Hash persistence using iRule

We have an application that requires two connections to be made to the same member. The pool has 150+ members with several "instances" of each server on each node. I need to persist the second connection to the same member

as the original. Our connections are static - so once the second connection is persisted - I have no need for the persistance record.

We have some customers behind NATs and I want to minimize the chance that they all get stuck to the same node. I was hoping to use an iRule to play games with the persistance table. When I use the rule below I can see new persist records getting created - but all connections from teh same source go to the same member - instead of getting spread.

Here is my VIP

virtual vip1{
   destination 1.1.1.1:https
   mirror enable
   ip protocol tcp
   profile fastL4
   persist hash
   pool test-ssl
   rule TestRule
}

and the rule

when RULE_INIT {    
    
         initialize global variable for counting active ssl clients     
        array set ::active_sslclients { } 
set ::MAX_PER_CLIENT_IP  6
        log local0. "ssl_vip_rule.RULE_INIT: Initialized active_sslclients global variable" 
    }  
 
    when CLIENT_ACCEPTED {    
        set client_ip [IP::remote_addr]  
         
         increment the count of active ssl clients for the given client ip address
        if { [info exists ::active_sslclients($client_ip)] and $::active_sslclients($client_ip) >= 0 } {
            incr ::active_sslclients($client_ip)        
        } else {
            set ::active_sslclients($client_ip) 1
        }
        
        log local0. "ssl_vip_rule.CLIENT_ACCEPTED: client ip - $client_ip,  active ssl connections - $::active_sslclients($client_ip) using MAX $::MAX_PER_CLIENT_IP" 
        
         get the batch_number so that we don't have more than MAX_PER_CLIENT_IP in one persistence hash key 
         for a client ip address       
        set batch_number [ expr ($::active_sslclients($client_ip) -1) / $::MAX_PER_CLIENT_IP ]
        set hashkey "$client_ip.$batch_number"   
        if { [ expr ($::active_sslclients($client_ip) -1) % $::MAX_PER_CLIENT_IP] == 0}{
set batch_number0 [ expr (($::active_sslclients($client_ip) -1) / $::MAX_PER_CLIENT_IP) -1]
set hashkey0 "$client_ip.$batch_number0"   
log local0. "Deleting old key $hashkey0 using new $hashkey"
persist delete hash $hashkey0 
}
        log local0. "ssl_vip_rule.CLIENT_ACCEPTED: client ip - $client_ip, persist hashkey - $hashkey"            
        persist hash $hashkey 30         
   
} 
    when CLIENT_CLOSED {  
    
         decrease the count of acitve ssl connections for the given client ip address      
        if { [info exists ::active_sslclients($client_ip)] } {      
            incr ::active_sslclients($client_ip) -1      
            if { $::active_sslclients($client_ip) <= 0 } {        
                unset ::active_sslclients($client_ip)   
                log local0. "ssl_vip_rule.CLIENT_CLOSED: client ip - $client_ip, active count 0, unset its couunt variable"                 
            }   
        }   
    }