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Product Version
This manual applies to product version 10.1 of the BIG-IP Global Traffic Manager.
Publication Date
This manual was published on October 26, 2011.
Legal Notices
Copyright
Copyright 2011, F5 Networks, Inc. All rights reserved.
F5 Networks, Inc. (F5) believes the information it furnishes to be accurate and reliable. However, F5
assumes no responsibility for the use of this information, nor any infringement of patents or other rights of
third parties which may result from its use. No license is granted by implication or otherwise under any
patent, copyright, or other intellectual property right of F5 except as specifically described by applicable
user licenses. F5 reserves the right to change specifications at any time without notice.
Trademarks
3DNS, Access Policy Manager, Acopia, Acopia Networks, Advanced Client Authentication, Advanced
Routing, APM, Application Security Manager, ARX, AskF5, ASM, BIG-IP, Cloud Extender,
CloudFucious, CMP, Data Manager, DevCentral, DevCentral [DESIGN], DNS Express, DSC, DSI, Edge
Client, Edge Gateway, Edge Portal, EM, Enterprise Manager, F5, F5 [DESIGN], F5 Management Pack, F5
Networks, F5 World, Fast Application Proxy, Fast Cache, FirePass, Global Traffic Manager, GTM, IBR,
Intelligent Browser Referencing, Intelligent Compression, IPv6 Gateway, iApps, iControl, iHealth,
iQuery, iRules, iRules OnDemand, iSession, IT agility. Your way., L7 Rate Shaping, LC, Link Controller,
Local Traffic Manager, LTM, Message Security Module, MSM, Netcelera, OneConnect, Packet Velocity,
Protocol Security Module, PSM, Real Traffic Policy Builder, ScaleN, SSL Acceleration, StrongBox,
SuperVIP, SYN Check, TCP Express, TDR, TMOS, Traffic Management Operating System,
TrafficShield, Transparent Data Reduction, VIPRION, vCMP, WA, WAN Optimization Manager,
WANJet, WebAccelerator, WOM, and ZoneRunner, are trademarks or service marks of F5 Networks, Inc.,
in the U.S. and other countries, and may not be used without F5's express written consent.
All other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Patents
This product may be protected by U.S. Patents 6,374,300; 6,473,802; 6,970,733; 7,047,301; 7,707,289.
This list is believed to be current as of October 26, 2011.
RF Interference Warning
This is a Class A product. In a domestic environment this product may cause radio interference, in which
case the user may be required to take adequate measures.
FCC Compliance
This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class A digital device pursuant
to Part 15 of FCC rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful
interference when the equipment is operated in a commercial environment. This unit generates, uses, and
can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instruction manual,
may cause harmful interference to radio communications. Operation of this equipment in a residential area
is likely to cause harmful interference, in which case the user, at his own expense, will be required to take
whatever measures may be required to correct the interference.
Any modifications to this device, unless expressly approved by the manufacturer, can void the user's
authority to operate this equipment under part 15 of the FCC rules.
Standards Compliance
This product conforms to the IEC, European Union, ANSI/UL and Canadian CSA standards applicable to
Information Technology products at the time of manufacture.
Acknowledgments
This product includes software developed by Gabriel Fort.
This product includes software developed by Bill Paul.
This product includes software developed by Jonathan Stone.
This product includes software developed by Manuel Bouyer.
This product includes software developed by Paul Richards.
This product includes software developed by the NetBSD Foundation, Inc. and its contributors.
This product includes software developed by the Politecnico di Torino, and its contributors.
This product includes software developed by the Swedish Institute of Computer Science and its
contributors.
This product includes software developed by the University of California, Berkeley and its contributors.
This product includes software developed by the Computer Systems Engineering Group at the Lawrence
Berkeley Laboratory.
This product includes software developed by Christopher G. Demetriou for the NetBSD Project.
This product includes software developed by Adam Glass.
This product includes software developed by Christian E. Hopps.
This product includes software developed by Dean Huxley.
This product includes software developed by John Kohl.
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This product includes software developed by Terrence R. Lambert.
This product includes software developed by Philip A. Nelson.
This product includes software developed by Herb Peyerl.
This product includes software developed by Jochen Pohl for the NetBSD Project.
This product includes software developed by Chris Provenzano.
This product includes software developed by Theo de Raadt.
This product includes software developed by David Muir Sharnoff.
This product includes software developed by SigmaSoft, Th. Lockert.
This product includes software developed for the NetBSD Project by Jason R. Thorpe.
This product includes software developed by Jason R. Thorpe for And Communications,
http://www.and.com.
This product includes software developed for the NetBSD Project by Frank Van der Linden.
This product includes software developed for the NetBSD Project by John M. Vinopal.
This product includes software developed by Christos Zoulas.
This product includes software developed by the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College and
Garrett A. Wollman.
In the following statement, "This software" refers to the Mitsumi CD-ROM driver: This software was
developed by Holger Veit and Brian Moore for use with "386BSD" and similar operating systems.
"Similar operating systems" includes mainly non-profit oriented systems for research and education,
including but not restricted to "NetBSD," "FreeBSD," "Mach" (by CMU).
This product includes software developed by the Apache Group for use in the Apache HTTP server project
(http://www.apache.org/).
This product includes software licensed from Richard H. Porter under the GNU Library General Public
License ( 1998, Red Hat Software), www.gnu.org/copyleft/lgpl.html.
ii
This product includes the standard version of Perl software licensed under the Perl Artistic License (
1997, 1998 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington). All rights reserved. You may find the most current
standard version of Perl at http://www.perl.com.
This product includes software developed by Jared Minch.
This product includes software developed by the OpenSSL Project for use in the OpenSSL Toolkit
(http://www.openssl.org/).
This product includes cryptographic software written by Eric Young (eay@cryptsoft.com).
This product contains software based on oprofile, which is protected under the GNU Public License.
This product includes RRDtool software developed by Tobi Oetiker (http://www.rrdtool.com/index.html)
and licensed under the GNU General Public License.
This product contains software licensed from Dr. Brian Gladman under the GNU General Public License
(GPL).
This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation <http://www.apache.org/>.
This product includes Hypersonic SQL.
This product contains software developed by the Regents of the University of California, Sun
Microsystems, Inc., Scriptics Corporation, and others.
This product includes software developed by the Internet Software Consortium.
This product includes software developed by Nominum, Inc. (http://www.nominum.com).
This product contains software developed by Broadcom Corporation, which is protected under the GNU
Public License.
This product contains software developed by MaxMind LLC, and is protected under the GNU Lesser
General Public License, as published by the Free Software Foundation.
This product includes the GeoPoint Database developed by Quova, Inc. and its contributors.
This product includes software developed by Balazs Scheidler <bazsi@balabit.hu>, which is protected
under the GNU Public License.
This product includes software developed by NLnet Labs and its contributors.
This product includes software written by Steffen Beyer and licensed under the Perl Artistic License and
the GPL.
This product includes software written by Makamaka Hannyaharamitu 2007-2008.
iii
iv
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
1
Overview of the Global Traffic Manager
Introducing the Global Traffic Manager .................................................................................... 1-1
Security features .................................................................................................................... 1-2
Introducing Local Traffic Manager resources ................................................................. 1-2
Internet protocol and network management support ................................................. 1-2
System synchronization options ........................................................................................ 1-3
Configuring data collection for server status and network path data ...................... 1-3
Redundant system configurations ..................................................................................... 1-3
Introducing the Configuration utility ......................................................................................... 1-4
Introducing the Traffic Management Shell ................................................................................ 1-5
2
Introducing Global Traffic Manager Components
Defining Global Traffic Manager components ......................................................................... 2-1
Introducing physical network components .............................................................................. 2-2
Data centers ........................................................................................................................... 2-2
Servers ..................................................................................................................................... 2-2
Links ......................................................................................................................................... 2-3
Virtual servers ........................................................................................................................ 2-3
Introducing logical network components ................................................................................. 2-4
Listeners .................................................................................................................................. 2-4
Pools ......................................................................................................................................... 2-4
Wide IPs .................................................................................................................................. 2-5
Distributed applications ....................................................................................................... 2-5
Locating a component using the search feature ..................................................................... 2-6
3
Setting Up and Configuring the Global Traffic Manager
Setting up the Global Traffic Manager ....................................................................................... 3-1
Configuring the Global Traffic Manager .................................................................................... 3-1
Defining the Global Traffic Manager ................................................................................. 3-2
Establishing system communications ................................................................................ 3-4
Configuring synchronization settings ................................................................................ 3-9
Configuring auto-discovery ............................................................................................... 3-14
Configuring global monitor settings ................................................................................ 3-15
Configuring domain validation ......................................................................................... 3-18
4
Working with Listeners
Introducing listeners ...................................................................................................................... 4-1
Creating a listener for local resolution ..................................................................................... 4-3
Configuring listeners for traffic forwarding .............................................................................. 4-4
Configuring a wildcard listener ................................................................................................... 4-5
Modifying listeners ......................................................................................................................... 4-5
Deleting listeners ........................................................................................................................... 4-6
Using listeners with VLANs ......................................................................................................... 4-6
Configuring a listener for all VLANs ................................................................................ 4-6
Configuring a listener for specific VLANs ....................................................................... 4-7
Disabling a listener for specific VLANs ............................................................................ 4-8
vii
Table of Contents
5
Defining the Physical Network
Introducing physical network components .............................................................................. 5-1
Managing data centers ................................................................................................................... 5-2
Configuring data centers ..................................................................................................... 5-2
Modifying data centers ......................................................................................................... 5-3
Deleting data centers ........................................................................................................... 5-4
Enabling and disabling data centers ................................................................................... 5-4
Managing servers ............................................................................................................................ 5-5
Defining BIG-IP systems ...................................................................................................... 5-5
Defining third-party load balancing servers .................................................................... 5-9
Defining third-party host servers .................................................................................... 5-10
Searching for a specific server ......................................................................................... 5-12
Assigning monitors to servers ......................................................................................... 5-13
Specifying thresholds for availability ............................................................................... 5-13
Discovering resources automatically .............................................................................. 5-17
Managing virtual servers ............................................................................................................. 5-19
Adding virtual servers manually ....................................................................................... 5-19
Modifying virtual servers ................................................................................................... 5-20
Removing virtual servers ................................................................................................... 5-20
Managing links ............................................................................................................................... 5-21
Defining links ........................................................................................................................ 5-21
Adding and removing routers .......................................................................................... 5-22
Assigning monitors to links ............................................................................................... 5-22
Removing monitors from links ........................................................................................ 5-23
Configuring link weighting and billing properties ........................................................ 5-23
6
Defining the Logical Network
Introducing logical network components ................................................................................. 6-1
Understanding logical components ................................................................................... 6-1
Managing pools ............................................................................................................................... 6-2
Defining pools ........................................................................................................................ 6-3
Adding virtual servers to pools ......................................................................................... 6-3
Removing virtual servers from pools ............................................................................... 6-4
Organizing virtual servers within pools ........................................................................... 6-4
Weighting virtual servers within pools ............................................................................ 6-5
Disabling and enabling pools ............................................................................................... 6-7
Defining pools using a canonical name ............................................................................. 6-8
Managing wide IPs .......................................................................................................................... 6-9
Defining wide IPs ................................................................................................................... 6-9
Searching for a specific wide IP ........................................................................................ 6-10
Adding pools to wide IPs .................................................................................................. 6-11
Removing pools from wide IPs ........................................................................................ 6-12
Organizing pools within wide IPs .................................................................................... 6-12
Weighting pools within wide IPs ..................................................................................... 6-13
Disabling and enabling wide IPs ....................................................................................... 6-15
Incorporating iRules ........................................................................................................... 6-15
Implementing the NoError response for IPv6 resolution ......................................... 6-18
Managing distributed applications ............................................................................................. 6-19
Defining distributed applications ..................................................................................... 6-19
Adding wide IPs to distributed applications .................................................................. 6-20
Removing wide IPs from distributed applications ....................................................... 6-21
Setting dependencies for distributed applications ....................................................... 6-21
viii
Table of Contents
7
Load Balancing with the Global Traffic Manager
Understanding load balancing on the Global Traffic Manager ............................................. 7-1
Using static load balancing modes .............................................................................................. 7-3
Drop Packet mode ............................................................................................................... 7-3
Fallback IP mode .................................................................................................................... 7-4
Global Availability mode ...................................................................................................... 7-4
None mode ............................................................................................................................ 7-4
Ratio mode ............................................................................................................................. 7-5
Return to DNS mode .......................................................................................................... 7-5
Round Robin mode ............................................................................................................... 7-5
Static Persist mode ............................................................................................................... 7-5
Topology mode ..................................................................................................................... 7-6
Using dynamic load balancing modes ......................................................................................... 7-6
Types of dynamic load balancing modes .......................................................................... 7-6
Implementing the Quality of Service load balancing mode ......................................... 7-9
Using the Dynamic Ratio option ..................................................................................... 7-12
Configuring load balancing ......................................................................................................... 7-14
Configuring load balancing methods for wide IPs ....................................................... 7-14
Configuring load balancing methods for pools ............................................................. 7-15
Using the fallback load balancing method ............................................................................... 7-16
Configuring the fallback load balancing method .......................................................... 7-16
Employing additional load balancing options .......................................................................... 7-17
8
Managing Connections
Introducing connection management ........................................................................................ 8-1
Determining resource health ...................................................................................................... 8-2
Determining resource availability ............................................................................................... 8-3
Establishing limit settings ..................................................................................................... 8-3
Using monitors to determine availability ......................................................................... 8-4
Managing dependencies for virtual servers ..................................................................... 8-7
Resuming connections to resources ........................................................................................ 8-10
Establishing persistent connections .......................................................................................... 8-11
Draining persistent requests ............................................................................................ 8-12
Setting the last resort pool ........................................................................................................ 8-13
9
