community.network.netscaler_cs_vserver – Manage content switching vserver

Note

This plugin is part of the community.network collection (version 3.0.0).

You might already have this collection installed if you are using the ansible package. It is not included in ansible-core. To check whether it is installed, run ansible-galaxy collection list.

To install it, use: ansible-galaxy collection install community.network.

To use it in a playbook, specify: community.network.netscaler_cs_vserver.

Synopsis

  • Manage content switching vserver

  • This module is intended to run either on the ansible control node or a bastion (jumpserver) with access to the actual netscaler instance

Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the host that executes this module.

  • nitro python sdk

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

appflowlog

string

Enable logging appflow flow information.

Choices:

  • enabled

  • disabled

authentication

boolean

Authenticate users who request a connection to the content switching virtual server.

Choices:

  • no

  • yes

authenticationhost

string

FQDN of the authentication virtual server. The service type of the virtual server should be either HTTP or SSL.

Minimum length = 3

Maximum length = 252

authn401

boolean

Enable HTTP 401-response based authentication.

Choices:

  • no

  • yes

authnprofile

string

Name of the authentication profile to be used when authentication is turned on.

authnvsname

string

Name of authentication virtual server that authenticates the incoming user requests to this content switching virtual server. .

Minimum length = 1

Maximum length = 252

backupip

string

.

Minimum length = 1

backupvserver

string

Name of the backup virtual server that you are configuring. Must begin with an ASCII alphanumeric or underscore _ character, and must contain only ASCII alphanumeric, underscore _, hash #, period ., space , colon :, at sign @, equal sign =, and hyphen - characters. Can be changed after the backup virtual server is created. You can assign a different backup virtual server or rename the existing virtual server.

Minimum length = 1

cacheable

boolean

Use this option to specify whether a virtual server, used for load balancing or content switching, routes requests to the cache redirection virtual server before sending it to the configured servers.

Choices:

  • no

  • yes

casesensitive

boolean

Consider case in URLs (for policies that use URLs instead of RULES). For example, with the on setting, the URLs /a/1.html and /A/1.HTML are treated differently and can have different targets (set by content switching policies). With the off setting, /a/1.html and /A/1.HTML are switched to the same target.

Choices:

  • no

  • yes

clttimeout

string

Idle time, in seconds, after which the client connection is terminated. The default values are:

Minimum value = 0

Maximum value = 31536000

comment

string

Information about this virtual server.

cookiedomain

string

.

Minimum length = 1

cookietimeout

string

.

Minimum value = 0

Maximum value = 1440

dbprofilename

string

Name of the DB profile.

Minimum length = 1

Maximum length = 127

disabled

boolean

When set to yes the cs vserver will be disabled.

When set to no the cs vserver will be enabled.

Note that due to limitations of the underlying NITRO API a disabled state change alone does not cause the module result to report a changed status.

Choices:

  • no ← (default)

  • yes

disableprimaryondown

string

Continue forwarding the traffic to backup virtual server even after the primary server comes UP from the DOWN state.

Choices:

  • enabled

  • disabled

dnsprofilename

string

Name of the DNS profile to be associated with the VServer. DNS profile properties will applied to the transactions processed by a VServer. This parameter is valid only for DNS and DNS-TCP VServers.

Minimum length = 1

Maximum length = 127

domainname

string

Domain name for which to change the time to live (TTL) and/or backup service IP address.

Minimum length = 1

downstateflush

string

Flush all active transactions associated with a virtual server whose state transitions from UP to DOWN. Do not enable this option for applications that must complete their transactions.

Choices:

  • enabled

  • disabled

httpprofilename

string

Name of the HTTP profile containing HTTP configuration settings for the virtual server. The service type of the virtual server should be either HTTP or SSL.

Minimum length = 1

Maximum length = 127

icmpvsrresponse

string

Can be active or passive.

Choices:

  • PASSIVE

  • ACTIVE

insertvserveripport

string

Insert the virtual server’s VIP address and port number in the request header. Available values function as follows:

VIPADDR - Header contains the vserver’s IP address and port number without any translation.

OFF - The virtual IP and port header insertion option is disabled.

V6TOV4MAPPING - Header contains the mapped IPv4 address corresponding to the IPv6 address of the vserver and the port number. An IPv6 address can be mapped to a user-specified IPv4 address using the set ns ip6 command.

Choices:

  • OFF

  • VIPADDR

  • V6TOV4MAPPING

ipmask

string

IP mask, in dotted decimal notation, for the IP Pattern parameter. Can have leading or trailing non-zero octets (for example, 255.255.240.0 or 0.0.255.255). Accordingly, the mask specifies whether the first n bits or the last n bits of the destination IP address in a client request are to be matched with the corresponding bits in the IP pattern. The former is called a forward mask. The latter is called a reverse mask.

ippattern

string

IP address pattern, in dotted decimal notation, for identifying packets to be accepted by the virtual server. The IP Mask parameter specifies which part of the destination IP address is matched against the pattern. Mutually exclusive with the IP Address parameter.

