How to Convert a NetScaler MPX Appliance to a NetScaler SDX Appliance

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Article ID: CTX129423

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Description

This article contains information about converting NetScaler MPX appliances to NetScaler SDX appliances.

Requirements

You can use a field conversion kit to migrate a NetScaler MPX appliance to a NetScaler SDX appliance. The following table lists the details of the SDX Field Replaceable Unit (FRU) kits:

Description	SKU	HDD PN#	SSD PN#
MPX 17500, 19500, or 21500 to SDX 17500, 19500, or 21500 Migration Kit	3003174-xx	853-00031-01	8530010

Background

With the new NetScaler SDX appliance models 17500, 19500, and 21500, you can deploy multiple virtualized NetScaler instances on a single purpose-built physical appliance with full multi-service and multi-tenant support. The NetScaler SDX appliance uses the service delivery performance and SSL encryption throughput of the NetScaler MPX appliance models 17500, 19500, and 21500.

You can convert a NetScaler MPX appliance to a NetScaler SDX appliance by upgrading the software through a new Solid State Drive (SSD) and a new Hard Disk Drive (HDD). The conversion process modifies the Basic Input-Output System (BIOS), installs XenServer hypervisor and a Service Virtual Machine image, and copies an image with extension .xva for the NetScaler nCore virtual appliance 9.3 to the hard disk. However, you need to re-license the appliance, and then the appliance can provision the VPX instances as defined by the administrator through the Service Virtual Machine on the NetScaler SDX appliance.

Instructions

A console cable is the only access you can use during the conversion process. Therefore, connect the appliance to a computer or terminal by using a console cable.

Before connecting the console cable, configure the computer or terminal to support the following configuration:

VT100 terminal emulation
9600 baud
8 data bits
1 stop bit
Parity and flow control set to NONE

To convert a NetScaler MPX appliance to a NetScaler SDX appliance, complete the following procedure:

Connect one end of the console cable to the RS232 serial port on the appliance and the other end to the computer or terminal.
Note: To use a cable with an RJ-45 converter, insert the optional converter into the console port and attach the cable to it, as shown in the following image:
On the NetScaler MPX appliance, verify that the system hard disk drive, power supplies, CPU, SSL cores, and 10G interfaces are operational before beginning the conversion.
Access the console port and enter the administrator credentials.

Run the following command from the Command Line Interface of the appliance to display the serial number and confirm the SYSID of the appliance:
> show hardware

Platform: NSMPX-17500 12*CPU+2*E1K+8*IX+16*CVM 1620 1800100
Manufactured on: 9/8/2010 CPU: 3325MHZ
Host Id: 872841350
Serial no: 4W01J1XVVX
Encoded serial no: 4W01J1XVVX Done

Run the following command to display the status of the active 10G interfaces:
> show interface
From the output of the preceding command, verify if each of the eight 10G interfaces can be enabled and the status of each of the interface is marked as UP/UP.
Note: If you only have limited SFP+ transceivers, verify the 10G interfaces in stages. The 1G SFP transceiver is hot-swappable with NetScaler 9.3 build 47.5 release and the 10G SFP+ transceiver is hot-swappable with NetScaler 9.3 build 57.5 release or later. For more details refer to Citrix eDocs - Hardware FAQs.
Run the following commands for each of the interfaces:
> enable interface 10/x
In the preceding command, x is the new interface number.

Run the following command to verify if the status of each interface is marked as UP:
> show interface

Interface 10/8 (10G Ethernet, fiber SFP+, 1/10 Gbits) #7 flags=0x4001 <ENABLED, UP, UP, autoneg, 802.1q> MTU=1514, native vlan=1, MAC=00:1b:21:71:ab:d1,
downtime 11h54m57s
Requested: media FIBER, speed 10000, duplex FULL, fctl OFF, throughput 10000

Note: Run the following command, if you do not want to use the interface after conversion:
> disable interface 10/x

Run the following command to verify if the status of the power supplies is NORMAL:
> stat system –detail

NetScaler Executive View
System Information:
Up since       Tue May 10 23:30:25 2011 
Memory usage (MB)                  1233
InUse Memory (%)                   5.68
Number of CPUs                      11
System Health Statistics (Standard):
CPU 0 Core Voltage (Volts)                    1.19
CPU 1 Core Voltage (Volts)                    1.15
Main 3.3 V Supply Voltage                     3.19
Standby 3.3 V Supply Voltage                  3.19