Load Balancing Connection Requests Using Topologies
Overview of topologies ................................................................................................................ 9-1
Understanding topology records ...................................................................................... 9-1
Understanding user-defined regions ................................................................................. 9-4
Configuring the Global Traffic Manager to route connection requests to the
closest data center ......................................................................................................................... 9-5
Configuring Topology load balancing at the wide IP level ........................................... 9-5
Configuring Topology load balancing at the pool level ................................................ 9-7
Configuring Topology load balancing at both the wide IP and pool levels .............. 9-8
Implementing topologies ............................................................................................................ 9-10
Downloading and installing updates to the IP geolocation data ............................... 9-10
Creating a topology record .............................................................................................. 9-11
ix
Table of Contents
10
Working with DNSSEC Keys and Zones
About DNSSEC ............................................................................................................................ 10-1
Introducing DNSSEC keys and zones ...................................................................................... 10-1
Understanding DNSSEC keys .......................................................................................... 10-1
Providing DS records to the parent domain ................................................................ 10-3
Managing DNSSEC keys ............................................................................................................. 10-4
Creating DNSSEC keys ..................................................................................................... 10-4
Modifying DNSSEC keys ................................................................................................... 10-6
Deleting DNSSEC keys ...................................................................................................... 10-6
Modifying generations of a DNSSEC key ...................................................................... 10-6
Performing a manual rollover of a key ........................................................................... 10-7
Managing DNSSEC zones .........................................................................................................10-10
Creating DNSSEC zones .................................................................................................10-10
Viewing the status of DNSSEC zones ..........................................................................10-11
Modifying DNSSEC zones ...............................................................................................10-11
Deleting DNSSEC zones .................................................................................................10-11
Viewing DNSSEC resource records that you have added to your BIND
configuration ................................................................................................................................10-12
11
Configuring Monitors
Introducing monitors .................................................................................................................. 11-1
Summary of monitor types ............................................................................................... 11-2
Overview of monitor settings .......................................................................................... 11-4
Understanding pre-configured and custom monitors ................................................ 11-5
Creating a custom monitor ....................................................................................................... 11-7
Configuring monitor settings ..................................................................................................... 11-8
Simple monitors .................................................................................................................. 11-8
Extended Content Verification (ECV) monitors .......................................................11-10
External Application Verification (EAV) monitors ....................................................11-12
Special configuration considerations ......................................................................................11-35
Setting destinations ...........................................................................................................11-35
Using transparent and reverse modes .........................................................................11-35
Configuring when a virtual server is marked down ..................................................11-37
Configuring an ECV monitor to ignore a down response ......................................11-37
Associating monitors with resources ....................................................................................11-38
Types of monitor associations .......................................................................................11-38
Managing monitors .....................................................................................................................11-40
Displaying monitor settings ............................................................................................11-40
Deleting monitors .............................................................................................................11-40
Enabling and disabling monitor instances .....................................................................11-41
12
Viewing Statistics
Introducing statistics .................................................................................................................... 12-1
Accessing statistics ....................................................................................................................... 12-2
Table of Contents
13
Collecting Metrics
Introducing metrics collection .................................................................................................. 13-1
Defining metrics ........................................................................................................................... 13-2
Assigning probes to local domain name servers ................................................................... 13-3
Configuring TTL and timer values ............................................................................................ 13-5
Excluding LDNS servers from probes ..................................................................................... 13-6
Removing LDNS servers from the address exclusion list ......................................... 13-7
14
Viewing Performance Data
Introducing performance data graphs ..................................................................................... 14-1
Viewing performance data ......................................................................................................... 14-1
About the GTM Performance graph .............................................................................. 14-1
About the GTM Request Breakdown graph ................................................................. 14-1
15
Managing iRules
Introducing iRules for the Global Traffic Manager ............................................................... 15-1
What is an iRule? ................................................................................................................. 15-1
Creating iRules .............................................................................................................................. 15-2
Assigning iRules ............................................................................................................................ 15-3
Controlling iRule evaluation ...................................................................................................... 15-4
Specifying events ................................................................................................................. 15-4
Using the when keyword .................................................................................................. 15-5
Listing iRules on wide IPs .................................................................................................. 15-5
Using statement commands ....................................................................................................... 15-6
Using wide IP commands ............................................................................................................ 15-7
Using utility commands ............................................................................................................... 15-8
Parsing and manipulating content .................................................................................... 15-8
Ensuring data integrity ....................................................................................................... 15-8
Retrieving resource information ..................................................................................... 15-9
Using protocol commands ......................................................................................................... 15-9
IP commands ......................................................................................................................15-10
TCP commands .................................................................................................................15-10
UDP commands .................................................................................................................15-10
Removing iRules .........................................................................................................................15-11
xi
Table of Contents
16
Managing DNS Files with ZoneRunner
Introducing ZoneRunner ............................................................................................................ 16-1
Working with DNS and BIND ......................................................................................... 16-1
Understanding ZoneRunner tasks .................................................................................. 16-1
Working with zone files ............................................................................................................. 16-2
Types of zone files .............................................................................................................. 16-2
Creating zone files .............................................................................................................. 16-3
Importing zone files ............................................................................................................ 16-7
Searching for a specific zone ..........................................................................................16-10
Modifying zones .................................................................................................................16-10
Deleting zones ...................................................................................................................16-11
Working with resource records ............................................................................................16-12
Types of resource records .............................................................................................16-12
Creating resource records .............................................................................................16-13
Modifying a resource record ..........................................................................................16-21
Working with views ..................................................................................................................16-22
Adding views ......................................................................................................................16-23
Modifying views .................................................................................................................16-23
Deleting views ....................................................................................................................16-24
Adding zones to views .....................................................................................................16-24
Managing the named.conf file ..................................................................................................16-25
A
Working with the big3d Agent
Introducing the big3d agent .........................................................................................................A-1
Collecting path data and server performance metrics ..........................................................A-2
Setting up data collection with the big3d agent .............................................................A-3
Understanding the data collection and broadcasting sequence .................................A-3
Setting up communication between Global Traffic Manager systems and other
servers ..............................................................................................................................................A-5
Setting up iQuery communications for the big3d agent ..............................................A-5
Allowing iQuery communications to pass through firewalls .....................................A-6
Communications between Global Traffic Manager systems, big3d agents, and
local DNS servers .................................................................................................................A-7
B
Understanding Probes
Introducing probes ......................................................................................................................... B-1
Understanding iQuery ................................................................................................................... B-2
Determining probe responsibility ............................................................................................... B-3
Selecting a big3d agent .................................................................................................................. B-5
Designating a specific server ........................................................................................................ B-7
Managing LDNS probes ................................................................................................................ B-8
Using log entries to tune probes ..............................................................................................B-10
Enabling probe logs .............................................................................................................B-10
Understanding the probe information in the log file ..................................................B-10
Glossary
Index
xii
1
Overview of the Global Traffic Manager
Setup tasks are tasks in which you create or modify settings that apply to
the Global Traffic Manager itself, or that apply universally to all other
configuration components, such as servers, data centers, or wide IPs that
you create later. Examples of setup tasks include running the Setup
utility, assigning self IP address, and enabling high-availability
functions. For more information about setup tasks, see Setting up the
Global Traffic Manager, on page 3-1.
Configuration tasks are tasks in which you define a specific aspect of the
Global Traffic Manager, such as load balancing methods, pools and pool
members, or iRules. These configuration tasks, while important, only
affect specific aspects of how you manage DNS traffic with the Global
Traffic Manager. For more information about the components of the
Global Traffic Manager that you can configure, see Configuring the
Global Traffic Manager, on page 3-1.
1-1
Chapter 1
Security features
The Global Traffic Manager offers a variety of security features that can
help prevent hostile attacks on your site or equipment.
TCP wrappers
The Global Traffic Manager supports the use of TCP wrappers to provide
an extra layer of security for network connections.
Self IP address
A self IP address is an IP address that you define on a VLAN of a
BIG-IP system. Note that this concept does not apply to the management
IP address of a BIG-IP system or to IP addresses on other devices.
Node
A node is a logical object on the BIG-IP system that identifies the IP
address of a physical resource on the network, such as a web server. You
define a node object in the Local Traffic Manager. For more information
about nodes, see the Configuring Nodes chapter in the Configuration
Guide for BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager.
You can use the proprietary SNMP agent to monitor status and current
traffic flow using popular network management tools. This agent provides
detailed data such as current connections being handled by each virtual
server.
1-3
Chapter 1
The Global Traffic Manager supports two methods of checking the status of
the peer system in a redundant system configuration:
Hardware-based failover
In a redundant system configuration that has been set up with
hardware-based failover, the two units in the system are connected to
each other directly using a failover cable attached to the serial ports. The
standby unit checks on the status of the active unit once every second
using this serial link.
Network-based failover
In a redundant system configuration that has been set up with
network-based failover, the two units in the system communicate with
each other across an Ethernet network instead of across a dedicated
failover serial cable. Using the Ethernet connection, the standby unit
checks on the status of the active unit once every second.
Note that network-based failover is disabled by default. For information
about how to enable this feature, see Enabling high availability for
network-based failover, on page 3-3.
Note
1-4
1-5
Chapter 1
1-6
2
Introducing Global Traffic Manager
Components
2-1
Chapter 2
Data centers
Data centers are the top level of your physical network setup. You must
configure one data center for each physical location in your global network.
When you create a data center in the Global Traffic Manager, you define the
servers (Global Traffic Manager systems, Local Traffic Manager systems,
Link Controller systems, hosts, and routers) that reside at that location.
A data center can contain any type of server. For example, one data center
can contain a Global Traffic Manager and a host, while another might
contain two Global Traffic Manager systems and eight Local Traffic
Manager systems.
For information about configuring data centers, see Managing data centers,
on page 5-2.
Servers
A server is a physical device on which you can configure one or more
virtual servers. The servers that you define for the Global Traffic Manager
to manage can include both BIG-IP systems and third-party servers, for
example, Local Traffic Manager systems and Windows 2000 Servers.
One server that you must define is the Global Traffic Manager. This places
the system on the network map. You can also define Local Traffic Manager
systems, and the virtual servers that these servers manage.
For information about configuring servers, see Managing servers, on page
5-5.
2-2
Links
A link is a logical representation of a physical device (router) that connects
your network to the Internet. You can assign multiple links to each data
center by logically attaching links to a collection of servers in order to
manage access to your data sources. Configuring links is optional, although
they are very useful when determining resource availability.
For information about configuring links, see Managing links, on page 5-21.
Virtual servers
Servers, excluding Global Traffic Manager systems and Link Controller
systems, contain at least one virtual server. A virtual server, in the context
of the Global Traffic Manager, is a combination of an IP address and a port
number that points to a resource that provides access to an application or
data source on your network. In the case of host servers, this IP address and
port number likely point to the resource itself. With load balancing systems,
such as the Local Traffic Manager, these virtual servers are often proxies
that allow the load balancing server to manage the resource request across a
multitude of resources. Virtual servers are the ultimate destination for
connection requests.
For information about configuring virtual servers, see Managing virtual
servers, on page 5-19.
2-3
Chapter 2
Listeners
To communicate with the rest of your network, you must configure the
Global Traffic Manager so that it can correctly identify the resolution
requests for which it is responsible. A listener is an object that monitors the
network for DNS queries, and thus is critical for global traffic management.
The listener instructs the system to monitor the network traffic destined for a
specific IP address.
In most installations, when you define a listener for the Global Traffic
Manager, you use the IP address of the Global Traffic Manager; however,
there are many different ways you can configure listeners so that the system
handles DNS traffic correctly.
For more information on configuring listeners, see Chapter 4, Working with
Listeners.
Pools
A pool is a collection of virtual servers that can reside on multiple network
servers. When you define the virtual servers to which the Global Traffic
Manager directs DNS traffic, you combine those virtual servers into pools.
You can then configure the Global Traffic Manager to direct traffic to a
specific virtual server within a pool, using a specific load balancing method.
You can apply a different set of options to the same resources as a virtual
server. When you add a virtual server to a pool, it becomes a pool member
to which you can apply monitors, iRules, and other configuration options.
For more information about configuring pools and pool members, see
Defining pools, on page 6-3.
2-4
Wide IPs
One of the most common logical components you create in the Global
Traffic Manager is a wide IP. A wide IP maps a fully-qualified domain
name to one or more pools of virtual servers that host the domains content.
When a local DNS server requests a connection to a specific domain name,
the wide IP definition specifies which pools of virtual servers are eligible to
answer the request, and which load balancing modes to use in choosing a
pool. The Global Traffic Manager then load balances the request across the
virtual servers within that pool to resolve the request.
For information about configuring wide IPs, see Managing wide IPs, on
page 6-9.
Distributed applications
A distributed application is a collection of one or more wide IPs, data
centers, and links that serve as a single application to a web site visitor. A
distributed application is the highest-level component that the Global Traffic
Manager supports. You can configure the Global Traffic Manager so that
the availability of distributed applications is dependent on a specific data
center, link, or server. For example, if the New York data center goes
offline, this information causes the wide IP and its corresponding distributed
application to become unavailable. Consequently, the system does not send
resolution requests to any of the distributed application resources, until the
entire application becomes available again.
For more information about configuring distributed applications, see
Managing distributed applications, on page 6-19.
2-5
Chapter 2
If you do not specify at least one wildcard character in a search pattern, the
Global Traffic Manager automatically adds a wildcard character to each
side of the search pattern; therefore, the search patterns www.do and
*www.do* return the same results.
