For more information regarding the security incident at F5, the actions we are taking to address it, and our ongoing efforts to protect our customers, click here.

Forum Discussion

Mucius's avatar
Mucius
Icon for Altostratus rankAltostratus
May 11, 2021
Solved

Does LTM distribute HTTP requests or TCP connections?

Here's the question I cannot find definitive answer to: does F5 LTM distribute incoming TCP connections - or HTTP requests arriving via these connections, making load balancing decision for each requ...
application delivery
BIG-IP
load_balancing
LTM
session_persistence
  • KeesvandenBos's avatar
    KeesvandenBos
    May 11, 2021

    Hi Mucius,

     

    Yes it is true. You need the combination of HTTP and oneconnect profile. But I must admit that I have had any issues with this.

     

    Cheers,

     

    Kees

KeesvandenBos's avatar
KeesvandenBos
Icon for MVP rankMVP
May 11, 2021

Hi,

 

When you use a standard virtual server with a HTTP profile the BIG-IP will load balance HTTP requests. It will inspect every request, if there is no persistence cookie LTM will load balance this request to the next available pool member (based on your LB algoritme) HTTP request with a persistence cookie will be load balanced to the backend server that is in the cookie value.

 

This is the default behaviour of a standard virtual server with a HTTP and cookie persist profile.

 

Cheers,

 

Kees

  • Mucius's avatar
    Mucius
    Icon for Altostratus rankAltostratus
    May 11, 2021

    Thanks, Kees!

     

    But I just found this article:

    https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K7964

    and it claims that this happens only when both HTTP profile and OneConnect profile are applied:

     

    If no OneConnect profile is associated with the virtual server, the BIG-IP system selects a pool member once, when the client-side connection is first established. After a pool member is selected, and the TCP connection is load balanced, all subsequent requests on the same Keep-Alive connection are sent to the same pool member.

     

    For example, if a OneConnect profile is not associated with the virtual server, and the client request is initially sent to node A in pool A, the BIG-IP system inserts a cookie for node A. Then, the BIG-IP system receives a subsequent request within the same TCP connection that contains a cookie for node B in pool B. The BIG-IP system sends the request to node A.

     

    Is this true, in your experience?

     

    Thanks,

    Mucius.

Related Content