Book Review: Implementing NetScaler VPX

Recently, I had the pleasure of reading "Implementing NetScaler VPX" written by Marius Sandbu and published by Packet Publishing. Packet Publishing had asked me to read the book and provide a review. Before I begin, I want to give you a bit of my background to help understand my point of view. I am a consultant and have been architecting, implementing, and administering Citrix products since MetaFrame 1.8. In most of my projects, NetScaler is involved and I am architecting the integration and/or implementation which touches on many different aspects of the client environment, not just their XenApp or XenDesktop environment. NetScaler can be a complex subject as it bridges between systems and network.

Author

"Implementing NetScaler VPX" is written by Marius Sandbu who is a Consultant and Trainer in Norway. He has been heavily involved with Microsoft for over 9 years, during that time he was awarded a Microsoft MVP title for his involvement in the Microsoft community.

Overview

Again, NetScaler is a complex subject, and depending on what you are trying to accomplish, it can be very complex. But most clients that I run into initially start of with NetScaler because they want secure remote access to their XenApp or XenDesktop environment. With this in mind, I was wondering how the book would be laid out, and Marius Sandbu used the most common approach many of my clients take.

Marius starts out with an overview of NetScaler, platforms, editions, features, and modes. Brief scenarios are used to help identify when you would use a certain platform or edition. In the same chapter he walks you through a base setup. Then he proceeds to review networking components. One of the bits I really did like is that Marius opted to not use the wizards, and used command line instead. Running through wizards is great and easy, but it doesn't give you the same understanding when you have to perform the steps in order on your own. And of course, I am a command line junkie, so I was glad he opted for this input method.

Now, NetScaler Gateway makes its appearance in the book. In implementing NetScaler Gateway, you can gloss over some nice features, and just get it up and running. But, Marius decided not to go that route. He first does an overview of the features and dives right in to deploying ICA Proxy using StoreFront. Most deployments I have done use ICA proxy, but there are a few that needed a SSL VPN and Marius goes over these steps as well. One bit of information I was glad to see included is the NetScaler out-of-the-box SSL vulnerability fix as well as how to test this for this vulnerability.

Up next is load balancing. Oh boy do I love load balancing. To help the reader get a better understanding of the subject, Marius starts of with load balancing of a generic web application. This is a good primer before heading into the next sections of load balancing Citrix products. Prior to NetScaler 10.1 load balancing TFTP, namely for Provisioning Services, was a task and not easily understood. But after NetScaler 10.1 came out load balancing TFTP became as easy as load balancing DNS. Marius of course included the section on how to load balance TFTP, as well as other topics outside the realm of Citrix that are commonly configured with NetScaler. Second to load balancing Citrix services and setting up NetScaler Gateway is almost always load balancing Exchange. Now, Exchange load balancing changes with each version of Exchange that is released. Marius goes over what is needed to load balance an Exchange 2013 environment. He also touches on load balancing SharePoint 2013 and SQL.

The next subject covered is compression and caching. He does a great overview of these subjects. Now, if you have seen caching at work, give it a try as it can be eye opening. For example, a query that takes 60 seconds to process can be cached and returned to the client within seconds. Compression is a must read, especially if you are front ending web services to clients.

High availability (HA) and global server load balancing (GSLB). These are simple ideas to grasp, but GSLB in particular can be difficult to implement if you have never done so before. Now Marius does show you how to configure HA, but only does an overview of GSLB. Next, Marius goes on to explain how to perform traffic analysis. I really like that Marius included this in his book, although it doesn't take up much room, it is a must know for anybody who implements or administers NetScaler. Then finally, Marius touches on app firewall.

Impressions

I honestly did enjoy this book. The way Marius laid out the subjects, even the order he chose, and the level of depth of the subjects was just right. NetScaler goes much deeper than this book, but for the intended audience, the amount of depth is perfect. I highly recommend this book, if you are just starting out with NetScaler, or even if you have been working with NetScaler.