2-6
3
Setting Up and Configuring the Global
Traffic Manager
3-1
Chapter 3
3-2
3-3
Chapter 3
Hardware-based failover
In a redundant system configuration that has been set up with
hardware-based failover, the two units in the system are connected to
each other directly using a failover cable attached to the serial ports. The
standby unit checks on the status of the active unit once every second
using this serial link.
Network-based failover
In a redundant system configuration that has been set up with
network-based failover, the two units in the system communicate with
each other across an Ethernet network instead of across a dedicated
failover serial cable. Using the Ethernet connection, the standby unit
checks on the status of the active unit once every second.
In a network-based failover configuration, if a client queries a failed
Global Traffic Manager, and does not receive an answer, the client
automatically re-issues the request (after five seconds), and the standby
unit, functioning as the active unit, responds.
Network-based failover is disabled by default. To enable high
availability on both units in the redundant system configuration, use the
tmsh command sequence:
tmsh run / util bigpipe daemon gtmd running enable
Important: If you remove provisioning for a Global Traffic Manager,
and you want to re-enable high availability for network-based failover
after you re-provision the Global Traffic Manager, you must run the
tmsh command sequence again.
For more information about provisioning a Global Traffic Manager, see the
TMOS Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems. For specific information
about using tmsh commands to configure the system, see the Traffic
Management Shell (tmsh) Reference Guide.
3-4
Requirements
Ports
Utilities
Protocols
iQuery
3-5
Chapter 3
Requirements
Ports
Port 161
Protocols
SNMP
3-6
3-7
Chapter 3
You can now add the Global Traffic Manager to the appropriate
synchronization group, as described in Creating synchronization groups, on
page 3-13.
If the existing BIG-IP systems use an older version of the big3d agent than
the one that comes with the new Global Traffic Manager you are connecting
to the network, you must instead run the big3d_install utility. For more
information, see Running the big3d_install utility, following.
3-8
The big3d_install utility modifies the big3d agent that is already present on
existing BIG-IP systems.
3-9
Chapter 3
3 - 10
Activating synchronization
Activating synchronization for the Global Traffic Manager has an
immediate effect on its configurations, provided that another Global Traffic
Manager is already available on the network. F5 Networks recommends that
you activate synchronization only after you have finished configuring one of
the systems.
To activate synchronization
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand System and then
click Configuration.
The general properties screen opens.
2. From the Global Traffic menu, choose General.
The general global properties screen opens.
3. Check the Synchronization box.
4. Click the Update button to save your changes.
If you are using NTP to synchronize the time of the Global Traffic Manager
with a time server, leave the Synchronization Time Tolerance setting at the
default value of 10. In the event that NTP fails, the Global Traffic Manager
uses the time_tolerance variable to maintain synchronization.
3 - 11
Chapter 3
In the event that you need to deactivate file synchronization, you can do so
at any time. Situations in which you want to disable synchronization include
updating the data center in which the Global Traffic Manager resides, or
when you are testing a new configuration change.
3 - 12
3 - 13
Chapter 3
Configuring auto-discovery
A large network may consist of hundreds of virtual servers. Keeping track of
these virtual servers can be a time-consuming process itself. The Global
Traffic Manager includes a means of simplifying the addition of new virtual
servers into a network: auto-discovery. Auto-discovery is a process through
which the Global Traffic Manager automatically identifies resources that it
manages.
The Global Traffic Manager can discover two types of resources: virtual
servers and links. Each resource is discovered on a per-server basis, so you
can employ auto-discovery only on the servers you specify.
The auto-discovery feature of the Global Traffic Manager has three modes
that control how the system identifies resources. These modes are:
Disabled
In this mode, the Global Traffic Manager does not attempt to discover
any resources. Auto-discovery is disabled on the Global Traffic Manager
by default.
Enabled
In this mode, the Global Traffic Manager regularly checks the server to
discover any new resources. If a previously-discovered resource cannot
be found, the Global Traffic Manager deletes it from the system.
3 - 14
You must also enable auto-discovery at both the server and link levels. For
information about enabling auto-discovery on virtual servers and links, see
Discovering resources automatically, on 5-17.
3 - 15
Chapter 3
Heartbeat Interval
Indicates how often the Global Traffic Manager communicates with
other BIG-IP systems on the network.
Maximum Synchronous Monitor Requests
Indicates how many monitors can query a resource at any given time.
Monitor Disabled Objects
Indicates whether monitors continue to check the availability of a
resource that you disabled through the Global Traffic Manager.
While monitors supply information you need to ensure that network traffic
moves efficiently across the network, they do so at the cost of increasing
that network traffic. These settings allow you to control this increase.
3 - 16
By default, the Monitor Disabled Objects setting is disabled for the Global
Traffic Manager. F5 Networks recommends that you enable it only if you
are certain you want the Global Traffic Manager to continue monitoring
resources that you have manually disabled.
3 - 17
Chapter 3
3 - 18
4
Working with Listeners
Introducing listeners
Creating a listener for local resolution
Configuring listeners for traffic forwarding
Configuring a wildcard listener
Modifying listeners
Deleting listeners
Using listeners with VLANs
Introducing listeners
Before you can fully configure the Global Traffic Manager to handle
name resolution requests, you must determine how you want the system to
integrate with the existing network. Specifically, you must identify what
network traffic you want the Global Traffic Manager to handle and how. In
general, the system performs global traffic management in two ways:
Node mode
The Global Traffic Manager receives the traffic, processes it locally, and
sends the appropriate DNS response back to the querying server.
To control how the Global Traffic Manager handles network traffic, you
configure one or more listeners. A listener is a specialized resource to which
you assign a specific IP address and port 53, the DNS query port. When
traffic is sent to that IP address, the listener alerts the Global Traffic
Manager, allowing it to either handle the traffic locally or forward the traffic
to the appropriate resource.
Tip
If you are familiar with the Local Traffic Manager, it might be helpful to
consider a listener as a specialized type of virtual server that is responsible
for handling traffic for the Global Traffic Manager.
Note
If you configure user accounts on the Local Traffic Manager, you can assign
listeners, like other virtual servers, to specific partitions. However, because
listeners play an important role in global traffic management, F5 Networks
recommends that you assign all listeners to partition Common.
You control how the Global Traffic Manager responds to network traffic on
a per-listener basis. For example, a single Global Traffic Manager can be the
authoritative server for one domain, while forwarding other requests to a
separate DNS server. Regardless of how many listeners you configure, the
system manages and responds to requests for the wide IPs that are
configured on it.
To further illustrate how you configure listeners to control how the Global
Traffic Manager responds to DNS traffic, consider the fictional company
SiteRequest. At this company, a Global Traffic Manager is being integrated
into a network with the following characteristics:
A DNS server already exists at IP address 10.2.5.37.
There are two VLANs, named external and guests.
There are two wide IPs: www.siterequest.com and
downloads.siterequest.com.
4-1
Chapter 4
Once integrated into the network, the Global Traffic Manager is responsible
for the following actions:
Managing and responding to requests for the wide IPs
Forwarding other DNS traffic to the existing DNS server
Forwarding any traffic from the guests VLAN to the rest of the network
To implement this configuration, the Global Traffic Manager requires three
listeners:
A listener with an IP address that is the same as the self IP address of the
Global Traffic Manager. This listener allows the system to manage DNS
traffic that pertains to its wide IPs.
A listener with an IP address of 10.2.5.37, the IP address of the existing
DNS server. This listener allows the system to forward incoming traffic
to the existing DNS server.
A wildcard listener enabled on the guests VLAN. This listener allows the
Global Traffic Manager to forward traffic sent from the guests VLAN to
the rest of the network.
As you can see from this example, the role that the Global Traffic Manager
plays in managing DNS traffic varies depending on the listener through
which the traffic arrives. As a result, the Global Traffic Manager becomes a
flexible system for managing DNS traffic in a variety of ways.
4-2
4-3
Chapter 4
4-4
Modifying listeners
After you create a listener, you can modify it as necessary, for example,
when you add an additional VLAN to the system, or when you want to
change the IP address of a listener
To modify a listener
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Global Traffic and
click Listeners.
The main listeners screen opens.
2. Click the name of the listener.
The properties screen for that listener appears.
3. Modify the settings for the listener as required.
4. Click the Update button to save your changes to the listener.
4-5
Chapter 4
Deleting listeners
In the event that you no longer need a listener, you can delete it.
To delete a listener
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Global Traffic and
click Listeners.
The main listeners screen opens.
2. Check the box that corresponds to the listener that you want to
delete.
3. Click the Delete button.
A confirmation screen appears.
4. Click the Delete button to delete the listener.
For more information about BIG-IP systems and VLANs, see the TMOS
Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems.
4-6
4-7
Chapter 4
4-8
5
Defining the Physical Network
5-1
Chapter 5
5-2
Contact
Specifies the name of the individual responsible for managing the
network at the data center.
State
Specifies whether the data center is Enabled or Disabled.
5-3
Chapter 5
5-4
Managing servers
A server defines a specific physical system on the network. Within the
Global Traffic Manager, servers are not only physical entities that you can
configure and modify as needed; they also contain the virtual servers that
are the ultimate destinations of name resolution requests. When you
configure a server on the Global Traffic Manager, unless the server is either
a Global Traffic Manager or a Link Controller, the server must contain at
least one virtual server.
The Global Traffic Manager supports three types of servers:
BIG-IP systems
A BIG-IP system can be a Global Traffic Manager, a Local Traffic
Manager, a Link Controller, or a VIPRION system.
At a minimum, you must define the following servers on the Global Traffic
Manager:
The current Global Traffic Manager
A managed server (either a load balancing server or a host)
The following procedures describe how to define each server type in your
network. These procedures assume that the servers are up and running in the
network, and that they already have virtual servers defined (if the server
manages virtual servers).
5-5
Chapter 5
You must use a self IP address when you define a Global Traffic Manager.
You cannot use the management IP address.
5-7
Chapter 5
6. From the Data Center list, select a data center to which the Local
Traffic Manager belongs.
Note: A server must belong to a data center. See Managing data
centers, on page 5-2, for additional information.
7. Configure the remaining server settings, including the virtual
servers managed by the Local Traffic Manager.
For additional assistance with these settings, see the online help.
8. Click the Create button to create the new server.
5-8
If your network uses a load balancing server that is not found on this list,
you can use the Generic Load Balancer option. See Defining a generic load
balancing server, on page 5-10.
5-9
Chapter 5
6. From the Data Center list, select a data center to which the server
belongs.
Note: A server must belong to a data center. See Managing data
centers, on page 5-2, for additional information.
7. Configure the remaining server settings.
For additional assistance on these settings, see the online help.
8. Click the Create button to create the new server.
5 - 10
If your network uses a host server that is not on this list, you can use the
Generic Host option. See Defining a generic host server, on page 5-12.
5 - 11
Chapter 5
5 - 12
3. Click the name of the server that you want to view or modify.
The properties screen for that server opens.
4. Make changes to the server properties as required.
5. Click the Update button to save your changes.
5 - 13
Chapter 5
You can also set limits for virtual server resources. For more information
see, Setting thresholds for virtual servers, on page 5-15. If a server meets or
exceeds its limits, both the server and the virtual servers it manages are
marked as unavailable for load balancing. You can quickly review the
availability of any of your servers or virtual servers on the Statistics screens.
5 - 14
5 - 15
Chapter 5
You can also set limits for pool members. For more information, see Setting
thresholds for pool members, following. If a pool meets or exceeds its
limits, both the pool and the pool members it manages are marked as
unavailable for load balancing. You can quickly review the availability of
any of your pools or pool members on the Statistics screens.
5 - 16
6. For Limit Settings, select Enabled from the list that corresponds to
the threshold you want to use.
A new box appears.
7. Type the appropriate value for each threshold.
8. Click the Update button to save your changes.
The Global Traffic Manager requires that each virtual server has a unique
name. In instances where the auto-discovery process finds two virtual
servers with the same name, the system modifies the name by creating a new
name using the pattern, <server name>_<bigip system name>. In the event
that this does not resolve the name conflict, the system appends a number to
the name, for example, <server name>_<bigip system name>_1.
5 - 17
Chapter 5
To discover links
You can enable discovery for links only on BIG-IP systems.
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Global Traffic and
click Servers.
The main screen for servers opens.
2. Click the name of the server for which you want to discover links.
The properties screen for that server opens.
3. On the menu bar, click Links.
The virtual servers screen opens.
4. From the Link Discovery list, select the appropriate setting.
5. Click the Update button to save your changes.
5 - 18
Each virtual server that you add to the Global Traffic Manager must have a
unique name.
5 - 19
Chapter 5
8. For the Dependency List option, select a virtual server from the
Virtual Servers list, and then click Add.
For more information on these options, see the online help.
9. Click the Create button to save the new virtual server.
5 - 20
Managing links
A link defines a physical connection to the Internet that is associated with
one or more routers on the network. The Global Traffic Manager tracks the
performance of links, which in turn can dictate the overall availability of a
given pool, data center, wide IP, or distributed application.
To configure the links that you want the Global Traffic Manager to load
balance, you add a link entry, and then associate one or more routers with
that entry. You can also configure monitors to check certain metrics
associated with a link, and modify how the system load balances network
traffic across links.
You can manage links by:
Defining a link
Adding routers to a link
Assigning monitors to a link
Configuring link weighting and billing properties
Defining links
Before you can load balance inbound and outbound traffic, you must
configure basic link properties. The following procedure describes how to
configure the basic properties of a link.
To configure a link
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Global Traffic and
click Links.
The main screen for links opens.
2. Click the Create button.
The New Link screen opens.