+5.0 V Supply Voltage	5.09
+12.0 V Supply Voltage	12.07
Battery Voltage (Volts)	3.24
Intel CPU Vtt Power(Volts)	1.11
5V Standby Voltage(Volts)	4.99
Voltage Sensor2(Volts)	5.09
CPU Fan 0 Speed (RPM)	5696
CPU Fan 1 Speed (RPM)	5720
System Fan Speed (RPM)	5769
System Fan 1 Speed (RPM)	5648
System Fan 2 Speed (RPM)	5793
CPU 0 Temperature (Celsius)	54
CPU 1 Temperature (Celsius)	45
Internal Temperature (Celsius)	128
Power supply 1 status	NORMAL
Power supply 2 status	NORMAL

Run the following command:
> show techsupport
```
showtechsupport data collector tool - $Revision: #1 $! NetScaler version 9.2
The NS IP of this box is 10.10.10.10
Current HA state: Primary (or this is not part of HA pair!)
All the data will be collected under /var/tmp/support/collector_10.10.10.10_P_13May2011_12_01 Copying selected configuration files from nsconfig ....
```
Copy the output file to another computer for future reference. The output of this command might be helpful for the Citrix Technical Support Engineers.

Note: The output of the preceding command is available in the /var/tmp/support/collector_<IP_address>_P_<date>.tar.gz file.
Switch to the shell prompt.

Run the following command, to verify if the status of the 16 Cavium cores is marked as UP:
root@ns# dmesg | grep cavium

Cavium cavium_probe : found card    0x177d,device=0x10 cavium0 mem 0xf7fff000-0xf7ffffff irq 28 at device 0.0 on pci33
cavium0: Reserved 0x1000 bytes for rid 0x10 type 3 at 0xf7fff000
Run the following command to verify if 496 MB of RAM is reserved for shared memory:
root@ns# dmesg | grep memory
real memory    = 52613349376 (50176 MB) Physical memory chunk(s):
avail memory = 49697693696 (47395 MB) mem: <memory>
NS-KERN Reserving 496 MB for shared memory root@ns#

Run the following command to verify if there are 12 CPU cores:
root@ns# dmesg | grep cpu

cpu0 (BSP): APIC ID: 0
cpu1 (AP): APIC ID:            2
cpu2 (AP): APIC ID:            4
cpu3 (AP): APIC ID: 16
cpu4 (AP): APIC ID: 18
cpu5 (AP): APIC ID: 20
cpu6 (AP): APIC ID: 32
cpu7 (AP): APIC ID: 34
cpu8 (AP): APIC ID: 36
cpu9 (AP): APIC ID: 48
cpu10 (AP): APIC ID: 50
cpu11 (AP): APIC ID: 52
cpu0 BSP:
cpu0: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
cpu0: switching to generic Cx mode
acpi_throttle0: <ACPI CPU Throttling> on cpu0
cpu1: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
acpi_throttle1: <ACPI CPU Throttling> on cpu1
cpu2: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
cpu3: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
cpu4: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
cpu5: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
cpu6: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
cpu7: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
cpu8: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
cpu9: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
cpu10: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
cpu11: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0 cpu1 AP:
cpu2 AP:
cpu10 AP:
cpu9 AP:
cpu5 AP:
cpu4 AP:
cpu7 AP:
cpu8 AP:
cpu3 AP:
cpu6 AP:
cpu11 AP

Run the following command to verify if the /var drive is mounted as /dev/ad5s1e:
root@ns# df -h

Filesystem	Size	Used	Avail	Capacity	Mounted on
/dev/md0c	218M	203M	10M	95%	/
devfs	1.0K	1.0K	0B	100%	/dev
procfs	4.0K	4.0K	0B	100%	/proc
/dev/ad4s1a	15G	3.0G	11G	21%	/flash
/dev/ad5s1e	312G	50G	236G	18%	/var
root@ns#

Run the following command to start the script ns_hw_err.bash. This script is used to verify latent hardware errors.
root@ns# /netscaler/ns_hw_err.bash

NetScaler NS9.3: Build 48.6.nc, Date: Apr 27, 2011, 23:47:04
platform: NSMPX-17500 8*10G Ports by Citrix Inc. (BIOS 2.0e by 04/23/2010), serial 4W01J1XVVX
platform: serial 4W01J1XVVX
platform: sysid 1800100 - NSMPX-17500 12*CPU+2*E1K+8*IX+16*CVM 1620
Checking for HDD errors... Checking for Flash errors... Checking for SSL errors...
Checking for BIOS errors... Checking for MotherBoard errors... Checking for CMOS errors...
License year: 2011: OK
Checking for SFP errors...
root@ns#

