Citrix NetScaler SDX discovery

Release version: Australia

Updated June 2, 2026

2 minutes to read

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Summary of Citrix NetScaler SDX discovery

The ServiceNow Discovery application enables the identification and mapping of Citrix NetScaler SDX devices within your environment using a specific Citrix NetScaler SDX pattern. This discovery process populates critical configuration item (CI) data into the Configuration Management Database (CMDB), enhancing visibility and management of your Citrix infrastructure. The discovery leverages a classification mechanism introduced in the Quebec release to improve probe reliability and selectively trigger probes using protocols such as SSH.

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Prerequisites

Ensure the CMDB CI Class Models, Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns, and Visibility Content applications are up to date.
Create SSH credentials for accessing Citrix NetScaler SDX devices to facilitate secure communication during discovery.
Verify that the discovery user has administrative permissions on the Citrix NetScaler SDX device, including shell access to execute commands like show hardware. If admin access is not available, ensure read-only commands like show systemstatus and show hostname can be executed via the NetScaler CLI.

Key Features

Classification Mechanism: Uses a triggerprobem2m table to initiate the Interactive Probe Shell over SSH, improving probe reliability and preventing full probe failures when sub probes encounter issues.
Data Collection: Discovers and captures key device details such as name, serial number, IP address, object ID, description, and OS version for Citrix NetScaler SDX devices, storing these as CIs in the CMDB.
Dependency Mapping: Establishes CI relationships between Citrix NetScaler SDX devices and Citrix NetScaler load balancers, enabling visualization of their connections on Dependency Views maps.

Data Captured During Discovery

The discovery process populates the following fields for Citrix NetScaler SDX devices (cmdbcicitrixnetscalersdx):

Name
Serial number
IP address
Object ID (combining serial number and IP)
Description
OS version

For Citrix NetScaler load balancers (cmdbcilbnetscaler), it captures name, serial number, and IP address.

Key Outcomes

Provides accurate and up-to-date discovery of Citrix NetScaler SDX devices within the ServiceNow CMDB.
Enables detailed visibility into Citrix NetScaler environments, facilitating better asset management and operational insights.
Supports troubleshooting and impact analysis through established CI relationships and dependency views.

The ServiceNow Discovery application can discover Citrix NetScaler SDX devices using the Citrix NetScaler SDX pattern. Discovering some of these resources may require updating to the latest version of the Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns application from the ServiceNow Store.

The classification mechanism introduced in Quebec triggers the pattern. The classification mechanism prevents the whole probe from failing if a sub probe in a multi-probe fails.

The classification mechanism includes a trigger_probe_m2m table, which defines which classification probe to trigger in relation to the relevant protocol. For this pattern, it triggers the Interactive Probe Shell over the ssh protocol.

Request apps on the Store

Visit the ServiceNow Store to view all the available apps, and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.

Prerequisites

Verify that the following applications are up to date

CMDB CI Class Models
Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns
Visibility Content

Create SSH credentials

Create SSH credentials for the Citrix NetScaler SDX device. For more information, see SSH credentials.

Verify permissions for the following commands

Verify that the Discovery user has admin permissions and can run the following commands. The show hardware command requires shell access as well.


Command	Description
show vmdevice	Get virtual machine (VM) instances.
show hardware	Provides a quick overview of all configurable settings for the Citrix NetScaler SDX devices.

If the Discovery user doesn't have shell access or admin permissions, verify that the user can run the following read-only commands in the NetScaler CLI instead:


Command	Description
show systemstatus	Retrieve the current system status of the SDX appliance, including serial number, build number, and product name.
show hostname	Retrieve the hostname of the SDX appliance.

Data collected by Discovery during horizontal discovery

Discovery populates the data in the CMDB when running the Citrix NetScaler SDX pattern.

Table 1. Citrix NetScaler SDX [cmdb_ci_citrix_netscaler_sdx]
Field	Description
Name [name]	The name of the Citrix NetScaler SDX device.
Serial number [serial_number]	The serial number of the Citrix NetScaler SDX device.
IP Address [ip_address]	The IP address of the Citrix NetScaler SDX device.
Object ID [object_id]	The CI identifier of the Citrix NetScaler SDX device, which includes the serial_number and ip_address.
Description [short_description]	The description of the Citrix NetScaler SDX device.
OS Version [os_version]	The version of the Citrix NetScaler SDX device.

Table 2. Citrix Netscaler [cmdb_ci_lb_netscaler]
Field	Description
Name [name]	The name of the Citrix NetScaler load balancer.
Serial number [serial_number]	The serial number of the Citrix NetScaler load balancer.
IP Address [ip_address]	The IP address of the Citrix NetScaler load balancer.

On the Dependency Views map you can see all discovered Citrix NetScaler SDX resources in your organization, and the relationships between them.

Citrix NetScaler SDX dependency

CI relationships

These relationships are created to support Citrix NetScaler SDX discovery:


CI	Relationship	CI
Citrix Netscaler [cmdb_ci_lb_netscaler]	Registered on::Has registered	Citrix NetScaler SDX [cmdb_ci_citrix_netscaler_sdx]