For example, if the IP pattern assigned to the virtual server is 198.51.100.0 and the IP mask is 255.255.240.0 (a forward mask), the first 20 bits in the destination IP addresses are matched with the first 20 bits in the pattern. The virtual server accepts requests with IP addresses that range from 198.51.96.1 to 198.51.111.254. You can also use a pattern such as 0.0.2.2 and a mask such as 0.0.255.255 (a reverse mask).

If a destination IP address matches more than one IP pattern, the pattern with the longest match is selected, and the associated virtual server processes the request. For example, if the virtual servers, vs1 and vs2, have the same IP pattern, 0.0.100.128, but different IP masks of 0.0.255.255 and 0.0.224.255, a destination IP address of 198.51.100.128 has the longest match with the IP pattern of vs1. If a destination IP address matches two or more virtual servers to the same extent, the request is processed by the virtual server whose port number matches the port number in the request.

ipv46

string

IP address of the content switching virtual server.

Minimum length = 1

l2conn

boolean

Use L2 Parameters to identify a connection.

Choices:

  • no

  • yes

lbvserver

string

The default Load Balancing virtual server.

listenpolicy

string

String specifying the listen policy for the content switching virtual server. Can be either the name of an existing expression or an in-line expression.

mssqlserverversion

string

The version of the MSSQL server.

Choices:

  • 70

  • 2000

  • 2000SP1

  • 2005

  • 2008

  • 2008R2

  • 2012

  • 2014

mysqlcharacterset

string

The character set returned by the mysql vserver.

mysqlprotocolversion

string

The protocol version returned by the mysql vserver.

mysqlservercapabilities

string

The server capabilities returned by the mysql vserver.

mysqlserverversion

string

The server version string returned by the mysql vserver.

Minimum length = 1

Maximum length = 31

name

string

Name for the content switching virtual server. Must begin with an ASCII alphanumeric or underscore _ character, and must contain only ASCII alphanumeric, underscore _, hash #, period ., space, colon :, at sign @, equal sign =, and hyphen - characters.

Cannot be changed after the CS virtual server is created.

Minimum length = 1

netprofile

string

The name of the network profile.

Minimum length = 1

Maximum length = 127

nitro_pass

string / required

The password with which to authenticate to the netscaler node.

nitro_protocol

string

Which protocol to use when accessing the nitro API objects.

Choices:

  • http ← (default)

  • https

nitro_timeout

float

Time in seconds until a timeout error is thrown when establishing a new session with Netscaler

Default: 310

nitro_user

string / required

The username with which to authenticate to the netscaler node.

nsip

string / required

The ip address of the netscaler appliance where the nitro API calls will be made.

The port can be specified with the colon (:). E.g. 192.168.1.1:555.

oracleserverversion

string

Oracle server version.

Choices:

  • 10G

  • 11G

port

string

Port number for content switching virtual server.

Minimum value = 1

Range 1 - 65535

  • in CLI is represented as 65535 in NITRO API

precedence

string

Type of precedence to use for both RULE-based and URL-based policies on the content switching virtual server. With the default RULE setting, incoming requests are evaluated against the rule-based content switching policies. If none of the rules match, the URL in the request is evaluated against the URL-based content switching policies.

Choices:

  • RULE

  • URL

push

string

Process traffic with the push virtual server that is bound to this content switching virtual server (specified by the Push VServer parameter). The service type of the push virtual server should be either HTTP or SSL.

Choices:

  • enabled

  • disabled

pushlabel

string

Expression for extracting the label from the response received from server. This string can be either an existing rule name or an inline expression. The service type of the virtual server should be either HTTP or SSL.

pushmulticlients

boolean

Allow multiple Web 2.0 connections from the same client to connect to the virtual server and expect updates.

Choices:

  • no

  • yes

pushvserver

string

Name of the load balancing virtual server, of type PUSH or SSL_PUSH, to which the server pushes updates received on the client-facing load balancing virtual server.

Minimum length = 1

range

string

Number of consecutive IP addresses, starting with the address specified by the IP Address parameter, to include in a range of addresses assigned to this virtual server.

Minimum value = 1

Maximum value = 254

redirectportrewrite

string

State of port rewrite while performing HTTP redirect.

Choices:

  • enabled

  • disabled

redirecturl

string

URL to which traffic is redirected if the virtual server becomes unavailable. The service type of the virtual server should be either HTTP or SSL.

Caution: Make sure that the domain in the URL does not match the domain specified for a content switching policy. If it does, requests are continuously redirected to the unavailable virtual server.

Minimum length = 1

rhistate

string

A host route is injected according to the setting on the virtual servers

  • If set to PASSIVE on all the virtual servers that share the IP address, the appliance always injects the hostroute.

  • If set to ACTIVE on all the virtual servers that share the IP address, the appliance injects even if one virtual server is UP.

