Maintenance jobs

You can create the following maintenance tasks using Citrix ADM. You can then schedule the maintenance tasks at a specific date and time.

• Upgrade Citrix ADC instances

• Upgrade Citrix ADC SDX instances

• Upgrade Citrix ADC instances in the Autoscale Group

• Configure HA pair of Citrix ADC instances

• Convert HA pair of instances to Cluster

Schedule upgrading of Citrix ADC instances

1. In Citrix ADM, navigate to Infrastructure > Configuration > Configuration Jobs. Click the Create Job button.

   

2. In Create Maintenance Jobs, select Upgrade Citrix ADC (Standalone/High-Availability/Cluster) and click Proceed.

   

3. In Select Instance, type a name of your choice for Job Name.

4. Click Add Instances to add ADC instances that you want to upgrade.

   • To upgrade an HA pair, specify the IP address of a primary or secondary node. However, using the primary instance to upgrade the HA pair is recommended.

   • To upgrade a cluster, specify the cluster IP address.

   

5. Click Next to start the pre-upgrade validation on the selected instances.

   The Pre-upgrade validation tab displays the failed instances. Remove the failed instances and click Next.

   Important

   If you specify cluster IP address, the Citrix ADM does pre-upgrade validation only on the specified instance not on the other cluster nodes.

6. Optional, in Custom scripts, specify the scripts to run before and after an instance upgrade. Use one of the following ways to run the commands:

   • Import commands from file - Select the command input file from your local computer.
   • Type commands - Enter commands directly on the GUI.

   

   You can use custom scripts to check the changes before and after an instance upgrade. For example:

   • The instance version before and after the upgrade.
   • The status of interfaces, high-availability nodes, virtual servers, and services before and after upgrade.
   • The statistics of virtual servers and services.
   • The dynamic routes.

7. In Schedule Task, select one of the following options:

   • Upgrade now - The upgrade job runs immediately.

   • Schedule Later - Select this option to run this upgrade job later. Specify the Execution Date and Start Time when you want to upgrade the instances.

     If you want to upgrade an ADC HA pair in two stages, select Perform two stage upgrade for nodes in HA.

     Specify the Execution Date and Start Time when you want to upgrade another instance in the HA pair.

8. In Create Job, specify the following details:

   1. Select one of the following options from the Software Image list:

      • Local - Select the instance upgrade file from your local machine.

      • Appliance - Select the instance upgrade file from an Citrix ADM file browser. The Citrix ADM GUI displays the instance files that are present at /var/mps/mps_images.

   2. Specify when you want to upload the image to an instance:

      • Upload now - Select this option to upload the image immediately. However, the upgrade job runs at the scheduled time.

      • Upload at the time of execution - Select this option to upload the image at the time of upgrade job execution.

   • Clean software image from Citrix ADC on successful upgrade - Select this option to clear the uploaded image in the ADC instance after the instance upgrade.

   • Backup the ADC instances before starting the upgrade. - Creates a backup of the selected ADC instances.

   • Enable ISSU to avoid network outage on ADC HA pair - ISSU ensures the zero downtime upgrade on an ADC high-availability pair. This option provides a migration functionality that honors the existing connections during upgrade. So, you can upgrade an ADC HA pair without downtime. Specify the ISSU migration timeout in minutes.

   • Receive Execution Report through email - Sends the execution report in email. To add an email distribution list, see Create an email distribution list.

   • Receive Execution Report through slack - Sends the execution report in slack. To add a Slack profile, see Create a Slack profile.

   

9. Click Create Job.

Schedule upgrading of Citrix ADC SDX instances

1. In Citrix ADM, navigate to Infrastructure > Configuration Jobs > Maintenance Jobs. Click the Create Job button.

2. Select Upgrade Citrix ADC SDX and click Proceed.

   

3. On the Upgrade Citrix ADC SDX page, in the Instance Selection tab:

   1. Add a Task Name.

   2. From the Software Image drop-down menu, select either Local (your local machine) or Appliance (the build file must be present on the Citrix ADM virtual appliance).

      The upload process begins.

      

   3. Add the Citrix ADC SDX instances on which you want to run the upgrade process.

   4. Click Next.

      

4. On the Schedule Task tab, select Now from the Execution Mode list to upgrade a Citrix SDX instance now, and click Finish.

