Viewing Pool Member details via API

Hi Alex, I'll see if I can address each of your questions.

 

 

First, I wanted to correct something in your logic for the shutdown. In my article "Graceful Server Shutdown" I first call set_session_enabled_state() to DISABLED, then sit in a loop monitoring the current connections from the get_statistics() method. Once the number of current connections drops to 0, then the set_monitor_state() method is called. You didn't mention the middle step and that's important to not break any users exisiting sessions.

 

 

Now to the questions...

 

 

Q: What information can I obtain through the API that will show me when a pool member is either...

 

 

In this tech tip, I talked about the 3-way toggle in the GUI and how it maps to the iControl states (enabled and availability)

 

 

http://devcentral.f5.com/Tutorials/...ntrol.aspx

 

 

Hopefully this tech tip helps clear up managing taking servers up and down.

 

 

Q: when a pool member is forced offline is it possible to set it back to "disabled" via the API methods?

 

 

From the above article, you'll see that the difference between "Forced Offline" and "Disabled" is that the Monitor State is flipped from STATE_DISABLED for "Forced Offline" to STATE_ENABLED for "Disabled" - I know, that doesn't sound right but it really is B-).

 

 

Hopefully that answered your questions. If not, please reply here and I'll see what I can do to explain it in more depth.

 

 

-Joe