passing a raw type of data in our request. The data is formatted JSON. Also, remember from the prerequisites that whitespace in JSON is not vital, but double quotes and brackets are. Click on Send. Verify the response returned has an HTTP Status of 200 OK, meaning all is well and verify that the data returned in the body is the payload data we requested. The tools server echoed our data as expected! 16

17 13. Finally we are going to create your own delete request and send it to the server. Click on the Reset button. Once the request has been reset enter for the request URL. Select DELETE for the HTTP Method. Input some JSON data into the payload, select raw and enter: { Example : 1 } Click Send. Verify that the HTTP STATUS returned is a 200 OK and the payload data has been returned back to you. Exercise Summary In this exercise, you were able to utilize HTTP-Bin, Google Chrome, and Postman to become familiar with RESTful services and the tools that we will be utilizing in this lab. If you wish, take a moment to explore the other endpoints and items in the postman collection. 17

18 Exercise 2: Getting Started with NITRO Overview In this exercise, you will begin to get familiar with the RESTful NetScaler NITRO API. In this exercise you will: Download the NetScaler NITRO REST documentation Create a NITRO connection to the NetScaler Save the NetScaler configuration via NITRO Reboot the NetScaler via NITRO Close a NITRO connection to the NetScaler Step by step guidance Estimated time to complete this exercise: 30 minutes. 18

19 1. In this first step we will learn where to download the latest NetScaler NITRO documentation. We already a have a local copy of the documentation stored on the Student Desktop for you to use, so this step is purely informational. First, login to NS3 within Google Chrome. The user name is: nsroot and the password is: nsroot Next, head to the Downloads tab at the top right of the NetScaler GUI. Scroll down and you will find the NITRO section with the SDK and documentation for all of the programming languages the NITRO API has documentation or an SDK for. In our lab we will be using the REST methods to connect to the NetScaler, therefore the documentation we will be using is the NITRO API Documentation. As stated above, this already is downloaded and available on the Student Desktop so you do not need to download it yourself. Details: The API docs have been downloaded, extracted, and placed at C:/users/localuser/NitroDocs and a bookmark has been made to the index page in your browser. 19

20 2. Logout of NS3. This is important as Postman and Chrome share the same session and cookie information. If you did not logout of NS3 here you would run into issues with Postman and NITRO. 3. We can head to the NetScaler NITRO REST API Documentation by clicking on the NITRO API Docs within the Google Chrome browser. Here we can see the Getting Started Guide, as well as the sidebar that contains the REST resources available to us via the API. The documentation will be your go-to place for all information relating to the NITRO API. For example, below you can see the configuration -> basic -> nstrace functionality expanded. This resource allows you to interact with nstrace. 20

21 Step Info Action This is not necessary now, but at any time responses to your requests get hung up or stuck and you are sure you have the request correct, it is a good troubleshooting step to close and reopen postman, and then perform a logout followed by a login. 4. Our first step in any and every interaction with NITRO is to perform a login to authenticate our user. In this step we will head to the Getting Started Guide and go to page 8, which contains all of the NITRO login information to build our REST request. Make note of the URL, Method, Headers, and Payload as we will use this information in the next step. 21

22 5. Login In this step we will perform a login to the NetScaler. To do so open Postman and click on the Reset button. Enter as the request URL and set the HTTP Method to POST as the documentation above states. Select Headers, if not already selected, and enter the Content-Type header with its value as application/vnd.com.citrix.netscaler.login+json Note: The Content-Type header is an important field when performing a HTTP POST, PUT, UPDATE, and DELETE to NITRO (HTTP GETs are a different subject and we will detail them later). When performing these operations be sure to include this header, with the appropriate value. The value must match the function in the URL that you are performing. Therefore, in our example we are performing a login via the request URL of /nitro/v1/config/login this must match the header of application/vnd.com.citrix.netscaler.login+json Be sure to notice this value in subsequent steps. Also, remember from the prerequisites that whitespace in JSON is not vital, but double quotes and brackets are. Finishing our request, we will select raw as our payload and enter the data of: { } "login": { "username":"nsroot", "password":"nsroot", "timeout":900 } 22