5. To upgrade a Citrix ADC SDX instance later, select Later from the Execution Mode list. You can then choose the Execution Date and the Start Time for upgrading the Citrix ADC instance, and click Finish

   

6. You can also enable email and slack notifications to receive the execution report of the upgrading Citrix ADC SDX instance. Click the Receive Execution Report Through Email check box and Receive Execution Report through slack check box to enable the notifications.

   For more information to configure email distribution list and slack channel, see step 8 in Schedule upgrading of Citrix ADC instances

Schedule upgrading Autoscale group

Perform the following steps to upgrade all the instances in the cloud services that are part of the Autoscale group:

1. In Citrix ADM, navigate to Infrastructure > Configuration Jobs > Maintenance Jobs. Click the Create Job button.

2. Select Upgrade Autoscale Group and click Proceed.

3. In the Upgrade Settings tab:

   1. Select the Autoscale Group that you want to upgrade.

   2. In Image, select the Citrix ADC version. This image is the existing version of Citrix ADC instances in the Autoscale group.

   3. In Citrix ADC Image, browse the Citrix ADC version file to which you want to upgrade.

      If you check Graceful Upgrade, the upgrade task waits until the specified drain connection period to expire.

   4. Click Next.

4. In the Schedule Task tab:

   1. Select one of the following from the Execution Mode list:

      • Now:To start the Citrix ADC instances upgrade immediately.

      • Later: To start the Citrix ADC instances upgrade at later time.

   2. If you select the Later option, select the Execution Date and Start Time when you want to start the upgrade task.

   You can also enable email and slack notifications to receive the execution report of the upgrading Autoscale group. Click the Receive Execution Report Through Email check box and Receive Execution Report through slack check box to enable the notifications.

5. Click Finish.

Schedule configuring HA pair of Citrix ADC instances

1. In Citrix ADM, navigate to Infrastructure > Configuration Jobs > Maintenance Jobs. Click the Create Job button.

2. Select Configure HA Pair of Citrix ADC Instances and click Proceed.

   

3. On the Citrix ADC HA Pair page, in the Instance Selection tab:

   1. Add a Task Name.

   2. Enter the Primary IP Address.

   3. Enter the Secondary IP Address.

   4. Click Next.

   5. Click to enable Turn on INC(Independent Network Configuration) mode if you have the HA pair instances in two subnets.

      

4. On the Schedule Task tab, select Now from the Execution Mode list to upgrade a Citrix ADC instance now, and click Finish.

5. To upgrade a Citrix ADC HA pair later, select Later from the Execution Mode list. You can then choose the Execution Date and the Start Time for upgrading the Citrix ADC instance, and click Finish.

   

6. You can also enable email and slack notifications to receive the execution report of creating the ADC HA pair. Click the Receive Execution Report Through Email check box and Receive Execution Report through slack check box to enable the notifications.

   For more information to configure email distribution list and slack channel, see step 8 in Schedule upgrading of Citrix ADC instances

Schedule converting HA pair of instances to cluster

1. In Citrix ADM, navigate to Infrastructure > Configuration Jobs > Maintenance Jobs. Click the Create Job button.

2. Select Convert HA Pair of Instances to 2 Node Cluster and click Proceed.

   

3. On the Migrate NetScaler HA to Cluster page, in the Instance Selection tab, add a Task Name. Specify the Primary IP address, Secondary IP address, Primary Node ID, Secondary Node ID, Cluster IP Address, Cluster ID, and Backplane, and then click Next.

   

4. On the Schedule Task tab, select Now from the Execution Mode list to upgrade a Citrix ADC instance now, and click Finish.

5. To upgrade later, select Later from the Execution Mode list. You can then choose the Execution Date and the Start Time for upgrading the Citrix ADC HA pair instance, and click Finish.

6. You can also enable email and slack notifications to receive the execution report of upgrading a Citrix ADC SDX instance. Click the Receive Execution Report Through Email check box and Receive Execution Report through slack check box to enable the notifications.

   For more information to configure email distribution list and slack channel, see step 8 in Schedule upgrading of Citrix ADC instances