Forum Discussion
Nimbostratuswhat is the use of floating IP and where does it use.
what is the use of floating IP and where does it use and where does it come into picture?
What will happen if i do not configure it?
4 Replies
StephanMantheyNacreous
Hi vj,
it will be used as:
* next hop for a router in your environment or as default gateway for your real servers,
* as next hop to reach virtual IPs in a virtual address space on your BIG-IP,
* as SNAT in case you enable SNAT automap (make sure it belongs to the same traffic-group as the virtual servers you want to use it for).
In case there is none of the conditions above, you won´t need it, imho.
Please avoid to share the same IP for self IP and virtual IPs.
Thanks, Stephan
InnOHi,
To add to the previous answer, there is also the questionning about floating vs local Self-IP. The floating IP will become very handy in an Active/Standby configuration. It will be shared by both appliances, so if you enable some connection mirroring, if you have to failover to the Standby appliance, all live connections will be already present on it. If you use local Self-IP, this obviously is not possible, as the IP is owned by a specific appliance, so you may lose current connections. If you use floating Self-IP, the failover will be transparent in most cases with mirrorin enabled.
Pascal.
vj_singh_177738Does Floating IP serve any request? what will happen if I remove floating IP from my cluster LTM device (active/passive)?
- StephanManthey
Hi vj_singh,
multiple reasons for being careful:
1. The floating self IP address may be used as a listener object on GTM.
2. The floating self IP may be used for SNAT AutoMap (and especially since v11 it´s highly recommended to have a floating self IP (belonging to a traffic-group) available.
3. The floating self IP may be used as next hop gateway for your environmental components.
4. The floating self IP may be monitored to check BIG-IP cluster availability.
If none of these conditions apply, I don´t see a reason to keep it.
Thanks, Stephan
