Cookie Rewrite & ASPSESSIONID

Hello,

 

 

If the IIS servers are setting the ASPSESSIONID cookie with no time expiration (ie session-based), I believe they'll only set it once when the client doesn't present a valid ASPSESSIONID in the request. Ideally, this happens only on the initial client request. So I think you're looking at a symptom of a persistence failure that has already occurred when you see the IIS server setting a new ASPSESSIONID cookie for an existing client.

 

 

The ASPSESSIONID cookie name (ASPSESSIONID plus eight characters: ASPSESSIONIDABCDEFGH) should be the same per IIS server, so long as the server is not restarted. So if you see a client sending an ASPSESSIONID cookie name that doesn't match what that particular IIS server is currently using, you know a persistence failure has occurred or the IIS server was restarted and all its past cookies are invalid.

 

 

To figure out why persistence is failing, you can check to see if the BIG-IP is marking the node(s) down. Else, try tracing on the client (using LiveHttpHeaders for FF or HttpWatch for IE) and BIG-IP to see what ASPSESSIONID cookies are being set.

 

 

Or better yet, why not just have the BIG-IP insert the persistence cookie, rather than trying the more complicated option of cookie rewrite persistence?

 

 

Aaron