Maintenance page - hosted on LTM or redirect with fallback host - or both?
I'm in the process of implementing an automated maintenance page that is displayed when I have a pool with no healthy members. Looking around, I see two distinct methods of doing this - utilizing the fallback host feature and redirecting to another url, or setting up a page to be hosted on the LTM and using an iRule with " [active_members [LB::server pool]] < 1" in it. Does anyone have any opinions on which one is preferred, and why? Currently, I'm using the fallback host method and I'm redirecting to a page hosted on AWS. My setup includes about 70 virtual servers on a 3600 HA cluster - some are QA, some are non-http. I will likley have the need for multiple versions of the maintenance page, depending on the site content it fronts. The one thing I do see as an advantage of the LTM hosted option is that an iRule code example shows a refresh option being used to automatically pull up the healthy site when it becomes available. Thanks!! Chris318Views0likes5CommentsIntermediate iRules: Nested Conditionals
Conditionals are a pretty standard tool in every programmer's toolbox. They are the functions that allow us to decided when we want certain actions to happen, based on, well, conditions that can be determined within our code. This concept is as old as compilers. Chances are, if you're writing code, you're going to be using a slew of these things, even in an Event based language like iRules. iRules is no different than any other programming/scripting language when it comes to conditionals; we have them. Sure how they're implemented and what they look like change from language to language, but most of the same basic tools are there: if, else, switch, elseif, etc. Just about any example that you might run across on DevCentral is going to contain some example of these being put to use. Learning which conditional to use in each situation is an integral part to learning how to code effectively. Once you have that under control, however, there's still plenty more to learn. Now that you're comfortable using a single conditional, what about starting to combine them? There are many times when it makes more sense to use a pair or more of conditionals in place of a single conditional along with logical operators. For example: if { [HTTP::host] eq "bob.com" and [HTTP::uri] starts_with "/uri1" } { pool pool1 } elseif { [HTTP::host] eq "bob.com" and [HTTP::uri] starts_with "/uri2" } { pool pool2 } elseif { [HTTP::host] eq "bob.com" and [HTTP::uri] starts_with "/uri3" } { pool pool3 } Can be re-written to use a pair of conditionals instead, making it far more efficient. To do this, you take the common case shared among the example strings and only perform that comparison once, and only perform the other comparisons if that result returns as desired. This is more easily described as nested conditionals, and it looks like this: if { [HTTP::host] eq "bob.com" } { if {[HTTP::uri] starts_with "/uri1" } { pool pool1 } elseif {[HTTP::uri] starts_with "/uri2" } { pool pool2 } elseif {[HTTP::uri] starts_with "/uri3" } { pool pool3 } } These two examples are logically equivalent, but the latter example is far more efficient. This is because in all the cases where the host is not equal to "bob.com", no other inspection needs to be done, whereas in the first example, you must perform the host check three times, as well as the uri check every single time, regardless of the fact that you could have stopped the process earlier. While basic, this concept is important in general when coding. It becomes exponentially more important, as do almost all optimizations, when talking about programming in iRules. A script being executed on a server firing perhaps once per minute benefits from small optimizations. An iRule being executed somewhere in the order of 100,000 times per second benefits that much more. A slightly more interesting example, perhaps, is performing the same logical nesting while using different operators. In this example we'll look at a series of if/elseif statements that are already using nesting, and take a look at how we might use the switch command to even further optimize things. I've seen multiple examples of people shying away from switch when nesting their logic because it looks odd to them or they're not quite sure how it should be structured. Hopefully this will help clear things up. First, the example using if statements: when HTTP_REQUEST { if { [HTTP::host] eq "secure.domain.com" } { HTTP::header insert "Client-IP:[IP::client_addr]" pool sslServers } elseif { [HTTP::host] eq "www.domain.com" } { HTTP::header insert "Client-IP:[IP::client_addr]" pool httpServers } elseif { [HTTP::host] ends_with "domain.com" and [HTTP::uri] starts_with "/secure"} { HTTP::header insert "Client-IP:[IP::client_addr]" pool sslServers } elseif {[HTTP::host] ends_with "domain.com" and [HTTP::uri] starts_with "/login"} { HTTP::header insert "Client-IP:[IP::client_addr]" pool httpServers } elseif { [HTTP::host] eq "intranet.myhost.com" } { HTTP::header insert "Client-IP:[IP::client_addr]" pool internal } } As you can see, this is completely functional and would do the job just fine. There are definitely some improvements that can be made, though. Let's try using a switch statement instead of several if comparisons for improved performance. To do that, we're going to have to use an if nested inside a switch comparison. While this might be new to some or look a bit odd if you're not used to it, it's completely valid and often times the most efficient you’re