NetScaler Console HA pair on Azure Cloud

Last published : Sep 21, 2026
In Azure, high availability for NetScaler Console is achieved using an Azure Load Balancer (ALB). ALB monitors instances by sending health probes to both the primary and secondary nodes. The primary instance responds with 200 OK, while the secondary instance does not respond. Based on these responses, ALB sends traffic exclusively to the primary instance. In the event of a failover, the new primary begins responding with 200 OK, and ALB automatically sends traffic to it.
HA pair architecture
Related information

Prerequisites

Ensure that:

Configure NetScaler Console HA pair

After you configure two standalone NetScaler Console instances:
  1. Login to one of the NetScaler Console GUI.
  2. Navigate to Settings > High Availability Settings.
    Note:
    • For configuring an HA pair, you must provide the private IP address of the other NetScaler Console.
    • Floating IP can be any available IP from the Azure VNet (Virtual Network).
  3. Click Configure NetScaler Console High Availability (HA), and provide the secondary node details, floating IP address, and click Configure.
    HA pair configuration
  4. In the confirmation window, click Yes. NetScaler Console instances reboot to form a HA pair.
  5. After the HA pair configuration is complete, login to the primary NetScaler Console and navigate to Settings > HA Deployment to validate the primary and secondary nodes.
    HA pair validation
The next step is to configure the floating IP address as the frontend IP of Azure load balancer in Azure Cloud. In Azure Cloud portal, search for load balancer, and select Load Balancers in the results, and click Create:
  1. In Basics, create an Azure Load Balancer (ALB) in the same Resource Group and Region where the Console VMs are configured.
    1. Select SKU: Standard, Type: Internal, and Tier: Regional under Instance details.
  2. In Frontend IP Configuration, add a frontend IP with the floating IP configured for the Console HA pair.
  3. In Backend pools, add the IP address of the two Console instances.
  4. Load balancing rules: Configure the following rules with Protocol, Port, Backend Port, Health Probe, and floating IP enabled:
    Rule name Protocol Port Backend port Floating IP
    Rule-80 TCP 80 80 Yes
    Rule-443 TCP 443 443 Yes
    Rule-5454 TCP 5454 5454 Yes
    Rule-22 TCP 22 22 Yes
    Rule-8443 TCP 8443 8443 Yes
    Rule-7443 TCP 7443 7443 Yes
    Rule-27000 TCP 27000 27000 Yes
    Rule-7279 TCP 7279 7279 Yes
    Rule-5563 TCP 5563 5563 Yes
    Rule-4739 UDP 4739 4739 Yes
    Rule-5140 UDP 5140 5140 Yes
    Rule-162 UDP 162 162 Yes
    Rule-514 UDP 514 514 Yes
    Rule-5557 UDP 5557 5557 Yes
    Rule-5558 UDP 5558 5558 Yes
  5. Health Probe: Create an HTTP health check with all the required ports listed in Step 4. This health probe enables the primary Console as Active and secondary Console as Passive. For example:
    1. Port: 443
    2. URL: /mas_health
    3. Expected Response Code: 200
      For more information to create a load balancer, see Create load balancer in Azure documentation.
      After you configure the load balancer, you can use the frontend IP address of ALB to access NetScaler Console.
      Note:
      Ensure that you have an Azure Virtual Desktop running in the same Azure network to access NetScaler Console through frontend IP address.