community.network.netscaler_lb_monitor module – Manage load balancing monitors

Note

This module is part of the community.network collection (version 4.0.2).

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. You need further requirements to be able to use this module, see Requirements for details.

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

Synopsis

  • Manage load balancing monitors.

  • 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

acctapplicationid

string

List of Acct-Application-Id attribute value pairs (AVPs) for the Capabilities-Exchange-Request (CER) message to use for monitoring Diameter servers. A maximum of eight of these AVPs are supported in a monitoring message.

Minimum value = 0

Maximum value = 4294967295

action

string

Action to perform when the response to an inline monitor (a monitor of type HTTP-INLINE) indicates that the service is down. A service monitored by an inline monitor is considered DOWN if the response code is not one of the codes that have been specified for the Response Code parameter.

Available settings function as follows:

* NONE - Do not take any action. However, the show service command and the show lb monitor command indicate the total number of responses that were checked and the number of consecutive error responses received after the last successful probe.

* LOG - Log the event in NSLOG or SYSLOG.

* DOWN - Mark the service as being down, and then do not direct any traffic to the service until the configured down time has expired. Persistent connections to the service are terminated as soon as the service is marked as DOWN. Also, log the event in NSLOG or SYSLOG.

Choices:

  • "NONE"

  • "LOG"

  • "DOWN"

alertretries

string

Number of consecutive probe failures after which the appliance generates an SNMP trap called monProbeFailed.

Minimum value = 0

Maximum value = 32

application

string

Name of the application used to determine the state of the service. Applicable to monitors of type CITRIX-XML-SERVICE.

Minimum length = 1

attribute

string

Attribute to evaluate when the LDAP server responds to the query. Success or failure of the monitoring probe depends on whether the attribute exists in the response. Optional.

Minimum length = 1

authapplicationid

string

List of Auth-Application-Id attribute value pairs (AVPs) for the Capabilities-Exchange-Request (CER) message to use for monitoring Diameter servers. A maximum of eight of these AVPs are supported in a monitoring CER message.

Minimum value = 0

Maximum value = 4294967295

basedn

string

The base distinguished name of the LDAP service, from where the LDAP server can begin the search for the attributes in the monitoring query. Required for LDAP service monitoring.

Minimum length = 1

binddn

string

The distinguished name with which an LDAP monitor can perform the Bind operation on the LDAP server. Optional. Applicable to LDAP monitors.

Minimum length = 1

customheaders

string

Custom header string to include in the monitoring probes.

database

string

Name of the database to connect to during authentication.

Minimum length = 1

destip

string

IP address of the service to which to send probes. If the parameter is set to 0, the IP address of the server to which the monitor is bound is considered the destination IP address.

destport

string

TCP or UDP port to which to send the probe. If the parameter is set to 0, the port number of the service to which the monitor is bound is considered the destination port. For a monitor of type USER, however, the destination port is the port number that is included in the HTTP request sent to the dispatcher. Does not apply to monitors of type PING.

deviation

string

Time value added to the learned average response time in dynamic response time monitoring (DRTM). When a deviation is specified, the appliance learns the average response time of bound services and adds the deviation to the average. The final value is then continually adjusted to accommodate response time variations over time. Specified in milliseconds, seconds, or minutes.

Minimum value = 0

Maximum value = 20939

dispatcherip

string

IP address of the dispatcher to which to send the probe.

dispatcherport

string

Port number on which the dispatcher listens for the monitoring probe.

domain

string

Domain in which the XenDesktop Desktop Delivery Controller (DDC) servers or Web Interface servers are present. Required by CITRIX-XD-DDC and CITRIX-WI-EXTENDED monitors for logging on to the DDC servers and Web Interface servers, respectively.

downtime

string

Time duration for which to wait before probing a service that has been marked as DOWN. Expressed in milliseconds, seconds, or minutes.

Minimum value = 1

Maximum value = 20939

evalrule

string

Default syntax expression that evaluates the database server’s response to a MYSQL-ECV or MSSQL-ECV monitoring query. Must produce a Boolean result. The result determines the state of the server. If the expression returns TRUE, the probe succeeds.

