So, I'm now going take a dive into the content of the courses... I'll start with the CNS 220, and specifically the 3 days of the CNS-218, which is the first 3 days of both the CNS-220 and the CNS-222 courses.
CNS-220-2i: Citrix NetScaler 12.x Essentials and Traffic Management
Overview
This is the course to attend if you want to learn how to use the Netscaler as an ADC (= Application Delivery Controller).
The course is an instructor-lead course, and is usually available both in a classroom and virual online (I use GoToTraining). If you choose the remote option, you may find that you are sharing the instructor with students in a classroom, or you may find that all the students are online: in either case, don't be put off, you'll probably find that the experience is a lot better than you might fear. I've had a lot of very positive feedback from my remote students.
I tell my students that the overall theme for the week is that Netscaler is about delivering your applications, in a secure fashion, and that gives the users a predictably good experience, whilst at the same time tries to reduce the workload of your backend server infrastructure. The Netscaler has a whole set of "tools" available, and the week is about learning what the basic tools are, and how they can help you achieve what you need.
The CNS-220 is a 5 day course, divided into the 3 days of the CNS-218, and the 2 days of the CNS-219. The first 3 days are a common 3 days shared with the CNS-222 course, and this means that, if you wish to / need to attend BOTH courses, then you only sit the first 3 days (the 218 part) once, giving a total of 7 days of training needed to cover both courses.
The course is a mix of instruction and labs: as an instructor, I talk about the module contents, demonstrating things where relevant on a Netscaler, and then the students do labs. The labs are hosted by Softlayer, and seem to perform well (more on the labs later). The step-by-step lab instructions are provided for both GUI and CLI: the student can choose which to do, and can "pick and mix" if they like.
The course materials are provided as online PDF files, which can be downloaded as required. There is also an option to have printed manuals sent to you (costs about $20 carriage). There's a total of 4 PDF files: two Course Manuals, and two Lab Manuals (one of each for the CNS218 and CNS-219).
CNS218:
Here's the course agenda:
Day 1:
Module 1: Getting Started
Module 2: Basic Networking
Module 3: Hardware Platforms
Day 2:
Module 4: High Availability
Module 5: Basic Load Balancing
Module 6: SSL Offload
Day 3:
Module 7: Securing the NetScaler and Admin Partitions
Module 8: Management, Monitoring, and Troubleshooting
Let's take a look at those modules one by one:
Module 0: Course overview
This is where I explain what the course covers, plus I get to learn a bit about the students, their Netscaler experience, and what netscalers they use / plan to use. It's also a chance to check that syudents are actually on the correct course (yes, I do sometimes get students on this course, when they actually need to learn about Netscaler Gateway!)
Module 1: Getting Started
This course pretty much assumes you know approximately nothing about Netscaler, and this module introduces the many features of Netscaler, plus the licensing which affects which features you have available to you. I explain the architecture of Netscaler, and how it co-exists with BSD. I introduce students to the file system, and the fact that Netscaler has a saved and running configuration. Then it's on to the initial configuration of a new Netscaler, and backing up the configuration.
So a relatively gentle introduction to the world of Netscaler, followed by a simple lab. Followed by (or preceded by, if the student prefers) a coffee break!
Module 2: Basic Networking
This module explains the various Netscaler IP addresses, and how Netscaler is basically a proxy. We discuss how Netscaler sits in a network, using VLANs where needed, along with other networking things like Routing and Link Aggregation. We also discuss how we can present the Client IP to the backend servers, with headers or with USIP mode (and the issues that go with that!). Finally, it's a look at the use of ACLs to protect the Netscaler, along with the ability to use NAT, rather than using a proxy.
Module 3: Hardware Platforms
This module sees what the MPX hardware platform looks like, the VPX and the supported platforms, the more recent CPX which works in Docker, and a detailed look at the SDX multi-tenancy platform. The lab gets you to deploy a CPX into Docker, plus an optional SDX simulation.
.... and THAT is day 1 done!
Module 4: High Availability
See how easy it is to set up HA, and understand the (relatively few) HA settings.
We run an HA pair of Netscalers for the rest of the course.
Module 5: Basic Load Balancing
Load Balancing is the core module of this course: so may other features need to use this. It's a large module, but goes into a lot of depth. Starting with understanding the basics of what LB is about, it looks at LB methods, monitoring, persistence and quite a few other important things. I usually add in about TCP Profiles here
Module 6: SSL Offload
The only difference with an SSL load-balancer vs an HTTP one, is that we need SSL Certificates... so this module lets us understand what SSL Certificates are, and how Netscaler uses them. I always add in a bit about SSL best practices to lock down the SSL config (and get that A+ from SSL Labs)
I would say "and that's the end of day 2", but in reality, I usually find that the SSL module spils a bit into Day 3, which isn't a big deal, as day 3 is a bit "lighter"
Module 7: Securing the NetScaler and Admin Partitions
No, this isn't about using bigger bolts to stop someone stealing your Netscaler! It's all about using accounts (other than nsroot) to manage Netscaler, both local, and using LDAP to hook into AD. We also see how Command Policies can let you restrict what a user can do. Admin Partitions is about segregating both traffic and management for different apps on a single Netscaler
Module 8: Management, Monitoring, and Troubleshooting
SNMP, Syslog, NSLog, Appflow, MAS, tracing and all of that sort of stuff. Not a huge amount of actual troubleshooting, as we covered much of that as we went along.
Then a "break / fix" lab, to see if you've been listening: Scenario - you went on holiday for a week, leaving someone else with the NSROOT credentials, and now you have to fix the mistakes they made: I did say it would end in tears!