23 6. Submit the response by clicking on Send. Verify that you are logged in by receiving a HTTP Status of 201 Created. Also, verify that the NITRO_AUTO_TOKEN exists in the Cookie by clicking the Cookies tab. Note: The NITRO_AUTH_TOKEN is an important piece of all communications via NITRO. Each NITRO request you must include the cookie containing the NITRO_AUTH_TOKEN so that you can operate via your session. The Postman client automatically takes care of including the cookie within your requests, so you do not need to worry about it for this lab, but if you develop your own scripts aware of the token and cookie and be sure to include them. Troubleshooting Note: If you do not see the Cookies tab as shown below, look at the top right of the Postman application. Be sure that the traffic light is lit up green. If not, click it once and it will light from grey to green. (Screenshot below) You will have to logout and login to see the cookie populate, but don t worry about it now you can see the cookie in later steps. Troubleshooting step, if needed: 23

24 7. Save Configuration Within Google Chrome head to the NetScaler API Docs. Head to Configuration -> NS -> nsconfig and find the save method. Make note of the same fields as above: URL, HTTP Method, and payload. Note: The URL in the documentation is incorrect as it should be Build your request to save the configuration of the NetScaler using the resources you took note of above. Enter as your request URL and HTTP Method of POST. This time be sure to select URL params and Headers as we need to pass both to NITRO with this request as per the documentation. Enter a URL Parameter Key of action with the value of save add the Content-Type header with the value matching our url of application/vnd.com.citrix.netscaler.nsconfig+json Finally, select raw as the payload and enter the data of: { } "nsconfig": { } 24

25 Step Action 8. Send the request to save the configuration by clicking Send. You can verify that the request was successful by looking at the HTTP status of 200 OK. 25

26 9. Logout The next step is to logout or disconnect from the NetScaler. First we look up the documentation in the Getting Started Guide. In the guide we will look for disconnecting from the appliance. Here we make note of the URL, HTTP Method, Request Header, and payload. (pg.10) We enter as the request URL and the HTTP Method of POST. Be sure to select headers and fill in the Content-Type header s value of application/vnd.com.citrix.netscaler.logout+json Finally we will select raw as our payload type and set the data of: {"logout": { } } Click on Send and verify that the logout occurred by receiving a 401 Unauthorized as your HTTP Status.. 26

27 Step Action 27

28 10. Challenge! Reboot the NetScaler using NITRO Using the API documentation at Configuration -> NS -> Reboot build the request to reboot your NetScaler and send it to NS3.training.lab. You will be using the reboot method. Also, the return value might not be a 200, as the API can and will send return values or HTTP status codes per request, verify that the NetScaler rebooted via either firing up XenCenter and checking the NS3 console, or opening CMD and pinging ns3.training.lab. Hints below! Hint 1: Your payload information will be { reboot : { } } Note: Remember, whitespace in JSON doesn t matter. Hint 2: Are you logged in? Hint 3: Your URL will be with the HTTP Method of POST Hint 4: Be sure to set that Content-Type header correctly! (application/vnd.com.citrix.netscaler.reboot+json) Exercise Summary In this exercise, you connected to NetScaler using the NITRO API. We performed logging in, logging out, saving the configuration, and rebooting the appliance. 28

29 Exercise 3: Getting Configuration and Statistics Overview In this exercise, you will work with the NITRO API to request and retrieve configuration and statistics from NetScaler. In this exercise you will: Utilize the NITRO API to get the enabled NetScaler Modes and Features Utilize the NITRO API to get all available Load Balancing Virtual Servers Apply filters on returned results Utilize the NITRO API to get statistics for various aspects of the NetScaler appliance Step by step guidance Estimated time to complete this exercise: 20 minutes. Step Action 1. The first step of any interaction with NITRO is to login. Open Postman and head to the History tab. From here we can see the login method that we utilized earlier. Click on this method and hit send. Be sure you receive a 201 as the HTTP Status in the response area. Note: If you are currently logged in your HTTP status received will be a 599. If there is an issue with your session and you receive a 401 try to perform a logout followed by a login. 29

30 2. Let s begin by getting the configuration of the NetScaler modes that are enabled and disabled. Like always, we will begin with the documentation. We can find the nsmode documentation by heading to the NITRO API Docs in Google Chrome and heading to Configuration -> NS -> nsmode. Find the get method. Here we will make note of the URL and HTTP Method. 30

