System requirements
Ensure you review the requirements outlined in this document before deploying NetScaler BLX.
Supported Linux distributions
| Linux distribution | NetScaler BLX 14.1 | NetScaler BLX 13.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9.x | Yes | Yes |
| RHEL 8.x | Yes | Yes |
| RHEL 7.5 to 7.9 | Yes (Build 56.74 and earlier) | Yes |
| Oracle Linux 8.x | Yes | Yes |
| Oracle Linux 7.5 to 7.9 | Yes (Build 56.74 and earlier) | Yes |
| Ubuntu 22.04 | Yes (Build 12.30 or later) | No |
| Ubuntu 20.04 | Yes | Yes |
| Ubuntu 18.04 | Yes | Yes |
| Oracle cloud Linux on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) | Yes | Yes |
| Amazon Linux 2 | Yes | Yes |
| Rocky Linux 8 | Yes | No |
Note:
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On Amazon Linux, NetScaler BLX with DPDK is supported only with an Elastic Network Adapter (ENA).
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NetScaler BLX installation is blocked if the host system have GNU C Library (GLIBC) version earlier than 2.23. Starting with NetScaler release 14.1.60.x, RHEL 7.5 to 7.9 and Oracle Linux 7.5 to 7.9 distributions are not supported, as they do not meet the minimum GLIBC requirement.
Hardware requirements of Linux host
| Category | NetScaler BLX with DPDK support | NetScaler BLX |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Intel or AMD x86-64 (64-bit) processor | Intel or AMD x86-64 (64-bit) processor |
| Minimum RAM | 2 GB | 2 GB |
| Drivers | Amazon EC2 Elastic Network Adapter ports: ena |
All Linux supported drivers |
Google Cloud Platform: gVNIC, virtIO |
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Intel ports: igb, ixgbe, i40e, and E810 (ice) |
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KVM Paravirtualized driver: virtIO |
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Mellanox ports: ConnectX-4, ConnectX-5, and ConnectX-6 (mlx5_core) |
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VMware vitualization platform network adaptor ports: vmxnet3 |
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| Virtual functions | Intel XL710 | — |
| Intel 82599 | ||
| Mellanox ConnectX-5 SR-IOV interfaces | ||
| Mellanox ConnectX-6 SR-IOV interfaces |
Note:
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NetScaler BLX supports a maximum of nine NIC ports (DPDK NIC ports, non-DPDK NIC ports, or a combination of both).
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The Linux host must meet the minimum system requirements for installing DPDK. For more information about the minimum requirements of DPDK, see the Official DPDK Documentation.
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Starting from NetScaler release 14.1 build 43.x, NetScaler BLX supports IPv6 in the DPDK mode. The supported drivers are: virtio_net, i40e, ixgb, igb, af_packet, vmxnet, and mlx5_core (for physical NIC).
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Starting from NetScaler release 14.1 build 72.x, NetScaler BLX supports Intel E810 (ice) NIC.
Open source packages
The following dependencies are required on the Linux host.
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Auto-installed dependencies
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Manually installed dependencies
Auto-installed dependencies
When you install NetScaler BLX, the following dependencies are automatically installed on the Linux host from the standard public repository.
| RPM-based Linux host | Debian-based Linux host |
|---|---|
crontabs |
build-essential:amd64 |
ethtool |
coreutils |
gcc |
cpanminus:amd64 |
glibc(x86-32) (version 2.17 or later) |
cron:amd64 |
glibc(x86-64) (version 2.17–196 or later) |
ethtool |
Requbsd |
gcc:amd64 |
ibdb(x86-64) (version 5.3–21 or later) |
lib32gcc1:amd64 (version 4.9 or later) |
libgcc(x86-32) (version4.8.5 or later) |
lib32stdc++6:amd64 (version 4.8.4 or later) |
libstdc++(x86-32) (version 4.8.5 or later) |
lib32z1:amd64 (version 1.2.8 or later) |
libstdc++(x86-64) (version 4.8.5 or later) |
libbsd0 (version 0.8.2 or later) |
make |
libc6 (version 2.17 or later) |
openssl-devel |
libc6:amd64 (version 2.19 or later) |
pciutils |
libc6:i386 (version 2.19 or later) |
perl |
libc6-i386:amd64 (version 2.19 or later) |
perl-App-cpanminus |
libdb5.3:amd64 (version 5.3.28 or later) |
perl-core |
libhttp-message-perl:amd64 |
perl-CPAN |
libio-socket-ssl-perl:amd64 |
perl-IO-Socket-SSL |
liblwp-protocol-https-perl:amd64 |
perl-libwww-perl |
libnuma1 (version 2.0.11 or later) |
perl-LWP-Protocol-https |
libssl-dev:amd64 |
perl-Sys-Syslog(x86-64) (version 0.33 or later) |
libstdc++6 (version 4.8.5 or later) |
perl(x86-64) (version 5.16.3 or later) |
libswitch-perl:amd64 |
perl-XML-Writer |
libwww-perl:amd64 |
ping |
libxml-parser-lite-perl:amd64 |
procps-ng |
libxml-writer-perl:amd64 |
python3 |
perl:amd64 (version 5.16.3 or later) |
rsyslog |
iputils-ping |
sqlite-devel(x86-64) (version 3.7.17 or later) |
python3 |
systemd |
rsyslog |
tcpdump(x86-64) (version 4.9.2 or later) |
sqlite3:amd64 (version 3.11.0 or later) |
zlib(x86-32) (version 1.2.7 or later) |
systemd |
tcpdump:amd64 (version 4.9.2 or later) |
Manually installed dependencies
The following dependencies must be installed manually on the Linux host from the standard public repository.
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For RPM-based Linux systems, install Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) repositoryFor information about installing the EPEL repository, see EPEL.
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For Debian based Linux systems running Ubuntu version 18 or later, install
libc6:i386repositoryRun the following commands on the Linux shell to install the package:-
dpkg --add-architecture i386 -
apt update -
apt install libc6:i386
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For Amazon Linux 2 on AWS, install EPEL repositoryRun the following three commands on the Amazon Linux 2 shell to install EPEL repository:
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amazon-linux-extras install epel -y -
yum-config-manager --enable epel -
yum update
For more information about installing the EPEL repository, see the AWS official documentation. -