going to get. This is what the above code would look like cleaned up and put into a switch: when HTTP_REQUEST { HTTP::header insert "Client-IP:[IP::client_addr]" switch -glob [HTTP::host] { "secure.domain.com" { pool sslServers } "www.domain.com" { pool httpServers } "*.domain.com" { if { [HTTP::uri] starts_with "/secure" } { pool sslServers } else { pool httpServers } } "intranet.myhost.com" { pool internal } } } As you can see this is not only easier to read and maintain, but it will also prove to be more efficient. We've moved to the more efficient switch structure, we've gotten rid of the repeat host comparisons that were happening above with the /secure vs /login uris, and while I was at it I got rid of all those examples of inserting a header, since that was happening in every case anyway. Hopefully the benefit this technique can offer is clear, and these examples did the topic some justice. With any luck, you'll nest those conditionals with confidence now.5.6KViews0likes0CommentsRemoving port from a redirect
Hi all, One of our web developers has asked me if we could strip off a port number in a redirect they are doing. I thought the following would do this, but it doesn't appear to work. when HTTP_REPSONSE { if { [HTTP::is_redirect] } { if { [HTTP::header Location] contains "www.acme.com:10040" } { log "Original Location value: [HTTP::header Location]" HTTP::header replace Location [string map -nocase {www.acme.com:10400 www.acme.com} [HTTP::header value Location]] log "Updated Location value: [HTTP::header Location]" return } } } And here is what is written to the log Original Location value: www.acme.com:10040/secure/discussion-forum Updated Location value: www.acme.com:10040/secure/discussion-forum Note: actually the log includes http but if I enter in a URL in this new forum s/w it does odd things to it. Any help appreciated. Craig431Views0likes9Comments5 Years Later: OpenAJAX Who?
Five years ago the OpenAjax Alliance was founded with the intention of providing interoperability between what was quickly becoming a morass of AJAX-based libraries and APIs. Where is it today, and why has it failed to achieve more prominence? I stumbled recently over a nearly five year old article I wrote in 2006 for Network Computing on the OpenAjax initiative. Remember, AJAX and Web 2.0 were just coming of age then, and mentions of Web 2.0 or AJAX were much like that of “cloud” today. You couldn’t turn around without hearing someone promoting their solution by associating with Web 2.0 or AJAX. After reading the opening paragraph I remembered clearly writing the article and being skeptical, even then, of what impact such an alliance would have on the industry. Being a developer by trade I’m well aware of how impactful “standards” and “specifications” really are in the real world, but the problem – interoperability across a growing field of JavaScript libraries – seemed at the time real and imminent, so there was a need for someone to address it before it completely got out of hand. With the OpenAjax Alliance comes the possibility for a unified language, as well as a set of APIs, on which developers could easily implement dynamic Web applications. A unifiedtoolkit would offer consistency in a market that has myriad Ajax-based technologies in play, providing the enterprise with a broader pool of developers able to offer long term support for applications and a stable base on which to build applications. As is the case with many fledgling technologies, one toolkit will become the standard—whether through a standards body or by de facto adoption—and Dojo is one of the favored entrants in the race to become that standard. -- AJAX-based Dojo Toolkit , Network Computing, Oct 2006 The goal was simple: interoperability. The way in which the alliance went about achieving that goal, however, may have something to do with its lackluster performance lo these past five years and its descent into obscurity. 5 YEAR ACCOMPLISHMENTS of the OPENAJAX ALLIANCE The OpenAjax Alliance members have not been idle. They have published several very complete and well-defined specifications including one “industry standard”: OpenAjax Metadata. OpenAjax Hub The OpenAjax Hub is a set of standard JavaScript functionality defined by the OpenAjax Alliance that addresses key interoperability and security issues that arise when multiple Ajax libraries and/or components are used within the same web page. (OpenAjax Hub 2.0 Specification) OpenAjax Metadata OpenAjax Metadata represents a set of industry-standard metadata defined by the OpenAjax Alliance that enhances interoperability across Ajax toolkits and Ajax products (OpenAjax Metadata 1.0 Specification) OpenAjax Metadata defines Ajax industry standards for an XML format that describes the JavaScript APIs and widgets found within Ajax toolkits. (OpenAjax Alliance Recent News) It is interesting to see the calling out of XML as the format of choice on the OpenAjax Metadata (OAM) specification given the recent rise to ascendancy of JSON as the preferred format for developers for APIs. Granted, when the alliance was formed XML was all the rage and it was believed it would be the dominant format for quite some time given the popularity of similar technological models such as SOA, but still – the reliance on XML while the plurality of developers race to JSON may provide some insight on why OpenAjax has received very little notice since its inception. Ignoring the XML factor (which undoubtedly is a fairly impactful one) there is still the matter of how the alliance chose to address run-time