Configure system settings

Last published : Sep 21, 2026
Before you start using NetScaler® ADM to manage and monitor your instances and applications, it is recommended that you configure a few system settings ensure optimal performance of your NetScaler ADM server.
Related information

Configure system alarms

Configure system alarms to make sure you are aware of any critical or major system issues. For example, you might want to be notified if the CPU usage is high or if there are multiple login failures to the server. For some alarm categories, such as cpuUsageHigh or memoryUsageHigh, you can set thresholds and define the severity (such as Critical or Major) for each. For some categories, such as inventoryFailed or loginFailure, you can define only the severity. When the threshold is breached for an alarm category (for example, memoryUsageHigh) or when an event occurs corresponding to the alarm category (for example, loginFailure), a message is recorded in the system and you can view the message as a syslog message.
To configure system alarms:
  1. Navigate to Settings > SNMP, and then click the Alarms tab on the upper-right corner.
  2. Select the alarm you want to configure, and click Edit.
  3. On the Configure Alarm page, select the alarm severity, and set the Threshold.
  4. To view the alarms that have breached the threshold or for which an event has occurred, navigate to Settings > Auditing and click Syslog Messages.

Configure system notifications

You can send notifications to select groups of users for various system-related functions. You can set up a notification server in NetScaler ADM, and you can configure email and Short Message Service (SMS) gateway servers to send email and text notifications to users. Setting notification ensures that you are notified of any system-level activities such as user login or system restart.
To configure system notifications:
  1. Navigate to Settings > Administration. In the System Administration page, under Event Notifications, click Configure Event Notification and Digest > Event Notification.
  2. On the Configure System Notification Settings page, select the category or category of events generated by NetScaler ADM.
  3. Then, configure either the email server or the SMS server to receive notification through email or SMS or both.

Configure system prune settings

To limit the amount of reporting data being stored in your NetScaler ADM server's database, you can specify the interval for which you want NetScaler ADM to retain network reporting data, events, audit logs, and task logs. By default, this data is pruned every 24 hours (at 00.00 hours).
To configure system prune setting:
  1. Navigate to Settings > System Administration. Under Data Pruning, click System and Instance Data Pruning.
  2. In the System page, specify the number of days for which to retain data, and click Save.

Configure instance syslog prune settings

To limit the amount of syslog data stored in the database, you can specify the interval at which you want to purge syslog data. You can specify the number of days after which the generic syslog data is deleted from NetScaler ADM.
To configure instance syslog purge settings:
  1. Navigate to Settings > Administration > Data Pruning.
  2. Click System and Instance Data Pruning > Instance Syslog.
  3. In Configure Instance Syslog Prune Settings page, specify the number of days between 1 and 180 in Retain Syslog Generic Data field.
  4. Click Save.

Configure instance event prune settings

To limit the amount of event messages data being stored in your NetScaler ADM server's database, you can specify the interval for which you want NetScaler ADM to retain network reporting data, events, audit logs, and task logs. By default, this data is pruned every 24 hours (at 00:00 hours).
To configure instance event prune settings:
  1. Navigate to Settings > Administration.
  2. From the System Administration page, under Data Pruning, click System and Instance Data Pruning.
  3. In the Data Pruning page, click Instance Events.
  4. In the Data to keep (days) field, enter the time interval, in days, for which you want to retain data on the NetScaler ADM server and click Save.

Configure system backup settings

NetScaler ADM automatically backs up the system every day at 00:30 hours. By default, it saves three backup files. You might want to retain more number of backups of the system. You can also encrypt the backup file. You can also choose to save the backup on an external server.
To configure system backup settings:
  1. Navigate to Settings > Administration.
  2. Under Backup, click Configure System and Instance backup.
  3. Click System and on the Configure System Backup Settings page, specify the required values.

Configure instance backup settings

If you back up the current state of a NetScaler instance, you can use the backup files to restore stability if the instance becomes unstable. Doing so is especially important before performing an upgrade. By default, a backup is taken every 12 hours and three backup files are retained in the system.
To configure instance backup settings:
  1. Navigate to Settings > Administration.
  2. Under Backup, click Configure System and Instance backup.
  3. Click Instance, under Configure Instance Backup Settings, and specify the required values.

Enable or disable ADM features

As an administrator, you can enable or disable the following features in the Settings > Administration > Configurable Features page:
  • Agent failover - The agent failover can occur on a site that has two or more active agents. When an agent becomes inactive (DOWN state) in the site, the NetScaler ADM service redistributes the ADC instances of the inactive agent with other active agents. For more information, see Configure on-prem agents for multisite deployment.
  • Entity polling network function - An entity is either a policy, virtual server, service, or action attached to an ADC instance. By default, NetScaler ADM automatically polls configured network function entities every 60 minutes. For more information, see Polling overview.
  • Instance backup - Back up the current state of a NetScaler instance and later use the backed-up files to restore the ADC instance to the same state. For more information, see Back up and restore NetScaler instances.
  • Instance configuration audit - Monitor configuration changes across managed NetScaler instances, troubleshoot configuration errors, and recover unsaved configurations. For more information, see Create audit templates.
  • Instance events - Events represent occurrences of events or errors on a managed NetScaler instance. Events received in NetScaler ADM are displayed on the Events Summary page (Infrastructure > Events), and all active events are displayed in the Event Messages page (Infrastructure > Events > Event Messages). For more information, see Events.
  • Instance network reporting - You can generate reports for instances at a global level. Also, for entities such as the virtual servers and network interfaces. For more information, see Network Reporting.
  • Instance SSL certificates - NetScaler ADM provides a centralized view of SSL certificates installed across all managed NetScaler instances. For more information, see SSL Dashboard.
  • Instance Syslog - You can monitor the syslog events generated on your NetScaler instances if you have configured your device to redirect all syslog messages to NetScaler ADM.
To enable a feature, perform the following steps:
  1. Select the feature from the list that you want to enable.
  2. Click Enable.
Important
If a feature is disabled, the user cannot perform the operations associated with that feature.