31 3. As per the documentation, now we will head to Postman, click on Reset and fill in the request URL of with HTTP Method of GET. We will open the Headers and add the Accept header with value of application/vnd.com.citrix.netscaler.nsmode+json Note: You may notice that the header we are including in our request is different than the header that was included in the previous requests. When performing an HTTP GET to NITRO we need to include the Accept header instead of the Content-Type header. The value of the header remains the same and we still need to follow the same rule as the Content-Type header in that the value must match the function that we are performing. 4. We will send the response by clicking Send. Acknowledge the 200 status meaning all is well and make note of the response body. The items that were sent in the mode element highlighted below are all enabled. You can also see individual elements below and if they are enabled, value of true, or disabled, value of false. 31

32 5. Compare this to the modes that you see enabled in the NS3 NetScaler GUI. To do so, head to Google Chrome and open NS3. Login using the default credentials of username nsroot and password nsroot. Head to the Configuration tab and expand the System element in the sidebar. Head to Settings and click Configure Modes. Here we see the same modes that are enabled and disabled as above. 32

33 6. Challenge! Let s get the NetScaler features that are enabled and disabled. Reference the NITRO API Docs in Google Chrome by heading to Configuration -> NS - > nsfeature. Reference the results you got from the NITRO API to the NS3 GUI. You should see the same items enabled and disabled. Hint! Think about your Accept header. Here are the relevant bits of information from step 3. URL: Accept:application/vnd.com.citrix.netscaler.nsmode+json What is our URL this time? What does the accept header need to be? Look at the underline ;) 33

34 7. Next we will get all available load balancing virtual servers and their configurations. We will head to the documentation by opening Google Chrome, heading to NITRO API Docs and clicking Configuration. We will go to lb followed by lbvserver. Find the get method. Make note of the URL and the HTTP Method. Like before, since we are getting content the method is an HTTP GET. 8. We will open Postman and click on the Reset button. We will fill in the request URL of with HTTP Method of GET. Select the Headers and fill in the Accept header s value of application/vnd.com.citrix.netscaler+json 34

35 9. Next we will click Send. Acknowledge the HTTP Status of 200 and the body that was returned. We should see two lbvservers, WWW and TOOLS. For information about each returned item you can refer to the documentation. 35

36 10. Having all of the data in one call can be great, but sometimes we might only require a subset of data to be returned. This concept applies to most GET methods in NITRO. In this request we want to only return the name, load balancing method, and persistence type of the WWW virtual server. To do so we edit the request URL to be Here we add WWW at the tail end of the url. This tells NITRO to only return the lbvserver WWW. We will add a URL parameter to limit the data that gets returned by adding the attrs URL Parameter Key with value of name,lbmethod,persistencetype Be sure not to include spaces. (Note: If you do not see URL Parameter Key and Values click the URL Params button) Since this is a NITRO GET method we need to be sure to include the Accept header and its value of application/vnd.com.citrix.netscaler.lbvserver+json 11. Click send and notice HTTP Status of 200 and the body that was returned. We successfully only returned the WWW virtual server with a few data points. 36

37 12. Challenge! Apply your knowledge of getting configuration elements within NITRO to get the list of names and ports of all of the services enabled within NS3. Your response body should be: Hint: The Service documentation can be found in the documentation at Configuration -> Basic -> Service and your method will be get. 37

38 13. Now we will use the HTTP GET method to get statistics from the NetScaler. The first thing that we will get would be general NetScaler stats. Head to the NITRO API Docs and open Statistics -> NS -> NS and find the get method. Make note of the URL and the HTTP Method. 14. Fill in the request URL of with the Accept header of application/vnd.com.citrix.netscaler+json Be sure your HTTP method is GET. 38

39 15. Click Send and make note of the objects that you received such as the CPU Usage, and Memory usage. 16. Next, let s get details about the NetScaler s interfaces. Open the NITRO API Docs and head to Statistics -> Network -> Interface. Find the get method and make note of the URL and HTTP Method. 39

40 17. Open Postman and enter as the request URL with the Accept header of application/vnd.com.citrix.netscaler+json Be sure to select GET as the HTTP Method. 18. Click on Send and notice the interfaces and their statistics such as uptime, transmit receive rate and send rate. 40

