NetScaler SDX

Use cases for NetScaler SDX appliances

For networking components (such as firewalls and Application Delivery Controllers), support for multitenancy has historically involved the ability to carve a single device into multiple logical partitions. This approach allows different sets of policies to be implemented for each tenant without the need for numerous, separate devices. Traditionally, however it is severely limited in terms of the degree of isolation that is achieved.

By design, the SDX appliance is not subject to the same limitations. In the SDX architecture, each instance runs as a separate virtual machine (VM) with its own dedicated NetScaler kernel, CPU resources, memory resources, address space, and bandwidth allocation. Network I/O on the SDX appliance not only maintains aggregate system performance but also enables complete segregation of each tenant’s data-plane and management-plane traffic. The management plane includes the 0/x interfaces. The data plane includes the 1/x and 10/x interfaces. A data plane can also be used as a management plane.

The primary use cases for an SDX appliance are related to consolidation, reducing the number of networks required while maintaining management isolation. Following are the basic consolidation scenarios:

  • Consolidation when the Management Service and the NetScaler instances are in the same network.
  • Consolidation when the Management Service and the NetScaler instances are in different networks but all the instances are in the same network.
  • Consolidation across security.
  • Consolidation with dedicated interfaces for each instance.
  • Consolidation with sharing of a physical port by more than one instance.
Use cases for NetScaler SDX appliances

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