For example, if you want the appliance to evaluate the error message to determine the state of the server, use the rule MYSQL.RES.ROW(10 .TEXT_ELEM(2).EQ(“MySQL”)).

failureretries

string

Number of retries that must fail, out of the number specified for the Retries parameter, for a service to be marked as DOWN. For example, if the Retries parameter is set to 10 and the Failure Retries parameter is set to 6, out of the ten probes sent, at least six probes must fail if the service is to be marked as DOWN. The default value of 0 means that all the retries must fail if the service is to be marked as DOWN.

Minimum value = 0

Maximum value = 32

filename

string

Name of a file on the FTP server. The appliance monitors the FTP service by periodically checking the existence of the file on the server. Applicable to FTP-EXTENDED monitors.

Minimum length = 1

filter

string

Filter criteria for the LDAP query. Optional.

Minimum length = 1

firmwarerevision

string

Firmware-Revision value for the Capabilities-Exchange-Request (CER) message to use for monitoring Diameter servers.

group

string

Name of a newsgroup available on the NNTP service that is to be monitored. The appliance periodically generates an NNTP query for the name of the newsgroup and evaluates the response. If the newsgroup is found on the server, the service is marked as UP. If the newsgroup does not exist or if the search fails, the service is marked as DOWN. Applicable to NNTP monitors.

Minimum length = 1

hostipaddress

string

Host-IP-Address value for the Capabilities-Exchange-Request (CER) message to use for monitoring Diameter servers. If Host-IP-Address is not specified, the appliance inserts the mapped IP (MIP) address or subnet IP (SNIP) address from which the CER request (the monitoring probe) is sent.

Minimum length = 1

hostname

string

Hostname in the FQDN format (Example: porche.cars.org). Applicable to STOREFRONT monitors.

Minimum length = 1

httprequest

string

HTTP request to send to the server (for example, "HEAD /file.html").

inbandsecurityid

string

Inband-Security-Id for the Capabilities-Exchange-Request (CER) message to use for monitoring Diameter servers.

Choices:

  • "NO_INBAND_SECURITY"

  • "TLS"

interval

string

Time interval between two successive probes. Must be greater than the value of Response Time-out.

Minimum value = 1

Maximum value = 20940

ipaddress

string

Set of IP addresses expected in the monitoring response from the DNS server, if the record type is A or AAAA. Applicable to DNS monitors.

Minimum length = 1

iptunnel

boolean

Send the monitoring probe to the service through an IP tunnel. A destination IP address must be specified.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

kcdaccount

string

KCD Account used by MSSQL monitor.

Minimum length = 1

Maximum length = 32

lasversion

string

Version number of the Citrix Advanced Access Control Logon Agent. Required by the CITRIX-AAC-LAS monitor.

logonpointname

string

Name of the logon point that is configured for the Citrix Access Gateway Advanced Access Control software. Required if you want to monitor the associated login page or Logon Agent. Applicable to CITRIX-AAC-LAS and CITRIX-AAC-LOGINPAGE monitors.

lrtm

string

Calculate the least response times for bound services. If this parameter is not enabled, the appliance does not learn the response times of the bound services. Also used for LRTM load balancing.

Choices:

  • "enabled"

  • "disabled"

maxforwards

string

Maximum number of hops that the SIP request used for monitoring can traverse to reach the server. Applicable only to monitors of type SIP-UDP.

Minimum value = 0

Maximum value = 255

metrictable

string

Metric table to which to bind metrics.

Minimum length = 1

Maximum length = 99

monitorname

string

Name for the monitor. Must begin with an ASCII alphanumeric or underscore _ character, and must contain only ASCII alphanumeric, underscore, hash #, period ., space , colon :, at @, equals =, and hyphen - characters.

Minimum length = 1

mssqlprotocolversion

string

Version of MSSQL server that is to be monitored.

Choices:

  • "70"

  • "2000"

  • "2000SP1"

  • "2005"

  • "2008"

  • "2008R2"

  • "2012"

  • "2014"

netprofile

string

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: 310.0

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.

oraclesid

string

Name of the service identifier that is used to connect to the Oracle database during authentication.

Minimum length = 1

originhost

string

Origin-Host value for the Capabilities-Exchange-Request (CER) message to use for monitoring Diameter servers.