CNS-220-2i: Citrix NetScaler 12.x Essentials and Traffic Management
Overview
This is the course to attend if you want to learn how to use the Netscaler as an ADC (= Application Delivery Controller).
The course is an instructor-lead course, and is usually available both in a classroom and virual online (I use GoToTraining). If you choose the remote option, you may find that you are sharing the instructor with students in a classroom, or you may find that all the students are online: in either case, don't be put off, you'll probably find that the experience is a lot better than you might fear. I've had a lot of very positive feedback from my remote students.
I tell my students that the overall theme for the week is that Netscaler is about delivering your applications, in a secure fashion, and that gives the users a predictably good experience, whilst at the same time tries to reduce the workload of your backend server infrastructure. The Netscaler has a whole set of "tools" available, and the week is about learning what the basic tools are, and how they can help you achieve what you need.
The CNS-220 is a 5 day course, divided into the 3 days of the CNS-218, and the 2 days of the CNS-219. The first 3 days are a common 3 days shared with the CNS-222 course, and this means that, if you wish to / need to attend BOTH courses, then you only sit the first 3 days (the 218 part) once, giving a total of 7 days of training needed to cover both courses.
The course is a mix of instruction and labs: as an instructor, I talk about the module contents, demonstrating things where relevant on a Netscaler, and then the students do labs. The labs are hosted by Softlayer, and seem to perform well (more on the labs later). The step-by-step lab instructions are provided for both GUI and CLI: the student can choose which to do, and can "pick and mix" if they like.
The course materials are provided as online PDF files, which can be downloaded as required. There is also an option to have printed manuals sent to you (costs about $20 carriage). There's a total of 4 PDF files: two Course Manuals, and two Lab Manuals (one of each for the CNS218 and CNS-219).
CNS218:
Here's the course agenda:
Day 1:
Module 1: Getting Started
Module 2: Basic Networking
Module 3: Hardware Platforms
Day 2:
Module 4: High Availability
Module 5: Basic Load Balancing
Module 6: SSL Offload
Day 3:
Module 7: Securing the NetScaler and Admin Partitions
Module 8: Management, Monitoring, and Troubleshooting
Let's take a look at those modules one by one:
Module 0: Course overview
This is where I explain what the course covers, plus I get to learn a bit about the students, their Netscaler experience, and what netscalers they use / plan to use. It's also a chance to check that syudents are actually on the correct course (yes, I do sometimes get students on this course, when they actually need to learn about Netscaler Gateway!)
Module 1: Getting Started
This course pretty much assumes you know approximately nothing about Netscaler, and this module introduces the many features of Netscaler, plus the licensing which affects which features you have available to you. I explain the architecture of Netscaler, and how it co-exists with BSD. I introduce students to the file system, and the fact that Netscaler has a saved and running configuration. Then it's on to the initial configuration of a new Netscaler, and backing up the configuration.
So a relatively gentle introduction to the world of Netscaler, followed by a simple lab. Followed by (or preceded by, if the student prefers) a coffee break!
Module 2: Basic Networking
This module explains the various Netscaler IP addresses, and how Netscaler is basically a proxy. We discuss how Netscaler sits in a network, using VLANs where needed, along with other networking things like Routing and Link Aggregation. We also discuss how we can present the Client IP to the backend servers, with headers or with USIP mode (and the issues that go with that!). Finally, it's a look at the use of ACLs to protect the Netscaler, along with the ability to use NAT, rather than using a proxy.
Module 3: Hardware Platforms
This module sees what the MPX hardware platform looks like, the VPX and the supported platforms, the more recent CPX which works in Docker, and a detailed look at the SDX multi-tenancy platform. The lab gets you to deploy a CPX into Docker, plus an optional SDX simulation.
.... and THAT is day 1 done!
Module 4: High Availability
See how easy it is to set up HA, and understand the (relatively few) HA settings.
We run an HA pair of Netscalers for the rest of the course.
Module 5: Basic Load Balancing
Load Balancing is the core module of this course: so may other features need to use this. It's a large module, but goes into a lot of depth. Starting with understanding the basics of what LB is about, it looks at LB methods, monitoring, persistence and quite a few other important things. I usually add in about TCP Profiles here
Module 6: SSL Offload
The only difference with an SSL load-balancer vs an HTTP one, is that we need SSL Certificates... so this module lets us understand what SSL Certificates are, and how Netscaler uses them. I always add in a bit about SSL best practices to lock down the SSL config (and get that A+ from SSL Labs)
I would say "and that's the end of day 2", but in reality, I usually find that the SSL module spils a bit into Day 3, which isn't a big deal, as day 3 is a bit "lighter"
Module 7: Securing the NetScaler and Admin Partitions
No, this isn't about using bigger bolts to stop someone stealing your Netscaler! It's all about using accounts (other than nsroot) to manage Netscaler, both local, and using LDAP to hook into AD. We also see how Command Policies can let you restrict what a user can do. Admin Partitions is about segregating both traffic and management for different apps on a single Netscaler
Module 8: Management, Monitoring, and Troubleshooting
SNMP, Syslog, NSLog, Appflow, MAS, tracing and all of that sort of stuff. Not a huge amount of actual troubleshooting, as we covered much of that as we went along.
Then a "break / fix" lab, to see if you've been listening: Scenario - you went on holiday for a week, leaving someone else with the NSROOT credentials, and now you have to fix the mistakes they made: I did say it would end in tears!
It is amazing and wonderful to visit your site. Thanks for sharing this information; this is useful to me...
ReplyDeleteRead more about citrix certification