interoperability with OpenAjax Hub (OAH) – a hub. A publish-subscribe hub, to be more precise, in which OAH mediates for various toolkits on the same page. Don summed it up nicely during a discussion on the topic: it’s page-level integration. This is a very different approach to the problem than it first appeared the alliance would take. The article on the alliance and its intended purpose five years ago clearly indicate where I thought this was going – and where it should go: an industry standard model and/or set of APIs to which other toolkit developers would design and write such that the interface (the method calls) would be unified across all toolkits while the implementation would remain whatever the toolkit designers desired. I was clearly under the influence of SOA and its decouple everything premise. Come to think of it, I still am, because interoperability assumes such a model – always has, likely always will. Even in the network, at the IP layer, we have standardized interfaces with vendor implementation being decoupled and completely different at the code base. An Ethernet header is always in a specified format, and it is that standardized interface that makes the Net go over, under, around and through the various routers and switches and components that make up the Internets with alacrity. Routing problems today are caused by human error in configuration or failure – never incompatibility in form or function. Neither specification has really taken that direction. OAM – as previously noted – standardizes on XML and is primarily used to describe APIs and components - it isn’t an API or model itself. The Alliance wiki describes the specification: “The primary target consumers of OpenAjax Metadata 1.0 are software products, particularly Web page developer tools targeting Ajax developers.” Very few software products have implemented support for OAM. IBM, a key player in the Alliance, leverages the OpenAjax Hub for secure mashup development and also implements OAM in several of its products, including Rational Application Developer (RAD) and IBM Mashup Center. Eclipse also includes support for OAM, as does Adobe Dreamweaver CS4. The IDE working group has developed an open source set of tools based on OAM, but what appears to be missing is adoption of OAM by producers of favored toolkits such as jQuery, Prototype and MooTools. Doing so would certainly make development of AJAX-based applications within development environments much simpler and more consistent, but it does not appear to gaining widespread support or mindshare despite IBM’s efforts. The focus of the OpenAjax interoperability efforts appears to be on a hub / integration method of interoperability, one that is certainly not in line with reality. While certainly developers may at times combine JavaScript libraries to build the rich, interactive interfaces demanded by consumers of a Web 2.0 application, this is the exception and not the rule and the pub/sub basis of OpenAjax which implements a secondary event-driven framework seems overkill. Conflicts between libraries, performance issues with load-times dragged down by the inclusion of multiple files and simplicity tend to drive developers to a single library when possible (which is most of the time). It appears, simply, that the OpenAJAX Alliance – driven perhaps by active members for whom solutions providing integration and hub-based interoperability is typical (IBM, BEA (now Oracle), Microsoft and other enterprise heavyweights – has chosen a target in another field; one on which developers today are just not playing. It appears OpenAjax tried to bring an enterprise application integration (EAI) solution to a problem that didn’t – and likely won’t ever – exist. So it’s no surprise to discover that references to and activity from OpenAjax are nearly zero since 2009. Given the statistics showing the rise of JQuery – both as a percentage of site usage and developer usage – to the top of the JavaScript library heap, it appears that at least the prediction that “one toolkit will become the standard—whether through a standards body or by de facto adoption” was accurate. Of course, since that’s always the way it works in technology, it was kind of a sure bet, wasn’t it? WHY INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICE PROVIDERS and VENDORS CARE ABOUT DEVELOPER STANDARDS You might notice in the list of members of the OpenAJAX alliance several infrastructure vendors. Folks who produce application delivery controllers, switches and routers and security-focused solutions. This is not uncommon nor should it seem odd to the casual observer. All data flows, ultimately, through the network and thus, every component that might need to act in some way upon that data needs to be aware of and knowledgeable regarding the methods used by developers to perform such data exchanges. In the age of hyper-scalability and über security, it behooves infrastructure vendors – and increasingly cloud computing providers that offer infrastructure services – to be very aware of the methods and toolkits being used by developers to build applications. Applying security policies to JSON-encoded data, for example, requires very different techniques and skills than would be the case for XML-formatted data. AJAX-based applications, a.k.a. Web 2.0, requires different scalability patterns to achieve maximum performance and utilization of resources than is the case for traditional form-based, HTML applications. The type of content as well as the usage patterns for applications can dramatically impact the