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mreco_159588's avatar
mreco_159588
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Jun 08, 2017

No response after added virtual server IP address as floating self-IP address

Hi,   I have an F5 HA pair that serves several virtual servers.   VS1: ip1   VS2: ip2   Now, the IP address of VS1 (ip1) was already defined as a floating self-IP, but I found out that th...
application delivery
BIG-IP
LTM
self ip
virtual server
  • mreco_159588's avatar
    mreco_159588
    Jun 14, 2017

    It was driving me nuts, since I just want to understand what's going.

     

    After reading this post: https://devcentral.f5.com/questions/self-ip-address-selection-with-multiple-to-choose-from, I checked the firewall logs again. And now the pieces fit.

     

    On the Virtual Servers I have SNAT Automap enabled. When I only have one floating self IP, that floating self IP is used to initiate traffic to backend servers. When I add more floating self IPs, it will use any of those floating self IPs to initiate traffic towards the backend servers.

     

    The firewall between the F5 and the backend servers does not accept this traffic, meaning not actually the VS stopped responding after I added the VS IP address as a floating self IP, but the firewall blocked traffic towards the backend servers.

     

    So, conclusion (just to summarize):

     

    • only one floating self IP is needed for SNAT communication towards the backend servers (if the amount of connections is less than 65000, otherwise more are needed and I must define a SNAT pool or allow the other floating IP addresses to communicate to the backend servers)
    • I will remove the unneeded floating self IP, since they're not needed for a VS to function as a listener IP

    Thanks all for your help!

     

marin_266716's avatar
marin_266716
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Im confused, you said floating IP but you also said VS, are you adding a floating IP and thinking it will be the VIP for a pool?

 

VS1 = VIP1 (Application 1) VS2 = VIP2 (Application 2)

 

Self IP = IP in segment used to to reach into segments for monitoring or other purposes.

 

A Self IP is just that, in an HA cluster you could have 2-3 IP's per VLAN. 2x would be 1 Self IP (Non-Floating) per device in your HA group. The 3rd IP would be the floating IP added to the Active node and synced across to the standby. Floating IP's sync, self IP's do not. The Floating IP can be used as a default gateway for instance since it will always follow the active member.

 

What are you trying to accomplish with said "Self/Floating IP"

 

mreco_159588's avatar
mreco_159588
Icon for Cirrus rankCirrus
Jun 08, 2017

I'm also confused ;-)

 

I have several virtual servers that use IP addresses that are not defined as self-IP or floating-IP.

 

Each unit of the HA pair has a non-floating IP address and they both share one floating-IP address in the same VLAN.

 

The IP addresses of the virtual servers are in the same VLAn as the non-floating and floating IP addresses.

 

Now, when I add the IP address used by a virtual servers as a floating IP address, the virtual server stops responding, even after setting port lockdown to 'Allow All'.

 

What I'm trying to accomplish is the following: I thought it was weird that the unit has a virtual server running on an IP that is not defined as a floating IP. On other units I manage I usually first add an IP address as a floating IP and then use that IP address for a virtual server. So, to align the setup with other units I manage, I added the IP address of the virtual server as a floating IP. But then things stopped working...