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Citrix NetScaler Experienced Honest Review
March 30, 2017

Citrix NetScaler Experienced Honest Review

Phillip Mengel | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Citrix NetScaler

We use a pair of Citrix NetScaler SDXs to deploy virtual NetScaler VPXs to function as a front end (NetScaler Gateway) and as a separation of DMZ and internal network appliances for specific application load balancing concerns. The internal VPX instances load balance printing, email, web, SQL, and other mission-critical concerns. The DMZ VPX instances load balance public web concerns.
  • The NetScaler is a great ADC for load balancing multiple different sets of concerns. Being able to run the virtual appliances in hypervisor from the appliance is an amazing design choice.
  • Being able to effectively run a VPX load balanced pair nested inside and SDX is an infrastructure masterpiece.
  • Ease of setup is a great feature for the NetScaler. Those that are not strong on a command line will be able to setup the SDX, MDX, VPX with little knowledge of the commandline.
  • Some of the menus for the NetScaler Gateway could use more detailed knowledge base articles detailing what each 'switch' does.
  • The refresh rate on the web(GUI) are too slow.
  • Get rid of Java completely, more modular updates to the codebase, e.g. quicker updates to fix critical issues.
  • Positive - High Uptime, no unscheduled downtimes
  • Positive - Ease of configuration, little to no maintenance.
  • Negative - poor official documentation from manufacturer.
The Citrix NetScaler is the competitor to the f5 BigIP LTM/GTM. I've used both products extensively and the both have pros and cons against each other. F5 has better support and better documentation, and is purpose built for load balancing applications. The NetScaler has a more modular design and is more flexible and can do more. If I was running a large Citrix farm and looking to load balance multiple application pools, I'd chose the NetScaler, if I wanted a lean non XenApp/XenDesktop environment that had to be load balanced I'd consider the F5 Big IP LTM.
The Citrix SDX and MDX models are well suited for large scale deployments with multiple load balancing needs and concurrent Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop environment. Being able to deploy the NetScaler Gateway and load balance multiple pools of specific app loads are the strengths of this platform. The SDX and MDX models would be overkill for a strict XenApp/XenDesktop deployment unless it had a huge concurrent session load with a high throughput need. The VPX model is designed for smaller XenApp/XenDesktop farms and smaller scale load balancing needs.