iRule for test access

Hello everyone,

 

 

I am currently looking into solving the following task and was hoping that someone here might be able to give me a few ideas.

 

 

Since we don't have our own test environment available we want / need to test some new apache & mysql patches / fixes etc. with some of the productive machines. So far I was looking into using this setup (simplified):

 

 

- 1VIP: V_WEB_PROD (vip for customer access from the internet)

 

- 1VIP: V_WEB_TEST (vip for internal admins and devs)

 

- 1VIP: V_mySQL (vip for access from the webservers)

 

 

- 1Pool: P_WEB_PROD (default Pool for V_WEB_PROD)

 

- 1Pool: P_WEB_TEST (default Pool for V_WEB_TEST)

 

- 1Pool: P-mySQL-PROD (pool for iRule in V_mySQL)

 

- 1Pool: P-mySQL-TEST (pool for iRule in V_mySQL)

 

 

- 2Nodes: Webservers (the same nodes for both pools V_WEB_PROD and V_WEB_TEST)

 

- 1 Node: mySQL-PROD (productive mysql Node)

 

- 1 Node: mySQL-TEST (test mysql Node with updates, patches, etc.)

 

 

With no testing going on I'd like to have all connections to be forwarded to the same webservers + the mySQL-PROD server. Once the requirement for testing a new release comes up I want to be able to choose a webserver dynamically to test with and have productive connections (to V_WEB_PROD) to not be forwarded to that node anymore and test connections (to V_WEB_TEST) only to this particular server, incl. the P-mySQL-TEST Pool.

 

 

Since he are loadbalancing the connection twice (http & sql) I guess I'll have to go with 2 iRules, one for the webserver part and one for the mysql part. To keep it simple I started toying around with disabling the "test" node and then use the LB::status command to use the return code to figure out the rest, but I don't seem to be able to fill out some blanks yet. Here is an irule I was testing with so far, but without any luck (for VIP V_WEB_TEST - PROD won't need an irule since we simply disable the node in question):

 

 

when CLIENT_CONNECTED {

 

if { [LB::status pool P_WEB_PROD member 1.1.1.1 80] eq "session_disabled" } {

 

node 1.1.1.1 80 }

 

else {

 

if { [LB::status pool P_WEB_PROD member 2.3.4.5 80] eq "session_disabled" } {

 

node 2.3.4.5 80 }

 

else { pool P_WEB_PROD }

 

}

 

 

Of course I'll be needing a 2nd irule for the mysql VIP:

 

 

when CLIENT_CONNECTED {

 

if { [LB::status pool P_WEB_PROD member 1.1.1.1 80] eq "session_disabled" } {

 

pool mySQL-TEST }

 

else {

 

if { [LB::status pool P_WEB_PROD member 2.3.4.5 80] eq "session_disabled" } {

 

pool mySQL-TEST }

 

else { pool P_WEB_PROD }

 

}

 

 

What I am still missing in this last rule is a way to make sure that only the "disabled" webserver is being forwarded to the mySQL-TEST Pool. In my version, if any of the webservers is set to disabled all sessions will be forwarded to the test pool, so I guess I am missing an 'and' somewhere.

 

 

Any clues or hints?

 

 

Thanks.