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brad_11440's avatar
brad_11440
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Jan 15, 2009

FastL4 vs Optimized TCP Profiles

We run active/standby 6400 (platform D63a) LTM's for our production applications. They are accessed via clients on a private network with an average latency around 80ms. Nearly all of our virtual se...
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  • smp_86112's avatar
    smp_86112
    Jan 20, 2009
    Maybe it's about the right time to have you post your VIP config from the bigip.conf. It's possible you have other settings applied to the VIP which conflict with a FastL4 profile??? Also it might be helpful to paste the values of the TCP profile you have applied.

     

     

    Regarding the window size...the behavior you see was bothering me for a long time until it finally clicked in my brain. Yes, the TCP window size always starts at 4380. The trick is to understand whether the LTM is sending or receiving data. When the LTM is sending data, as in this case, there is no need for the LTM to increase its receive window - which is the parameter you refer to in the trace.

     

     

    When the LTM is receiving large amounts of data and you do a trace, you'll see that the LTM receive window starts out at 4380, and quickly increases to the value of the Receive Window as specified in the TCP profile that is applied.

     

     

    The LTM is smart - it starts out with a small window size so it does not need to allocate more memory than necessary for the TCP connection. If it needs to adjust the receive window (when it is receiving data), you'll see it go up.
brad_11440's avatar
brad_11440
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Jan 21, 2009

Posted By jbaird on 01/20/2009 8:03 PM

 

 

Brad, a bit off topic, but would you mind sharing how you are conducting these response time tests? Thanks!

 

 

Josh

 

 

 

I am using a product by NetQos called Superagent. It measures end to end application response time by passively monitoring TCP traffic and calculating metrics based off of the header information. You specify servers, application ports and networks. Right now since we are monitoring in front of where our LTM sits on the network, many of the servers are the VIPs themselves. It's nice being able to determine the exact performance gains when making a change like this.

 

 

I've attached screenshots off the application performance before and after the profile change was made. An hour worth of data today and then an hour last Wednesday.