Guide on How to Load Balance Storefront with Netscaler

This article will show you how to load balance Storefront. I will start by showing how to load balance using port 80 to the Netscaler and port 80 the backend Storefront servers.

Create Monitor for Storefront Servers

The first thing you need to do is create monitors for your Storefront servers. To do that go to:

Configuration->Traffic Management->Load Balancing->Monitors and click “Add”.

 

 

Give the monitor a name. Is this example I simply gave it the name Storefront. In the drop-down, select “STOREFRONT”. Click on Special Parameters and write “Store” in the Store Name as shown underneath. Uncheck “Storefront Account Service” and Check “Check Backend Services”.

Click “Done” to create the monitor.

 

 

Create Servers

Now you need to add your Storefront servers. To do that go to:

Configuration->Traffic Manangement->Load Balancing->Servers and Click “Add”.

 

 

Give the server a name as shown below. You can choose to add your servers using IP address or your servers FQDN. In this example, I have used the IP address.

Once done, click on “Create”.

Do the same with the rest of your Storefront servers.

 

 

Create Service Group

The next step is to create a service group. Service groups can be found here:

Configuration->Traffic Manangement->Load Balancing->Service Groups.Once you get there, click “Add”.

Once you get there, click “Add”.

 

 

Give the service group a name and click “OK”.

 

 

The service group will be created but will be down. The reason is that the service group doesn’t have any service group members. Click on “No Service Group Member” which on the screenshot below.

 

You can choose to add service group members by using IP address or server based, which is servers that you already have created. Since you already have created your servers, click on “Server Based”. After that, Click on “Click to select”.

 

 

Choose your two Storefront servers and click “Select”.

 

 

 

Write “80” in “Port” and click “Create”

 

 

You have now added your two Storefront servers to the service group. Click “OK” to save the changes.

 

Your service group is now “Up” and is working as shown below.

 

 

Create Virtual Server

Now you need to create a virtual server load balance Storefront. You can do that here:

Configuration->Traffic Management->Virtual Servers

Once you get there, click “Add”.

 

 

First, give your load balancing virtual server a name. Then choose HTTP as your protocol. Lastly, give your load balancing virtual server an IP address. Click “OK”.

 

 

Once the server is created, the state will be down. This is because it doesn’t have any bindings. In order to do that, click on “No Load Balancing Virtual Server ServiceGroup Binding”, as shown below.

 

 

Click “Click to select”

 

 

 

 

Choose Storefront service group that you created earlier and click “Select”.

 

 

Click “Bind”.

 

Click “Continue”

 

 

Your load balancing virtual server is now created, but there two extra settings you need to do. Click “Edit” on your load balancing virtual server as shown above.

 

 

In the right side of the screen, click on “Method” and “Persistence”. Configure the two settings as shown below.

 

 

If you access your IP address, you will probably end up at the standard IIS page. That is because you need to be redirected to /Citrix/StoreWeb to hit the Storefront store. You can solve this more than one way, but the fastest way is to add this JavaScript in an index.html file in your inetpub folder.

<script type=”text/javascript”>
<!–
window.location=”/Citrix/StoreWeb”;
// –>
</script>

This is how you load balance Storefront using Netscaler. If you have any questions or comments, let know by leaving a comment below.