Introduction to Citrix ADM service connect for Citrix ADC appliances

Citrix ADM service is a cloud-based solution that helps you manage, monitor, orchestrate, automate, and troubleshoot your Citrix ADC instances. It also provides analytical insights and curated machine learning based recommendations for your applications health, performance, and security. For more information, see Citrix Application Delivery Management Service
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Citrix Application Delivery Management (ADM) service connect is a feature to enable seamless onboarding of Citrix ADC instances onto Citrix ADM service. This feature helps Citrix ADC instances and Citrix ADM service to function as a holistic solution, which offers customers multi fold benefits.

Citrix ADM service connect feature lets the Citrix ADC instance automatically connect with the Citrix ADM service and send system, usage, and telemetry data to it. Based on this data, the Citrix ADM service gives you some insights and recommendations on your Citrix ADC and Gateway infrastructure like the following:

• Security advisory insight highlighting your vulnerable ADC appliances.
• Upgrade advisory insight highlighting ADC appliances that have reached or about to reach end of maintenance and end of life.
• Quick identification of performance issues, high resource usage, and critical errors.

To harness the power of Citrix ADM service, you can choose to onboard your Citrix ADC instances to Citrix ADM service. The onboarding process uses ADM service connect, and makes the experience smooth and faster for you.

Points to note

• Citrix ADM service connect is now available on Citrix ADC MPX, SDX, and VPX instances and Citrix Gateway appliances.

• The initiative in Citrix ADM service that uses this Citrix ADM service connect feature is ADM service connect based low-touch onboarding. For more information, see Low-touch onboarding of Citrix ADC instances using Citrix ADM service connect
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• If ADM service connect is enabled on an ADC instance, certain diagnostic details are automatically sent to ADM service.

For more information, see Data governance
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Important

Citrix ADM service connect fails to collect the probe data and cannot help in on-boarding the ADC appliance to ADM service if the following conditions are met:

• NSinternal user account is disabled.

• SSH public key is not set up.

To overcome the preceding scenario, Citrix recommends you follow any one of the following:

• Enable internaluser user account by using the set ns param –internaluserlogin ENABLED.
• Configure the public key authentication. For more information, see Access a Citrix ADC appliance by using SSH keys and no password
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How does Citrix ADM service connect support with Citrix ADM service?

Here is a high-level workflow of how the Citrix ADM service connect feature on Citrix ADC interacts with Citrix ADM service.

1. Citrix ADM service connect feature on Citrix ADC appliance auto connects with Citrix ADM service using a periodic probe request.

2. This request has system, usage and telemetry data, using which the Citrix ADM service gives you some insights and recommendations on your Citrix ADC infrastructure. Like; quick identification of performance issues, high resource usage, and critical errors.

3. You can view the insights and recommendations and decide to onboard your ADC instances to the Citrix ADM service to start managing your Citrix ADC instances.

4. When you decide to onboard, the Citrix ADM service connect feature helps complete the onboarding seamlessly.

What versions of Citrix ADC is Citrix ADM service connect supported on?

Citrix ADM service connect is supported on all Citrix ADC platforms and all appliance models (MPX, VPX, and SDX). Starting from Citrix ADC release 13.0 build 61.xx, Citrix ADM service connect is enabled by default for Citrix ADC appliances.

How to enable Citrix ADM service connect?

If you are an existing Citrix ADC customer, and upgrade to Citrix ADC release 13.0 build 61.xx, Citrix ADM service connect is enabled by default as part of the upgrade process.

If you are a new Citrix ADC customer, installing Citrix ADC release 13.0 build 61.xx, Citrix ADM service connect is enabled by default as part of the install process.

Note

Unlike the new Citrix ADC appliances, existing Citrix ADC appliances find the route through Citrix Insight Service (CIS) or Call Home.

How to enable and disable Citrix ADM service connect?

You can enable and disable Citrix ADM service connect from CLI, GUI, or NITRO API methods.

Using CLI

To enable the Citrix ADM service connect by using the CLI

At the command prompt, type:

set adm parameter –admserviceconnect ENABLED

To disable the Citrix ADM service connect by using the CLI

At the command prompt, type:

set adm parameter –admserviceconnect DISABLED

Important

If your Citrix ADC is on release 13.0 build 61.xx, the parameter name to enable or disable Citrix ADC service connect is “autoconnect.” For example, to enable service connect, use the set adm parameter – autoconnect ENABLED command.

Using the GUI

To disable the Citrix ADM service connect by using the Citrix ADC GUI

1. In a web browser, type the IP address of the Citrix ADC appliance (for example, http://192.0.2.10
   ).

2. In User Name and Password, enter the administrator credentials.

3. Navigate to System > Settings > Configure ADM Parameters.

4. On the Configure ADM Parameters page, clear the Enable Citrix ADM service connect dialog box, and click OK.

Using the NITRO API

You can disable Citrix ADM service connect by using the NITRO command.

• In Citrix ADC release 13.0 build 61.xx, you can enable or disable the Citrix ADM service connect by using the following command:

  • curl –X PUT –H "Content-Type:application/json" http://192.0.2.10/nitro/v1/config/admparameter> -d '{"admparameter":{"autoconnect":"enabled"}}' -u nsroot:Test@1

• From Citrix ADC release 13.0 build 64.xx, the “autoconnect” parameter name is renamed to admserviceconnect. You can disable the Citrix ADM service connect by using the following command:

  • curl –X PUT –H “Content-Type:application/json” http://192.0.2.10/nitro/v1/config/admparameter -d '{"admparameter":{"admserviceconnect":"disabled"}}' -u nsroot:Test@1

Diagnostic tool

When you onboard an ADC instance onto Citrix ADM, you might experience a few issues that prevent the ADC instance from successfully onboarding. To troubleshoot the issues, you can either manually use the diagnostic tool or see the diagnostic information in the ADM GUI.

• For more information about the details captured using ADM service connect, see Data governance
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• For more information about the diagnostic tool, see Diagnostic tool
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Citrix ADM built-in agent behavior

From Citrix ADC release 13.0 build 61.xx and higher, the Citrix ADM built-in agent available on Citrix ADC instances communicates with ADM service. It communicates without the need for manual initialization on the respective ADC instance. After communication with ADM service is established, the built-in agent stays evergreen by auto-upgrading itself to the latest software version regularly.

Previously, you had to initialize the built-in agent on the ADC instances, using mastools commands, to establish communication with ADM service and for regular auto-upgrades.For more information, see Configure the ADC built-in agent to manage instances
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References

For more information on Citrix ADM service connect, see the following topics:

• Data governance: Data governance
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• Citrix ADM service: Citrix Application Delivery Management Service
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