41 19. Lastly, get the statistics of the WWW Load Balanced Virtual Server. Open Google Chrome and head to the NITRO API Docs. Open Statistics -> Load Balancing -> lbvserver. Find the get method and make note of the URL and the HTTP Method. 20. Enter as the request URL with the HTTP Method of GET. Add the Accept header with value of application/vnd.com.citrix.netscaler+json You may notice that we are filtering here similar to how we filtered with the configuration section by adding WWW after the lbvserver in the URL. 41

42 21. Click Send and note the statistics of the WWW lbvserver. Here we can see things such as health, state, request and hit rate, amongst others. If you wish, you can filter the data points in the response the same way that we did earlier by passing in the attrs url param with the value of the elements you wish to retrieve. Exercise Summary In this exercise, you retrieved configuration and statistics via the NITRO API from the NetScaler appliance. We first retrieved the enabled and disabled NetScaler modes and features. Next we worked with the configuration of load balancing virtual servers and filtering. These methods of getting and filtering content and configuration can be applied to all various configuration methods of the NetScaler appliance such as Content Switching or Policy. We finally wrapped up with getting statistics from various aspects of the appliance. 42

43 Exercise 4: Adding, Updating, and Deleting Configurations Overview In this exercise, you will further your NITRO skillset by utilizing the add, update, and delete functionality of the NITRO API. For this exercise we will be utilizing NS2, which is a fresh, clean configuration NetScaler. In this exercise you will: Utilize NITRO s update method by enabling NetScaler Features. Utilize NITRO s add method by adding a Load Balanced Virtual Server Utilize NITRO s delete method by deleting a Load Balanced Virtual Server Step by step guidance Estimated time to complete this exercise: 30 minutes. Step Action 1. Use your knowledge (or the postman history) to perform a login to NS2.training.lab. Step 3 Exercise 2 should help if you need assistance. Remember to change the url to NS2.training.lab 43

44 2. For this exercise we will be utilizing NS2, which is a fresh, clean configuration NetScaler. Since our ultimate goal is to enable a load balanced virtual server we will need to first enable the load balancing feature. We will head to the NITRO API Docs on Google Chrome and open the Configuration -> NS -> NSFeature element. We will find the enable method. Make note of the URL, HTTP Method, and Request Payload. 44

45 3. Create the request by opening Postman, clicking Reset and entering for the request URL. Set the HTTP Method to POST. We will set the URL Parameter Key to action with a value of enable as per the documentation. We will also include the Content-Type header with value of application/vnd.com.citrix.netscaler.nsfeature+json The payload will be set to raw with the data of: { } "nsfeature": { "feature": [ "lb" ] } 4. Finally click Send. You should see a status of 200 OK meaning that the feature was enabled. 45

46 5. Next we need to add a load balancing virtual server. We open the NITRO API Docs and head to Configuration -> Load Balancing -> lbvserver. Find the add method. Make note of the URL, HTTP Method, and Request Payload. 46

47 6. Open Postman, click reset and enter as the request URL. We will set the HTTP Method to POST and configure a header of Content-Type with value of application/vnd.com.citrix.netscaler.lbvserver+json The payload will be set to raw with the data of { } "lbvserver": { "name":"www", "servicetype":"http", "ipv46":" ", "port":80 } 7. Click on Send. You should see an HTTP status of 201 Created if the virtual server was added. 47

48 8. The next step of adding a load balanced virtual server is to add some services to load balance. First we need to create the services. To do so we head to the NITRO API Docs and open Configuration -> Basic -> Service. Find the add method. Make note of the URL, HTTP Method, and Request Payload. Note: The items in red are the required fields. 48

49 9. Now we will build the request. Open Postman, and click on reset. We will enter as the request URL with the Content-Type header and value of application/vnd.com.citrix.netscaler.service+json We will set the payload data to raw and fill in the field with { } "service": { "name":"www1", "servicetype":"http", "ip":" ", "port":80 } 10. Send the request and notice that the HTTP Status returned should 201 Created, meaning the service was created. 49

50 11. Now we will bind the newly created service to the load balancing virtual server that we also just created. We will open the NITRO API Docs and head to Configuration -> Load Balancing -> lbvserver_service_binding. Find the add method. We will make note of the URL, HTTP Method, and Request Payload. 50

