This change that was quietly slipped into the recent NetScaler 10.5 56.12 build should please a lot of people.  You may be aware that version 10.5 did away with a lot, but not all, of the requirements for Java when administering the NetScaler GUI.  However a few features still required it – the upgrade wizard, most options under the Diagnostics tab, visualisers, AppFW and a handful of other features.

However as of build 56.12 it seems all requirements for Java have completely disappeared, the upgrade wizard, diagnostic settings and more no longer require Java – as a NetScaler admin this removes a major pain point.  I no longer need to worry about maintaining that old install of Java 1.6 on my machine and having to manipulate the various and ever changing Java security settings just so I can administer my NetScalers! Woo hoo!

I can’t find anything official in the release notes regarding this change, and at time of writing this blog entry the Citrix eDocs still refers to the Java requirements here: http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/ns-rn-main-release-10-5-map/ns-rn-changes-gui-10-5-con.html But regardless, this change made me happy enough I wanted to share it with anyone that wasn’t aware, so enjoy :)

The old Java upgrade wizard present in builds 55.8 and earlier

The new HTML upgrade wizard present in builds 56.12 onwards