Content Switching

CNS 205-5I: Citrix NetScaler 10.5 Essentials and Networking

Overview
At the end of this module, you will be able to:
Describe content switching and the configuration process.
Describe rule precedence in content switching.
Configure content-switching policies.

Introduction to Content Switching

Content switching allows HTTP and HTTPS traffic requests to be intercepted and
switched in a method that is transparent to the client.
You can also use content switching to configure the appliance to redirect requests
to different servers with different content on the basis of various client attributes.
Device Type
Language
Cookie
Layer 3/4 Data.

Understanding Content Switching

Content Switching Based on Network Characteristics

Layer-3 characteristics:
Source IP address
Destination IP address
Layer-4 characteristics:
TCP port

Content-Switching Virtual Servers and Load-Balancing

Virtual Servers
Differences:
You can configure the content-switching feature using classic or default policies, but not both
The content-switching virtual server does not directly address services
The process of distributing traffic among the associated load-balancing virtual servers is
determined by the content-switching policy
If the traffic does not match any content-switching policy, then the virtual server sends the traffic
to a default load-balancing virtual server

Configuring Content-Switching Virtual Servers

Configuring a Load Balancing Setup for Content Switching

To configure a basic load balancing setup:
Create a load balancing virtual server
Create services
Bind services to the load balancing virtual server

Content-Switching Policies
A content-switching policy defines a type of request that is to be directed to a
load-balancing virtual server
Policies are evaluated in order of priority
If no specific priorities are set, the policies are evaluated in the order in which they
were created

Binding Content Switching Policies

After you create your content-switching virtual server and policies, you bind each
policy to the content-switching virtual server
Specify the target load-balancing virtual server in the action parameter to
determine the destination for forwarding the traffic

Content-Switching Rule Precedence in AppExpert Classic

The priority parameter can be configured when the rule is bound to the virtual
server using a policy
If a priority is provided, the rules are processed from lowest priority value to
highest

Unmatched Traffic Handling

If a default group is configured for the content-switching virtual server, the request
is forwarded to that group
If the configured default group is down, or no default group is configured, an
HTTP 503 Not Found error message is sent to the client

Configuring Content Switching for DataStream

You can configure content switching policies with default syntax expressions to
switch content based on:
Database name
Command parameters
SQL query
Parameter values specific to DataStream include:
Protocol
Port
MS SQL Server Version

WORK BETTER. LIVE BETTER.