Citrix Systems Network Router 9.2 User Manual

Policies do not themselves take action on data. Policies provide read-only logic 
for evaluating traffic. To enable a feature to perform an operation based on a 
policy evaluation, you configure actions or profiles and associate them with 
policies.

Actions and profiles are specific to particular features. For information 

about assigning actions and profiles to features, see the documentation for the 
individual features.

Actions are steps that the NetScaler takes, depending on the evaluation of the 
expression in the policy. For example, if an expression in a policy matches a 
particular source IP address in a request, the action that is associated with this 
policy determines whether the connection is permitted. 

The types of actions that the NetScaler can take are feature specific. For example, 
in Rewrite, actions can replace text in a request, change the destination URL for a 
request, and so on. In Integrated Caching, actions determine whether HTTP 
responses are served from the cache or an origin server.

In some NetScaler features actions are predefined, and in others they are 
configurable. In some cases, (for example, Rewrite), you configure the actions 
using the same types of expressions that you use to configure the associated 
policy rule. 

Some NetScaler features enable you to associate profiles, or both actions and 
profiles, with a policy. A profile is a collection of settings that enable the feature 
to perform a complex function. For example, in the Application Firewall, a 
profile for XML data can perform multiple screening operations, such as 
examining the data for illegal XML syntax or evidence of SQL injection.

Access 
Gateway

Classic

To determine how the Access Gateway performs 
authentication, authorization, auditing, and other 
functions.

Authorization policies, however, can be 
configured with both classic and advanced policy 
formats.