Prometheus exporter for Citrix NetScaler

This exporter collects statistics from Citrix NetScaler and makes them available for Prometheus to pull. As the NetScaler is an appliance it's not recommended to run the exporter directly on it, so it will need to run elsewhere.

NetScaler configuration

The exporter works via a local NetScaler user account. It would be preferable to configure a specific user for this which only has permissions to retrieve stats and specific configuration details.

If you lean towards the NetScaler CLI, you want to do something like the following (obviously changing the username as you see fit).

# Create a new Command Policy which is only allowed to run the stat command
add system cmdPolicy stat ALLOW (^stat.*|show ns license|show serviceGroup)

# Create a new user.  Disabling externalAuth is important as if it is enabled a user created in AD (or other external source) with the same name could login
add system user stats "password" -externalAuth DISABLED # Change the password to reflect whatever complex password you want

# Bind the local user account to the new Command Policy
bind system user stats stat 100

Usage

You can monitor multiple NetScaler instances by passing in the URL, username, and password as command line flags to the exporter. If you're running multiple exporters on the same server, you'll also need to change the port that the exporter binds to.

Flag	Description	Default Value
username	Username with which to connect to the NetScaler API	none
password	Password with which to connect to the NetScaler API	none
bind_port	Port to bind the exporter endpoint to	9280

Run the exporter manually using the following command:

Citrix-NetScaler-Exporter.exe --username stats --password "my really strong password"

This will run the exporter using the default bind port. If you need to change the port, append the -bind_port flag to the command.

Browse to http://localhost:9280/target=https://netscaler.domain.tld where https://netscaler.domain.tld is the URL of the NetScaler to get metrics from.

You can also specify the ignore-cert=yes querystring parameter in order to skip the certificate check. This option should be used sparingly, and only when you fully trust the endpoint.

Prometheus Configuration

The exporter needs to be passed the address of the NetScaler to get metrics from as a parameter, this can be done with relabelling.

Example config:

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: 'netscaler'
    metrics_path: /netscaler
    static_configs:
      - targets:
        - 'https://netscaler.domain.tld'
        - 'https://netscaler-2.domain.tld'
    params:
      ignore-cert: ["yes"] # Generally this option should not be used.  Only use it if you truly trust the endpoint and know it is secure.  You may need a different job block for where you want to ignore certs.
    relabel_configs:
      - source_labels: [__address__]
        target_label: __param_target
      - source_labels: [__param_target]
        target_label: instance
      - target_label: __address__
        replacement: 127.0.0.1:9280  # The exporter's real hostname:port.

Running as a service

Ideally you'll run the exporter as a service. There are many ways to do that, so it's really up to you. If you're running it on Windows I would recommend NSSM.

Exported metrics

NetScaler

Metric	Metric Type	Unit
CPU usage	Gauge	Percent
Memory usage	Gauge	Percent
Management CPU usage	Gauge	Percent
Packet engine CPU usage	Gauge	Percent
/flash partition usage	Gauge	Percent
/var partition usage	Gauge	Percent
Total received MB	Counter	MB
Total transmitted MB	Counter	MB
HTTP requests	Gauge	None
HTTP responses	Gauge	None
Current client connections	Gauge	None
Current established client connections	Gauge	None
Current server connections	Gauge	None
Current established server connections	Gauge	None

Interfaces

For each interface, the following metrics are retrieved.

Metric	Metric Type	Unit
Interface ID	N/A	None
Received bytes	Gauge	Bytes
Transmitted bytes	Gauge	Bytes
Received packets	Gauge	None
Transmitted packets	Gauge	None
Jumbo packets retrieved	Gauge	None
Jumbo packets transmitted	Gauge	None
Error packets received	Gauge	None
Intrerface alias	N/A	None

Virtual Servers

For each virtual server, the following metrics are retrieved.

Metric	Metric Type	Unit
Name	N/A	None
Waiting requests	Gauge	None
Health	Gauge	Percent
Inactive services	Gauge	None
Active services	Gauge	None
Total hits	Counter	None
Total requests	Counter	None
Total responses	Counter	None
Total request bytes	Counter	Bytes
Total response bytes	Counter	Bytes
Current client connections	Gauge	None
Current server connections	Gauge	None

Services

For each service, the following metrics are retrieved.

Metric	Metric Type	Unit
Name	N/A	None
Throughput	Counter	MB
Average time to first byte	Gauge	Seconds
State	Gauge	None
Total requests	Counter	None
Total responses	Counter	None
Total request bytes	Counter	Bytes
Total response bytes	Counter	Bytes
Current client connections	Gauge	None
Surge count	Gauge	None
Current server connections	Gauge	None
Server established connections	Gauge	None
Current reuse pool	Gauge	None
Max clients	Gauge	None
Current load	Gauge	Percent
Service hits	Counter	None
Active transactions	Gauge	None

Service Groups

For each service group member, the following metrics are retrieved.

Metric	Metric Type	Unit
Average time to first byte	Gauge	Seconds
State	Gauge	None
Total requests	Counter	None
Total responses	Counter	None
Total request bytes	Counter	Bytes
Total response bytes	Counter	Bytes
Current client connections	Gauge	None
Surge count	Gauge	None
Current server connections	Gauge	None
Server established connections	Gauge	None
Current reuse pool	Gauge	None
Max clients	Gauge	None

Licensing

Metric	Metric Type	Unit
Model ID	Gauge	None

GSLB Services

For each GSLB service, the following metrics are retrieved.

Metric	Metric Type	Unit
Name	N/A	None
State	Gauge	None
Total requests	Counter	None
Total responses	Counter	None
Total request bytes	Counter	Bytes
Total response bytes	Counter	Bytes
Current client connections	Gauge	None
Current server connections	Gauge	None
Established connections	Gauge	None
Current load	Gauge	Percent
Service hits	Counter	None

GSLB Virtual Servers

For each GSLB virtual server, the following metrics are retrieved.

Metric	Metric Type	Unit
Name	N/A	None
Health	Gauge	Percent
Inactive services	Gauge	None
Active services	Gauge	None
Total hits	Counter	None
Total requests	Counter	None
Total responses	Counter	None
Total request bytes	Counter	Bytes
Total response bytes	Counter	Bytes
Current client connections	Gauge	None
Current server connections	Gauge	None

Content Switching Virtual Servers

For each Content Switching virtual server, the following metrics are retrieved.

Metric	Metric Type	Unit
Name	N/A	None
State	Gauge	None
Total hits	Counter	None
Total requests	Counter	None
Total responses	Counter	None
Total request bytes	Counter	Bytes
Total response bytes	Counter	Bytes
Current client connections	Gauge	None
Current server connections	Gauge	None
Established Connections	Gauge	None
Total Packets Received	Counter	None
Total Packets Sent	Counter	None
Total Spillovers	Counter	None
Deferred Requests	Counter	None
Invalid Requests/Responses	Counter	None
Number of Invalid Requests/Responses dropped	Counter	None
Total virtual server down backup hits	Counter	None
Current multipath sessions	Gauge	None
Current multipath subflow connections	Gauge	None

Downloading a release

https://github.com/rokett/Citrix-NetScaler-Exporter/releases

You can also download a Docker image from https://hub.docker.com/r/rokett/citrix-netscaler-exporter.

Building the executable

All dependencies are version controlled, so building the project is really easy.

1. go get github.com/rokett/citrix-netscaler-exporter.
2. From within the repository directory run make.
3. Hey presto, you have an executable.

Dockerfile

This Dockerfile will create a container that will set the entrypoint as /Citrix-Netscaler-Exporter so you can just pass in the command line options mentioned above to the container without needing to call the executable