f5 11.3 LTM APM Citrix iApp with StoreFront 2.x

Hi Jason,

 

The Citrix iApp uses port 8080 by default for your xml broker pool and virtual server which is the common port for older Citrix software versions or upgraded environments. However, if you installed Citrix 6.5 with all its default settings the port used for your xml broker is 80. Please check to see what you used when deploying your iApp and let me know if this resolves your monitor issue.

 

 

Hi Greg,

 

Thanks for the reply but unfortunately that didn't fix the issue. The Storefront and xml brokers are on the same physical hosts with storefront using port 80 and the xml brokers using 8080. I'm trying to run a tcpdump via the gui (I'd love to use the shell but somehow this VE got installed and licensed in appliance mode - we're working to fix that too) and I'll post the results / findings after I get a dump file.

 

 

~Jason

Hi Greg,

 

As promised here is the output from the tcpdump (never try to do this from the gui nightmare).

 

 

POST /scripts/wpnbr.dll HTTP/1.1

 

Content-Length: 593

 

Content-Type: text/xml

 

Connection: close

 

Host: apps.OURDOMAIN.CO.NZ

 

 

permissionsallica30contentzspCitrixXMLMonsvcHIDDENPASSWORDauctionsCitrix_iApp_http_xmlb_monitor0.0.0.0

 

 

Authorization: Basic bGV4ZWw6RGlsYmVydDAx

 

 

HTTP/1.1 400 Bad request

 

Server: Citrix Web PN Server

 

Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2013 08:03:07 GMT

 

Connection: Close

 

 

POST /scripts/wpnbr.dll HTTP/1.1

 

Content-Length: 593

 

Content-Type: text/xml

 

Connection: close

 

Host: apps.OURDOMAIN.CO.NZ

 

 

permissionsallica30contentzspCitrixXMLMonsvcHIDDENPASSWORDauctionsCitrix_iApp_http_xmlb_monitor0.0.0.0

 

 

Authorization: Basic bGV4ZWw6RGlsYmVydDAx

 

 

POST /scripts/wpnbr.dll HTTP/1.1

 

Content-Length: 593

 

Content-Type: text/xml

 

Connection: close

 

Host: apps.OURDOMAIN.CO.NZ

 

 

permissionsallica30contentzspCitrixXMLMonsvcHIDDENPASSWORDauctionsCitrix_iApp_http_xmlb_monitor0.0.0.0

 

 

Authorization: Basic bGV4ZWw6RGlsYmVydDAx

 

 

POST /scripts/wpnbr.dll HTTP/1.1

 

Content-Length: 593

 

Content-Type: text/xml

 

Connection: close

 

Host: apps.OURDOMAIN.CO.NZ

 

 

permissionsallica30contentzspCitrixXMLMonsvcHIDDENPASSWORDauctionsCitrix_iApp_http_xmlb_monitor0.0.0.0

 

 

Authorization: Basic bGV4ZWw6RGlsYmVydDAx

 

 

Question: Is Citrix struggling with basic authentication? I can point a web browser or receiver client at the storefront server and login with the credentials in this monitor and I can see the "XML Monitor" app being requested. Thoughts?

 

 

Thanks,

 

Jason

It looks like the post ate some of the xml code? I'm just reposting and placing the xml string in comments to see if that helps the forum to not eat the code.

 

 

POST /scripts/wpnbr.dll HTTP/1.1

 

Content-Length: 593

 

Content-Type: text/xml

 

Connection: close

 

Host: apps.OURDOMAIN.CO.NZ

 

 

 

 

Authorization: Basic bGV4ZWw6RGlsYmVydDAx

 

 

HTTP/1.1 400 Bad request

 

Server: Citrix Web PN Server

 

Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2013 08:03:06 GMT

 

Connection: Close

That didn't work so I'm trying it inside code marks... sorry about the multiple posts here.

 

 

 

 POST /scripts/wpnbr.dll HTTP/1.1 Content-Length: 593 Content-Type: text/xml Connection: close Host: apps.OURDOMAIN.CO.NZ permissionsallica30contentzspCitrixXMLMonsvcHIDDENPASSWORDauctionsCitrix_iApp_http_xmlb_monitor0.0.0.0 Authorization: Basic bGV4ZWw6RGlsYmVydDAx HTTP/1.1 400 Bad request Server: Citrix Web PN Server Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2013 08:03:06 GMT Connection: Close 

 

I noticed your host is listed as "apps.OURDOMAIN.CO.NZ". Does that match your xml broker binding listed in IIS? The monitor will need to match what is listed on IIS, the alternative is to leave the hostname listed for your IIS server binding blank. Doing so should allow the server to accept any host value presented by the monitor post. Another setting to check is the "trust xml requests" policy located in the "computer" tab on the "policies" section of the app center manager. The policy should be set to "enabled". I find it curious your udp monitor also is not working. Is this still the case? The UDP monitor is simply looking for a response from UDP port 137 (netbios) and should be working as long as the port is open to the server; maybe a firewall is hindering communication?

 

 

 

Just to close this off... In the end we redeployed a fresh appliance (VE 11.3 HF4 (3093 build number)), new license, latest iApp 10.0.0.8.0 bundle, and everything worked as advertised. Recommendations: Don't deploy the VE on VMware using the .ovf bundled appliance, instead build from the ISO file.