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MaxMedov's avatar
MaxMedov
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Feb 25, 2023

VIP Type decision

Hi, I need help deciding between choosing the best compatible type for the VIP. The needs: Customer-facing VIP that will forward client data to other VIPS. Behind this 'backend' VIP will be a few s...
application delivery
security
Amine_Kadimi's avatar
Amine_Kadimi
Icon for MVP rankMVP
Feb 25, 2023

Hi, 

Can you provide more information about your setup? In your front vip, what is exactly needed? How do you choose what backend pool member to send traffic to?

Keep in mind that fastl4 and fasthttp come with limitations, for example both don't support waf functionality.

Be sure to read this too:  https://my.f5.com/manage/s/article/K4707

  • MaxMedov's avatar
    MaxMedov
    Icon for Cirrostratus rankCirrostratus
    Feb 25, 2023

    Hi, the backend VIP is standard and sends the traffic round-robin between the servers.

    The front VIP should send data to the backend VIPs in his pool. The manipulation will be made by RestAPi to enable/disable the relevant pool member.
    • Paulius's avatar
      Paulius
      Icon for MVP rankMVP
      Feb 25, 2023

      MaxMedov It seems like the better purposed device for the first layer would be a GTM or another device that can perform GSLB since it is going to be performing generic forwarding to a pool of VIPs anyway. Having a VIP to balance to VIPs adds unnecessary delay when the only purpose is to send you to multiple destination VIPs.

    • Amine_Kadimi's avatar
      Amine_Kadimi
      Icon for MVP rankMVP
      Feb 25, 2023

      The VS type to choose is not obvious because it depends on several factors. Generally speaking:

      • Performance L4 is used to forward traffic as fast as possible and the cost is you loose many advanced functionalities which are available on the standard VS.
      • Standard VS is the VS to go to take advantage of all the functionalities that the VS can offer, particularly Layer 7 manipulation and optimization. Since you go up to L7, the cost is most processing and time needed to serve traffic.
      • Peformance HTTP is a type that is used to increase performance for some types of HTTP traffic, it is only relevant when the traffic condtions are optimal, thus it is most likely not efficient for internet facing traffic.

      With that being said, there are many factors that will let you choose one or another, and using Performance L4 does not guarantee that the overall performance will be better: for example the Compression and Acceleration (cache) profiles that are available on the standard type (and not on the L4) can make the overall user experience better than with L4 VS.

      On another side, using L4 or performance HTTP VS does not let you associate a WAF policy to the VS, so your backend VS both need to be on an F5 that has the WAF license.

      So I think you should conduct a global approach (including the GTM option) to decide what to use. Or just test all the possible types and compare the results.