Switch to the command line interface of the appliance.
Run the following command to shutdown the appliance:
shutdown -p now
Locate the SSD on the back panel of the appliance, as shown in the following image:
Verify if the replacement SSD is the one required for the NetScaler model. Refer to the table in the Requirements section for information about the SSD PN numbers for the NetScaler SDX appliance model 17500, 19500, and 21500 Conversion Kits. The Citrix label is on the top of the SSD. The SSD is pre-populated with a new version of BIOS and a recent build of the required Service Virtual Machine software.
To remove the SSD drive, push the safety latch of the drive cover to the right, and remove the drive handle and the existing drive.
Open the drive handle completely to the left and insert the new drive into the slot.
Close the handle flush with the rear side of the appliance so that the SSD locks securely into the slot.
Important: The orientation of the SSD is important. When you insert the drive, ensure that the product label from Citrix is on top of the drive.
Locate the HDD on the back panel of the appliance (you can find it at the left side next to NMI button).
To remove the HDD, push the safety latch of the drive cover to the right and remove the drive handle and the existing drive.
On the new disk drive, open the drive handle completely to the left and insert the new drive into the slot.
Close the handle flush with the rear side of the appliance so that the hard drive locks securely into the slot.
Store old SSD/HDD pair for future handling.
Important: The orientation of the HDD is important. When you insert the drive, ensure that the product label from Citrix is on the top of the drive.
Start the NetScaler appliance.
It takes approximately 30 minutes for the conversion process to complete. The conversion process updates the BIOS, installs the XenServer hypervisor and the Service Virtual Machine operating system, and copies the NetScaler VPX image to the HDD for instance provisioning. When the conversion begins, the LCD screen on the front bezel indicates NSMPX-17500, as shown in the left appliance in the following image. If the conversion is successful, the LCD indicates Citrix NSSDX, as shown in the right appliance in the following image:

Note: The serial number of the appliance remains the same.
Keep the console cable attached during the conversion process. Allow the process to complete until the netscaler-sdx login prompt is displayed, as shown in the following sample output of the conversion process:
```
Citrix XenServer Host 5.6.100-46414p
System Booted: 2011-05-13 09:17
Your XenServer Host has now finished booting. To manage this server please use the Citrix XenCenter application. You can install XenCenter for Windows from the XenServer installation media.
You can connect to this system using one of the following network addresses:
IP address not configured
XenServer Host SSL certificate fingerprint: 8C:FF:9D:14:7F:A9:BE:B2:9D:10:3C:44:90:7F:98:75:E0:4F:6A: DC
netscaler-sdx login:
```
If the SSD card is not inserted completely into the designated slot, the NetScaler SDX appliance attempts to start from the HDD. The boot up process results in a prompt different from the one mentioned in the preceding output. If the netscaler-sdx login prompt is not displayed, then fix the SSD card accurately before closing the locking handle and restart the appliance.
When the appliance finishes the conversion process, the appliance no longer has the previously working configuration. Therefore, you can only access the appliance through a web browser by using the default IP address 192.168.100.1/16. Configure a computer on network 192.168.0.0 and connect it directly to the management port 0/1 of the appliance by using a cross-over Ethernet cable, or access the NetScaler SDX appliance through a network hub by using a straight through Ethernet cable and use the default credentials.
Activate the Configuration tab.
Verify that the System Resource section displays 24 CPU cores, 16 SSL cores, 48 GB of total memory for NetScaler SDX appliance.
Verify the license details from the License Information section. To access the License Information section, select Licenses from the System node. Licenses are not pre-loaded. You must upload a license to the appliance before provisioning any VPX instances. If you did not receive a license code through an e-mail from Citrix, contact the Citrix Customer Service at 800-4- CITRIX and provide the order number.
Click Upload on the License Files page to load an SDX license, upgrade to another software release, or add VPX instances to the appliance.
Go to the license file location under System-License, click Upload.
Select System node and click the Network Configuration link on the System page to modify the IP address of the Service Virtual Machine, as shown in the following screen shot:
Specify the following details in the Modify Network Configuration dialog box, as shown in the following screen shot:
Click OK.
Connect the NetScaler SDX appliance to a switch to access it through the network. Browse to the IP address defined in Step 34 and log on with the default credentials.
Note: After the conversion is complete, the LCD display might display CITRIX/NetScaler SDX. You need to switch-off the appliance through the Service Virtual Machine to ensure that CITRIX NSSDX-17500 is displayed. From the Service Virtual Machine configuration page, click the Shutdown Appliance link available on the System section. If the green link light blinks, then it indicates that the appliance is completely shut down and you can switch-off the appliance.