How does BigIP define a connection

I believe the term connection is somewhere between Layer 5 and 4. The Active Connections are basically connections that are passing traffic or sitting idle but open and the New Connection is simple new connections that did exist before - this is constantly being measured and compared to the last connections. Yes it's possible for 30K users to generate 2M connections, depending on what they are using on the the client side or how the application is influencing the client. For example I can generate 100 connections form my Internet Explorer to a single website - simply opening up new browser windows creates a new connection, etc. This all depends on their OS and the client they are using. Also you could have many clients that are not terminating their connections so the amount of connections can accumulate over time idling - which is inherently bad.

 

 

My guess is that you need to sniff the communication path and see what's going on. Also check out any areas where you need to limit the amount of idle connections existing.

 

 

Hope this helps,

 

CB