Can health monitor maintain TCP connection?

Hmm. That doesn't seem to be what I'm looking for. Based on the link, a 'passive monitor' is an iRule that is parsing the responses to an active monitor's requests, looking for specific health indications that a regular health monitor might not be able to catch. I'm looking for something that could nail up a connection and send periodic keep-alive messages without having to redo the handshake each time. As you say, it sounds like that's not how the standard health monitor interval/timeout is designed to work, so I may just be out of luck. Thanks, Kevin M.