3. In the Name box, type a name that identifies the link.
4. In the Address box, type the router address of the link, and then
click Add.
Note: You can add more than one address to any given link,
depending on how that server interacts with the rest of your
network.
5. From the Data Center list, select the data center to which you want
to associate the link.
Note: A link must be associated with a data center.
6. Configure the other link options as needed.
For detailed information on these options, see the online help.
7. Click the Create button to create the link.
5 - 21
Chapter 5
5 - 22
4. For Health Monitors, use the Move buttons (<< >>) to move
monitors from the Available list to the Enabled list.
Monitors in the Enabled list are active for the link.
5. Click the Update button to save your changes.
Ratio Weighting
If you have links of varying bandwidth sizes, and you want to load
balance the traffic to the controller based on a ratio, you can select the
Ratio option from the Weighting list. You use this configuration to
avoid oversaturating a smaller link with too much traffic.
Price Weighting
If you pay varying fees for the bandwidth usage associated with the links,
you can select the Price (Dynamic Ratio) option from the Weighting
list. You use this configuration to direct traffic over the least expensive
link first and to avoid the costs associated with exceeding a prepaid
bandwidth.
5 - 23
Chapter 5
Duplex Billing
If your ISP provider uses duplex billing, you can configure the Duplex
Billing setting so that the statistics and billing report screens accurately
reflect the bandwidth usage for the link.
Important
You can use either the Ratio or Price (Dynamic Ratio) weighting option to
load balance the traffic through all of your links. You must use the same
weighting option for all links.
5 - 24
6
Defining the Logical Network
6-1
Chapter 6
Managing pools
A pool represents one or more virtual servers that share a common role on
the network. A virtual server, in the context of the Global Traffic Manager,
is a combination of IP address and port number that points to a specific
resource on the network.
The Global Traffic Manager considers any virtual servers that you add to a
pool to be pool members. A pool member is a virtual server that has specific
attributes that pertain to the virtual server only in the context of that pool.
Through this differentiation, you can customize settings, such as thresholds,
dependencies, and health monitors, for a given virtual server on a per-pool
basis.
As an example of the difference between pool members and virtual servers,
consider the fictional company SiteRequest. In the London data center, the
IT team has a virtual server that acts as a proxy for a Local Traffic
Manager. This virtual server is the main resource for name resolution
requests for the companys main web page that originate from Europe. This
same virtual server is the backup resource for name resolution requests that
originate from the United States. Because these are two distinctly different
roles, the virtual server is a pool member in two different pools. This
configuration allows the IT team to customize the virtual server for each
pool to which it belongs, without modifying the actual virtual server itself.
As described in Chapter 5, Defining the Physical Network, before you can
add virtual servers to the Global Traffic Manager, you must define a server
that represents a physical component of your network. Then you can add
virtual servers to the server, and group the virtual servers in pools.
You manage pools in the following ways:
Define pools
Add virtual servers to pools
Remove virtual servers from pools
Organize virtual servers within pools
Weight virtual servers within pools
Disable or enable pools
6-2
Defining pools
When you create a pool, you name it and add at least one virtual server as a
member of the pool. You can also assign specific load balancing methods, a
fallback IP address, and one or more health monitors to the pool. You assign
a fallback IP address in the event that the load balancing methods you assign
to the pool fail to return a valid virtual server. The health monitors that you
assign to the pool use various methods to determine if the virtual servers
within the pool are available.
To define a pool
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Global Traffic and
click Pools.
The main pools screen opens.
2. Click the Create button.
The New Pool screen opens.
3. In the Name box, type a name for the pool.
4. For Member List, from the Virtual Server list, select the virtual
servers that you want to include in this pool, and then click Add.
Note: A virtual server can belong to more than one pool.
5. Configure the remaining pool settings.
For additional assistance with these settings, see the online help.
6. Click the Finished button to save the new pool.
Repeat this process for each pool that you want to create.
6-3
Chapter 6
5. In the Member List area, from the Virtual Server list, select the
appropriate virtual server, and then click Add.
Repeat this step for each virtual server that you want to add to the
pool.
6. Click Finished to update the pool with the new virtual server.
Global Traffic Manager to select the first virtual server in the pool until it
reaches capacity or goes offline, at which point it selects the next virtual
server until the first pool becomes available again.
Note
For more information on the load balancing methods that the Global Traffic
Manager supports, see Chapter 7, Load Balancing with the Global Traffic
Manager.
If you use a load balancing method that selects virtual servers based on the
order in which they are listed in the pool, you may want to change the order
in which the virtual servers are listed in the Member List. When you
organize your virtual servers in conjunction with these load balancing
methods, you can ensure that your most robust virtual server always
receives resolution requests, while the other virtual servers act as backups in
case the primary virtual server becomes unavailable.
6-5
Chapter 6
For information on the Ratio mode and other load balancing methods, see
Chapter 7, Load Balancing with the Global Traffic Manager.
6-6
6. In the Ratio box, type a numerical value that represents the weight
of the virtual server as compared to other virtual servers within the
same pool. The higher the value in this setting, the greater the
frequency at which the Global Traffic Manager selects the virtual
server.
7. Click the Add button to add the virtual server, with ratio value, to
the pool.
8. Click the Finished button to save your changes.
To disable a pool
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Global Traffic and
click Pools.
The main pools screen opens.
2. Check the Select box for the pool that you want to disable.
3. Click the Disable button.
After a few seconds, the pool becomes disabled. You can verify that
the pool is disabled by looking at its status icon, located in the
Status column in the table of pools. The status of a disabled pool is a
black square.
To enable a pool
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Global Traffic and
click Pools.
The main pools screen opens.
2. Check the Select box for the pool that you want to enable.
3. Click the Enable button.
After a few seconds, the pool becomes enabled. The status icon of
the pool, located in the Status column in the table of pools, changes
to reflect the current availability of the pool. For example, a pool
that is enabled and verified as available by the Global Traffic
Manager has a status icon of a green circle.
6-7
Chapter 6
6-8
To define a wide IP
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Global Traffic and
click Wide IPs.
The wide IP screen opens.
2. Click the Create button.
The New Wide IP screen opens.
3. In the Name box, type the fully-qualified domain name for the wide
IP.
4. In the Pools section, use the Pool List option to add the pools that
belong to this wide IP.
Note that a pool can belong to more than one wide IP.
5. Configure the remaining wide IP settings.
For additional assistance with these settings, see the online help.
6. Click the Finish button to save the new wide IP.
Repeat this process for each wide IP that you want to create.
6-9
Chapter 6
The asterisk ( * )
Use the asterisk to replace multiple consecutive characters, with the
exception of dots ( . ).
Use more than one asterisk in a wide IP name or alias.
Use both the question mark and the asterisk in the same wide IP name
or alias.
The following examples are all valid uses of the wildcard characters for the
wide IP name, www.mydomain.net.
???.mydomain.net
www.??domain.net
www.my*.net
www.??*.net
www.my*.*
???.my*.*
*.*.net
www.*.???
6 - 10
Repeat this process for each pool that you want to add to the wide IP.
6 - 11
Chapter 6
Repeat this process for each pool that you want to remove from the wide IP.
For more information on load balancing methods that the Global Traffic
Manager supports, see Chapter 7, Load Balancing with the Global Traffic
Manager.
If you use a load balancing method that selects pools based on the order in
which they are listed in a wide IP, you may want to change the order in
which the pools are listed in the Pools List. When you organize your pools
in conjunction with these load balancing methods, you can ensure that your
most robust pool always receives resolution requests, while the other pools
act as backups in case the primary pool becomes unavailable.
6 - 12
6 - 13
Chapter 6
This pattern exists because the weight value, 50, is 50 percent of the total
weight for all pools, while the weight value, 25, is 25 percent of the total.
Note
For information on the Ratio mode and other load balancing methods, see
Chapter 7, Load Balancing with the Global Traffic Manager.
6 - 14
To disable a wide IP
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Global Traffic and
click Wide IPs.
The Wide IPs screen opens.
2. Check the Select box for the wide IP that you want to disable.
3. Click the Disable button.
After a few seconds, the wide IP becomes disabled. You can verify
that the wide IP is disabled by looking at its status icon, located in
the Status column in the table of wide IPs. The status of a disabled
wide IP is a black square.
To enable a wide IP
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Global Traffic and
click Wide IPs.
The wide IP screen opens.
2. Check the Select box for the wide IP that you want to enable.
3. Click the Enable button.
After a few seconds, the wide IP becomes enabled. The status icon
of the pool, located in the Status column in the table of wide IP,
changes to reflect the current availability of the wide IP. For
example, a wide IP that is enabled and verified as available by the
Global Traffic Manager has a status icon of a green circle.
Incorporating iRules
An iRule is a set of one or more Tcl-based expressions that you can use with
wide IPs to customize how the Global Traffic Manager handles network
connection requests.
You can use iRules with wide IPs in the following ways:
Add an iRule to a wide IP
Remove an iRule from a wide IP
Organize multiple iRules assigned to a wide IP
For information on creating iRules, see Chapter 15, Managing iRules.
6 - 15
Chapter 6
Repeat this process for each iRule that you want to add to the wide IP.
6 - 16
5. Use the iRules List option to select the iRule that you want to
remove and click Remove.
6. Click the Update button to save your changes to the wide IP.
Repeat this process for each iRule that you want to remove from the wide
IP.
Repeat this process until the iRules are listed in the necessary order.
6 - 17
Chapter 6
6 - 18
You can organize logical network components into groups that represent
the business environment for which these components were designed.
6 - 19
Chapter 6
4. Use the Member List settings to add the wide IPs that belong to this
distributed application.
Note: A wide IP can belong to only one distributed application. For
more information on wide IPs, see Managing wide IPs, on page
6-9.
5. Configure the remaining distributed application settings.
For assistance with these settings, see the online help.
6. Click the Finish button to create the distributed application.
Repeat this process for each distributed application that you want to create.
6 - 20
Repeat this process for each wide IP that you want to add to the distributed
application.
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Chapter 6
6 - 22
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Chapter 6
6 - 24
7
Load Balancing with the Global Traffic
Manager
For each pool that you manage, the Global Traffic Manager supports three
types of load balancing methods: preferred, alternate, and fallback. The
preferred load balancing method is the load balancing mode that the system
attempts to use first. If the preferred method fails to provide a valid
resource, the system uses the alternate load balancing method. Should the
alternate load balancing method also fail to provide a valid resource, the
system uses the fallback method.
One of the key differences between the alternate methods and the other two
load balancing methods is that only static load balancing modes are
available from the alternate load balancing list. This limitation exists
because dynamic load balancing modes, by definition, rely on metrics
collected from different resources. If the preferred load balancing mode does
not return a valid resource, it is likely that the Global Traffic Manager was
7-1
Chapter 7
You can select static or dynamic load balancing modes for the fallback load
balancing method.
Table 7.1 shows a list of the supported static load balancing modes. Table
7.2 shows a list of the supported dynamic load balancing modes. Both tables
indicate where you can use each mode in the Global Traffic Manager
configuration. The following sections in this chapter describe how each load
balancing mode works.
Use for preferred
method
Drop Packet
Fallback IP
Global Availability
None
Ratio
Return to DNS
Round Robin
Static Persist
Topology
Completion Rate
CPU
Hops
Kilobytes/Second
Least Connections
7-2
Packet Rate
Quality of Service
VS Capacity
7-3
Chapter 7
F5 Networks recommends that you use the Drop Packet load balancing
mode only for the fallback method. The Global Traffic Manager uses the
fallback method when the preferred and alternate load balancing modes do
not provide at least one virtual server to return as an answer to a query.
Fallback IP mode
When you specify the Fallback IP load balancing mode, the Global Traffic
Manager returns the IP address that you specify as the fallback IP, as an
answer to the query. Note that you can specify both an IPv4 and an IPv6
address as the fallback IP address. The IP address that you specify is not
monitored for availability before being returned as an answer. When you use
the Fallback IP mode, you can specify a disaster recovery site to return when
no load balancing mode returns an available virtual server. F5 Networks
recommends that you use the Fallback IP load balancing mode only for the
fallback method. The Global Traffic Manager uses the fallback method
when the preferred and alternate load balancing modes do not provide at
least one virtual server to return as an answer to a query.
None mode
The None load balancing mode is a special mode you can use if you want to
skip the current load balancing method, or skip to the next pool in a multiple
pool configuration. For example, if you set an alternate method to None in a
pool, the Global Traffic Manager skips the alternate method and
immediately tries the load balancing mode specified as the fallback method.
If the fallback method is set to None, and you have multiple pools
configured, the Global Traffic Manager uses the next available pool.
Tip
If you do not want the Global Traffic Manager to return multiple addresses
that are potentially unavailable, F5 Networks recommends that you set the
alternate method to Drop Packet.
7-4
You can also use the mode to limit each pool to a single load balancing
mode. For example, you can set the preferred method in each pool to the
desired load balancing mode, and then you can set both the alternate and
fallback methods to None in each pool. If the preferred method fails, the
None mode in both the alternate and fallback methods forces the Global
Traffic Manager to go to the next pool for a load balancing answer.
Ratio mode
The Ratio load balancing mode distributes connections among a pool of
virtual servers as a weighted round robin. Weighted round robin refers to a
load balancing pattern in which the Global Traffic Manager rotates
connection requests among several resources based on a priority level, or
weight, assigned to each resource. For example, you can configure the Ratio
mode to send twice as many connections to a fast, new server, and only half
as many connections to an older, slower server.
The Ratio load balancing mode requires that you define a ratio weight for
each virtual server in a pool, or for each pool if you are load balancing
requests among multiple pools. The default ratio weight for a server or a
pool is set to 1.