51 12. To bind the service we will create the request above. Open Postman and click on Reset. Enter the request URL of with the Content-Type header and value of application/vnd.com.citrix.netscaler+json The data type will also be set to raw and we will fill in the field with { } "lbvserver_service_binding": { "name": "WWW", "servicename": "WWW1" } Note: Here you might notice single quotes in the screenshot vs double quotes in the text above. Double quotes are the JSON standard and should be used, but NITRO will still accept single quotes as long are you are consistent. Although, you should really stick to double quotes. 13. Challenge! Add a service named WWW2 with IP Address , service type of http, and port 80. Bind that newly created service to WWW. 51

52 14. Test your newly created load balancing virtual server by opening Google Chrome and heading to the URL You should be able to click refresh and see that the service IP changed from to if you successfully completed the challenge above. 15. Now we will delete the load balancing virtual server that we just created. We will open the NITRO API Docs and head to Configuration -> Load Balancing -> lbvserver. We will find the delete method. Make note of the URL and HTTP Method. 52

53 16. Open up Postman and click Reset. Enter the request URL of and HTTP Method of DELETE. Set the Accept header to application/vnd.com.citrix.netscaler+json 17. Click Send and notice that the Status is a 200 OK, meaning that the virtual server has been deleted. Exercise Summary In this exercise, you utilized the add, update, and delete functionality of the NITRO API. We first went through and enabled a NetScaler feature. Then we added a load balancing virtual server, followed by adding a few services. We bound those services to the load balancing virtual server and tested the server. We finally deleted the virtual server that we just created. 53

54 Exercise 5: Enable Interceptor Overview In this exercise, you will enable the Postman Interceptor Google Chrome extension. The interceptor extension allows you to track and intercept all RESTful communication that occurs between your browser (Google Chrome) and the server, in our case NITRO and the NetScaler. In this exercise you will: Enable Postman Interceptor. Step by step guidance Estimated time to complete this exercise: 2 minutes. Step Action 1. We are going to enable Postman Interceptor to capture our next exercise to review later. To do so, open a Google Chrome browser window and click on the stoplight at the top right corner of the browser. Turn the Request Capture on by clicking the button and turning the switch ON. Exercise Summary In this exercise, you enabled Postman Interceptor to capture all RESTful browser communication. We will review this data in a future exercise. This quick exercise might feel a bit out of place, but you will see why we did it here in an upcoming exercise. 54

55 Exercise 6: NITRO Web Client Overview In this exercise, you will learn about and utilize the built in NITRO web client. In this exercise you will: Add a load balancing virtual server using the NITRO web client. Bind services to the newly created virtual server using the NITRO web client. Delete a load balancing virtual server using the NITRO web client. Step by step guidance Estimated time to complete this exercise: 20 minutes. Step Action 1. To get to the NITRO web client first open the NS2 bookmark within Google Chrome. Login using the username nsroot and password nsroot. Click on the Documentation tab at the top right and select NITRO Client. 55

56 2. We are going to create the same load balancing virtual server that we created in exercise four. Begin by heading to Configuration -> Load balancing -> lbvserver. Select an add operation. Specify the following attributes Name: WWW Servicetype: HTTP Ipv46: Port: 80 Click on GO. 3. Verify that the virtual server was created by acknowledging the same HTTP status of 201 created you saw in exercise 4. 56

57 4. Next we will specify a load balancing virtual server service binding. Expand Configuration -> Load Balancing -> lbvserver_service_binding. Select the add operation. Specify the following attributes: Name: WWW Servicename: WWW1 Click GO. 5. Verify that the service was bound to the virtual server by checking for a 200 OK HTTP status. 57

58 6. Test that your newly created virtual server works by heading to in Google Chrome. 7. Delete the load balancing virtual server by heading to Configuration -> Load Balancing -> lbvserver. Select the delete operation. Specify the resource name of WWW. Click GO. 58

59 8. Verify that the resource was deleted by receiving a 200 OK HTTP Status. Exercise Summary In this exercise, you created a load balancing virtual server, bound a service, and deleted that virtual server using the built in NITRO web client. 59

60 Exercise 7: Interceptor Overview In this exercise, work with Postman interceptor to capture NITRO configurations and replay them back to the NetScaler. In this exercise you will: View the HTTP methods that were called from the NITRO web client. Edit a configuration on the NetScaler using the Web GUI and view the captured method via Postman Interceptor. Step by step guidance Estimated time to complete this exercise: 5 minutes. Step Action 1. Open Postman and click on the History tab. Here you can see that Postman interceptor captured the NITRO requests that we sent the NetScaler via the previous exercise and posted them into our history. We could edit these requests and send them back to the NetScaler via Postman to perform the same or similar configurations. In the example above we successfully captured the configuration of the load balancing virtual server creation. 60

