I'm pretty new to the Big IP load balancers. We have a couple servers on which we have SharePoint sites load balanced. The load balancing appears to work fine. Obviously, I've set up a Virtual Server with a virtual IP, so when users connect to a site, for instance sitename.domain.net, they will connect to the IP of the virtual server and get load balanced. However, we talked about being able to ping the sitename.domain.net from a specific workstation and getting the IP address of the member server to whichthe specific workstation is connected currently to aid in troubleshooting, instead of the IP of the Virtual Server configured on the load balancer. The SharePoint admins say they saw this when we initially set up the Virtual Server, and I've not made any changes on the load balancer since. We did make some DNS tweaks, but I don't see where this would have enabled them to tell which member a specific workstation is connected to. I'm thinking we could set up an iRule for this, but again I'm new to the F5. Any ideas? Maybe there is an easier way? Thanks.

You could use something simple like this to simply insert the selected server IP address in a header in every server response and use something like IEHeaders, HTTPWatch or LiveHTTPHeaders on the client to read it's value; when HTTP_RESPONSE { HTTP::header insert Via "[LB::server addr]" You could also replace the Server header if it is present }

Or you could use something a little more complex to send the data in response to a specific request URI: when LB_SELECTED { set whichserver [LB::server addr] } when HTTP_REQUEST { if { string tolower [HTTP::uri] equals "/whichserver" } { HTTP::respond 200 content "Real server IP is: $whichserver" noserver Content-Type "text/html" Connection "Close" Stop processing the iRule for this event here return } }

I would like to send a txt message to my unix team when I hit LB_FAILED messages in /var/log/tmm (Only when no nodes available) Any help is appreciated

Gopal, please start a new topic rather than posting in unrelated existing (and unresolved) ones.

Thanks Steve. I can see where those would be helpful, however the HTTP tools look like they would cost us, as the free version limits the number of sites. Using "ping" would be free :) If there is an iRule that will accomplish responding with the host IP from the client workstation when it pings the site being load balanced. Our Sharepoint admin says he was initially seeing pings of the host IP addresses in the pool, rather than the virtual IP address of the pool for the Sharepoint site, when he would ping from a client. I've not changed a setting, so is there some setting on the load-balance, via i-Rule or otherwise that would make this work?

iRule to ping host | DevCentral

33 Replies

What_Lies_Bene1
Cirrostratus
Jan 02, 2013
Ahhh. Thanks.
Mohamed_Lrhazi
Altocumulus
Jan 02, 2013
am not sure I see the usefulness of this technique.. the server you are hitting might not be the one the user reporting an issue is hitting.... When is this technique useful really?
Mohamed_Lrhazi
Altocumulus
Jan 02, 2013
Sorry if this a repost.

How is it useful to know which server is serving /whichserver ?

That server might not be the one that served /the/other/request, or any previous or future "/whichserver".
What_Lies_Bene1
Cirrostratus
Jan 02, 2013
/whichserver isn't served by a real server. But persistence would ensure the previously used Pool Member would be revealed.
Mohamed_Lrhazi
Altocumulus
Jan 02, 2013
This thread in now has two pages in it, and I cant for the life of me, figure out how to get to page 2!!!!

Tried three different browsers, neither clikcing 2, or > or >> take me anywhere but to the first page!

Anyone else shares my absolute hatred of this forums software?
What_Lies_Bene1
Cirrostratus
Jan 03, 2013
It's not just you. I think it got 'reported' yesterday so hopefully we'll have a fix soon.
Mohamed_Lrhazi
Altocumulus
Jan 03, 2013
Thanks a lot.

I wish for new DC forums software for 2013! and if I may wish more, let me reply to threads with my email, like it was a mailing list.

Mohamed.
Darthw_20046
Nimbostratus
Jan 03, 2013
Thanks, guys. I got the iRule to save after adding the bracket. I'm using IEHTTPheaders in IE version 9, and it's picking up header info but I don't see any information on the server address in the HTTP "200" response. I even added the "URI" of the destination site, instead of "/whichserver". Below is what I see for a "200" response in the HTTP header. I just want to make sure I'm looking in the right place.

HTTP/1.1 200 OK

Cache-Control: private

Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8

Server: Microsoft-IIS/7.5

SPRequestGuid: bc7ceee7-9fdd-49cd-a42d-b7975f9ccd07

Set-Cookie: WSS_KeepSessionAuthenticated={c86b8502-59ed-40b7-9253-ac94de8edd6b}; path=/

X-SharePointHealthScore: 0

X-AspNet-Version: 2.0.50727

X-Powered-By: ASP.NET

MicrosoftSharePointTeamServices: 14.0.0.6117

X-MS-InvokeApp: 1; RequireReadOnly

Date: Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:07:47 GMT

Connection: keep-alive

Content-Length: 8275
What_Lies_Bene1
Cirrostratus
Jan 03, 2013
Sorry, can't read page 2 on this forum. What rule did you implement in the end?
Mohamed_Lrhazi
Altocumulus
Jan 03, 2013
Please re post your iRule to be sure.

Note that the content is not a header, it should appear in the actual web page.

Instead of browser addons, Using Chrome, right click and click "Inspect element" , click "Network", then reload the page. click the request to see its details, including headers and content.