Enable access to services when down

Last published : Sep 22, 2026
You can enable access to a service when it is disabled or in a DOWN state by configuring the NetScaler appliance to use Layer 2 mode to bridge the packets sent to the service. Normally, when requests are forwarded to services that are DOWN, the request packets are dropped. When you enable the Access Down setting, however, these request packets are sent directly to the load balanced servers.
For more information about Layer 2 and Layer 3 modes, see IP Addressing.
For the appliance to bridge packets sent to the DOWN services, enable Layer 2 mode with the accessDown parameter.
Related information

To enable access down on a service by using the CLI

At the command prompt, type:
set service <name> -accessDown <Value>
Example:
set service Service-HTTP-1 -accessDown YES

To enable access down on a service by using the GUI

  1. Navigate to Traffic Management > Load Balancing > Services, and open a service.
  2. In Advanced Settings, select Traffic Settings, and select Access Down.