NetScaler Gateway Plug-in Upgrade Control

Overview

System Administrators control how the NetScaler plug-in performs when its version does not match the NetScaler Gateway revision. The new options control the plug-in upgrade behavior for Mac, and   Windows or operating systems.

For VPN plug-ins, the upgrade option can be set in two places in the NetScaler user interface:

• At the Global Settings
• At the Session Profile level

Plug-in Behaviors

For each client type, NetScaler Gateway allows the following three options to control plug-in upgrade behavior:

a.     Always

The plug-in always gets upgraded whenever the end user’s plug-in version doesn’t match with the plug-in shipped with NetScaler. This is the default behavior. Choose this option if you don’t want multiple plug-in versions running in your enterprise.

b.   Essential (and security)

The plug-in only upgraded when it is deemed necessary. Upgrades are deemed necessary in following two circumstances

• Installed Plug-in is incompatible with current NetScaler version.

• Installed Plug-in needs to be updated for necessary security fix.

You should choose this option if you want to minimize the number of plug-in upgrades, but don’t want to miss any plug-in security updates

c.     Never

The plug-in does not get upgraded.

CLI Parameters for Controlling VPN Plug-in Upgrade

NetScaler Gateway supports two types of plug-ins (EPA and VPN) for Windows and Mac operating systems. To support VPN plug-in upgrade control at the session level, NetScaler Gateway supports two session profile parameters named WindowsinPluginUpgrade and MacPluginUpgrade.

These parameters are available at global, virtual server, group, and user level. Each parameter can have a value of Always, Essential or Never. For a description of these parameters see Plug-in Behaviors.

CLI Parameters for Controlling EPA Plug-in Upgrade

NetScaler Gateway supports EPA plug-ins for Windows and Mac operating systems. To support EPA plug-in upgrade control at the Vserver level, NetScaler Gateway supports two Vserver  parameters named windowsEPAPluginUpgrade and macEPAPluginUpgrade.

The parameters are available at the virtual server level. Each parameter can have a value of Always, Essential or Never. For a description of these parameters see Plug-in Behaviors

VPN Configuration

Follow these steps for the VPN configuration of Windows, Linux and Mac plug-ins.

1. Go to Citrix NetScaler>Policies>Session.

     2. Select the desired session policy, and then click Edit.

     3. Click the + icon.

    4. Select the Client Experience tab.

     5. These dialog boxes options affect the upgrade behavior. 

• Always • Essential • Never

      The default is Always.

      6.     Select the check box to the right of each option. Select the frequency to apply the upgrade behavior.

EPA Configuration

Follow these steps for the EPA configuration of Windows, Linux and Apple plug-ins.

       1.     Go to NetScaler Gateway > Virtual Servers.

       2. Select a Server and click the Edit button. 

      3.     Click the pencil icon.

      4. Click More

       5.     The dialog boxes that appear affect the upgrade behavior. The options available are 

• Always
• Essential
• Never

Requirements

• Windows EPA and VPN plug-in version should be greater than 11.0.0.0

• Mac EPA plug-in version should be greater than 3.0.0.31

• Mac VPN plug-in version should be greater than 3.1.4 (357)

Note: If NetScaler is upgraded to 11.0 release, all previous VPN (and EPA) plug-ins will upgrade to the latest version irrespective of upgrade control configuration. For subsequent upgrades, they will respect the above upgrade control configuration.