What is the difference between running and saved configuration on NetScaler?

A: A running configuration refers to the configuration currently running on a NetScaler system. The running configuration on a NetScaler can be seen by issuing the show ns runningconfig command in the Command Line.

A saved configuration shows the commands that have been issued through the NetScaler command line interface (CLI) or the NetScaler GUI and committed to save. The saved configuration on a NetScaler can be seen by issuing the show ns.conf command or observing the commands in the /nsconfig/ns.conf file through the shell. For example:

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> shell
Copyright (c) 1992-2014 The FreeBSD Project.
Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
        The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

root@ns# cd /nsconfig 
root@ns# more ns.conf 
#NS11.0 Build 64.34
# Last modified by `save config`, Wed Mar 23 11:21:06 2016
set ns config -IPAddress 10.107.100.131 -netmask 255.255.255.192

The running and saved configurations on a NetScaler are different when CLI commands are issued on the NetScaler and save ns config command is not issued yet. The save ns config command writes the running configuration to the ns.conf file so that the next time the NetScaler starts up it uses the new configuration. The previously saved configuration are stored under the Shell as ns.conf.0, ns.conf.1, and so on, till ns.conf.4. Under the shell a total of 5 historical configuration changes are recorded. During critical situation these historical saved configuration files can be used to restore the NetScaler configuration.

Source

​If necessary, you can retrieve the original primary appliance configuration from a backup copy present on the hard disk of the appliance. The appliance saves the last five copies of the ns.conf file in the /nsconfig directory. These ns.conf files are named ns.conf.0 through ns.conf.4. The ns.conf.0 file contains the most recently saved configuration.