Forum Discussion

OTS02's avatar
OTS02
Icon for Cirrus rankCirrus
Nov 29, 2011

universal persistence using jsessionid

Have Universal persistence set up and use this irule:

 

 

when HTTP_RESPONSE {

 

if { [HTTP::cookie exists "JSESSIONID"] } {

 

persist add uie [HTTP::cookie "JSESSIONID"]

 

log local0. "[IP::client_addr] Clairmail persistence HTTP_Response [HTTP::cookie "JSESSIONID"]"

 

}

 

}

 

when HTTP_REQUEST {

 

if { [HTTP::cookie exists "JSESSIONID"] } {

 

persist uie [HTTP::cookie "JSESSIONID"]

 

log local0. "[IP::client_addr] Clairmail HttpRequest [HTTP::cookie "JSESSIONID"]"

 

}

 

}

 

 

Works great with IE, but some boutique browsers append extra cookies. If the original jsession cookie does not happen to be first in the list, the LTM treats it as though it is not there, and persistence fails. I know there must be a way to force the LTM to look into the whole string.

 

 

Grateful for any help.
config
design
  • hooleylist's avatar
    hooleylist
    Icon for Cirrostratus rankCirrostratus
    Nov 29, 2011
    Hi,

    Which browser(s) are you seeing the failure on? Can you log the values for the set-cookie headers in the iRule?

    If there are multiple JSESSIONID cookies in the request and/or response, which do you want to use? Or do you want to try using all of them?

    Also, it would be good to check that the cookie value isn't null before using it for persistence: 

    
when HTTP_RESPONSE {
if { [HTTP::cookie "JSESSIONID"] ne ""} {
persist add uie [HTTP::cookie "JSESSIONID"]
log local0. "[IP::client_addr] Clairmail persistence HTTP_Response. Cookies: [HTTP::header values Cookie]"
}
}
when HTTP_REQUEST {
if { [HTTP::cookie "JSESSIONID"] ne ""} {
persist uie [HTTP::cookie "JSESSIONID"]
log local0. "[IP::client_addr] Clairmail HttpRequest. Set-Cookies: [HTTP::header values Cookie]"
}
}

    Aaron
  • OTS02's avatar
    OTS02
    Icon for Cirrus rankCirrus
    Nov 30, 2011
    Firefox was the only one I knew for sure. I did a tcpdump to see what was going on. We were short on time, so we worked out alternate solution. But would like to get this working, as it would be more elegant.

     

     

    It worked when the cookie string looked like this:

     

    Cookie: JSESSIONID=99713BB629EB4F07EE7CD75259A5E4B1

     

     

    But did not work when the cookie string looked like this:

     

    Cookie: csrLoginInfo=%7B%22loggedInTime%22%3A%22Fri%2C%2015%20Jul%202011%2022%3A54%3A50%20GMT%22%7D; JSESSIONID=99713BB629EB4F07EE7CD75259A5E4B1

     

     

    You see the jsessionid cooke is still in there, but if not at the front, the LTM doesn't see it. I never saw multiple jsessionid cookies, but if the whole string got inspected, I don't think hat would hurt anything either.
  • nitass's avatar
    nitass
    Icon for Employee rankEmployee
    Nov 30, 2011
    HTTP::cookie seems to be okay for me. 

    [root@ve1023:Active] config  b virtual bar list
virtual bar {
   snat automap
   pool foo
   destination 172.28.19.79:80
   ip protocol 6
   rules myrule
   profiles {
      http {}
      tcp {}
   }
}
[root@ve1023:Active] config  b rule myrule list
rule myrule {
   when HTTP_REQUEST {
        log local0. "Cookie header: [HTTP::header Cookie]"
        log local0. "JSESSIONID value: [HTTP::cookie JSESSIONID]"
}
}

[root@ve1023:Active] config  curl http://172.28.19.79 -H "Cookie: JSESSIONID=99713BB629EB4F07EE7CD75259A5E4B1"             


This is 101 host.


[root@ve1023:Active] config  
Nov 29 20:14:13 local/tmm info tmm[23027]: Rule myrule : Cookie header: JSESSIONID=99713BB629EB4F07EE7CD75259A5E4B1
Nov 29 20:14:13 local/tmm info tmm[23027]: Rule myrule : JSESSIONID value: 99713BB629EB4F07EE7CD75259A5E4B1

[root@ve1023:Active] config  curl http://172.28.19.79 -H "Cookie: csrLoginInfo=%7B%22loggedInTime%22%3A%22Fri%2C%2015%20Jul%202011%2022%3A54%3A50%20GMT%22%7D; JSESSIONID=99713BB629EB4F07EE7CD75259A5E4B1"



This is 101 host.


[root@ve1023:Active] config  
Nov 29 20:14:25 local/tmm info tmm[23027]: Rule myrule : Cookie header: csrLoginInfo=%7B%22loggedInTime%22%3A%22Fri%2C%2015%20Jul%202011%2022%3A54%3A50%20GMT%22%7D; JSESSIONID=99713BB629EB4F07EE7CD75259A5E4B1
Nov 29 20:14:25 local/tmm info tmm[23027]: Rule myrule : JSESSIONID value: 99713BB629EB4F07EE7CD75259A5E4B1
  • hooleylist's avatar
    hooleylist
    Icon for Cirrostratus rankCirrostratus
    Nov 30, 2011
    As Nitass' testing shows, HTTP::cookie should be able to parse multiple cookies in the request or response on the same header line without any issues.