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Chapter 7
Topology mode
The Topology load balancing mode allows you to direct or restrict traffic
flow by adding topology records to a topology statement in the
configuration file. When you use the Topology load balancing mode, you
can develop proximity-based load balancing. For example, a client request
in a particular geographic region can be directed to a data center or server
within that same region. The Global Traffic Manager determines the
proximity of servers by comparing location information derived from the
DNS message to the topology records.
This load balancing mode requires you to do some advanced configuration
planning, such as gathering the information you need to define the topology
records. The Global Traffic Manager contains an IP classifier that accurately
maps local DNS servers, so when you create topology records, you can refer
to continents and countries, instead of IP subnets.
See Chapter 9, Load Balancing Connection Requests Using Topologies, for
detailed information about working with this and other topology features.
7-6
CPU mode
The CPU load balancing mode selects the virtual server that currently has
the most CPU processing time available to handle name resolution requests.
Hops mode
The Hops load balancing mode is based on the traceroute utility, and tracks
the number of intermediate system transitions (router hops) between a client
LDNS and each data center. Hops mode selects a virtual server in the data
center that has the fewest router hops from the Local DNS.
Kilobyte/Second mode
The Kilobytes/Second load balancing mode selects a virtual server that is
currently processing the fewest number of kilobytes per second. You can
use this mode only with servers for which the Global Traffic Manager can
collect the kilobytes per second metric. See Chapter 13, Collecting Metrics,
for details on the metrics the Global Traffic Manager collects.
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Chapter 7
7-8
VS Capacity mode
The VS Capacity load balancing mode creates a list of the virtual servers,
weighted by capacity, then picks one of the virtual servers from the list. The
virtual servers with the greatest capacity are picked most often, but over
time all virtual servers are returned. If more than one virtual server has the
same capacity, then the Global Traffic Manager load balances using the
Round Robin mode among those virtual servers.
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Chapter 7
Coefficient
How measured
Default value
Example
upper limit
Higher or
lower?
Completion rate
Percentage of successfully
transferred packets (0-100%)
100%
Higher
Hops
64
Lower
Kilobytes/second
15000
Lower
Link Capacity
30
2,000,000
Higher
Packet rate
700
Lower
Microseconds
50
2,000,000
Lower
Topology
100
Higher
100
Higher
VS Capacity
Number of nodes up
20
Higher
If you change the default QoS coefficients, keep the following issues in
mind.
Scale
The raw metrics for each coefficient are not on the same scale. For
example, completion rate is measured in percentages, while the packet
rate is measured in packets per second.
Normalization
The Global Traffic Manager normalizes the raw metrics to values in the
range of 0 to10. As the QoS value is calculated, a high measurement for
completion rate is good, because a high percentage of completed
connections are being made, but a high value for packet rate is not
desirable because the packet rate load balancing mode attempts to find a
virtual server that is not overly taxed at the moment.
Emphasis
You can adjust coefficients to emphasize one normalized metric over
another. For example, consider the following QoS configuration:
7 - 10
You cannot set a value for both the Round Trip Time and Hops settings
simultaneously. In situations where the Global Traffic Manager has a value
for both settings, the round trip time is incorporated, while the value for the
Hops setting is reset to 0.
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Chapter 7
If the primaryOne pool has the Dynamic Ratio setting enabled, however,
the Global Traffic Manager treats the round trip time values as ratios and
divide requests among pool members based on these ratios. In this case, this
results in memberOne getting twice as many connections as memberTwo,
because the round trip time for memberOne is twice as fast as the round trip
time for memberTwo. Note that, with the Dynamic Ratio option enabled,
both pool members are employed to handle connections, while if the option
is disabled, only one pool member receives connections.
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Chapter 7
Wide IP
When you define a wide IP, and you have multiple pools in your wide IP,
you specify which load balancing mode to use in selecting a pool in the
wide IP. To configure load balancing for a wide IP, see Configuring load
balancing methods for wide IPs, following.
Pool
After the Global Traffic Manager selects a pool of virtual servers, it then
employs the settings you specified as the preferred, alternate, and
fallback load balancing methods to select a virtual server within the
selected pool. To configure load balancing for a pool, see Configuring
load balancing methods for pools, on page 7-15.
There may be situations (for example, e-commerce, and other sites with
multiple services) where you need to configure a wide IP so that
connections are not sent to a given address unless multiple ports or services
are available. You configure this behavior after you define the wide IP. For
details, see Employing additional load balancing options, on page 7-17.
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Chapter 7
If you do not want the Global Traffic Manager to return an address that is
potentially unavailable, F5 Networks recommends that you set the alternate
load balancing method to Drop Packet.
The Global Traffic Manager contains several options that help you control
how the system responds when using a fallback load balancing setting.
These options allow you to:
Configure the fallback load balancing method
Configure the fallback IP load balancing mode
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8
Managing Connections
Managing Connections
Resource health
Resource health refers to the ability of a given resource to handle
incoming connection requests. For example, the Configuration utility
uses a green circle to identify a resource, such as a wide IP, that has
available pools and virtual servers, while a pool that is down appears as a
red diamond. These visual clues can help you identify connection issues
quickly and efficiently.
Resource availability
Resource availability refers to the settings within the Configuration
utility that you use to control when a resource is available for connection
request. For example, you can establish limit settings, which instruct the
Global Traffic Manager to consider a resource as unavailable when a
statistical threshold (such as CPU usage) is reached.
Restoring availability
When a resource goes offline, the Global Traffic Manager immediately
sends incoming connection requests to the next applicable resource.
When you bring that resource online again, you can control how to
restore its availability to the Global Traffic Manager, ensuring that
connections are sent to the resource only when it is fully ready to receive
them.
Persisting connections
Certain interactions with your network require that a given user access
the same virtual server resource until their connection is completed. An
example of this situation is an online store, in which you want the user to
access the same virtual server for their shopping cart until they place
their order. With the Global Traffic Manager, you can configure your
load balancing operations to take persistent connections into account.
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Chapter 8
Blue
A blue status code indicates that the resource has not been checked. This
status often appears when you first add a resource into the Configuration
utility.
Green
A green status code indicates that the resource is available and
operational. The Global Traffic Manager uses this resource to manage
traffic as appropriate.
Red
A red status code indicates that the resource did not respond as expected
to a monitor. The Global Traffic Manager uses this resource only when
two conditions are met:
The Global Traffic Manager is using the load balancing mode
specified in the Fallback load balancing setting.
The Fallback load balancing setting for the pool is not None.
Yellow
A yellow status code indicates that the resource is operational, but has
exceeded one of its established bandwidth thresholds. The Global Traffic
Manager uses a resource that has a yellow status code only if no other
resource is available.
Black
A black status code indicates that the resource has been manually
disabled and is no longer available for load balancing operations.
As the preceding list illustrates, the health of a resource does not necessarily
impact the availability of that resource. For example, the Global Traffic
Manager can select a virtual server that has a red status code.
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Managing Connections
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Chapter 8
4. For each limit setting you want to configure, select Enabled from
the corresponding list.
The screen refreshes to show a box in which you can type a value
for the limit setting.
5. Type the value for each limit setting in the corresponding box.
6. Click the Update button to save your changes.
8-4
Managing Connections
You can also assign monitors to a specific server. In most cases, when you
assign a monitor to a server, that monitor checks all virtual servers
associated with that server.
An exception to this guideline is the SNMP monitor. If you assign an SNMP
monitor to a Cisco, Alteon, Extreme Networks, Foundry, or Radware
server, that monitor obtains information on the virtual servers associated
with that server. If you assign the SNMP monitor to any other server type,
that monitor obtains data on the server itself.
Note
For more information on the SNMP monitor, see Chapter 11, Configuring
Monitors.
In cases where you assign a monitor to a virtual server both directly and to
its parent server, the availability information acquired from the monitor
directly assigned to the virtual server takes precedence over any other data.
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Managing Connections
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Chapter 8
6. In the Dependency List area, select a virtual server from the Virtual
Servers list, and then click Add.
The virtual server appears in the list.
7. Add additional virtual servers as needed.
8. Click the Update button to save your changes.
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Managing Connections
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Managing Connections
8 - 13
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8 - 14
9
Load Balancing Connection Requests Using
Topologies
Overview of topologies
Configuring the Global Traffic Manager to route
connection requests to the closest data center
Implementing topologies
Reloading default geolocation data
Removing topology records
Disabling the Longest Match option
Overview of topologies
You can configure the BIG-IP Global Traffic Manager to load balance
incoming connection requests to a resource based on the physical proximity
of the resource to the client making the request. You can also configure the
system to deliver region specific content such as news and weather to a
client making a request from a specific location.
This can be accomplished by configuring the Global Traffic Manager to
perform Topology load balancing. The Topology load balancing mode
helps ensure that connection requests are answered and managed in the
fastest possible time.
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Chapter 9
Important
The topology records list in the Configuration utility are not displayed in a
sorted list.
9-2
9-3
Chapter 9
2 data centers
2 data centers
9-4
9-5
Chapter 9
Figure 9.4 shows the topology records that the Site Request administrator
created. Based on these records, when a connection request comes in from
the LDNS with an IP address of 10.0.0.1, the Global Traffic Manager
assigns a weight of 100 to Pool2 and routes the request to Pool2. When a
connection request comes in from the LDNS with an IP address of 11.0.0.1,
the Global Traffic Manager assigns a weight of 100 to Pool1 and routes the
request to Pool1.
Figure 9.4 Example of topology records for load balancing at the wide IP
level
9-6
9-7
Chapter 9
Figure 9.6 shows the topology records that the Site Request administrator
created. Based on these records, when a connection request comes in from
the LDNS with an IP address of 10.0.0.1, the Global Traffic Manager
assigns a weight of 100 to SouthAmericaDC and routes the request to
SouthAmericaDC. When a connection request comes in from the LDNS
with an IP address of 10.1.0.1, the Global Traffic Manager assigns a weight
of 100 to NorthAmericaDC and routes the request to NorthAmericaDC.
Figure 9.6 Example of topology records for load balancing at the pool level
9-8
Figure 9.7 Example of topology load balancing at the wide IP and pool
levels
Figure 9.8 shows the topology records that the Site Request administrator
created. Based on these records, when a connection request comes in from
an LDNS in Buenos Aires, the Global Traffic Manager assigns a weight of
100 to SpanishPool and SouthAmericaDC. The system routes the request
to the SpanishPool pool members that are in SouthAmericaDC.
Figure 9.8 Example of topology records for load balancing at both the wide
IP and pool levels
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Chapter 9
Implementing topologies
To implement Topology load balancing, complete these tasks:
Download and install updates to the IP geolocation data.
Create topology records for the Global Traffic Manager to use for
handling connection requests.
Configure the Topology load balancing mode at the wide IP level, pool
level, or both.
You can access the ISP and organization-level geolocation data for IPv4
addresses only using the iRules whereis command.
10. Install and load one of the RPM files using the following command,
where the path and file name are case-sensitive:
geoip_update_data -f </path to RPM file and file name>
The system installs and loads the specified database file.
11. Repeat step 10 for each of the RPM files that you saved to the
system in step 9.
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Chapter 9
Repeat this process for each wide IP that you want to configure for
Topology load balancing.
Repeat this process for each pool that you want to configure for Topology
load balancing.
9 - 12
Before you reload the default geolocation data, delete the RPM files that are
in the /shared/GeoIP directory.
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9 - 16
10
Working with DNSSEC Keys and Zones
About DNSSEC
Introducing DNSSEC keys and zones
Managing DNSSEC keys
Managing DNSSEC zones
Viewing DNSSEC resource records that you have
added to your BIND configuration
About DNSSEC
The Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) is an
industry-standard protocol that functions as an extension to the Domain
Name System (DNS) protocol. The BIG-IP Global Traffic Manager uses
DNSSEC to guarantee the authenticity of DNS responses to queries and to
return Denial of Existence responses.
You can use the DNSSEC feature of the Global Traffic Manager to protect
your network infrastructure from DNS protocol and DNS server attacks
such as spoofing, ID hacking, cache poisoning, and denial of service.
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Chapter 10
The value that you assign to the TTL (time-to-live) setting for a key
specifies how long a client resolver can cache the key. As shown in Figure
10.1, the value you assign to the TTL setting of the key must be less than
the difference between the values of the Rollover Period and Expiration
Period settings of the key; otherwise, a client can make a query and the
system can send a valid key that the client cannot recognize.
Important
To ensure that each Global Traffic Manager system is referencing the same
time when generating keys, you must synchronize the time setting on each
system with the Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers that the Global
Traffic Manager references. For information, see Defining NTP servers, on
page 3-10.
10 - 2
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Chapter 10
To create a key
1. Expand Global Traffic and click DNSSEC Key List.
2. Click Create.
3. Configure the properties of the key using the information in Table
10.1 or the online help.
4. Click Finished.
Setting
Description
Name
Type a name that contains any characters except a pound sign (#), dollar sign
($), caret (^), or exclamation point (!).
Algorithm
RSA/SHA1
Bit Width
1024
The allowed values are determined by your hardware platform or the FIPS
hardware security module (HSM), if your system contains one. These three
options are valid: 1024 and 2048
Default Value
Setting
Description
Default Value
Use FIPS
If your system contains a FIPS HSM on which you store the DNSSEC keys to
protect the keys from physical and software attacks, select Enabled.
Disabled
Note: If your system does not contain a FIPS HSM, and you set this option to
Enabled, the system automatically resets the value to Disabled.
Type
If you are creating a key to sign all of the record sets in a zone, select Zone
Signing Key.
