One VServer, Multiple Pools and Forward Request to both Pools

Hi James,

LTM's build-in cloning functionality is only able to clone traffic on a OSI Layer2 level (aka. packet duplication) and is intended to send a carbon copy of the incomming traffic to an NIDS system.

To clone the incomming request to two distinct nodes/application pools (at least different L3/4 information), you have to write a more or less complicated iRule which:

Note: Asuming you're trying to clone request for a website.

1. Collects each incomming HTTP-Header and HTTP-Payload (if exists)
2. Constructs a new HTTP-Request based on the collected HTTP-Header and HTTP-Payload
3. Performs a handcrafted Load-Balaincing decission to choose a member of the second pool.
4. Connects to the selected member of the secondary pool via a dedicated

   [SIDEBAND]

   (with ability to parse the response) or

   [HSL]

   (one way communication) connection.
5. Send the collected HTTP-Request to the established connection to the secondary pool member.
6. Parses the response of the secondary pool member (if needed and [SIDEBAND] was used).
7. Releases the original incomming request (without any modifications) and and then passes the response back to the client.

Cheers, Kai