Forum Discussion

Charles_Harris's avatar
Charles_Harris
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Feb 15, 2006

BigIP / iControl / iRules - Java RMI?

Hi All,

 

 

Quick question: Can BigIP load balance Java RMI connections using iRules?

 

 

Here's the Scenario:

 

 

Service Type: Java RMI based.

 

Server Side: BigIP Managed Service, Weblogic Clustered backends.

 

Client Side: Weblogic Cluster.

 

 

For all non RMI network traffic to the service (http etc) the load balancing on BigIP works well, but for Java RMI traffic the BigIP is only able to load balances the initial connection. The client side backends, once a connection is established, then communicate directly with the server backends so we lose the ability to manipulate the service using iControl.

 

 

Is there a way that BigIP can filter these types of connections and force them to communication through BigIP?

 

 

Any advice warmly received!

 

 

Thanks in advance,

 

 

 

-=ChaZ=-

 

 

dev
devops
iControl
  • Joe_Pruitt's avatar
    Joe_Pruitt
    Feb 15, 2006
    Currently, I don't believe we support RMI natively. From what I understand, the problem is similar to CORBA/IIOP and DCOM in that the target address is embedded in the binary payload.

     

     

    With iRules, you do have the ability to dig into the payload and extract and replace values. Currently I don't know of any iRules written to do so for RMI. If you get one though, I'd love to see it.

     

     

    In the future, you might want to post iRules specific questions to the iRules forum. I'm not sure how iControl plays in here.

     

     

    -Joe
  • Charles_Harris's avatar
    Charles_Harris
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Feb 16, 2006
    Hi Joe,

     

     

    Thanks for the reply, not the answer I was hoping to hear though ;-)

     

    It would be great if this functionality was built in to BigIP!!!

     

     

    There is a method of tunneling RMI over http apparently which would probably help me if I was going to try the iRules route although I'd have to convince the client to re-write their code......

     

     

    I'm not brave (or skilled) enough yet to attempt to modify a binary payload, although I'd also love to see it if some other kind soul wants to give it a try!!!

     

     

    Thanks again,

     

     

    -=ChaZ=-

     

     

  • Raj_Zucre_Ramir's avatar
    Raj_Zucre_Ramir
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Jan 15, 2010
    This forum was posted last 02/17/2006, and I'm just wondering if F5 does support JAVA RMI now?

     

     

    Basically, I would like to know if we can route the Java RMI traffic via the F5.

     

     

    Thanks!

     

    Rajz
  • Joe_Pruitt's avatar
    Joe_Pruitt
    Jan 15, 2010
    You can definitely route Java RMI traffic through the BIG-IP. If you can parse the payload to make L7 decisions on it's contents is another issue. We do not currently have support for Java RMI in the product directly, but if you understand the protocol enough, you can decode the binary data and go from there.

     

     

    -Joe