Minimum length = 1

originrealm

string

Origin-Realm value for the Capabilities-Exchange-Request (CER) message to use for monitoring Diameter servers.

Minimum length = 1

password

string

Password that is required for logging on to the RADIUS, NNTP, FTP, FTP-EXTENDED, MYSQL, MSSQL, POP3, CITRIX-AG, CITRIX-XD-DDC, CITRIX-WI-EXTENDED, CITRIX-XNC-ECV or CITRIX-XDM server. Used in conjunction with the user name specified for the username parameter.

Minimum length = 1

productname

string

Product-Name value for the Capabilities-Exchange-Request (CER) message to use for monitoring Diameter servers.

Minimum length = 1

query

string

Domain name to resolve as part of monitoring the DNS service (for example, example.com).

querytype

string

Type of DNS record for which to send monitoring queries. Set to Address for querying A records, AAAA for querying AAAA records, and Zone for querying the SOA record.

Choices:

  • "Address"

  • "Zone"

  • "AAAA"

radaccountsession

string

Account Session ID to be used in Account Request Packet. Applicable to monitors of type RADIUS_ACCOUNTING.

Minimum length = 1

radaccounttype

string

Account Type to be used in Account Request Packet. Applicable to monitors of type RADIUS_ACCOUNTING.

Minimum value = 0

Maximum value = 15

radapn

string

Called Station Id to be used in Account Request Packet. Applicable to monitors of type RADIUS_ACCOUNTING.

Minimum length = 1

radframedip

string

Source ip with which the packet will go out . Applicable to monitors of type RADIUS_ACCOUNTING.

radkey

string

Authentication key (shared secret text string) for RADIUS clients and servers to exchange. Applicable to monitors of type RADIUS and RADIUS_ACCOUNTING.

Minimum length = 1

radmsisdn

string

Calling Stations Id to be used in Account Request Packet. Applicable to monitors of type RADIUS_ACCOUNTING.

Minimum length = 1

radnasid

string

NAS-Identifier to send in the Access-Request packet. Applicable to monitors of type RADIUS.

Minimum length = 1

radnasip

string

Network Access Server (NAS) IP address to use as the source IP address when monitoring a RADIUS server. Applicable to monitors of type RADIUS and RADIUS_ACCOUNTING.

recv

string

String expected from the server for the service to be marked as UP. Applicable to TCP-ECV, HTTP-ECV, and UDP-ECV monitors.

respcode

string

Response codes for which to mark the service as UP. For any other response code, the action performed depends on the monitor type. HTTP monitors and RADIUS monitors mark the service as DOWN, while HTTP-INLINE monitors perform the action indicated by the Action parameter.

resptimeout

string

Amount of time for which the appliance must wait before it marks a probe as FAILED. Must be less than the value specified for the Interval parameter.

Note: For UDP-ECV monitors for which a receive string is not configured, response timeout does not apply. For UDP-ECV monitors with no receive string, probe failure is indicated by an ICMP port unreachable error received from the service.

Minimum value = 1

Maximum value = 20939

resptimeoutthresh

string

Response time threshold, specified as a percentage of the Response Time-out parameter. If the response to a monitor probe has not arrived when the threshold is reached, the appliance generates an SNMP trap called monRespTimeoutAboveThresh. After the response time returns to a value below the threshold, the appliance generates a monRespTimeoutBelowThresh SNMP trap. For the traps to be generated, the “MONITOR-RTO-THRESHOLD” alarm must also be enabled.

Minimum value = 0

Maximum value = 100

retries

string

Maximum number of probes to send to establish the state of a service for which a monitoring probe failed.

Minimum value = 1

Maximum value = 127

reverse

boolean

Mark a service as DOWN, instead of UP, when probe criteria are satisfied, and as UP instead of DOWN when probe criteria are not satisfied.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

rtsprequest

string

RTSP request to send to the server (for example, "OPTIONS *").

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:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

scriptargs

string

String of arguments for the script. The string is copied verbatim into the request.

scriptname

string

Path and name of the script to execute. The script must be available on the NetScaler appliance, in the /nsconfig/monitors/ directory.