     

     

    Can you set up a test virtual server to continue troubleshooting this? I'd guess the issue might be a missing OneConnect profile or something else. If you're doing L7 persistence you will need a OneConnect profile on the virtual server. Use a /0 source mask OneConnect profile if you’re using SNAT. Else, use a /32 source mask OneConnect profile if you’re not using SNAT:

     

    http://devcentral.f5.com/wiki/AdvDesignConfig.ONECONNECT.ashx

     

     

    Aaron
  • OTS02's avatar
    OTS02
    Icon for Cirrus rankCirrus
    Jan 04, 2012
    Hello again,

     

     

    Tomorrow we will resume testing. I will apply a OneConnect profile to the Virtual Server, update the iRule to check that the jsessionID is not null.

     

     

    So, let me ask a question, if there is no jessionID, will the fallback persistence profile then be used?

     

     

    Thanks
  • nitass's avatar
    nitass
    Icon for Employee rankEmployee
    Jan 05, 2012
    if there is no jessionID, will the fallback persistence profile then be used?i do not think so. 

    [root@ve1023:Active] config  b virtual bar list
virtual bar {
   snat automap
   pool foo
   fallback persist source_addr
   destination 172.28.19.79:80
   ip protocol 6
   persist myuniversal
   profiles {
      http {}
      tcp {}
   }
}
[root@ve1023:Active] config  b pool foo list
pool foo {
   members 200.200.200.101:80 {}
}
[root@ve1023:Active] config  b profile myuniversal list
profile persist myuniversal {
   defaults from universal
   mode universal
   rule myrule
}
[root@ve1023:Active] config  b rule myrule list
rule myrule {
   when HTTP_RESPONSE {
    if { [HTTP::cookie "JSESSIONID"] ne ""} {
        persist add uie [HTTP::cookie "JSESSIONID"]
        log local0. "[IP::client_addr] Clairmail persistence HTTP_Response. Cookies: [HTTP::header values Cookie]"
        }
}
when HTTP_REQUEST {
    if { [HTTP::cookie "JSESSIONID"] ne ""} {
        persist uie [HTTP::cookie "JSESSIONID"]
        log local0. "[IP::client_addr] Clairmail HttpRequest. Set-Cookies: [HTTP::header values Cookie]"
        }
}
}

Case1 JSESSIONID is existing

[root@ve1023:Active] config  b persist
No Persistence Table Entries were found.

[root@ve1023:Active] config  curl -I http://172.28.19.79
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2012 05:59:15 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.3 (CentOS)
Last-Modified: Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:48:14 GMT
ETag: "4183e4-3e-9c564780"
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-Length: 62
Set-Cookie: JSESSIONID=99713BB629EB4F07EE7CD75259A5E4B1; path=/
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

[root@ve1023:Active] config  b persist
PERSISTENT CONNECTIONS
    Type           Virtual                Node
    universal      172.28.19.79:80   200.200.200.101:80

Case2 JSESSIONID is not existing

[root@ve1023:Active] config  b persist
No Persistence Table Entries were found.

[root@ve1023:Active] config  curl -I http://172.28.19.79
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2012 05:59:48 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.3 (CentOS)
Last-Modified: Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:48:14 GMT
ETag: "4183e4-3e-9c564780"
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-Length: 62
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

[root@ve1023:Active] config  b persist
No Persistence Table Entries were found.
  • OTS02's avatar
    OTS02
    Icon for Cirrus rankCirrus
    Jan 13, 2012

    Hello again,

     

    Applying a OneConnect profile to the Virtual Server and checking that the jsessionID is not null, has solved the original problem. Thanks so much, both of you!

     

    Another problem has cropped up. The application makes calls that do not have jsessionid, so I need to generate some unique (random?) to insert as a cookie. Any thoughts on the simplest way to do this?

     

    Thanks

     

  • hooleylist's avatar
    hooleylist
    Icon for Cirrostratus rankCirrostratus
    Jan 13, 2012
    Why not use cookie insert persistence via a profile instead of persisting on the JSESSIONID cookie with an iRule--particularly if the app doesn't always set a JSESSIONID cookie?

     

     

    Aaron
  • OTS02's avatar
    OTS02
    Icon for Cirrus rankCirrus
    Jan 13, 2012
    Well, that would break another portion of this animal. And that portion seems to be working OK now.
  • OTS02's avatar
    OTS02
    Icon for Cirrus rankCirrus
    Jan 13, 2012
    I thought I might get away with something like adding an else onto the end - something like this:

     

    when HTTP_RESPONSE {

     

    if { [HTTP::cookie "JSESSIONID"] ne ""} {

     

    persist add uie [HTTP::cookie "JSESSIONID"]

     

    log local0. "[IP::client_addr] Clairmail persistence HTTP_Response. Cookies: [HTTP::header values Cookie]"

     

    }

     

    }

     

    when HTTP_REQUEST {

     

    if { [HTTP::cookie "JSESSIONID"] ne ""} {

     

    persist uie [HTTP::cookie "JSESSIONID"]

     

    log local0. "[IP::client_addr] Clairmail HttpRequest. Set-Cookies: [HTTP::header values Cookie]"

     

    else {

     

    persist add uie [HTTP::cookie [expr { int(100000000 * rand()) }]]

     

    {

     

    }

     

    But that doesn't comaile because [expr { int(100000000 * rand()) }] is not valid in that context.