Zone Signing
Key
If you are creating a key to sign only the DNSKEY record set, select Key
Signing Key.
State
Select Enabled when you are creating a key-signing or zone-signing key that
you plan to associate with a zone as an active key.
Enabled
Important: You can assign both enabled and disabled key-signing and
zone-signing keys to a zone; however, the system uses only enabled keys to
sign requests.
TTL
Type the number of seconds that client resolvers can cache the key.
0 seconds indicates that the key is not cached by client resolvers.
86400
The value of the TTL must be less than the difference between the values of the
rollover and expiration periods.
Rollover
Period
Type the number of seconds after which the system creates a new generation of
the key. 0 seconds indicates not set, and thus the key does not roll over.
The value of the rollover period must be greater than or equal to one third of the
value of the expiration period, and strictly less than the value of the expiration
period. Additionally, the difference between the values of the rollover and
expiration periods must be more than the value of the TTL.
Expiration
Period
Type the number of seconds after which the system deletes an expired
generation of the key. 0 seconds indicates not set, and thus the key does not
expire.
The value of the expiration period must be more than the value of the rollover
period. Additionally, the difference between the values of the rollover and
expiration periods must be more than the value of the TTL.
Tip: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recommends
that a key-signing key expire once a year.
Signature
Validity
Period
Type the number of seconds after which the system no longer uses the expired
signature. 0 seconds indicates not set, and thus the server verifying the
signature never succeeds, because the signature is always expired.
604800
(one week)
The value of this setting must be more than the value of the signature
publication period.
Signature
Publication
Period
Type the number of seconds after which the system creates a new signature. 0
seconds indicates not set, and thus the system does not cache the signature.
The value of this setting must be less than the value of the signature validity
period.
403200
(two-thirds of a
week)
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Chapter 10
To modify a key
1. Expand Global Traffic and click DNSSEC Key List.
2. Click the name of the key.
3. Modify the settings of the key as required.
For example, to disable the key, select Disabled from the State list.
4. Click Update.
If you delete a key that is associated with a zone that is available (enabled
and online), if there are no other enabled keys of that type associated with
the zone, the status of the zone immediately becomes offline.
To delete a key
1. Expand Global Traffic and click DNSSEC Key List.
2. Check the Select box next to the key that you want to delete.
3. Click Delete.
4. Click Delete again to delete the key.
F5 Networks recommends that you modify only the Rollover Time and
Expiration Time settings of a generation of a key. Modifying the ID or
Public Key settings can cause the system to return denial of service
messages rather than signed responses.
10 - 6
Setting
Description
ID
Public Key
Rollover Time
Type the exact time that you want the system to create and
begin to use a new generation of the key.
Note: Modifying this setting does not affect the value of the
rollover and expiration periods of the key.
Expiration Time
Type the exact time that you want this generation of the key to
expire.
Note: Modifying this setting does not affect the value of the
rollover and expiration periods of the key.
Performing a manual rollover of a key for which you have a standby key
To perform a manual rollover of a key-signing key for which
you have a standby key
1. Expand Global Traffic and click DNSSEC Key List.
2. Click the name of the standby key-signing key.
3. From the State list, select Enabled.
4. Click Update.
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Chapter 10
5. Provide the records for the compromised key and the newly enabled
key to the administrator of the parent zone.
After the administrator has loaded the newly active key records to
the zone and the records have been signed, complete the remainder
of the steps in this procedure.
6. Expand Global Traffic and click DNSSEC Key List.
7. Check the Select box next to the name of the compromised key.
8. Click Delete.
9. Click Delete again to delete the key.
10 - 8
The system rolls over this generation of the key at the time specified in the
Rollover Time setting. The system removes the old generation of the key at
the time specified in the Expiration Time setting.
The system rolls over this generation of the key at the time specified in
the Rollover Time setting. The system removes the old generation of the
key at the time specified in the Expiration Time setting.
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Setting
Description
Name
Type a the name of the zone for which you want the system to sign responses.
The name should be a subset of the name of the wide IP within which the zone
resides. For example, if the wide IP is named www.siterequest.com, name the
zone siterequest.com.
State
Move the zone-signing keys that you want to assign to this zone from the
Available list to the Active list.
Note: You can associate the same zone-signing key with multiple zones.
Move the key-signing keys that you want to assign to this zone from the
Available list to the Active list.
Note: You can associate the same key-signing key with multiple zones.
Default
Value
Enabled
To modify a zone
1. Expand Global Traffic and click DNSSEC Zone List.
2. Click the name of the zone.
3. Modify the settings for the zone as required. Refer to the online help
or Table 10.3, on page 10-10 for specifics.
4. Click Update.
To delete a zone
1. Expand Global Traffic and click DNSSEC Zone List.
2. Check the Select box next to the name of the zone that you want to
delete.
3. Click Delete.
4. Click Delete again to delete the zone.
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11
Configuring Monitors
Introducing monitors
Creating a custom monitor
Configuring monitor settings
Special configuration considerations
Associating monitors with resources
Managing monitors
Configuring Monitors
Introducing monitors
An important feature of the Global Traffic Manager is set of load
balancing tools called monitors. Monitors verify connections on pools and
virtual servers. A monitor can be either a health monitor or a performance
monitor. Monitors are designed to check the status of a pool or virtual server
on an ongoing basis, at a set interval. If a pool or virtual server being
checked does not respond within a specified timeout period, or the status of
a pool or virtual server indicates that performance is degraded, then the
Global Traffic Manager can redirect the traffic to another resource.
Some monitors are included as part of the Global Traffic Manager, while
other monitors are user-created. Monitors that the Global Traffic Manager
provides are called pre-configured monitors. User-created monitors are
called custom monitors. For more information on pre-configured and
custom monitors, see Understanding pre-configured and custom monitors,
on page 11-5.
Before configuring and using monitors, it is helpful to understand some
basic concepts regarding monitor types, monitor settings, and monitor
implementation. For more information on monitor types, see Summary of
monitor types, on page 11-2, and Configuring monitor settings, on page
11-8.
Monitor types
Every monitor, whether pre-configured or custom, belongs to a certain
category, or monitor type. Each monitor type checks the status of a
particular protocol, service, or application. For example, an HTTP
monitor allows you to monitor the availability of the HTTP service on a
pool member (that is a virtual server).
Monitor settings
Every monitor consists of settings with values. The settings and their
values differ depending on the type of monitor. In some cases, the Global
Traffic Manager assigns default values. For example, the following are
the default values for the HTTP monitor:
Interval: 30 seconds
Timeout: 120 seconds
Probe Timeout: 5 seconds
Reverse: No
Transparent: No
These settings specify that an HTTP monitor is configured to check the
status of an IP address every 30 seconds, to time out after 120 seconds, to
timeout the probe request every 5 seconds, and specifies that the monitor
does not operate in either Reverse or Transparent mode.
Monitor implementation
The task of implementing a monitor varies depending on whether you are
using a pre-configured monitor or creating a custom monitor. If you want
to implement a pre-configured monitor, you need only associate the
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Chapter 11
Table 11.1 briefly describes the types of monitors that you can apply to your
load balancing resources.
Monitor
Category
Monitor
Type
Simple
Gateway
ICMP
link,
pool member,
server,
virtual server
TCP Half
Open
pool member,
server,
virtual server
Description
11 - 2
Possible Object
Associations
Configuring Monitors
Monitor
Category
Monitor
Type
ECV
HTTP
pool member,
server,
virtual server
HTTPS
pool member,
server,
virtual server
TCP
pool member,
server,
virtual server
BIG IP
server,
virtual server
EAV
Description
Possible Object
Associations
link,
node
External
pool member,
server,
virtual server
FTP
pool member,
server,
virtual server
IMAP
pool member,
server,
virtual server
LDAP
pool member,
server,
virtual server
MSSQL
pool member,
server,
virtual server
NNTP
pool member,
server,
virtual server
Oracle
pool member,
server,
virtual server
POP3
pool member,
server,
virtual server
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Monitor
Category
Monitor
Type
Description
Possible Object
Associations
RADIUS
pool member,
server,
virtual server
Real
Server
node,
pool member,
server,
virtual server
Scripted
Generates a simple script that reads a file that you create. The file
contains Send and Expect strings to specify lines that you want to
send or that you expect to receive.
pool member,
server,
virtual server
SIP
pool member,
server, virtual
server
SMTP
pool member,
server,
virtual server
SNMP Link
Checks the current CPU, memory, and disk usage of a pool, pool
member, or virtual server that is running an SNMP data collection
agent, and then dynamically load balances traffic accordingly.
node,
pool member,
server,
virtual server
SOAP
pool member,
server,
virtual server
UDP
pool member,
server,
virtual server
WAP
Requests the URL specified in the Send setting, and finds the string
specified in the Recv setting somewhere in the data returned by the
URL response.
pool member,
server,
virtual server
WMI
node,
pool member,
virtual server
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Configuring Monitors
values, or modify them to suit your needs. You can find details about the
settings for each monitor type in Configuring monitor settings, on page
11-8.
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Chapter 11
Simple monitors
These are health monitors that monitor the status of a resource.
Simple monitors
Simple monitors are those that check the status of a resource. The simple
monitor types are:
Gateway ICMP
TCP Half Open
The Global Traffic Manager provides a set of pre-configured simple
monitors: gateway_icmp and tcp_half_open. You can either use these
pre-configured monitors as is, or create custom monitors of these types.
The following sections describe each type of simple monitor and show the
pre-configured monitor settings and their values.
Gateway ICMP
You can use a Gateway ICMP monitor for a virtual server, a server (that is,
all of the virtual servers on a specified server), a pool member, a pool (that
is, all of the pool members of a specified pool), or a link. This monitor uses
the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) to perform a simple resource
check. The check is successful if the monitor receives a response to an
ICMP_ECHO datagram.
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Configuring Monitors
The following list shows the settings and their values for the pre-configured
gateway_icmp monitor.
Type: Gateway ICMP
Import Settings: Gateway ICMP
Interval: 30 seconds
Timeout: 120 seconds
Probe Interval: 1 second
Probe Timeout: 5 seconds
Probe Attempts: 3
Ignore Down Response: No
Transparent: No
Alias Address: * All Addresses
Alias Service Port: * All Ports
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HTTP
You use an HTTP monitor to check the status of Hypertext Transfer
Protocol (HTTP) traffic. Like a TCP monitor, an HTTP monitor attempts to
receive specific content from a web page, and unlike a TCP monitor, may
send a user name and password. The check is successful when the content
matches the Receive String value. An HTTP monitor uses a send string, a
receive string, a user name, a password, and optional Reverse and
Transparent modes. (If there is no password security, you must use blank
strings [""] for the Username and Password settings.)
For more information on transparent and reverse modes, see Using
transparent and reverse modes, on page 11-35.
The following list shows the settings of the pre-configured monitor http:
Import Settings: http
Type: HTTP
Interval: 30 seconds
Timeout: 120 seconds
Probe Timeout: 5 seconds
Ignore Down Response: No
Send String: Get /
Receive String: (empty)
User Name: (empty)
Password: (empty)
Reverse: No
Transparent: No
Alias Address: * All Addresses
Alias Service Port: * All Ports
11 - 10
Configuring Monitors
HTTPS
You use an HTTPS monitor to check the status of Hypertext Transfer
Protocol Secure (HTTPS) traffic. An HTTPS monitor attempts to receive
specific content from a web page protected by SSL security. The check is
successful when the content matches the Receive String value.
HTTPS monitors use a send string, a receive string, a user name, a
password, and an optional Reverse setting. (If there is no password security,
you must use blank strings [""] for the Username and Password settings.)
For more information on the Reverse setting, see Using transparent and
reverse modes, on page 11-35.
HTTP monitors also include the settings Cipher List, Compatibility, and
Client Certificate. If you do not specify a cipher list, the monitor uses the
default cipher list DEFAULT:+SHA:+3DES:+kEDH. When you set the
Compatibility setting to Enabled, this sets the SSL options to ALL. You
use the Client Certificate setting to specify a certificate file that the monitor
then presents to the server.
The following list shows the settings of the pre-configured monitor https:
Type: HTTPS
Import Settings: https
Interval: 30 seconds
Timeout: 120 seconds
Probe Timeout: 5 seconds
Ignore Down Response: No
Send String: Get /
Receive String: (empty)
Cipher List: DEFAULT:+SHA:+#DES:+kEDH
User Name: (empty)
Password: (empty)
Compatibility: Enabled
Client Certificate: (empty)
Client Key: (empty)
Reverse: No
Transparent: No
Alias Address: * All Addresses
Alias Service Port: * All Ports
The Reverse setting is an option for monitors that import settings from the
https monitor. In most monitor settings, the Global Traffic Manager
considers the resource available when the monitor successfully probes it.
However, in some cases you may want the resource to be considered
unavailable after a successful monitor test. You accomplish this
configuration with the Reverse setting. For more information on Reverse
mode, see Using transparent and reverse modes, on page 11-35.
11 - 11
Chapter 11
TCP
The TCP monitor attempts to receive specific content sent over TCP. The
check is successful when the content matches the Receive String value. A
TCP monitor takes a Send String value and a Receive String value. If the
Send String value is blank and a connection can be made, the service is
considered up. A blank Receive String value matches any response. Both
Transparent and Reverse modes are options. For more information about
Transparent and Reverse modes, see Using transparent and reverse
modes, on page 11-35.
The following list shows the settings for the pre-configured monitor tcp.
