Configure agents for multisite deployment

Last published : Sep 26, 2026
Agents work as an intermediary between the NetScaler Console and the discovered instances across different data centers and public clouds. NetScaler Console supports agent failover within a data center or a public cloud.
The following are the benefits of installing agents:
  • The configured instances to an agent send the unprocessed data directly to the agent instead of NetScaler Console. Agent does the first level of data processing and sends the processed data in compressed format to the NetScaler Console for storage.
  • Agents and instances are co-located in the same data center or cloud so that the data processing is faster.
  • Clustering the agents provides redistribution of NetScaler instances on agent failover. When one agent in a site fails, traffic from NetScaler instances switches to another available agent in the same site.
Related information

Architecture

The following figure illustrates NetScaler instances configured on multiple agents in a data center and public cloud to achieve agent failover:
Agents configured for multisite deployment
The public cloud has four NetScaler instances and two agents. The enterprise data center also have four NetScaler instances and two agents. Each agent is configured with two NetScaler instances.
The agents receive data directly from the configured instances. After agent receives the data, agent processes the data and sends to the NetScaler Console in a compressed format. Agents communicate with the NetScaler Console server over a secure channel.
On public cloud, when Agent 1 becomes inactive (DOWN state), agent failover occurs. NetScaler Console redistributes the NetScaler instances of Agent 1 with Agent 2. The instance redistribution occurs on an enterprise data center if one of the agents fails in the data center.
To install an agent, see Install a NetScaler agent.

Agent failover

The agent failover can occur in a site that has two or more registered agents. When an agent becomes inactive (DOWN state) in the site, the NetScaler Console redistributes the NetScaler instances of the inactive agent with other active agents.
Important
  • Agent failover does not consider CPX instances.
  • Ensure Agent Failover feature is enabled on your account. To enable this feature, see Enable or disable NetScaler Console features.
  • If an agent is running a script, ensure that script is present on all the agents in the site. Therefore, the changed agent can run the script after agent failover.
To attach a site to an agent in the NetScaler Console GUI:
  1. Navigate to Infrastructure > Instances > Agents.
  2. Select an agent that you want to attach to a site.
  3. Specify the site from the list. If you want to add a new site, click Add.
  4. Click Save.
To achieve an agent failover, select the agents one by one and attach to the same site.
For example, two agents 10.106.1xx.2x and 10.106.1xx.7x are attached and operational in the Bangalore site. If one agent becomes inactive, NetScaler Console detects it and displays the state as down.
When an agent becomes inactive (Down state) in a site, NetScaler Console waits for few minutes for the agent to become active (Up state). If the agent remains inactive, NetScaler Console automatically redistributes the instances among available agents in the same site. This redistribution may take approximately 10-15 minutes.
NetScaler Console triggers instance redistribution every 30 minutes to balance the load among active agents in the site.
The instances attached and automatically reconfigured to agents in the same site for trap destination, syslog server, and analytics.