The NetScaler appliance can use either of two topologies—NAT-on mode or NAT-off mode—to load balance RTSP servers. In NAT-on mode, Network Address Translation (NAT) is enabled and configured on the appliance. RTSP requests and responses both pass through the appliance. You must therefore configure the appliance to perform network address translation (NAT) to identify the data connection.

For more information about enabling and configuring NAT, see IP Addressing.

In NAT-off mode, NAT is not enabled and configured. The appliance receives RTSP requests from the client and routes them to the service that it selects using the configured load balancing method. The load balanced RTSP servers send their responses directly to the client, bypassing the appliance. You must therefore configure the appliance to use Direct Server Return (DSR) mode, and assign publicly accessible FQDNs in DNS to your load balanced RTSP servers.

For more information about enabling and configuring DSR mode, see Configuring Load Balancing in Direct Server Return Mode. For more information about configuring DNS, see Domain Name System. In either case, when you configure RTSP load balancing, you must also configure rtspNat to match the topology of your load balancing setup.