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Generate technical support bundle

January 27, 2020
Contributed by:  S

For help with analyzing and resolving any issues with a NetScaler appliance, you can generate a technical support bundle on the appliance and send the bundle to Citrix technical support. The NetScaler technical support bundle is a zipped tar archive of system configuration data and statistics. It collects the following data from the NetScaler appliance on which you generate the bundle:

  • Configuration files. All files in the /flash/nsconfig directory.
  • Newnslog files. The currently running newnslog and some previous files. To minimize the archive file size, newnslog collection is restricted to 500 MB, 6 files, or 7 days, whichever occurs first. If older data is needed, it might require manual collection.
  • Log files. Files in /var/log/messages, /var/log/ns.log, and other files under /var/log and /var/nslog.
  • Application core files. Files created in the /var/core directory within the last week, if any.
  • Output of some CLI show commands.
  • Output of some CLI stat commands.
  • Output of BSD shell commands.

You can use a single command to generate the technical support bundle and securely upload it to the Citrix Technical Support server. To upload, you must specify your My Citrix credentials. When you generate the bundle, you can specify the case or service request number that was allotted to you by Citrix Technical Support. If you have already generated a technical support bundle, you can upload the existing archive file to the Citrix Technical Support server by specifying the file name with the full path.

The technical support bundle is saved on the NetScaler appliance in an archive at the following location:

/var/tmp/support/support.tgz

The above path is a symlink to the most recent collector for easy access. The full filename varies, depending on the deployment topology, but generally follows a format similar to:

collector_<P/S>_<NS IP>_<DateTime>.tgz.

If your NetScaler appliance does not have direct Internet connectivity, you can use a proxy server to directly upload the technical support bundle to the Citrix Technical Support server. The basic format of the proxy string is:

proxy_IP:<proxy_port>

If the proxy server requires authentication, the format is:

username:password@proxsy_IP:<proxy_port>

Note

For NetScaler appliances in a high availability pair, you must generate the technical support bundle on each of the two nodes.

For NetScaler appliances in a Cluster setup, you can generate the technical support bundle on each node individually, or you can generate smaller abbreviated archives for all nodes by using the cluster IP address.

For NetScaler Admin Partitions, you must generate the technical support bundle from the default admin partition. To get the technical support bundle for a specific partition, you must specify the name of the partition for which you want to generate the technical support bundle. If you do not specify the name of the partition, data is collected from all admin partitions.

Download technical support bundle from NetScaler MPX and VPX appliances

To run a collector file by using the NetScaler GUI, you must complete the following procedure:

Note: The procedure is applicable for software release 9.2 or later.

  1. Navigate to System > Diagnostic.
  2. In the Technical Support Tools section, click Generate Support File link.

  3. In the Tech Support page, set the following parameters:

    1. Scope. To collect data from one or more nodes.
    2. Partition. Name of the partition.
    3. Citrix Technical Support pload Options. Set all options such as proxy server, service case number, collector archive file name. and a brief description of the archive file for uploading the technical support bundle.
    4. My Citrix Account. Enter your Citrix credentials.
  4. Click Run.
  5. The Technical Support bundle is generated.
  6. Click Yes to download the Technical support bundle to your local desktop.

Obtain technical support bundle by using the command interface

  1. Download the file from the appliance using a Secure FTP (SFTP) or Secure Copy (SCP) utility, such as WinSCP, and upload it to Citrix Insight Services for analysis.

    Note: In NetScaler software release earlier than 9.0, the collector script must be downloaded separately and executed.

    > show techsupport -scope CLUSTER

  2. This collects show techsupport information from all nodes in the cluster and compress the files into a single archive.

  3. After the appliance generates the collector archive the location of the file is displayed as shown in the following screenshot.

    Location of the tech support bundle

The file is stored in /var/tmp/support and you can verify it by logging into a Citrix ADC appliance and running the following command from a shell prompt.

root@NS# cd /var/tmp/support/ root@NS# ls -l

Upload and run collector script on the NetScaler appliance

To upload and run the updated collector script on a NetScaler appliance, complete the following procedure:

Note: The procedure is applicable for software release 9.2 or later.

  1. Copy the updated collector script showtechsupport.pl (attached with this article) to the /nsconfig directory of the Citrix ADC appliance. Use an SFTP or SCP utility, such as WinSCP, to copy the file to the Citrix ADC appliance.
  2. Run the following commands:
    > shell
    # cd /nsconfig
    # chmod +x showtechsupport.pl
    # ./showtechsupport.pl
  1. Switch to the CLI of the appliance.

  2. Run the following command to create log files for analysis:

    > show techsupport

    The collector_<NSIP>_<P/S>_<DateTime>.tgz file is created in the /var/tmp/support directory of the appliance. Note: You must then upload the .tgz file to Citrix Insight Services for analysis.

  3. If you must uninstall this script, run the following commands from the CLI of the appliance:

    > shell rm /nsconfig/showtechsupport.pl

Obtain diagnostic bundle from NetScaler SDX

  1. Open the NetScaler SDX Configuration Utility with the NetScaler SDX Management IP address from a web browser.
  2. Expand the Diagnostics node.
  3. Select the Technical Support node.
  4. Click Generate Technical Support File.
  5. Select Appliance (Including Instances) from the drop-down menu.
  6. Click Add.
  7. Select one or more instances to add in.
  8. Click OK. Wait for the process to complete.
  9. Select the bundle name that was generated and then click Download
  10. Upload the bundle file to Citrix Insight Services.

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Generate technical support bundle

January 27, 2020
Contributed by:  S

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