Minimum length = 1

secondarypassword

string

Secondary password that users might have to provide to log on to the Access Gateway server. Applicable to CITRIX-AG monitors.

secure

boolean

Use a secure SSL connection when monitoring a service. Applicable only to TCP based monitors. The secure option cannot be used with a CITRIX-AG monitor, because a CITRIX-AG monitor uses a secure connection by default.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

send

string

String to send to the service. Applicable to TCP-ECV, HTTP-ECV, and UDP-ECV monitors.

sipmethod

string

SIP method to use for the query. Applicable only to monitors of type SIP-UDP.

Choices:

  • "OPTIONS"

  • "INVITE"

  • "REGISTER"

sipreguri

string

SIP user to be registered. Applicable only if the monitor is of type SIP-UDP and the SIP Method parameter is set to REGISTER.

Minimum length = 1

sipuri

string

SIP URI string to send to the service (for example, sip:sip.test). Applicable only to monitors of type SIP-UDP.

Minimum length = 1

sitepath

string

URL of the logon page. For monitors of type CITRIX-WEB-INTERFACE, to monitor a dynamic page under the site path, terminate the site path with a slash /. Applicable to CITRIX-WEB-INTERFACE, CITRIX-WI-EXTENDED and CITRIX-XDM monitors.

Minimum length = 1

snmpcommunity

string

Community name for SNMP monitors.

Minimum length = 1

Snmpoid

string

SNMP OID for SNMP monitors.

Minimum length = 1

snmpthreshold

string

Threshold for SNMP monitors.

Minimum length = 1

snmpversion

string

SNMP version to be used for SNMP monitors.

Choices:

  • "V1"

  • "V2"

sqlquery

string

SQL query for a MYSQL-ECV or MSSQL-ECV monitor. Sent to the database server after the server authenticates the connection.

Minimum length = 1

state

string

State of the monitor. The disabled setting disables not only the monitor being configured, but all monitors of the same type, until the parameter is set to enabled. If the monitor is bound to a service, the state of the monitor is not taken into account when the state of the service is determined.

Choices:

  • "enabled"

  • "disabled"

Default: "present"

storedb

string

Store the database list populated with the responses to monitor probes. Used in database specific load balancing if MSSQL-ECV/MYSQL-ECV monitor is configured.

Choices:

  • "enabled"

  • "disabled"

storefrontacctservice

boolean

Enable/Disable probing for Account Service. Applicable only to Store Front monitors. For multi-tenancy configuration users my skip account service.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

storefrontcheckbackendservices

boolean

This option will enable monitoring of services running on storefront server. Storefront services are monitored by probing to a Windows service that runs on the Storefront server and exposes details of which storefront services are running.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

storename

string

Store Name. For monitors of type STOREFRONT, storename is an optional argument defining storefront service store name. Applicable to STOREFRONT monitors.

Minimum length = 1

successretries

string

Number of consecutive successful probes required to transition a service’s state from DOWN to UP.

Minimum value = 1

Maximum value = 32

supportedvendorids

string

List of Supported-Vendor-Id attribute value pairs (AVPs) for the Capabilities-Exchange-Request (CER) message to use for monitoring Diameter servers. A maximum eight of these AVPs are supported in a monitoring message.

Minimum value = 1

Maximum value = 4294967295

tos

boolean

Probe the service by encoding the destination IP address in the IP TOS (6) bits.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

tosid

string

The TOS ID of the specified destination IP. Applicable only when the TOS parameter is set.

Minimum value = 1

Maximum value = 63

transparent

boolean

The monitor is bound to a transparent device such as a firewall or router. The state of a transparent device depends on the responsiveness of the services behind it. If a transparent device is being monitored, a destination IP address must be specified. The probe is sent to the specified IP address by using the MAC address of the transparent device.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

trofscode

string

Code expected when the server is under maintenance.

trofsstring

string

String expected from the server for the service to be marked as trofs. Applicable to HTTP-ECV/TCP-ECV monitors.

type

string

Type of monitor that you want to create.

