NetScaler index.html corruption

Recently upgraded NetScaler 10.5 to 11. Upgrade completed fine but when accessing the NetScaler Gateway portal nothing other than the below was presented. No logon screen. Just a blank white page. Same result using multiple web browsers. This also happened on a seperate occasion when there was a power cut that affected a NetScaler MPX.

1-min

To fix I copied the vpn folder from a different working NetScaler (same major build0) and used this to replace the one on the broken NetScaler. The directory you should look for is /netscaler/ns_gui/vpn.2-min

After that the correct logon screen appears again and the problem is resolved. I’m not sure why the index.html page seemed to have been corrupted. It could have been caused by the upgrade or if someone had badly modified it in the past and it was incompatible with NSv11.3-min

Note: When you reboot NetScaler, every file and folder gets recreated unless they are located in the /flash/ or /var/ directories. This may mean that when you reboot NetScaler the corrupt index.html returns. To make sure the good copy of the vpn folder is copied after restart follow the below:

Copy a good known copy of the vpn folder to /var/ on the affected NetScaler appliance. Before copying the folder rename it to vpnworking or similar.

Navigate to /nsconfig/ and double click the file rc.netscaler.

Add a line with command cp /var/vpnworking/* /netscaler/ns_gui/vpn/. This ensures the vpnworking foler is copied to /netscaler/ns_gui/vpn/ once ns.conf is loaded. Any folders/files with the same name within the corrupt vpn folder are overwritten.


6 Comments

  • Berks

    May 24, 2016

    Hi JG. When you say you copied from a working Netscaler, do you mean another Netscaler 11 or one before you upgraded? We have upgraded all of our netscalers, so not sure what to do.

    Reply
  • George Spiers

    May 24, 2016

    Another NetScaler 11 🙂 Make a backup of the NetScaler ADC (broken one) before overwriting the VPN folder.

    Reply
  • Manish Dwivedi

    December 22, 2016

    This has helped to fix issue but corrupt index.html copied again after reboot. How do I make sure this file stays .. Please advise.

    Reply
  • George Spiers

    December 22, 2016

    That is because after a reboot the NetScaler recreates anything not in the /flash/ or /var/ directories.

    You need to place the good known vpn folder in /var/ then use rc.netscaler to copy the vpn folder to the correct location after ns.conf is loaded. Copy the good working vpn folder to /var/ and rename the folder as vpncopy for example. Now edit rc.netscaler located in nsconfig and insert the following line:
    cp /var/vpncopy/* /netscaler/ns_gui/vpn/
    You can confirm the file copy is working by creating a dummy text file within the vpncopy folder and checking that it copies across.

    Reply
  • Jimmy

    January 24, 2018

    Thanks a ton for this. This just saved us from a 2 hour outage after a failover between VPXs (fyi, looks like this happens not only on reboot, but failover between SDX hosted VPXs).

    It seems this is the only article on the entire internet addressing this issue. Citrix documentation is horrible at best.

    Thanks again.

    Reply
    • George Spiers

      January 24, 2018

      Glad it helped Jimmy!

      Reply

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