Prerequisites for cluster nodes
Citrix ADC appliances that are to be added to a cluster must satisfy the following criteria:
All appliances must have the same software version and build.
All appliances must be of the same platform type. This means that a cluster must have either all hardware appliances (MPX) or virtual appliances (VPX) or SDX Citrix ADC instances.
Note
For a cluster of hardware appliances (MPX), the appliances must be of the same model type.
For the formation of the heterogeneous cluster, all appliances must be of MPX platform type.
For a cluster of virtual appliances (VPX), the appliances must be deployed on the following hypervisors: XenServer, Hyper-V, VMware ESX, and KVM.
Clusters of SDX Citrix ADC instances are supported in NetScaler 10.1 and later releases. To create a cluster of SDX Citrix ADC instances, see “Set up a cluster of Citrix NetScaler instances”.
Jumbo frames are supported on a Citrix ADC cluster that is made up of Citrix ADC SDX instances.
You can create L3 clusters of SDX instances.
(For releases prior to NetScaler 11.0) All appliances must be on the same network. In NetScaler 11.0 and later releases, appliances can belong to different networks.
All appliances must have the same licenses. Also, depending on the Citrix ADC version, there are some additional aspects to address:
- For releases prior to NetScaler 10.5 Build 52.x:
- A separate cluster license file is required. This file must be copied to the /nsconfig/license/ directory of the configuration coordinator.
- Because of the separate cluster license file, the cluster feature is available irrespective of the Citrix ADC license.
- For releases after NetScaler 10.5 Build 52.x:
- No separate cluster license is required.
- Cluster is licensed with the Advanced and Premium licenses. Cluster is not available for Standard license.
- For releases prior to NetScaler 10.5 Build 52.x:
Be initially configured and connected to a common client-side and server-side network.
Note
For a cluster of virtual appliances, that has large configurations, it is recommended to use 6 GB RAM for each node of the cluster.