Web Interface on NetScaler nCore–first impression

I have been waiting anxiously on this feature for a while since it has been delayed by Citrix a number of times, this feature was already announced at Citrix Synergy (SF 2010) back in May. And now I had the chance to install it at a customer which was also very interested in decommisioning his (Microsoft Windows) Citrix Web Interface servers and replacing it with Web Interface on Citrix NetScaler. For me it is the chance to find out what the pros and cons are about this feature.

Installation

Installation was ok, if it was up to me the Citrix Web Interface was just like other components such as Access Gateway just to be enabled within a build. Maybe can expect this in future releases. I installed the Web Interface on a more recent build of the nCore version (Build 98.6) so I had to downgrade to get this working. Good to know is that the Access Gateway customizations were retained which I was very happy about. Because you are downgrading Citrix NetScaler asks you if you would like to import a different nsconfig file.

Creating

There are very few settings possible when working within the NetScaler GUI. There is a wizard which let’s you create the websites.

Citrix Web Interface on NetScaler nCore

Just got confirmation that Web Interface on NetScaler will be generally available as of the second week of september. For this release it will only support Citrix NetScaler and more specifically only the nCore version.

For those of you that don’t know, this solution let’s you add a Citrix Web Interface module within the Citrix NetScaler. With this solution you will not need a seperate redundant Citrix Web interface solution anymore in the backend. With the implementation of a Highly Available Citrix NetScaler pair you’ll have a fully redundant Citrix infrastructure with less components.

I think this will also be a great solution for Citrix Access Gateway Enterprise, it’s too bad that this will not be supported at the GA release. I hope there will be support for the Citrix Access Gateway Enterprise soon.

You can download the “Web Interface on NetScaler 9.1.e nCore” Tech Preview Release on the Citrix Download site but you will have to install a specific NetScaler build (Build 99.8005.e) to support it. Citrix does not recommend installing this into a production environment!