application delivery policies necessary to achieve operational and business objectives for that application. As developers standardize through selection and implementation of toolkits, vendors and providers can then begin to focus solutions specifically for those choices. Templates and policies geared toward optimizing and accelerating JQuery, for example, is possible and probable. Being able to provide pre-developed and tested security profiles specifically for JQuery, for example, reduces the time to deploy such applications in a production environment by eliminating the test and tweak cycle that occurs when applications are tossed over the wall to operations by developers. For example, the jQuery.ajax() documentation states: By default, Ajax requests are sent using the GET HTTP method. If the POST method is required, the method can be specified by setting a value for the type option. This option affects how the contents of the data option are sent to the server. POST data will always be transmitted to the server using UTF-8 charset, per the W3C XMLHTTPRequest standard. The data option can contain either a query string of the form key1=value1&key2=value2 , or a map of the form {key1: 'value1', key2: 'value2'} . If the latter form is used, the data is converted into a query string using jQuery.param() before it is sent. This processing can be circumvented by setting processData to false . The processing might be undesirable if you wish to send an XML object to the server; in this case, change the contentType option from application/x-www-form-urlencoded to a more appropriate MIME type. Web application firewalls that may be configured to detect exploitation of such data – attempts at SQL injection, for example – must be able to parse this data in order to make a determination regarding the legitimacy of the input. Similarly, application delivery controllers and load balancing services configured to perform application layer switching based on data values or submission URI will also need to be able to parse and act upon that data. That requires an understanding of how jQuery formats its data and what to expect, such that it can be parsed, interpreted and processed. By understanding jQuery – and other developer toolkits and standards used to exchange data – infrastructure service providers and vendors can more readily provide security and delivery policies tailored to those formats natively, which greatly reduces the impact of intermediate processing on performance while ensuring the secure, healthy delivery of applications.399Views0likes0CommentsControlling a Pool Members Ratio and Priority Group with iControl
A Little Background A question came in through the iControl forums about controlling a pool members ratio and priority programmatically. The issue really involves how the API’s use multi-dimensional arrays but I thought it would be a good opportunity to talk about ratio and priority groups for those that don’t understand how they work. In the first part of this article, I’ll talk a little about what pool members are and how their ratio and priorities apply to how traffic is assigned to them in a load balancing setup. The details in this article were based on BIG-IP version 11.1, but the concepts can apply to other previous versions as well. Load Balancing In it’s very basic form, a load balancing setup involves a virtual ip address (referred to as a VIP) that virtualized a set of backend servers. The idea is that if your application gets very popular, you don’t want to have to rely on a single server to handle the traffic. A VIP contains an object called a “pool” which is essentially a collection of servers that it can distribute traffic to. The method of distributing traffic is referred to as a “Load Balancing Method”. You may have heard the term “Round Robin” before. In this method, connections are passed one at a time from server to server. In most cases though, this is not the best method due to characteristics of the application you are serving. Here are a list of the available load balancing methods in BIG-IP version 11.1. Load Balancing Methods in BIG-IP version 11.1 Round Robin: Specifies that the system passes each new connection request to the next server in line, eventually distributing connections evenly across the array of machines being load balanced. This method works well in most configurations, especially if the equipment that you are load balancing is roughly equal in processing speed and memory. Ratio (member): Specifies that the number of connections that each machine receives over time is proportionate to a ratio weight you define for each machine within the pool. Least Connections (member): Specifies that the system passes a new connection to the node that has the least number of current connections in the pool. This method works best in environments where the servers or other equipment you are load balancing have similar capabilities. This is a dynamic load balancing method, distributing connections based on various aspects of real-time server performance analysis, such as the current number of connections per node or the fastest node response time. Observed (member): Specifies that the system ranks nodes based on the number of connections. Nodes that have a better balance of fewest connections receive a greater proportion of the connections. This method differs from Least Connections (member), in that the Least Connections method measures connections only at the moment of load balancing, while the Observed method tracks the number of Layer 4 connections to each