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Why go on a training course?



Why training?

Training costs quite a bit, but so does a lack of knowledge!

 I regularly see questions pop up on the various Citrix Forums, and so often I just want to reply with "Go on a training course, and what you are trying to understand or do will be fully explained, and demonstrated in the lab".

 The two CNS2xx courses will start by assuming you know approximately nothing about Netscaler (please spend 60 minutes to do the free online overview training first), and by the end of the week, you will have created a lab environment that, in principle, mirrors what's needed in the real world. 

 For the Netscaler Gateway, this means a lab setup that demonstrates not only a VPN, but full integration with (two) Storefronts and XenApp/XenDesktop... with all your back-end resources load-balanced for resilience.

 The result of this is that not only have you fully configured the Netscaler to do all this, you have a set of step-by-step instructions that lead you through what you just did: a great reference for use back at work!

Available Courses

There are three Trainer-Lead Netscaler training courses, plus one e-learning course available: here's a quick list:

 CNS-102-1w: Citrix Netscaler Overview
CNS-220-1i: Citrix NetScaler Essentials and Traffic Management
CNS-222-1i: Citrix NetScaler Essentials and Unified Gateway
CNS-320-1i: Citrix NetScaler Advanced Topics – Security, Management, and Optimization


What DO those numbers all mean?

The "CNS" means "Citrix NetScaler". 

 Anything that's "1xx" is a "Beginner" level course, aimed at people with zero product experience; the "2xx" courses are "Intermediate" level courses, aimed at teaching basic configuration and / or administrtration; the "3xx" courses are "Advanced" level courses, and finally a "4xx" is an "Expert" level course. Netscaler doesn't have an expert level course.

 The "-1" bit means that it's version 1 of the course. the Netscaler courses are currently -1, but will jump up to -2 very soon: the course content will hardly change, but rather than being based on version 11.0, it will use version 12.0 for both content and labs.

 The "w" means that it's is a web based course, the "i" means it's instructor lead.

The courses in more detail

My plan is to write an article about each of the 3 instructor lead courses, but let's start with an overview of all those courses:

CNS-102-1W: Citrix Netscaler Overview

This 30 to 60 minute online course introduces the versions and features of Netscaler. Although still based on version 10, that doesn't really matter, the basics are pretty much the same as in version 12.

 Oh, I forgot: it's FREE!

 So don't argue, go do it now! It's currently located at http://training.citrix.com/mod/ctxcatalog/course.php?id=474 , but you'll always find it find it linked from the "Training" tab at http://training.citrix.com

CNS-220-1i: Citrix NetScaler Essentials and Traffic Management

This is the course aimed at understanding the ADC (Application Delivery Controller) side of Netscaler... so that means things like load-balancing, content-switching, and policies.

 Starting with a Netscaler VPX with nothing more than an IP address on it, you'll end up with an HA pair of upgraded Netscalers, with various Load-Balancing and Content-Switching Vservers, along with a set of example policies showing what things like the Rewrite and Responder features can do. 

 I'll go into a lot more detail in another article.

 The CNS-220 is actually made of 2 sub-courses, the 3-day CNS-218, which covers the basics of Netscaler, load-Balancing and SSL, plus the 2-day CNS-219, which covers Policies, GSLB, and Optimisation features.

 The course leads to the CCP-N (Citrix Certified Professional – Networking) qualification, which you get by passing the 1Y0-351 exam (NOTE: this exam is currently based on Netscaler version 10.5, but is soon to be updated, and will then cover version 12, the same as the course)

 It goes without saying that there are Lab sessions all the way.

CNS-222-1i: Citrix NetScaler Essentials and Unified Gateway

This is the course to go on if you want to (or need to!) know about how to set up Netscaler Gateway. The course includes demonstrating various methods of securely accessing your corporate date: Full VPN, Clientless Access, RDP and ICA Proxy (= Storefront / XA/XD access).

 Again, we start with a Netscaler with just an IP address, and we add in several Load-Balancers (which provide resilience for your DNS, LDAP, Storefront and DDC), plus a Unified Gateway (= Netscaler Gateway, on steroids). Along the way, you'll learn how to use EPA (EndPoint Analysys) to steer users to different Session Profiles, and thus different types of access.

 Again, more detail in a further article.

 And like the CNS-220, the CNS-222 is made up of 2 sub courses: the same 3-day CNS-318 (that's in the CNS-220) that covers the basics, along with Load-Balancing and SSL, plus a 2-day CNS-221 which looks at the Netscaler's Unified Gateway feature.

 The exam for this course is the 1Y0-253, which will give you a CCA-N (Citrix Certified Associate – Networking) qualification. (NOTE: again, currently based on version 10.5, but also due for an upgrade to version 12.0, as will the course)

Why TWO sub-courses?

Historically, if you wanted to attend BOTH courses, you would go on TWO 5-day courses - and get bored for 2 or 3 of those days, as you revisited the same material.

 Now, if you have already attended the 5-day CNS-220, then you can now just attend the CNS-221 2-day course, and cover the same material (and without getting bored for those extra 3 days!).

 Similarly, you can attend the CNS-222 plus the CNS-219 for the same result.

CNS-320-1i: Citrix NetScaler Advanced Topics – Security, Management, and Optimization

To attend this course, you are "strongly recommended to have been on either of the CNS-220 or CNS-22 courses"... although in reality, you need to have attended the CNS-220, so that you understand how the Default Policy system works.

 Like the other two courses, the CNS-320 is made up of two sub courses, the CNS-318 and the CNS-319. You don't have to attend all 5 days of the 320 course, you can just book on the 3 days of the 318 or the 2 days of the 319.

 Lets see what each of those cover:

CNS-318:

The CNS-318 is the "Security" part of the description, and covers the WAF (Web Application Firewall), plus a few other security features on Netscaler, such as IP Reputation, Rate Limiting and HTTP Callouts.

CNS-319:

This bit covers Management and Optimisation. 

 One day covers the use of MAS (Management and Analytics System), which has replaced, and includes the features of, Netscaler Insight and Command Centre - both now end of life.

 The second day looks at Web Logging, Caching, Front-end optimisations, plus a look at the use of profiles, used to let you fine-tune your TCP, SSL etc.
One of the problems with Netscaler is that it has SO many features, and of course everyone wants to understand things relevant to THEM. Whilst the courses have no chance of covering EVERYTHING, they do cover the vast majority of features, and by the end, you probably have enough knowledge to actually understand the rest of the Netscaler Documentation!

Coming soon:

In-depth looks at each of the three courses.

Comments

  1. Unknown22 December 2017 at 07:08

    i must suggest my friends to read your post. This is an amazing piece of writing

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