Responder, Rewrite, and URL

Transformation
CNS 205-5I: Citrix NetScaler 10.5 Essentials and Networking

Overview
After completing this module, you will be able to:
Identify recommendations and uses for default policy expressions.
Configure rewrite actions and policies.
Configure NetScaler system options to protect against unauthorized attacks.
Configure responses to specific requests.
Configure a URL transformation policy.

Responder
With the responder feature, responses to HTTP requests can be based on:
Who sends the request
Where the request is coming from
The browser the user is using
Some situations when the responder feature is useful:
Redirecting an HTTP request to a new web site or web page
Responding with some custom response
Dropping or resetting a connection

Rewrite
The rewrite feature:
Rewrites information in the requests or responses handled by the NetScaler
Can hide details about the web site's configuration
Some situations when the rewrite feature is useful:
Rewriting http:// links to https://
When you want to display a custom page instead of a 404 Error
Rewriting a complicated URL to a simple URL

URL Transformation
The URL transformation feature provides a method for modifying all URLs in
designated requests from an external version to an internal version.
Note: You must enable the rewrite feature before you can use the URL
transformation feature.

Responder Process

Rewrite Process

URL Transformation Process

Configuring Policies and Actions

Rewrite and responder policies:
Are configured using the default policy engine
Must have an action and a rule
Must be bound to a bind point
After being bound to a bind point, the NetScaler system performs rewrite
actions

Responder Default Actions

You can assign any of the following actions to an undefined event:
NOOP aborts responder processing
RESET rests the client connection
DROP silently drops the request

Responder Actions
The responder supports the following types of actions:
Respond with
Respond with SQL OK
Respond with SQL Error
Respond with HTML page
Redirect

Respondwith
A respondwith action is used to send an HTTP string as a response to a client
You must configure the following parameters with a respondwith action:
Name
Type
Target

Responder Policies
Responder policies are configured in the configuration utility and in the commandline interface
The following arguments are identified when adding a responder policy:
Rule
Action
UndefAction

Responder HTML Page Imports

The responder feature can respond to designated requests by sending the client
an HTML-based web page
You have the option of redirecting the request or responding with a response code
and answer

Rewrite Default Actions

When the rewrite policy evaluation results in an error, the specified undefined
action is carried out
NetScaler supports three types of undefined actions:
undefAction NOREWRITE
undefAction RESET
undefAction DROP

Configuring a Rewrite Action

To configure a rewrite action:
Assign it a name
Specify an action type
Add one or more arguments specifying additional data

Rewrite Action Parameters

name
pattern or patset
bypassSafetyCheck
target
stringBuilderExpr
search

Rewrite Policies
A rewrite policy consists of a rule and an action
The rule determines the traffic on which rewrite is applied
The action determines the action to be taken by the NetScaler
Specify the bind point for each policy
Specify the priority for multiple policies

Binding Policies
Only bound policies respond or rewrite on the NetScaler system
Binding occurs in the configuration utility and in the command-line interface
Each policy needs a priority assigned to it:
Must be a positive integer constant
Lower numbers have higher priority

Configuring URL Transformation

WhTo plan for URL transformation, identify the transformed elements:
URL transformation policy: When to perform transactions
URL transformation profile: Where to find URLs and actions
URL transformation action: How to transform and what to do

Binding of URL Transformations

After you have configured your URL transformation policies, you globally bind
them to put them into effect
After global binding, any request or response that matches a URL transformation
policy is transformed by the profile associated with that policy

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