Questions about performance degradation when used with DNS features in GTM solutions
Hi team. Here's the situation I'm in and the questions I have. Situation : A customer is using Window DNS, and in this configuration, an F5 device has been introduced for GSLB purposes. However, the performance of Window DNS is not good, so I am checking if it is possible to use the DNS function on the F5 device introduced for GSLB. Q: I have heard that the performance of the F5 GTM solution degrades when used for DNS functions other than GSLB (I heard from someone that the performance degrades a lot when using BIND). So, I've been looking for official F5 documentation to see if that's true, but I'm not finding it, so I'm asking. Thanks.Use Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) for GSLB Pool Member with F5 DNS
Normally, we define a specific IP (and port) to be used as GSLB pool member. This article provides a custom configuration to be able to use Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) as GSLB pool member--with all GSLB features like health-check monitoring, load balancing method, persistence, etc. Despite GSLB as a mechanism to distribute traffic across datacenters having reached years of age, it has not become less relevant this recent years. The fact that internet infrastructure still rely heavily on DNS technology means GSLB is continuously used due to is lightweight nature and smooth integration. When using F5 DNS as GSLB solution, usually we are dealing with LTM and its VS as GSLB server and pool member respectively. Sometimes, we will add a non-LTM node as a generic server to provide inter-DC load balancing capability. Either way, we will end up with a pair of IP and port to represent the application, in which we sent a health-check against. Due to the trend of public cloud and CDN, there is a need to use FQDN as GSLB pool member (instead of IP and port pair). Some of us may immediately think of using a CNAME-type GSLB pool to accommodate this. However, there is a limitation in which BIG-IP requires a CNAME-type GSLB pool to use a wideIP-type pool member, in which we will end up with an IP and port pair (again!) We can use "static target", but there is "side-effect" where the pool member will always consider available (which then triggers the question why we need to use GSLB in the first place!). Additionally, F5 BIG-IP TMUI accepts FQDN input when we configure GSLB server and pool member. However, it will immediately translate to IP based on configured DNS. Thus, this is not the solution we are looking for Now this is where F5’s BIG-IP power (a.k.a programmability) comes into play. Enter the realm of customization... We all love customization, but at the same time do not want that to be overly complicated so that life becomes harder on day-2 🙃. Thus, the key is to use some customization, but simple enough to avoid unnecessary complication. Here is one idea to solve our FQDN as GSLB pool problem above The customized configuration object includes 1. External health-check monitor: Dynamically resolve DNS to translate FQDN into IP address Perform health-check monitoring against current IP address Result is used to determine GSLB pool member availability status 2. DNS iRules: Check #1: Checks if GSLB pool attached to wideIP contains only FQDN-type member (e.g. other pool referring to LTM VS is also attached to the wideIP) If false, do nothing (let DNS response refer to LTM VS) Otherwise, perform check #2 Check #2: Checks current health-check status of requested domain name If FQDN is up, modify DNS response to return current IP of FQDN Otherwise, perform fallback action as requirement (e.g. return empty response, return static IP, use fallback pool, etc.) 3. Internal Datagroup: Store current IP of FQDN, updated according to health-check interval Datagroup record value contains current IP if health-check success. Otherwise, the value contains empty data Here are some of the codes, where configured; wideIP is gslb.test.com, while GSLB pool member FQDN is arcadia.f5poc.id 1. External health-check monitor config gtm monitor external gslb_external_monitor { defaults-from external destination *:* interval 10 probe-timeout 5 run /Common/gslb_external_monitor_script timeout 120 #define FQDN here user-defined fqdn arcadia.f5poc.id } External health-check monitor script #!/bin/sh pidfile="/var/run/$MONITOR_NAME.$1..