  • If set to ACTIVE on some virtual servers and PASSIVE on the others, the appliance, injects even if one virtual server set to ACTIVE is UP.

Choices:

  • PASSIVE

  • ACTIVE

rtspnat

boolean

Enable network address translation (NAT) for real-time streaming protocol (RTSP) connections.

Choices:

  • no

  • yes

save_config

boolean

If yes the module will save the configuration on the netscaler node if it makes any changes.

The module will not save the configuration on the netscaler node if it made no changes.

Choices:

  • no

  • yes ← (default)

servicetype

string

Protocol used by the virtual server.

Choices:

  • HTTP

  • SSL

  • TCP

  • FTP

  • RTSP

  • SSL_TCP

  • UDP

  • DNS

  • SIP_UDP

  • SIP_TCP

  • SIP_SSL

  • ANY

  • RADIUS

  • RDP

  • MYSQL

  • MSSQL

  • DIAMETER

  • SSL_DIAMETER

  • DNS_TCP

  • ORACLE

  • SMPP

sitedomainttl

string

.

Minimum value = 1

sobackupaction

string

Action to be performed if spillover is to take effect, but no backup chain to spillover is usable or exists.

Choices:

  • DROP

  • ACCEPT

  • REDIRECT

somethod

string

Type of spillover used to divert traffic to the backup virtual server when the primary virtual server reaches the spillover threshold. Connection spillover is based on the number of connections. Bandwidth spillover is based on the total Kbps of incoming and outgoing traffic.

Choices:

  • CONNECTION

  • DYNAMICCONNECTION

  • BANDWIDTH

  • HEALTH

  • NONE

sopersistence

string

Maintain source-IP based persistence on primary and backup virtual servers.

Choices:

  • enabled

  • disabled

sopersistencetimeout

string

Time-out value, in minutes, for spillover persistence.

Minimum value = 2

Maximum value = 1440

sothreshold

string

Depending on the spillover method, the maximum number of connections or the maximum total bandwidth (Kbps) that a virtual server can handle before spillover occurs.

Minimum value = 1

Maximum value = 4294967287

ssl_certkey

string

The name of the ssl certificate that is bound to this service.

The ssl certificate must already exist.

Creating the certificate can be done with the community.network.netscaler_ssl_certkey module.

This option is only applicable only when servicetype is SSL.

state

string

The state of the resource being configured by the module on the netscaler node.

When present the resource will be created if needed and configured according to the module’s parameters.

When absent the resource will be deleted from the netscaler node.

Choices:

  • absent

  • present ← (default)

stateupdate

string

Enable state updates for a specific content switching virtual server. By default, the Content Switching virtual server is always UP, regardless of the state of the Load Balancing virtual servers bound to it. This parameter interacts with the global setting as follows:

Global Level | Vserver Level | Result

enabled enabled enabled

enabled disabled enabled

disabled enabled enabled

disabled disabled disabled

If you want to enable state updates for only some content switching virtual servers, be sure to disable the state update parameter.

Choices:

  • enabled

  • disabled

targettype

string

Virtual server target type.

Choices:

  • GSLB

tcpprofilename

string

Name of the TCP profile containing TCP configuration settings for the virtual server.

Minimum length = 1

Maximum length = 127

td

string

Integer value that uniquely identifies the traffic domain in which you want to configure the entity. If you do not specify an ID, the entity becomes part of the default traffic domain, which has an ID of 0.

Minimum value = 0

Maximum value = 4094

ttl

string

.

Minimum value = 1

validate_certs

boolean

If no, SSL certificates will not be validated. This should only be used on personally controlled sites using self-signed certificates.

Choices:

  • no

  • yes ← (default)

vipheader

string

Name of virtual server IP and port header, for use with the VServer IP Port Insertion parameter.

Minimum length = 1

Notes

Note

Examples

# policy_1 must have been already created with the netscaler_cs_policy module
# lbvserver_1 must have been already created with the netscaler_lb_vserver module

- name: Setup content switching vserver
  delegate_to: localhost
  community.network.netscaler_cs_vserver:
    nsip: 172.18.0.2
    nitro_user: nsroot
    nitro_pass: nsroot

    state: present

    name: cs_vserver_1
    ipv46: 192.168.1.1
    port: 80
    servicetype: HTTP

    policybindings:
      - policyname: policy_1
        targetlbvserver: lbvserver_1

Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key

Description

diff

dictionary

List of differences between the actual configured object and the configuration specified in the module

Returned: failure

Sample: {“clttimeout”: “difference. ours: (float) 100.0 other: (float) 60.0”}

loglines

list / elements=string

list of logged messages by the module

Returned: always

Sample: [“message 1”, “message 2”]

msg

string

Message detailing the failure reason

Returned: failure

Sample: “Action does not exist”

Authors

  • George Nikolopoulos (@giorgos-nikolopoulos)