Deploy a VPX high-availability pair on Google Cloud Platform

Last published : Oct 01, 2026
You can configure two NetScaler VPX instances on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) as a high availability (HA) active-passive pair. When you configure one instance as the primary node and the other as the secondary node, the primary node accepts connections and manages servers. The secondary node monitors the primary. If for any reason, if the primary node is unable to accept connections, the secondary node takes over.
For more information on HA, see High Availability.
The nodes must be in the same region; however, they can be either in the same zone or different zones. For more information, see Regions and Zones.
Each VPX instance requires at least three IP subnets (Google VPC networks):
  • A management subnet
  • A client-facing subnet (VIP)
  • A back-end facing subnet (SNIP, MIP, and so on)
Citrix® recommends three network interfaces for a standard VPX instance.
You can deploy a VPX high-availability pair in the following methods:
Related information
Deploy a NetScaler VPX instance on the Google Cloud Platform

GDM templates to deploy a VPX high-availability pair on GCP

You can use a NetScaler Google Deployment Manager (GDM) template to deploy a VPX high-availability pair on GCP. For details, see NetScaler GDM Templates.

Forwarding rules support for VPX high-availability pair on GCP

You can deploy a VPX high-availability pair on the GCP using forwarding rules.
For more information on forwarding rules, see Forwarding rules overview.

Prerequisites

  • Forwarding rules must be in the same region as the VPX instances.
  • Target instances must be in the same zone as the VPX instance.
  • Number of target instances for both primary and secondary nodes must match.
Example:
You have a high-availability pair in the us-east1 region with primary VPX in us-east1-b zone and secondary VPX in us-east1-c zone. A forwarding rule is configured for the primary VPX with the target instance in us-east1-b zone. Configure a target instance for secondary VPX in us-east1-c zone to update the forwarding rule on failover.

Limitations

Only forwarding rules that are configured with target instances at the back end are supported in VPX high-availability deployment.