Choices:

  • "PING"

  • "TCP"

  • "HTTP"

  • "TCP-ECV"

  • "HTTP-ECV"

  • "UDP-ECV"

  • "DNS"

  • "FTP"

  • "LDNS-PING"

  • "LDNS-TCP"

  • "LDNS-DNS"

  • "RADIUS"

  • "USER"

  • "HTTP-INLINE"

  • "SIP-UDP"

  • "SIP-TCP"

  • "LOAD"

  • "FTP-EXTENDED"

  • "SMTP"

  • "SNMP"

  • "NNTP"

  • "MYSQL"

  • "MYSQL-ECV"

  • "MSSQL-ECV"

  • "ORACLE-ECV"

  • "LDAP"

  • "POP3"

  • "CITRIX-XML-SERVICE"

  • "CITRIX-WEB-INTERFACE"

  • "DNS-TCP"

  • "RTSP"

  • "ARP"

  • "CITRIX-AG"

  • "CITRIX-AAC-LOGINPAGE"

  • "CITRIX-AAC-LAS"

  • "CITRIX-XD-DDC"

  • "ND6"

  • "CITRIX-WI-EXTENDED"

  • "DIAMETER"

  • "RADIUS_ACCOUNTING"

  • "STOREFRONT"

  • "APPC"

  • "SMPP"

  • "CITRIX-XNC-ECV"

  • "CITRIX-XDM"

  • "CITRIX-STA-SERVICE"

  • "CITRIX-STA-SERVICE-NHOP"

units1

string

Unit of measurement for the Deviation parameter. Cannot be changed after the monitor is created.

Choices:

  • "SEC"

  • "MSEC"

  • "MIN"

units2

string

Unit of measurement for the Down Time parameter. Cannot be changed after the monitor is created.

Choices:

  • "SEC"

  • "MSEC"

  • "MIN"

units3

string

monitor interval units.

Choices:

  • "SEC"

  • "MSEC"

  • "MIN"

units4

string

monitor response timeout units.

Choices:

  • "SEC"

  • "MSEC"

  • "MIN"

username

string

User name with which to probe the RADIUS, NNTP, FTP, FTP-EXTENDED, MYSQL, MSSQL, POP3, CITRIX-AG, CITRIX-XD-DDC, CITRIX-WI-EXTENDED, CITRIX-XNC or CITRIX-XDM server.

Minimum length = 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:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

validatecred

boolean

Validate the credentials of the Xen Desktop DDC server user. Applicable to monitors of type CITRIX-XD-DDC.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

vendorid

string

Vendor-Id value for the Capabilities-Exchange-Request (CER) message to use for monitoring Diameter servers.

vendorspecificacctapplicationids

string

List of Vendor-Specific-Acct-Application-Id attribute value pairs (AVPs) to use for monitoring Diameter servers. A maximum of eight of these AVPs are supported in a monitoring message. The specified value is combined with the value of vendorSpecificVendorId to obtain the Vendor-Specific-Application-Id AVP in the CER monitoring message.

Minimum value = 0

Maximum value = 4294967295

vendorspecificauthapplicationids

string

List of Vendor-Specific-Auth-Application-Id attribute value pairs (AVPs) for the Capabilities-Exchange-Request (CER) message to use for monitoring Diameter servers. A maximum of eight of these AVPs are supported in a monitoring message. The specified value is combined with the value of vendorSpecificVendorId to obtain the Vendor-Specific-Application-Id AVP in the CER monitoring message.

Minimum value = 0

Maximum value = 4294967295

vendorspecificvendorid

string

Vendor-Id to use in the Vendor-Specific-Application-Id grouped attribute-value pair (AVP) in the monitoring CER message. To specify Auth-Application-Id or Acct-Application-Id in Vendor-Specific-Application-Id, use vendorSpecificAuthApplicationIds or vendorSpecificAcctApplicationIds, respectively. Only one Vendor-Id is supported for all the Vendor-Specific-Application-Id AVPs in a CER monitoring message.

Minimum value = 1

Notes

Note

Examples

- name: Set lb monitor
  local_action:
    nsip: 172.18.0.2
    nitro_user: nsroot
    nitro_pass: nsroot
    validate_certs: no


    module: netscaler_lb_monitor
    state: present

    monitorname: monitor_1
    type: HTTP-INLINE
    action: DOWN
    respcode: ['400']

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: {"targetlbvserver": "difference. ours: (str) server1 other: (str) server2"}

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)