node over time and creates a ratio for load balancing. This dynamic load balancing method works well in any environment, but may be particularly useful in environments where node performance varies significantly. Predictive (member): Uses the ranking method used by the Observed (member) methods, except that the system analyzes the trend of the ranking over time, determining whether a node's performance is improving or declining. The nodes in the pool with better performance rankings that are currently improving, rather than declining, receive a higher proportion of the connections. This dynamic load balancing method works well in any environment. Ratio (node): Specifies that the number of connections that each machine receives over time is proportionate to a ratio weight you define for each machine across all pools of which the server is a member. Least Connections (node): Specifies that the system passes a new connection to the node that has the least number of current connections out of all pools of which a node is a member. This method works best in environments where the servers or other equipment you are load balancing have similar capabilities. This is a dynamic load balancing method, distributing connections based on various aspects of real-time server performance analysis, such as the number of current connections per node, or the fastest node response time. Fastest (node): Specifies that the system passes a new connection based on the fastest response of all pools of which a server is a member. This method might be particularly useful in environments where nodes are distributed across different logical networks. Observed (node): Specifies that the system ranks nodes based on the number of connections. Nodes that have a better balance of fewest connections receive a greater proportion of the connections. This method differs from Least Connections (node), in that the Least Connections method measures connections only at the moment of load balancing, while the Observed method tracks the number of Layer 4 connections to each node over time and creates a ratio for load balancing. This dynamic load balancing method works well in any environment, but may be particularly useful in environments where node performance varies significantly. Predictive (node): Uses the ranking method used by the Observed (member) methods, except that the system analyzes the trend of the ranking over time, determining whether a node's performance is improving or declining. The nodes in the pool with better performance rankings that are currently improving, rather than declining, receive a higher proportion of the connections. This dynamic load balancing method works well in any environment. Dynamic Ratio (node) : This method is similar to Ratio (node) mode, except that weights are based on continuous monitoring of the servers and are therefore continually changing. This is a dynamic load balancing method, distributing connections based on various aspects of real-time server performance analysis, such as the number of current connections per node or the fastest node response time. Fastest (application): Passes a new connection based on the fastest response of all currently active nodes in a pool. This method might be particularly useful in environments where nodes are distributed across different logical networks. Least Sessions: Specifies that the system passes a new connection to the node that has the least number of current sessions. This method works best in environments where the servers or other equipment you are load balancing have similar capabilities. This is a dynamic load balancing method, distributing connections based on various aspects of real-time server performance analysis, such as the number of current sessions. Dynamic Ratio (member): This method is similar to Ratio (node) mode, except that weights are based on continuous monitoring of the servers and are therefore continually changing. This is a dynamic load balancing method, distributing connections based on various aspects of real-time server performance analysis, such as the number of current connections per node or the fastest node response time. L3 Address: This method functions in the same way as the Least Connections methods. We are deprecating it, so you should not use it. Weighted Least Connections (member): Specifies that the system uses the value you specify in Connection Limit to establish a proportional algorithm for each pool member. The system bases the load balancing decision on that proportion and the number of current connections to that pool member. For example,member_a has 20 connections and its connection limit is 100, so it is at 20% of capacity. Similarly, member_b has 20 connections and its connection limit is 200, so it is at 10% of capacity. In this case, the system select selects member_b. This algorithm requires all pool members to have a non-zero connection limit specified. Weighted Least Connections (node): Specifies that the system uses the value you specify in the node's Connection Limitand the number of current connections to a node to establish a proportional algorithm. This algorithm requires all nodes used by pool members to have a non-zero connection limit specified. Ratios The ratio is used by the ratio-related load balancing methods to load balance connections. The ratio specifies the ratio weight to assign to the pool member. Valid values range from 1 through 100. The default is 1, which means that each pool member has an equal ratio proportion. So, if you have server1 a with a ratio value of “10” and server2 