Citrix NetScaler is the recommended replacement product for Cisco ACE according to Cisco themselves (see https://www.citrix.com/products/netscaler-application-delivery-controller/overview/cisco-ace.html for additional details).

With the ACE Migration Tool now available in the Citrix Insight Services platform, converting your existing ACE configuration files to NetScaler configuration files takes only seconds.

Begin by gathering up your Cisco ACE configuration files.  Please note that this tool converts one ACE virtual context configuration file to a dedicated NetScaler instance.  This doesn’t support converting all ACE virtual contexts at one time to a NetScaler configuration that uses our other forms of virtualization: Traffic Domains and Admin Partitions. For example, to migrate from the Cisco ACE-4710 with 4 virtual contexts to a NetScaler SDX, you’ll need to use the tool for each individual virtual context on ACE, then copy the converted configuration in to each of the 4 VPX instances running on the NetScaler SDX. A manual approach is necessary to merge the ported NetScaler configs in to one that supports Traffic Domains and/or Admin Partitions.

With your ACE configuration files on-hand, proceed to login to Citrix Insight Services at cis.citrix.com using your MyCitrix credentials.

Click the Upload Data button and then browse for your first ACE configuration file (each one needs to be uploaded individually).

After the file upload completes, within seconds you’ll be displayed the Overview tab with conversion statistics and the ability to download the converted NetScaler ns.conf file.

The Compare tab allows you to compare the original ACE configuration file to the converted NetScaler one.  Any items out of scope are shown in red.


 

The Read Me tab provides information on the key features handled by the tool along with some known limitations to be aware of.


 

For a demo on the entire process with the tool, please watch my video at http://www.citrix.com/tv/#videos/13564.

I encourage all current Cisco ACE customers to try out this ACE to NetScaler Migration Tool.  Save yourself hours’ worth of time while transitioning to the recommended NetScaler platform.

As always, we encourage users of Citrix Insight Services to leave us feedback on what’s working and suggestions on how we can improve.  Simply click the “Feedback” link in the footer of any page at cis.citrix.com.

Until next time, keep those uploads coming…

Regards,
Allen Furmanski
Product Manager
Citrix Product Insights and Analytics