61 2. Now we will use the standard NetScaler GUI and capture a configuration into Postman. Open the NS2 bookmark in Google Chrome and login using the credentials username nsroot and password nsroot. Head to the configuration tab. Open Traffic Configuration -> Load Balancing -> Virtual Servers. Note: You may need to close and reopen Google Chrome to reset our session into the NetScaler if you see login issues. 3. Click Add. 61

62 4. Enter the name WWW and IP address of Click Continue. 5. Click on No LBVServer to Service Binding. 6. Click Bind. 62

63 7. Select WWW1 and WWW2 and click Insert. 8. Click Save. 9. Click Continue. 63

64 10. Open Postman and scroll through your history. You will see three POST methods. Here we see the GUI sending a NITRO request to NetScaler creating the load balancing virtual server as well as two service binding operations. These are the same requests we have been doing through this lab! Note: If you do not see these methods double check that Postman Interceptor is enabled by performing exercise 5. Delete the WWW virtual server and try this exercise again. Exercise Summary In this exercise, you saw how you can use postman and postman interceptor to capture your NITRO requests to the NetScaler appliance via both the NITRO web client and the NetScaler GUI. 64

65 Exercise 8: Advanced NITRO Automation via Python Overview In this exercise, you will use a prescripted python environment to utilize the NITRO Python SDK to configure NS1. In this exercise you will: Configure NS1 using a python script. This script will configure load balancing virtual servers, services, bindings, and features of the NetScaler automatically. It will finally print out statistics of the environment. Challenge you to create a script to print out statistics of the environment. Step by step guidance Estimated time to complete this exercise: 15 minutes. Step Action 1. To begin, open putty. 65

66 2. Connect to TOOLS1 by clicking on TOOLS1, hitting Load, and clicking Open. 3. Login using the password: Password1. 4. Execute the script to automate the configuration of NS1 by running the command python ns1conf.py 66

67 5. The script executes to configure the NetScaler. 6. Verify the load balancing virtual server has been created by heading to in Google Chrome. 7. You can view the contents of the python script if you wish by typing the command: more ns1conf.py 67

68 8. The next steps I challenge you to create your own python script to output the total hits and hit rate of the lbvserver WWW. You will need to create this code on the tools server that you are already connected to. This is pretty much already done for you, you just need to edit the previous script. Let s copy the script by running the command cp ns1conf.py ns1monitor.py and edit it by running nano ns1monitor.py Edit this by removing all unnecessary elements to configure the netscaler, leaving the monitoring section. Exit by running CTRL+X and run the script by running python ns1monitor.py If all went correctly you should have a script that only shows the hits and hit rate of the WWW lbvserver. If you wish you can use the python API documentation and experiment with your own scripts. You will want to utilize the python API documentation hosted on the NetScaler. Typically you would access this API documentation by logging in to the NetScaler and going to the Downloads tab, but there has been a substantial update to the documentation since creation of the lab environment and I recommend you download it from this link: From there, you will need to extract the few layers of files, and head to the nitro-python- 1.0/doc/html/index.html page. Here I went to config -> lb -> lbvserver and you are able to see the class methods of each element. Good luck! 68

69 Exercise Summary In this exercise, you ran the automation configuration script for NS1 and possibly created your own script to monitor the lbvserver. 69

70 Revision: Change Description Updated By Date 1.0 Original Version Brian Tannous May 2015 About Citrix Citrix (NASDAQ:CTXS) is a cloud company that enables mobile workstyles empowering people to work and collaborate from anywhere, securely accessing apps and data on any of the latest devices, as easily as they would in their own office. Citrix solutions help IT and service providers build clouds, leveraging virtualization and networking technologies to deliver high-performance, elastic and cost-effective cloud services. With market-leading cloud solutions for mobility, desktop virtualization, networking, cloud platforms, collaboration and data sharing, Citrix helps organizations of all sizes achieve the speed and agility necessary to succeed in a mobile and dynamic world. Citrix products are in use at more than 330,000 organizations and by over 100 million users globally. Annual revenue in 2012 was $2.59 billion. Learn more at 70