JDE Redirects

1. this has nothing to do with the bigip or irules, it is dependent on your browser and DNS configurations

2. just create a virtual that listens on port 80 and a pool that has your server members with port 94

3. you can do this with your irule:

 
when HHTP_REQUEST {
    if { ([HTTP::uri] eq "") or ([HTTP::uri] eq "/") }{
        HTTP::redirect "[HTTP::host]/jde/E1Menu.maf"
    }
}

If I may add:

 

 

1. Assuming you have DNS entries for both "jde" and "jde.example.com", you could definitely use an iRule to redirect the user to the FQDN:

 

 

----------------------

 

when HTTP_REQUEST {

 

if { [string tolower [HTTP::host]] equals "jde" } {

 

HTTP::redirect "http://jde.example.com[HTTP::uri]"

 

}

 

}

 

----------------------

 

 

2. 100% agree. Just make sure port translation is enabled in the virtual server configuration.

 

 

3. There is practically no condition where the URI will be blank. In the absence of a URI, any modern browser will simply send "/". You can then simplify the iRule logic to look for this minimal URI.

 

That is good info for 3, thanks!

Thanks for all the replies. I have the 3 append iRule working. The 1 iRule I've had less success with - the browser (IE9) doesn't seem to redirect, or at least the address bar doesn't indicate it. The 2 scenario just doesn't want to work. When I create a VS for port 94 to a pool on port 94, it works perfectly, but when I change the VS port to 80, I get a 404 error. In the VS, Address Translation is checked, Port Translation is checked, and Source Port is Preserve. I've tried all different combinations without success. Here's what Fiddler says:

 

 

 

 

404 Not Found

 

 

Not Found

 

The requested URL /jde/E1Menu.maf was not found on this server.

 

 

 

IBM_HTTP_Server at jde Port 94

 

1. Try this iRule with some logging:

when HTTP_REQUEST {
    log local0. "Host = [HTTP::host]"
    if { [string tolower [HTTP::host]] equals "jde" } {
        log local0. "Catching jde short name - redirecting"
        HTTP::redirect "http://jde.example.com[HTTP::uri]"
    }
}

Watch the logs and see what happens when you attempt access with the short name. Also, if you can take a client side Fiddler capture, that'll show what the browser is getting back.

2. So just to level set, you have a VIP listening on port 80, and an assigned pool of servers listening on port 94. Port and address translation are enabled. Is this all correct? If you take a capture between the BIG-IP and server I'm confident that you'll see it communicating on port 94. If that's also true, do you perhaps need to include the port in the address to the server? (Ex. http://IP:94/index.html).

Last, silly question, but does the "/jde/E1Menu.maf" URI actually exist on the server?

I figured it was some weird IBM web server thing, and it was. Our F5 PS guy said that sometimes web apps enforce the listening port by looking for it in the host headers, so I had to modify the port in the headers. Here are the iRules that are on my JDE port 80 VS, in this order. It is now working. Thanks for everyone's help.

 

 

1. Redirect the browser to the FQDN if it comes in with a short name

 

when HTTP_REQUEST {

 

if { [string tolower [HTTP::host]] equals "jde" } {

 

HTTP::redirect "http://jde.domain.loc[HTTP::uri]"

 

}

 

}

 

 

2. Append the URI to send users to the logon page if they come in without a URI

 

when HTTP_REQUEST {

 

if {([HTTP::uri] == "/") } {

 

HTTP::uri "/jde/E1Menu.maf"

 

}

 

}

 

 

3. Rewrite the host header to tell the app that user really wants to talk to port 94 (thank-you devcentral!)

 

From: https://devcentral.f5.com/wiki/iRules.http_request_send.ashx

 

when HTTP_REQUEST_SEND {

 

 

Need to force the host header replacement and HTTP:: commands into the clientside context

 

as the HTTP_REQUEST_SEND event is in the serverside context

 

clientside {

 

 

Replace the HTTP host header with the selected server IP and port

 

HTTP::header replace Host "jde.domain.loc:94"

 

}

 

}