Type: TCP
Import Settings: tcp
Interval: 30 seconds
Timeout: 120 seconds
Probe Timeout: 5 seconds
Ignore Down Response: No
Send String: (empty)
Receive String: (empty)
Reverse: No
Transparent: No
Alias Address: * All Addresses
Alias Service Port: * All Ports
11 - 12
Configuring Monitors
Real Server
Scripted
SIP
SMTP
SNMP
SNMP Link
SOAP
UDP
WAP
WMI
The Global Traffic Manager provides pre-configured monitors for several of
these monitor types. In cases where a pre-configured monitor does not meet
your needs or does not exist, you can create a custom monitor. For more
information on custom monitors, see Creating a custom monitor, on page
11-7.
The following sections describe each type of EAV monitor and show the
pre-configured monitor settings and their values.
BIG-IP
When you use the Global Traffic Manager in a network that contains a
Local Traffic Manager, you must assign a BIG-IP monitor to the Local
Traffic Manager. This monitor is automatically assigned to the Local Traffic
Manager if you do not manually assign it.
The BIG-IP monitor gathers metrics and statistics information that the Local
Traffic Manager acquires through the monitoring of its own resources. In
general, it is sufficient to assign only the BIG-IP monitor to a Local Traffic
Manager. In situations where you want to verify the availability of a specific
resource managed by the Local Traffic Manager, F5 Networks recommends
that you first assign the appropriate monitor to the resource through the
Local Traffic Manager, and then assign a BIG-IP monitor to the Local
Traffic Manager through the Global Traffic Manager. This configuration
provides the most efficient means of tracking resources managed by a
BIG-IP system.
The following list shows the settings and default values of a BIG-IP
monitor.
Type: BIG-IP
Import Settings: bigip
Interval: 30 seconds
Timeout: 90 seconds
Probe Timeout: 1 second
Ignore Down Response: No
Note that F5 recommends that you leave this setting at the default value
for the BIG-IP monitor.
Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Global Traffic ManagerTM
11 - 13
Chapter 11
If the Global Traffic Manager and the Local Traffic Manager are on the
same machine, you must still assign a BIG-IP monitor to the server that you
added to your configuration that represents the Global Traffic
Manager/Local Traffic Manager system. See Chapter 5, Defining the
Physical Network, for more information.
BIG-IP Link
When you use the Global Traffic Manager in a network that contains a Link
Controller, you must assign a BIG-IP Link monitor to the Link Controller.
This monitor is automatically assigned to the Link Controller if you do not
manually assign it.
The BIG-IP Link monitor gathers metrics and statics information that the
Link Controller acquires through the monitoring of its own resources.
The following list shows the settings and default values of a BIG-IP Link
monitor.
Type: BIG-IP Link
Import Settings: bigip_link
Interval: 10 seconds
Timeout: 30 seconds
Probe Timeout: 1 second
Ignore Down Response: No
Note that F5 recommends that you leave this setting at the default value
for BIG-IP Link monitor.
Alias Address: * All Addresses
Note
If the Global Traffic Manager and the Link Controller systems are on the
same machine, you must still assign a BIG-IP Link monitor to the server that
represents these two systems. See Chapter 5, Defining the Physical
Network, for more information.
External
You can use an External monitor to create your own monitor type. To do
this, you create a custom External monitor and within it, specify a
user-supplied monitor to run.
11 - 14
Configuring Monitors
FirePass
You use a FirePass monitor to verify FirePass traffic. This monitor checks
the health of FirePass systems.
The following list shows the settings and default values of a FirePass type
monitor.
Type: FirePass
Import Settings: firepass_gtm
Interval: 30 seconds
Timeout: 90 seconds
Probe Timeout: 5 seconds
Ignore Down Response: No
Cipher List: HIGH:!ADH
Max Load Average: 20
Concurrency Limit: 95
User Name: gtmuser
Password: (empty)
Alias Address: * All Addresses
Alias Service Port: * All Ports
11 - 15
Chapter 11
FTP
You use an FTP monitor to verify File Transfer Protocol (FTP) traffic. A
monitor of this type attempts to download a specified file to the /var/tmp
directory, and if the file is retrieved, the check is successful. An FTP
monitor specifies a user name, a password, and a full path to the file to be
downloaded.
Note
IMAP
You use an IMAP monitor to check the status of Internet Message Access
Protocol (IMAP) traffic. An IMAP monitor is essentially a POP3 monitor
with the addition of the Folder setting. The check is successful if the
monitor is able to log onto a server and open the specified mail folder. An
IMAP monitor requires that you specify a user name and password. The
following list shows the settings and default values of an IMAP monitor.
Type: IMAP
Import Settings: imap
Interval: 10 seconds
Timeout: 31 seconds
Probe Timeout: 5 seconds
Ignore Down Response: No
User Name: (empty)
Password: (empty)
Folder: INBOX
11 - 16
Configuring Monitors
LDAP
You use an LDAP monitor to check the status of Lightweight Directory
Access Protocol (LDAP) servers. The LDAP protocol implements standard
X.500 for email directory consolidation. A check is successful if entries are
returned for the base and filter specified. An LDAP monitor requires a user
name, a password, and base and filter strings. The following list shows the
settings and default values of an LDAP monitor.
Type: LDAP
Import Settings: ldap
Interval: 10 seconds
Timeout: 31 seconds
Probe Timeout: 5 seconds
Ignore Down Response: No
User Name: (empty)
Password: (empty)
Base: (empty)
Filter: (empty)
Security: None
Mandatory Attributes: No
Alias Address: * All Addresses
Alias Service Port: * All Ports
Debug: No
The User Name setting specifies a distinguished name, that is, an
LDAP-format user name.
The Base setting specifies the starting place in the LDAP hierarchy from
which to begin the query.
The Filter setting specifies an LDAP-format key of the search item.
The Security setting specifies the security protocol to be used. Acceptable
values are SSL, TLS, or None.
11 - 17
Chapter 11
MSSQL
You use an MSSQL monitor to perform service checks on Microsoft SQL
Server-based services such as Microsoft SQL Server versions 6.5 and 7.0.
The remainder of this section on MSSQL monitors describes prerequisite
tasks, the default monitor settings, and troubleshooting tips.
11 - 18
Receive String
The Receive String setting is an optional parameter that specifies the
value expected to be returned for the row and column specified with the
Receive Row and Receive Column settings. An example of a Receive
String value is ALAN SMITH. You can only configure this setting
when you configure the Send String setting.
Configuring Monitors
Receive Row
The Receive Row setting is optional, and is useful only if the Receive
String setting is specified. This setting specifies the row in the returned
table that contains the Receive String value. You can only configure this
setting when you configure the Send String setting.
Receive Column
The Receive Column setting is optional and is useful only if the Receive
String setting is specified. This setting specifies the column in the
returned table that contains the Receive String value. You can only
configure this setting when you configure the Send String setting.
NNTP
You use an NNTP monitor to check the status of Usenet News traffic. The
check is successful if the monitor retrieves a newsgroup identification line
from the server. An NNTP monitor requires a newsgroup name (for
example, alt.cars.mercedes) and, if necessary, a user name and password.
The following list shows the settings and default values of an NNTP
monitor.
Type: NNTP
Import Settings: nntp
11 - 19
Chapter 11
Interval: 30 seconds
Timeout: 120 seconds
Probe Timeout: 5 seconds
Ignore Down Response: No
User Name: (empty)
Password: (empty)
Newsgroup: (empty)
Alias Address: * All Addresses
Alias Service Port: * All Ports
Debug: No
Oracle
You use an Oracle monitor to check the status of an Oracle database server.
The check is successful if the monitor is able to connect to the server, log on
as the indicated user, and log off.
The following list shows the settings and default values of an Oracle
monitor.
Type: Oracle
Import Settings: oracle
Interval: 30 seconds
Timeout: 91 seconds
Probe Timeout: 5 seconds
Ignore Down Response: No
Send String: (empty)
Receive String: (empty)
User Name: (empty)
Password: (empty)
Database: (empty)
Receive Row: (empty)
Receive Column: (empty)
Count: 0
Alias Address: * All Addresses
Alias Service Port: * All Ports
Debug: No
The Send String setting specifies a SQL statement that the Global Traffic
Manager should send to the Oracle server. An example is SELECT *
FROM sales.
11 - 20
Configuring Monitors
The Receive String setting is an optional parameter that specifies the value
expected to be returned for a specific row and column of the table that the
Send String setting retrieved. An example of a Receive String value is
SMITH.
In an Oracle monitor, the Database setting specifies the name of the data
source on the Oracle server. Examples are sales and hr.
The Receive Row setting is optional, and is useful only if the Receive
String setting is specified. This setting specifies the row in the returned
table that contains the Receive String value.
The Receive Column setting is optional and is useful only if the Receive
String setting is specified. This setting specifies the column in the returned
table that contains the Receive String value.
POP3
You use a POP3 monitor to check the status of Post Office Protocol version
3 (POP3) traffic. The check is successful if the monitor is able to connect to
the server, log on as the indicated user, and log off. A POP3 monitor
requires a user name and password.
The following list shows the settings and default values of a POP3 monitor.
Type: POP3
Import Settings: pop3
Interval: 30 seconds
Timeout: 120 seconds
Probe Timeout: 5 seconds
Ignore Down Response: No
User Name: (empty)
Password: (empty)
Alias Address: * All Addresses
Alias Service Port: * All Ports
Debug: No
RADIUS
You use a RADIUS monitor to check the status of Remote Access Dial-in
User Service (RADIUS) servers. The check is successful if the server
authenticates the requesting user. A RADIUS monitor requires a user name,
a password, and a shared secret string for the code number.
Note
11 - 21
Chapter 11
The following list shows the settings and default values of a RADIUS
monitor.
Type: RADIUS
Import Settings: radius
Interval:10 seconds
Timeout: 31 seconds
Probe Timeout: 5 seconds
Ignore Down Response: No
User Name: (empty)
Password: (empty)
Secret: (empty)
NAS IP Address: (empty)
Alias Address: * All Addresses
Alias Service Port: * All Ports
Debug: No
Real Server
You use a Real Server monitor to check the performance of a pool or virtual
server that is running the RealSystem Server data collection agent and
dynamically load balances traffic accordingly. Performance monitors are
generally used with dynamic ratio load balancing. For more information on
performance monitors and dynamic ratio load balancing, see Chapter 7,
Load Balancing with the Global Traffic Manager.
Note
Configuring Monitors
When creating a custom Real Server monitor, you cannot modify the values
of the Method, Command, and Agent settings.
Table 11.2 shows the complete set of server-specific metrics and metric
setting default values that apply to the command GetServerStats.
Metric
Default Coefficient
Default Threshold
ServerBandwidth (Kbps)
1.0
10,000
CPUPercentUsage
1.0
80
MemoryUsage (Kb)
1.0
100,000
TotalClientCount
1.0
1,000
RTSPClientCount
1.0
500
HTTPClientCount
1.0
500
PNAClientCount
1.0
500
UDPTransportCount
1.0
500
TCPTransportCount
1.0
500
MulticastTransportCount
1.0
500
The metric coefficient is a factor determining how heavily the metrics value
counts in the overall ratio weight calculation. The metric threshold is the
highest value allowed for the metric if the metric is to have any weight at all.
To understand how to use these values, it is necessary to understand how the
overall ratio weight is calculated. The overall ratio weight is the sum of
relative weights calculated for each metric. The relative weights, in turn, are
based on three factors:
The value for the metric returned by the monitor
The coefficient value
The threshold value
Given these values, the relative weight is calculated as follows:
w=((threshold-value)/threshold)*coefficient
11 - 23
Chapter 11
You can see that the higher the coefficient, the greater the relative weight
calculated for the metric. Similarly, the higher the threshold, the greater the
relative weight calculated for any metric value that is less than the threshold.
(When the value reaches the threshold, the weight goes to zero.)
Note that the default coefficient and default threshold values shown in Table
11.2 are metric defaults, not monitor defaults. The monitor defaults take
precedence over the metric defaults, just as user-specified values in the
custom real_server monitor take precedence over the monitor defaults. For
example, the monitor shown specifies a coefficient value of 1.5 for
ServerBandwidth and no value for the other metrics. This means that the
monitor uses the monitor default of 1.5 for the ServerBandwidth
coefficient and the metric default of 1 for the coefficients of all other
metrics. However, if a custom monitor my_real_server were configured
specifying 2.0 as the ServerBandwidth coefficient, this user-specified
value overrides the monitor default.
Metric coefficient and threshold are the only non-monitor defaults. If a
metric not in the monitor is to be added to the custom monitor, it must be
added to the list of metrics for the Metrics setting. The syntax for specifying
non-default coefficient or threshold values is:
<metric>:<coefficient |<*>:<threshold>
Scripted
You use the Scripted monitor to generate a simple script that reads a file that
you create. The file contains send and expect strings to specify lines that you
want to send or that you expect to receive. For example, Figure 11.1 shows a
sample file that specifies a simple SMTP sequence. Note that the system
always reads the lines of the file in the specified sequence.
expect 220
send HELLO bigip1.siterequest.com\r\n
expect 250
send quit\r\n
11 - 24
Configuring Monitors
When you create a file containing send and expect strings, store the file in
the directory /config/eav.
SIP
You use a SIP monitor to check the status of SIP Call-ID services. This
monitor type uses UDP to issue a request to a server device. The request is
designed to identify the options that the server device supports. If the proper
request is returned, the device is considered to be up and responding to
commands.
The following list shows the settings and default values of a SIP monitor.
Type: SIP
Import Settings: sip
Interval: 30 seconds
Timeout: 120 seconds
Probe Timeout: 5 seconds
Ignore Down Response: No
Mode: UDP
Additional Accepted Status Codes: None
Additional Rejected Status Codes: Status Code List...
