Are there other ways to use a Cisco Content Services Switch with Citrix other than load balancing WI or CSG sites? I want to make use of this switch the best way possible but it seems that application load balancing would be better if left to Citrix.
Does the CSG allow a device to offload its SSL? Are there special considerations?
I can see how load balancing plain old terminal servers with a CSS but not so much with Citrix applications...
This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.
Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.
If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.
Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.
Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.
Access the answers to your technology questions today.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.
Try it out and discover for yourself.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.
I like the idea of offloading SSL from my Secure Gateway servers so that the encryption can be done in ASIC but can that be done with the Secure Gateway? Would I then re-encrypt between the SG and my PS servers with a lighter encryption?
Unfortunately I own a CSS 11501 so that is what I will be using.
Ok so I got most of my answer here: http://www.jaytomlin.com/b
It sounds like I need to disable SSL from my SG and use my CSS 11501 to offload the encryption and balance between 2 SG servers. Then, for my internal users, I will just load balance WI sites since I am not as concerned about encryption on the LAN side of things.
Has anyone done something like this before?
AdamBNYC, what does F5's product do that Cisco's does not? Or do they both do the same things but F5's does it all better? Can you show me an example?
So far I am planning on doing 4 things with my switch:
1) offload SSL via config file hacks (to take away CSG's expectation of SSL); unless this poses other issues
2) load balance multiple SG sites for my external users (redundancy more than performance, I am not taxing a single SG at the moment)
3) load balance multiple WI sites for my internal users (don't have a need for SG internally unless I am missing something)
4) load balance STA connections between the SG and the PS4 servers
Actually, the Citrix WANScaler is not a loadbalancer at all, it is a end-to-end connection optimiser of some sort. The Citrix Netscaler is a high end load balancer, and in my experience, is fantastic, and far more flexible than other load balancers that I have worked with.
You could loadbalance your WI+SG servers, keeping in mind that you will also have to ensure that you can keep persistence/stickyness. I have seen this used in many places.
I have a Cisco CSS 11501 which is what Citrix uses in their internal testing for Secure Gateway (I just read that in the Secure Gateway Administrators Guide) but they say that SSL Termination is not supported. I am planning on trying it anyway. If I can terminate SSL properly I will configure connection persistence (probably based on a URL-cookie or switch embedded cookie). If I end up needing to leave SSL intact I will load balance and maintain persistence via SSL session ID.
I am wondering if anyone has load balanced STA connections in the backend...I think the switch would do this more effectively than Citrix in this case.
When I was speaking about Wanscaler, It wasnt in terms of it being a load balancer. Wanscaler optimizes a WAN connection by using on the fly compression, and removing the "chattyness" of the TCP/IP stack. f5 BIGIP is really an all in one box for this type of thing. It can accomplish everything you listed and much more. I work for a consulting company, and we are becoming an f5 partner. I have seen them do some really amazing things. I strongly suggest you give em a call and check it out. I promise, you will be blown away.
Business Accounts
Answer for Membership
by: AdamBNYCPosted on 2007-02-20 at 04:44:49ID: 18569847
a CSS does load balancing, Thats really about it. Its actually not a very good product. There are better devices such as f5 BIGIP. This is a load balancer, will speed up connections, and help a ton with disconnected sessions. Citrix has a similar product with their wanscaler, But its no where near as good. On the downside, f5 is kinda expensive.