Forum Discussion

danielo303_1961's avatar
danielo303_1961
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Feb 17, 2012

iRule: redirect to pool based on app response time?

I would like to use an iRule to direct traffic based on the response time of the back-end resource pool. Under normal operations, incoming requests (these are SOAP-based queries) will go to the primary resource pool. When the primary pool becomes unresponsive (response slower than 5-10 seconds), requests should be directed to a secondary pool which is configured to basically tell the client "come back later".

 

 

I am using priority groups and health monitors to approximate this mechanism currently. But I think if I could find the right tools in iRule I would have more precise control.

 

 

Basically I need something like:

 

 

when HTTP_REQUEST {

 

 

[code to check response time here...]

 

 

if response_time < 10 {

 

pool primary_pool

 

return

 

}

 

else {

 

pool secondary_pool

 

return

 

}

 

}

 

 

Is there a command to test the back-end response? We are on BIG-IP 9.4.3

 

 

Thanks!

 

  • Hamish's avatar
    Hamish
    Icon for Cirrocumulus rankCirrocumulus
    Hmm...

     

     

    9.4.3 makes it a bit more difficult. I did something for this in 2010 on LDAP servers. But the iRule was designed to be pretty lightweight and the actual calculations for average response times etc was offloaded to a separate server, because different users were expected to have different SLA requirements. (See the LDAP_Stats_Measuring iRule).

     

     

    The measurements and tracking of response times was tracked by user (ldap bind id), but it required tables. Assuming you don't need that... Hmm.. Not sure. Would need a bit more thought. Any chance you could upgrade to v10.2?

     

     

    Even then though, you have the problem of working out when the response times decrease again... v11 you could use a sideband connection...

     

     

    More thought required...

     

     

     

    H
  • You could use the after command in 10.0+ to set a timer and select a new pool if the currently selected server doesn't reply. I think you'd need to call LB::detach in the after script and then call the second pool using the pool command.

     

     

    See the last example on the wiki page for details:

     

    http://devcentral.f5.com/wiki/iRules.after.ashx

     

    http://devcentral.f5.com/wiki/iRules.lb__detach.ashx

     

     

    Aaron
  • Or instead of selecting another pool, you could just send the response content from the iRule itself using HTTP::respond:

     

     

    http://devcentral.f5.com/wiki/iRules.http__respond.ashx

     

     

    Aaron
  • Hoolio, Hamish

     

     

    Thanks so much for the suggestions. Looks like we need to be on 10.0 to really achieve the result we want. I'll tell my boss it's time to upgrade ;-)

     

     

    Daniel