GSLB configuration entities

Last published : Sep 22, 2026
A GSLB configuration consists of a group of GSLB entities on each appliance in the configuration. These entities include the following:
  • GSLB Sites
  • GSLB Services
  • GSLB Virtual Servers
  • Load Balancing or Content Switching Virtual Servers
  • ADNS Services
  • DNS VIPs
Related information

GSLB Sites

A typical GSLB setup consists of data centers, each of which has various network appliances that may or may not be NetScaler appliances. The data centers are called GSLB sites. Each GSLB site is managed by a NetScaler appliance that is local to that site. Each of these appliances treats its own site as the local site and all other sites, managed by other appliances, as remote sites.
If the appliance that manages a site is the only NetScaler appliance in that data center, the GSLB site hosted on that appliance acts as a bookkeeping placeholder for auditing purposes, because no metrics can be collected. Typically, this happens when the appliance is used only for GSLB, and other products in the data center are used for load balancing or content switching.

Relationships among GSLB Sites

The concept of sites is central to NetScaler GSLB implementations. Unless otherwise specified, sites form a peer relationship among themselves. This relationship is used first to exchange health information and then to distribute load as determined by the selected algorithm. In many situations, however, a peer relationship among all GSLB sites is not desirable. Reasons for not having an all-peer implementation could be;
  • To clearly separate GSLB sites. For example, to separate sites that participate in resolving DNS queries from the traffic management sites.
  • To reduce the volume of Metric Exchange Protocol (MEP) traffic, which increases exponentially with an increasing number of peer sites.
These goals can be achieved by using parent and child GSLB sites.

GSLB Services

A GSLB service is usually a representation of a load balancing or content switching virtual server, although it can represent any type of virtual server. The GSLB service identifies the virtual server’s IP address, port number, and service type. GSLB services are bound to GSLB virtual servers on the NetScaler appliances managing the GSLB sites. A GSLB service bound to a GSLB virtual server in the same data center is local to the GSLB virtual server. A GSLB service bound to a GSLB virtual server in a different data center is remote from that GSLB virtual server.
Note
Sites and services are inherently linked to indicate proximity between the two. That is, all services must belong to a site, and are assumed to be in the same location as the GSLB site for proximity purposes. Likewise, services and virtual servers are linked, so that the logic is linked to the resources that are available.

GSLB Virtual Servers

A GSLB virtual server has one or more GSLB services bound to it, and load balances traffic among those services. It evaluates the configured GSLB methods (algorithms) to select the appropriate service to which to send a client request. Because the GSLB services can represent either local or remote servers, selecting the optimal GSLB service for a request has the effect of selecting the data center that should serve the client request.
The domain for which global server load balancing is configured must be bound to the GSLB virtual server, because one or more services bound to the virtual server will serve requests made for that domain.
Unlike other virtual servers configured on a NetScaler appliance, a GSLB virtual server does not have its own virtual IP address (VIP).

Load Balancing or Content Switching Virtual Servers

A load balancing or content switching virtual server represents one or many physical servers on the local network. Clients send their requests to the load balancing or content switching virtual server’s virtual IP (VIP) address, and the virtual server balances the load across the physical servers. After a GSLB virtual server selects a GSLB service representing either a local or a remote load balancing or content switching virtual server, the client sends the request to that virtual server’s VIP address.
For more information about load balancing or content switching virtual servers and services, see Load Balancing or Content Switching.

ADNS Services

An ADNS service is a special kind of service that responds only to DNS requests for domains for which the NetScaler appliance is authoritative. When an ADNS service is configured, the appliance owns the ADNS service IP address and advertises it. Upon reception of a DNS request by an ADNS service, the appliance checks for a GSLB virtual server bound to that domain. If a GSLB virtual server is bound to the domain, it is queried for the best IP address to which to send the DNS response.

DNS VIPs

A DNS virtual IP is a virtual IP (VIP) address that represents a load balancing DNS virtual server on the NetScaler appliance. DNS requests for domains for which the NetScaler appliance is authoritative can be sent to a DNS VIP.