Override static proximity behavior by configuring preferred locations

Last published : Sep 24, 2026
You might want to direct traffic from a local DNS (LDNS) server or network to a GSLB service other than the GSLB service that the static proximity method selects for that traffic. That is, you have a preferred location for that traffic. To override the static proximity method with preferred locations, you can do the following:
  1. Configure a DNS action that consists of a list of preferred locations. For more information about configuring a DNS action, see Configuring a DNS Action.
  2. Configure a DNS policy to identify the traffic arriving from the LDNS server or network for which you want to override static proximity, and apply the action in the policy.
  3. Bind the policy to the global request bind point.
Note:
  • When configuring static proximity load balancing, if multiple GSLB services belong to the same location, then the round robin method is implemented for all the GSLB services associated with that location.
  • When using a DNS-based preferred location policy in conjunction with round robin load balancing, the location policy overrides the round robin method if a match occurs.
In the DNS action, you can configure a list of up to 8 preferred locations. The locations must be provided in the dotted qualifier notation, which is the notation in which you add custom locations to the static proximity database. The locations can include wildcards for qualifiers that you want to omit. For information about the dotted qualifier notation for locations, see Adding Custom Entries to a Static Proximity Database. When entering the preferred locations, you must enter them in the descending order of priority.
When a policy evaluates to TRUE, the NetScaler appliance matches the preferred locations, in priority order, with the locations of GSLB services. Matches are of the following two types:
  • If all the non-wildcard qualifiers in a preferred location match the corresponding qualifiers in the location of a GSLB service, the match is considered a perfect match. For example, a GSLB service location of *.UK.*.* or Europe.UK.*.* is a perfect match for the preferred location *.UK.*.*.
  • If only a subset of the non-wildcard qualifiers match, the match is considered a partial match. For example, a GSLB service location of Europe.EG is a partial match for the preferred location Europe.UK.
When a DNS policy evaluates to TRUE, the following algorithm is used to select a GSLB service:
  1. The appliance evaluates the preferred location that has the highest priority and moves down the priority order until a perfect match is found between a preferred location and the location of a GSLB service.
    If a perfect match is found, the appliance checks whether the corresponding GSLB service is up. If it is up, it returns the IP address of the GSLB service in the DNS response. If multiple perfect matches are found (which can happen when one or more wildcards are used in a preferred location), the appliance checks the state of each of the corresponding GSLB services and load balances the GSLB services that are up.
  2. If a perfect match is not found for any of the preferred locations, the appliance returns to the preferred location that has the highest priority and moves down the priority order until a partial match is found between a preferred location and the location of a GSLB service.
    If a partial match is found, the appliance checks whether the corresponding GSLB service is up. If it is up, it returns the IP address of the GSLB service in the DNS response. If multiple partial matches are found, the appliance checks the state of each of the corresponding GSLB services and load balances the GSLB services that are up.
  3. If none of the perfect and partial matches are up, the appliance load balances all other available GSLB services.
    In this way, the appliance implements a type of site affinity for traffic that matches the DNS policy.
Related information

Example

Consider a GSLB configuration that consists of the following eight GSLB services:
  • Asia.IN
  • Asia.JPN
  • Asia.HK
  • Europe.UK
  • Europe.RU
  • Europe.EG
  • Africa.SD
  • Africa.ZMB
Further consider the following DNS action and policy configuration:
> add dns action prefLoc11 GslbPrefLoc -preferredLocList "Asia.HK" "Europe.UK"
 Done
> add dns policy dnsPolPrefLoc "CLIENT.IP.SRC.MATCHES_LOCATION("*.ZMB.*.*")" prefLoc11
 Done
When the appliance receives a request from the location .ZMB..*, the preferred locations are evaluated as follows:
  1. The appliance attempts to find a GSLB service whose location is a perfect match for Asia.HK, which is the preferred location that has the highest priority. It finds that the GSLB service at Asia.HK is a perfect match. If the GSLB service is up, it sends the client the IP address of the GSLB service.
  2. If the GSLB service at Asia.HK is down, the appliance attempts to find a perfect match for the second preferred location, Europe.UK. It finds that the GSLB service at Europe.UK is a perfect match. If the GSLB service is up, it sends the client the IP address of the service.
  3. If the GSLB service at Europe.UK is down, it returns to the preferred location that has the highest priority, Asia.HK, and looks for partial matches. For Asia.HK, it finds that Asia.IN and Asia.JPN are partial matches. If only one of the corresponding GSLB services is up, it sends the client the IP address of the service. If both locations are up, it load balances the two services.
  4. If all partial matches for Asia.HK are down, the appliance looks for partial matches for Europe.UK. It finds that Europe.RU and Europe.EG are partial matches for the preferred location. If only one of the corresponding GSLB services is up, it sends the client the IP address of the service. If both locations are up, it load balances the two services.
  5. If all partial matches for Europe.UK are down, the appliance load balances all other available GSLB services. In the current example, the appliance load balances Africa.SD and Africa.ZMB because the remaining six GSLB services have been found to be down.