with a ratio value of “1”, server1 will get served 10 connections for every one that server2 receives. This can be useful when you have different classes of servers with different performance capabilities. Priority Group The priority group is a number that groups pool members together. The default is 0, meaning that the member has no priority. To specify a priority, you must activate priority group usage when you create a new pool or when adding or removing pool members. When activated, the system load balances traffic according to the priority group number assigned to the pool member. The higher the number, the higher the priority, so a member with a priority of 3 has higher priority than a member with a priority of 1. The easiest way to think of priority groups is as if you are creating mini-pools of servers within a single pool. You put members A, B, and C in to priority group 5 and members D, E, and F in priority group 1. Members A, B, and C will be served traffic according to their ratios (assuming you have ratio loadbalancing configured). If all those servers have reached their thresholds, then traffic will be distributed to servers D, E, and F in priority group 1. he default setting for priority group activation is Disabled. Once you enable this setting, you can specify pool member priority when you create a new pool or on a pool member's properties screen. The system treats same-priority pool members as a group. To enable priority group activation in the admin GUI, select Less than from the list, and in the Available Member(s) box, type a number from 0 to 65535 that represents the minimum number of members that must be available in one priority group before the system directs traffic to members in a lower priority group. When a sufficient number of members become available in the higher priority group, the system again directs traffic to the higher priority group. Implementing in Code The two methods to retrieve the priority and ratio values are very similar. They both take two parameters: a list of pools to query, and a 2-D array of members (a list for each pool member passed in). long [] [] get_member_priority( in String [] pool_names, in Common__AddressPort [] [] members ); long [] [] get_member_ratio( in String [] pool_names, in Common__AddressPort [] [] members ); The following PowerShell function (utilizing the iControl PowerShell Library), takes as input a pool and a single member. It then make a call to query the ratio and priority for the specific member and writes it to the console. function Get-PoolMemberDetails() { param( $Pool = $null, $Member = $null ); $AddrPort = Parse-AddressPort $Member; $RatioAofA = (Get-F5.iControl).LocalLBPool.get_member_ratio( @($Pool), @( @($AddrPort) ) ); $PriorityAofA = (Get-F5.iControl).LocalLBPool.get_member_priority( @($Pool), @( @($AddrPort) ) ); $ratio = $RatioAofA[0][0]; $priority = $PriorityAofA[0][0]; "Pool '$Pool' member '$Member' ratio '$ratio' priority '$priority'"; } Setting the values with the set_member_priority and set_member_ratio methods take the same first two parameters as their associated get_* methods, but add a third parameter for the priorities and ratios for the pool members. set_member_priority( in String [] pool_names, in Common::AddressPort [] [] members, in long [] [] priorities ); set_member_ratio( in String [] pool_names, in Common::AddressPort [] [] members, in long [] [] ratios ); The following Powershell function takes as input the Pool and Member with optional values for the Ratio and Priority. If either of those are set, the function will call the appropriate iControl methods to set their values. function Set-PoolMemberDetails() { param( $Pool = $null, $Member = $null, $Ratio = $null, $Priority = $null ); $AddrPort = Parse-AddressPort $Member; if ( $null -ne $Ratio ) { (Get-F5.iControl).LocalLBPool.set_member_ratio( @($Pool), @( @($AddrPort) ), @($Ratio) ); } if ( $null -ne $Priority ) { (Get-F5.iControl).LocalLBPool.set_member_priority( @($Pool), @( @($AddrPort) ), @($Priority) ); } } In case you were wondering how to create the Common::AddressPort structure for the $AddrPort variables in the above examples, here’s a helper function I wrote to allocate the object and fill in it’s properties. function Parse-AddressPort() { param($Value); $tokens = $Value.Split(":"); $r = New-Object iControl.CommonAddressPort; $r.address = $tokens[0]; $r.port = $tokens[1]; $r; } Download The Source The full source for this example can be found in the iControl CodeShare under PowerShell PoolMember Ratio and Priority.28KViews0likes3CommentsUsing a default persistence profile and iRule persistence on the same VS
I have an iRule applied to a VS that sends traffic to different pools based on its uri. I have a default persistence profile defined already on the VS (smsession) but on one of the pools I would like to use a different method of persistence (cookie). If I define the persistence to that pool in my iRule as shown below, which method of persistence is used in the end? Can you use a default persistence profile AND specify a different method using an iRule? when HTTP_REQUEST { set header_uri [string tolower [HTTP::uri]] if { [matchclass $header_uri starts_with $::www_uri] } { pool WWW_Pool } elseif { [matchclass $header_uri starts_with $::oam_uri] } { HTTP::redirect "https://oam.companyname.com/oam/main/oamMain.jsp" } elseif { [matchclass $header_uri starts_with $::cp_uri] } { persist cookie insert "CP_Cookie" "0d 03:00:00" pool CP_Pool } else { pool My_Pool } }252Views1like2CommentsWildcard SSL doesn't handle root domain?