$2.pid" if [ -f $pidfile ] then kill -9 -`cat $pidfile` > /dev/null 2>&1 fi echo "$$" > $pidfile # Obtain current IP for the FQDN resolv=`dig +short ${fqdn}` # The actual monitoring action here curl -fIs -k https://${fqdn}/ --resolve ${fqdn}:443:${resolv} | grep -i HTTP 2>&1 > /dev/null status=$? if [ $status -eq 0 ] then # Actions when health-check success rm -f $pidfile tmsh modify ltm data-group internal fqdn { records replace-all-with { $fqdn { data $resolv } } } echo "sending monitor to ${fqdn} ${resolv} with result OK" | logger -p local0.info echo "up" else # Actions when health-check fails tmsh modify ltm data-group internal fqdn { records replace-all-with { $fqdn { } } } echo "sending monitor to ${fqdn} ${resolv} with result NOK" | logger -p local0.info fi rm -f $pidfile 2. DNS iRules when DNS_REQUEST { set qname [DNS::question name] # Obtain current IP for the FQDN set currentip [class match -value $qname equals fqdn] } when DNS_RESPONSE { set rname [getfield [lindex [split [DNS::answer]] 4] "\}" 1 ] #Check if return is IP address of specially encoded FQDN IP, 10.10.10.10 in this example if {$rname eq "10.10.10.10" }{ #Response is only from pool with external monitor, meaning no other pool is attached to wideIP if {$currentip ne ""}{ #Current FQDN health-check success DNS::answer clear # Use current IP to construct DNS answer section DNS::answer insert "[DNS::question name]. 123 [DNS::question class] [DNS::question type] $currentip" } else { #Current FQDN health-check failed #Define action to be performed here DNS::answer clear } } } 3. Internal Datagroup ltm data-group internal fqdn { records { # Define FQDN as record name arcadia.f5poc.id { # Record data contains IP, where this will be continuously updated by external monitoring script data 158.140.176.219 } } type string } *GSLB virtual server configuration Some testing The resolve will follow whichever current IP address for the FQDN. If a returning CNAME response is required, you can do so by modifying DNS irules above. The logic and code are open to any improvement, so leave your suggestions in the comments if you have any. Thanks!BIG-IP DNS: Check Status Of Multiple Monitors Against Pool Member
Good day, everyone! Within the LTM platform, if a Pool is configured with "Min 1 of" with multiple monitors, you can check the status per monitor via tmsh show ltm monitor <name>, or you can click the Pool member in the TMUI and it will show you the status of each monitor for that member. I cannot seem to locate a similar function on the GTM/BIG-IP DNS platform. We'd typically use this methodology when transitioning to a new type of monitor, where we can passively test connectivity without the potential for impact prior to removing the previous monitor. Does anyone have a way through tmsh or the TMUI where you can check an individual pool member's status against the multiple monitors configured for its pool? Thanks, all!
GSLB - Monitoring LTM VIP load balancing via iRule
In one of our environments we are configuring a single LTM VIP and load balancing multiple applications via an iRule. We currently have other LTM environments integrated via iQuery with our GTM for GSLB configuration and monitoring. Is there a way to monitor the VIP at the GTM level via iQuery that would give a true back-end pool status? Since, let's say, we are load balancing 100 different applications via a single VIP, if 99 of them went offline, the VIP would still show as ONLINE/GREEN. Or would we even go as far as integrating via iQuery and adding a dependency monitor of the pool itself instead?
BGP Over 2 vlans to 2 Network switch
Hi, im testing a new design for ltm, when’re big ip will have 2 transit vlans to switch a and switch b and then i ll establish bgp over it. Switch will advertise default to Big ip and big ip will advertise vip and snat to switch. I use snat for vip since traffic should not drip when a switch fails. The way im advertising snat is by creating them as virtual server forward ip type with loose close and initiation enabled, and vip is configured as standard type with this snat. These will be advertised to bgp from kernal. I enabled connection mirroring for this vip, disabled autolast hop globally and vlan keyed connections. My expectation is connection to vip don’t drip when a switch fails or during big ip failover . And with bgp I disabled graceful restart and enabled bfd. This works with what I did so far. My question if if there is something I should think about before implementing in production or any that I can do make this better. Is my approach to advertise snat as forwadip vs correct ? I want to do similar approach with gtm as well and I’m thinking if I should create a non floating self ip like loopback for listener and snat to backend vip?GTM Synchronization Group Modify Self-IP Resynchronization
I have four GTMs which are in a sync group, due to relocation of the equipment to the server room I need to change the self-ip , please advise me how to do the change without changing the configuration of the sync group. Thank you very much.
