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Forum Discussion

Jacob_SLY_26625's avatar
Jacob_SLY_26625
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Nov 30, 2016

Keep the existing connections to the same Tomcat server

we have session sticky configured based on a parameter of sessionid attached in http url in F5. we want to keep the existing connections to the same Tomcat server even when health check on it is fai...
application delivery
BIG-IP
Hannes_Rapp_162's avatar
Hannes_Rapp_162
Icon for Nacreous rankNacreous
Nov 30, 2016

I think the interesting part lies within: - "but when HTTP Redirect happens in the client , the F5 will treat it as new connection?"

Answer is no. Normally, a teardown of the existing TCP connection does not occur upon a HTTP redirect EXCEPT when the redirect response has a "Connection: Close" header. Assuming it's an App that uses modern version of HTTP (HTTP/1.1 or Speedy), then multiple HTTP redirects can occur on top of the same TCP session.

What to do?

  • Verify if the 
    Connection: Close
    header is included in a HTTP redirect response which specifies the 
    Location: https://the.sameapp.com/new-path
    header (use Chrome or FF DevTools)
Leonardo_Souza's avatar
Leonardo_Souza
Icon for Cirrocumulus rankCirrocumulus
Dec 01, 2016

Yes, a new TCP connection, however your persistence (session sticky is the name used by Cisco ACE and others Cisco stuff) is based in layer 7 information. If the request made to follow the redirect uses the same sessionid, that new connection will persist to the same server (so no new load balance decision).