My understanding of this may be lacking, but is there no way for a wilcard ssl certificate to handle the "root" domain? Example: I have a wildcard cert for "*.foo.com". It handles SSL requests as expected for "www.foo.com", but browsers will throw an identify verification error if the request went directly to "foo.com". Both https://www.foo.com and https://foo.com resolve to the same IP address/F5 Pool. That pool is using the wildcard cert (and works correctly with https://www.foo.com). Is this not a function of a wildcard SSL certificate? Thanks1.4KViews0likes7Commentsv11: iRules Data Group Updates
Several months ago I wrote up the v10 formatting for internal and external datagroups: iRules Data Group Formatting Rules. In v11, however, there is a change to the format of the internal data group and the data group reference to external class files (the formatting in the external class file itself is unchanged). The formatting rules in v11 for data groups more closely resembles the tmsh commands necessary to build the class at the CLI (these command attributes are masked if you are using the GUI). I’ll follow the same format as the original write-up in showing the various data group types. The format is the same among internal data group types. If there is no value associated with the key, there is a curly bracket pair trailing the key on the same line. If there is an associated value with a key, the curly bracket opens the value, followed by a newline with the keyword data and the value, then another newline with the closing curly bracket. After the records are listed, the type is specified. For external data groups, the file name and the type are specified. If the filename is in /var/class, the path is omitted from the filename reference. Address Data Groups Internal Data Group ltm data-group internal addr_testclass { records { 192.168.1.1/32 { } 192.168.1.2/32 { data "host 2" } 192.168.2.0/24 { } 192.168.3.0/24 { data "network 2" } } type ip } External Data Group ltm data-group external addr_testclass_ext { external-file-name addr_testclass.class type ip } Integer Data Groups Internal Data Group ltm data-group internal int_testclass { records { 1 { data "test 1" } 2 { data "test 2" } } type integer } External Data Group ltm data-group external int_testclass_ext { external-file-name int_testclass type integer } String Data Groups Internal Data Group ltm data-group internal str_testclass { records { str1 { data "value 1" } str2 { data "value 2" } } type string } External Data Group ltm data-group external str_testclass_ext { external-file-name str_testclass.class type string } External Datagroup File Management Beginning in v11, external datagroups are imported into a local filestore rather than simply existing someplace on the file system (/config/filestore). However, this filestore is not meant to edited manually. Please follow the steps below for creating or modifying external datagroups. Thanks to hoolio for the steps in this external datagroup section. Create a New External Datagroup from the CLI Non-Interactively 1. Create or copy over to LTM a temporary file containing the external data group contents. If copying, make sure the line terminators are \n only not \r\n. # cat /var/tmp/string_name_value_external_dg.txt "name1" := "value1", "name2" := "value2", "name3" := "value3", 2. Create the new external data group file tmsh create /sys file data-group string_name_value_external_dg_file separator ":=" source-path file:/var/tmp/string_name_value_external_dg.txt type string 3. Create the external data group referencing the file tmsh create /ltm data-group external string_name_value_external_dg external-file-name string_name_value_external_dg_file Modify the External Datagroup File for Existing Datagroup 1. Create a new temporary file containing the updated external data group contents # cat /var/tmp/string_name_value_external_v2_dg.txt "name1" := "valueA", "name2" := "valueB", "name3" := "valueC", 2. Import the new data group file tmsh create /sys file data-group string_name_value_external_v2_dg_file separator ":=" source-path file:/var/tmp/string_name_value_external_v2_dg.txt type string 3. Modify the data group definition to reference the new external data group file tmsh modify /ltm data-group external string_name_value_external_dg external-file-name string_name_value_external_v2_dg_file 4. Delete the old data group file if it’s unneeded tmsh delete sys file data-group string_name_value_external_dg_file Handling Line Terminator Discrepencies Whether imporing external datagroups in the GUI or from the CLI, the system does not accept files with \r\n line terminators, it only accepts \n. If you copy files over from windows, most likely you have the wrong terminator in your file format. To check, you can use the od command. Datagroup Contents created in vi on LTM [root@golgotha:Active] data_group_d # od -c /var/tmp/string_name_value_external_dg.txt 