Update

This is a fork of the original parser by josepfontana: https://github.com/josepfontana/parse-ns

• [Jan 22 2024] Adds initial SSL support - SSL certificate file names will now be printed on the line item in the LB.csv file. Supports recursive links (resolving 'ssl link')
• [Jan 8 2024] Adds Python 3 support
• [Jan 8 2024] Adds support for "add service" (in addition to existing "add serviceGroup")
• [Jan 8 2024] Captures [other parameters], such as "-gslb NONE -maxClient 0 -maxReq 0..." in services and puts them (without parsing) into Other Params column
• [Jan 8 2024] Adds basic support for unparseable lines

parse-ns

Parse Citrix Netscaler configuration and output 3 csv files:

• one for load balancing with the backend IP(s) and their correspondence with frontend IP (YYYY-MM-DD_HH.MM_LB.csv)
• another for global server load balance with the domains and their corresponding IP(s) (YYYY-MM-DD_HH.MM_GSLB.csv)
• last one for any lines that couldn't be identified (YYYY-MM-DD_HH.MM_UNPARSEABLE.csv)

Usage:

parse-ns.py conf1.txt conf2.txt ...

Understanding Netscaler config

The key to understanding Netscaler config is to realize most of the configuration is done the other way around than open source load balancers - it starts with creating backend (real) servers that are tied together and any frontend listening is done as a final step.

For example:

• When Netscaler does "add server" this means creating a backend server
• When Netscaler does "bind serviceGroup" or "add service" it's creating a collection of backend servers into a single backend
• Finally, when a vserver is added, that's creating a bind for a frontend to listen to on a specific IP

HAProxy relationship

• "add server" -> server name in backend
• "add service" or "bind serviceGroup" -> backend name
• "add lb vserver" -> frontend name