irule vs. default pool

Hi jcrua,

 

 

A server pool is the default way to send incoming traffic from a Virtual Server to a server pool. You can use iRules and Default Pools together, or just iRules.

 

 

If you are going to use the default pool alone then the entire content of the Application needs to come from the servers in the Default pool. If there is some other content on the website on a different set of servers, then you can use the Default Application Pool and iRules together.

 

 

This is normally referred to as "traffic shaping" which will allow for distributed content to be gathered from different sets of servers and the behavior is:

 

 

1) Redirected traffic from the iRule 1st

 

2) Any traffic not matching a condition within an iRule will be sent to the Default Server pool applied to the Virtual Server.

 

 

Hope this helps.

But when i did that, there were some 404s for requests hitting that vip.i do not think default pool causes this issue. to troubleshoot, packet capture could be helpful.

 

 

tcpdump -nni 0.0 -s0 -w /var/tmp/output_file.pcap host x.x.x.x or host y.y.y.y

 

x.x.x.x is virtual server address

 

y.y.y.y is pool member address

 

 

if there is too many traffic, adding port number in the filter may be good.

 

 

tcpdump -nni 0.0 -s0 -w /var/tmp/output_file.pcap \(host x.x.x.x and port xxx\) or \(host y.y.y.y and port yyy\)

 

xxx is virtual server port number

 

yyy is pool member port number

 

 

hope this helps.

AFAIK, technically they're the same. If destination pool can be determined in iRule, LTM will use that pool. However, if destination pool isn't specified or can not be determined in any iRule, default pool will be used, hence the name "default" pool. Both pool in iRule and default one can be used together.

 

 

Perhaps there is something in your HTTP HEADER INSERT rule. You could verify your iRule or as nitass suggested, packet capture could be helpful in this case.

Hi jcrua,

 

 

I don't think that going the tcpdump route is going to help you locate the source of your 404's. Might give you a headache though and you would have to dig just to find the 404's that you already know are being thrown.

 

 

Download and install HTTPWatch. Run it of course, then navigate the site normally and see which pieces are throwing the 404's since it will match up the 404 with the full request that it was returned for.

 

 

This should help you determine if the content is on the default servers you have configured, or if you are going to have to add to your iRule to match the traffic and route it to a different server(s) that hold that specific content.

 

 

Hope this helps.

If you have access to the web server(s) I'd recommend checking the logs on those for the 404s.