0000000 " n a m e 1 " : = " v a l u 0000020 e 1 " , \n " n a m e 2 " : = 0000040 " v a l u e 2 " , \n " n a m e 3 0000060 " : = " v a l u e 3 " , \n 0000077 Datagroup Contents created in Notepad on Windows [root@golgotha:Active] data_group_d # od -c /var/tmp/notepad_dg.txt 0000000 " n a m e 1 " : = " v a l u 0000020 e 1 " , \r \n " n a m e 2 " : = 0000040 " v a l u e 2 " , \r \n " n a m 0000060 e 3 " : = " v a l u e 3 " , 0000100 If your line terminators are incorrect, you can use the tr command to remove the \r's. [root@golgotha:Active] tmp # cat /var/tmp/notepad_dg.txt | tr -d '\r' > /var/tmp/notepad_dg_update.txt [root@golgotha:Active] tmp # od -c /var/tmp/notepad_dg_update.txt 0000000 " n a m e 1 " : = " v a l u 0000020 e 1 " , \n " n a m e 2 " : = 0000040 " v a l u e 2 " , \n " n a m e 3 0000060 " : = " v a l u e 3 " , 00000765.8KViews0likes18CommentsiRules Data Group Formatting Rules
BIG-IP LTM supports internal and external classes (called Data Groups in the GUI) of address, string, and integer types. An internal class is stored in the bigip.conf file, whereas external classes are split between the bigip.conf and the file system (the class itself is defined in the bigip.conf file, but the values of the class are stored in the file system in a location of your choice, though /var/class is the location defined for synchronization in the cs.dat file) Which flavor? Depends on the requirements. External classes are generally best suited for very large datasets or for datasets that require frequent updates like blacklists. Formatting is slightly different depending on whether the class is internal or external, and is also different based on the class type: address, integer, or string. Below I’ll show the formatting requirements for each scenario. If you are using the GUI to create key/value pairs in a class (and therefore deciding on an internal class), the formatting is handled for you. Note that with internal classes, the dataset is defined with the class, but with external classes, the class is defined with type, separator, and the filename where the dataset is stored. If there is no value for the type (internal or external) it is omitted with no separator. Update: The following information is for v10 only. For v11+, please reference the v11 Data Group Formatting Rules. Address Classes internal class class addr_testclass { { host 192.168.1.1 host 192.168.1.2 { "host 2" } network 192.168.2.0/24 network 192.168.3.0/24 { "network 2" } } } external class class addr_testclass_ext { type ip filename "/var/class/addr_testclass.class" separator ":=" } /var/class/addr_testclass.class host 192.168.1.1, host 192.168.1.2 := "host 2", network 192.168.2.0/24, network 192.168.3.0/24 := "network 2", Note: You can also add network entries in the address type external file like shown immediately below, but when the class is updated, it will be converted to the CIDR format. network 192.168.4.0 mask 255.255.255.0 := “network 3”, network 192.168.5.0 prefixlen 24 := "network 4", Integer Classes internal class class int_testclass { { 1 { "test 1" } 2 { "test 2" } } } external class class int_testclass_ext { type value filename "/var/class/int_testclass.class" separator ":=" } /var/class/int_testclass.class 1 := "test 1", 2 := "test 2", String Classes With string classes, quotes are necessary on the types and values: internal class class str_testclass { { "str1" { "value 1" } "str2" { "value 2" } } } external class class str_testclass_ext { type string filename "/var/class/str_testclass.class" separator ":=" } /var/class/str_class.class "str1" := "value 1", "str2" := "value 2", Working With External Files Now that the formatting of the classes themselves are complete, I’d like to point out one more issue, and that’s file formatting. If you’re editing all the external classes by hand on the BIG-IP, you have nothing to worry about. However, if you edit them on an external system and copy them over, be careful on which editor you choose. The Unix/Linux line terminator is a line feed (0x0A) whereas Windows default is a carriage return/line feed (0x0D0A) and Mac typically employs just a carriage return (0x0D). The file needs to be formatted in unix-style. I use gVim on my windows laptop. By default, it uses the dos-style, as evidenced in my hex readout in gVim below: 0000000: 6865 6c6c 6f2c 2077 6f72 6c64 0d0a 7468 hello, world..th 0000010: 6973 2069 7320 6120 6c69 6e65 2074 6572 is is a line ter 0000020: 6d69 6e61 746f 7220 7465 7374 0d0a 0d0a minator test.... 0000030: 0d0a .. Now, this is easily changed in gVim: “set fileformat=unix”. After this setting, now my linefeeds are correct: 0000000: 6865 6c6c 6f2c 2077 6f72 6c64 0a74 6869 hello, world.thi 0000010: 7320 6973 2061 206c 696e 6520 7465 726d s is a line term 0000020: 696e 6174 6f72 2074 6573 740a 0a0a inator test... The guidance here is…use a good editor (hint..Notepad and Word are not on that list!)2.6KViews0likes6Comments