Rejected Status Code List: (empty)
Header List: (empty)
SIP Request: (empty)
Alias Address: * All Addresses
Alias Service Port: * All Ports
Debug: No
Possible values for the Mode setting are TCP and UDP. Possible values for
the Additional Accepted Status Codes setting are Any, None, and Status
Code List. The Status Code List setting specifies one or more status codes,
in addition to status code 200, that are acceptable in order to indicate an up
status. Multiple status codes should be separated by spaces. Specifying an
asterisk (*) indicates that all status codes are acceptable.
11 - 25
Chapter 11
SMTP
You use an SMTP monitor to check the status of Simple Mail Transport
Protocol (SMTP) servers. This monitor is a basic monitor that checks only
that the server is up and responding to commands. The check is successful if
the mail server responds to the standard SMTP HELO and QUIT
commands. An SMTP monitor requires a domain name. The following list
shows the settings and default values of an SMTP monitor.
Type: SMTP
Import Settings: smtp
Interval: 30 seconds
Timeout: 120 seconds
Probe Timeout: 5 seconds
Ignore Down Response: No
Domain: (empty)
Alias Address: * All Addresses
Alias Service Port: * All Ports
Debug: No
SNMP
You use an SNMP monitor to check the performance of a server running an
SNMP agent such as UC Davis, for the purpose of load balancing traffic to
that server. This monitor conducts an SNMP query for a specific number of
times, counting the number of times the query is successful. If the number of
successful queries matches the number that you set when configuring the
monitor, the Global Traffic Manager considers the resource available.
Performance monitors are generally used with dynamic ratio load balancing.
For more information on performance monitors and dynamic ratio load
balancing, see Chapter 7, Load Balancing with the Global Traffic Manager.
Unlike health monitors, performance monitors do not report on the status of
a pool, pool member, or virtual server; they report on the status of the server
itself. The exception to this is when you assign the monitor to a Cisco,
Alteon, Extreme, or Radware server. In those situations, the monitor can
obtain availability information on the virtual servers associated with that
server. On Foundry servers, you can only obtain the administrative status of
the virtual server.
The Global Traffic Manager provides a pre-configured SNMP monitor
named snmp_gtm. The following list shows the settings and values of the
snmp_gtm pre-configured monitor.
Type: SNMP
Import Settings: snmp_gtm
Interval: 90 seconds
Timeout: 180 seconds
Probe Interval: 1 second
11 - 26
Configuring Monitors
11 - 27
Chapter 11
SNMP Link
You use an SNMP Link monitor to check the performance of links that are
running an SNMP agent.
The Global Traffic Manager provides a pre-configured SNMP monitor
named snmp_link. The following list shows the settings and values of the
snmp_link pre-configured monitor.
Type: SNMP Link
Import Settings: snmp_link
Interval: 10 seconds
Timeout: 30 seconds
Probe Interval: 1 second
Probe Timeout: 5 seconds
Probe Attempts: 3
Ignore Down Response: No
Community: public
Version: v1
Port: 161
Alias Address: * All Addresses
Unlike health monitors, performance monitors do not report on the status of
pool, pool member, or virtual server. Performance monitors are generally
used with dynamic ratio load balancing. For more information on
performance monitors and dynamic ratio load balancing, see Chapter 7,
Load Balancing with the Global Traffic Manager.
Pre-configured monitors are not user-modifiable. Thus, if you want to
change the values for the SNMP Link monitor settings, you must create an
SNMP Link custom monitor.
SOAP
You use a SOAP monitor to test a web service based on the Simple Object
Access protocol (SOAP). More specifically, the monitor submits a request
to a SOAP-based web service, and optionally, verifies a return value or
fault. The following list shows the settings and default values of a SOAP
monitor.
Type: SOAP
Import Settings: soap
Interval: 30 seconds
Timeout: 120 seconds
Probe Timeout: 5 seconds
Ignore Down Response: No
User Name: (empty)
Password: (empty)
11 - 28
Configuring Monitors
Protocol: HTTP
Possible values are HTTP and HTTPS.
URL Path: (empty)
Namespace: (empty)
Method: (empty)
Parameter Name: (empty)
Parameter Type: bool
Possible values are: bool, int, long, and string.
Parameter Value: (empty)
Return Type: bool
Possible values are: bool, int, short, long, float, double, and string.
Return Value: (empty)
Expect Fault: No
Possible values are No and Yes.
Alias Address: * All Addresses
Alias Service Port: * All Ports
Debug: No
UDP
You use a UDP monitor to check the status of User Datagram Protocol
(UDP) packets. A UDP monitor sends one or more UDP packets to a target
pool, pool member, or virtual server.
The following list shows the settings and default values of a UDP monitor.
Type: UDP
Import Settings: udp
Interval: 30 seconds
Timeout: 120 seconds
Probe Interval: 1 second
Probe Timeout: 5 seconds
Probe Attempts: 3
Ignore Down Response: No
Send String: default send string
Transparent: No
Send Packets: 2
Timeout Packets: 2
Alias Address: * All Addresses
Alias Service Port: * All Ports
Debug: No
11 - 29
Chapter 11
Important
The value in seconds of the Timeout Packets setting must be lower than the
value of the Interval setting.
When using a UDP monitor to check a pool or virtual server, you must also
enable another monitor type, such as HTTP, to monitor the pool or virtual
server. Until both a UDP monitor and another type of monitor report the
status of the UDP service as up, the UDP service receives no traffic. See
Table 11.3 for details.
If a UDP monitor reports
status as
up
up
up
up
down
down
down
up
down
down
down
down
WAP
You use a WAP monitor to check Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
servers. The WAP monitor requests a URL (the Send String setting), finds
the string in the Receive String setting in the data returned by the URL
response. The following list shows the settings and default values of a WAP
monitor.
Type: WAP
Import Settings: wap
Interval: 10 seconds
Timeout: 31 seconds
Probe Timeout: 5 seconds
Ignore Down Response: No
Send String: (empty)
Receive String: (empty)
Secret: (empty)
Accounting Node: (empty)
Accounting Port: (empty)
Server ID: (empty)
Call ID: (empty)
Session ID: (empty)
Framed Address: (empty)
11 - 30
Configuring Monitors
WMI
You use a WMI monitor to check the performance of a pool or virtual server
that is running the Windows Management Infrastructure (WMI) data
collection agent and then dynamically load balances traffic accordingly.
Unlike health monitors, performance monitors do not report on the status of
a pool, pool member, or virtual server. You generally use performance
monitors such as a WMI monitor with dynamic ratio load balancing. For
more information on performance monitors and dynamic ratio load
balancing, see Chapter 7, Load Balancing with the Global Traffic Manager.
The following list shows the settings and default values of a WMI monitor.
Type: WMI
Import Settings: wmi
Interval: 30 seconds
Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Global Traffic ManagerTM
11 - 31
Chapter 11
Metric
GetCPUInfo
LoadPercentage (%)
1.0
80
GetOSInfo
PhysicalMemoryUsage (%)
1.0
80
VirtualMemoryUsage (%)
1.0
80
NumberRunningProcesses
1.0
100
GetDiskInfo
DiskUsage (%)
1.0
90
GetPerfCounters
TotalKBytesPerSec
1.0
10,000
ConnectionAttemptsPerSec
1.0
500
CurrentConnections
1.0
500
GETRequestsPerSec
1.0
500
PUTRequestsPerSec
1.0
500
POSTRequestsPerSec
1.0
500
AnonymousUsersPerSec
1.0
500
CurrentAnonymousUsers
1.0
500
11 - 32
Default
Coefficient
Command
Configuring Monitors
Command
GetWinMediaInfo
Metric
Default
Coefficient
Default
Threshold
NonAnonymousUsersPerSec
1.0
500
CurrentNonAnonymousUser
1.0
500
CGIRequestsPerSec
1.0
500
CurrentCGIRequests
1.0
500
ISAPIRequestsPerSec
1.0
500
CurrentISAPIRequests
1.0
500
AggregateReadRate
1.0
10,000
Kbps
AggregateSendRate
1.0
10,000
Kbps
ActiveLiveUnicastStreams
1.0
1000
ActiveStreams
1.0
1000
ActiveTCPStreams
1.0
1000
ActiveUDPStreams
1.0
1000
AllocatedBandwidth
1.0
10,000
Kbps
AuthenticationRequests
1.0
1000
AuthenticationsDenied
1.0
100
AuthorizationRequests
1.0
1000
AuthorizationsRefused
1.0
100
ConnectedClients
1.0
500
ConnectionRate
1.0
500
HTTPStreams
1.0
1000
HTTPStreamsReadingHeader
1.0
500
HTTPStreamsStreamingBody
1.0
500
LateReads
1.0
100
PendingConnections
1.0
100
11 - 33
Chapter 11
Command
Metric
Default
Threshold
PluginErrors
1.0
100
PluginEvents
1.0
100
SchedulingRate
1.0
100
StreamErrors
1.0
100
StreamTerminations
1.0
100
UDPResendRequests
1.0
100
UDPResendsSent
1.0
100
11 - 34
Default
Coefficient
Configuring Monitors
Setting destinations
By default, the value for the Alias Address setting for most monitors is set
to the wildcard * Addresses, and the Alias Service Port setting is set to the
wildcard * Ports (exceptions to this rule are the WMI and Real Server
monitors). This value causes the monitor instance created for a pool or
virtual server to take that resources address or address and port as its
destination. You can, however, replace either or both wildcard symbols with
an explicit destination value, by creating a custom monitor. An explicit
value for the Alias Address and/or Alias Service Port setting is used to
force the instance destination to a specific address and/or port which may
not be that of the pool or virtual server.
The ECV monitors http, https, and tcp have the settings Send String and
Receive String for the send string and receive expression, respectively.
The most common Send String value is GET /, which retrieves a default
HTML page for a web site. To retrieve a specific page from a web site, you
can enter a Send String value that is a fully qualified path name:
"GET /www/support/customer_info_form.html"
The Receive String expression is the text string the monitor looks for in the
returned resource. The most common Receive String expressions contain a
text string that is included in a particular HTML page on your site. The text
string can be regular text, HTML tags, or image names.
The sample Receive expression below searches for a standard HTML tag:
"<HEAD>"
You can also use the default null Receive String value [""]. In this case,
any content retrieved is considered a match. If both the Send String and
Receive String are left empty, only a simple connection check is performed.
For HTTP monitors, you can use the special settings get or hurl in place of
Send String and Receive String statements, respectively.
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Chapter 11
Transparent setting
Sometimes it is necessary to ping the aliased destination through a
transparent pool or virtual server. When you create a custom monitor and
set the Transparent setting to Yes, the Global Traffic Manager forces
the monitor to ping through the pool or virtual server with which it is
associated (usually a firewall) to the pool or virtual server. (In other
words, if there are two firewalls in a load balancing pool, the destination
pool or virtual server is always pinged through the pool or virtual server
specified and not through the pool or virtual server selected by the load
balancing method.) In this way, the transparent pool or virtual server is
tested: if there is no response, the transparent pool or virtual server is
marked as down.
Common examples are checking a router, or checking a mail or FTP
server through a firewall. For example, you might want to check the
router address 10.10.10.53:80 through a transparent firewall
10.10.10.101:80. To do this, you create a monitor called http_trans in
which you specify 10.10.10.53:80 as the monitor destination address,
and set the Transparent setting to Yes. Then you associate the monitor
http_trans with the transparent firewall (10.10.10.101:80).
This causes the monitor to check the address 10.10.10 53:80 through
10.10.10.101:80. (In other words, the Global Traffic Manager routes the
check of 10.10.10.53:80 through 10.10.10.101:80.) If the correct
response is not received from 10.10.10.53:80, then 10.10.10.101:80 is
marked down. For more information on associating monitors with virtual
servers, see Associating monitors with resources, on page 11-38.
Reverse setting
In most monitor settings, the Global Traffic Manager considers the
resource available when the monitor successfully probes it. However, in
some cases you may want the resource to be considered unavailable after
a successful monitor test. You accomplish this configuration with the
Reverse setting. With the Reverse setting set to Yes, the monitor marks
the pool or virtual server down when the test is successful. For example,
if the content on your web site home page is dynamic and changes
frequently, you may want to set up a reverse ECV service check that
looks for the string: Error. A match for this string means that the web
server was down.
Table 11.5 shows the monitors that contain the Transparent setting, the
Reverse setting, or both.
Monitor Type
Setting
Gateway ICMP
Transparent
N/A
TCP
Transparent
Reverse
HTTP
Transparent
Reverse
HTTPS
Transparent
Reverse
Configuring Monitors
Monitor Type
Setting
TCP
Transparent
Reverse
Transparent
N/A
UDP
Transparent
N/A
For information about the command syntax you use to change this variable,
see the gtm settings component in the Traffic Management Shell (tmsh)
Reference Guide.
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Monitor-to-pool association
Links a monitor with an entire load balancing pool. In this case, the
monitor checks all members of the pool. For example, you can create an
instance of the monitor http for the pool my_pool, thus ensuring that all
members of that pool are checked.
Configuring Monitors
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Managing monitors
The procedures for adding and removing monitors are specific to the
resource. See Chapter 5, Defining the Physical Network, and Chapter 6,
Defining the Logical Network, for information on adding and removing
monitors from a resource.
In addition to adding and removing monitors from network resources, you
can interact with monitors in the following ways:
Displaying monitor settings
Deleting monitors
Enabling and disabling monitor instances
Deleting monitors
In the event that your configuration of the Global Traffic Manager no longer
requires a specific monitor, you can delete the monitor. You cannot delete a
monitor that has one or more instances assigned to resources on your
network. See Chapter 5, Defining the Physical Network, and Chapter 6,
Defining the Logical Network, for information on adding and removing
monitors from a resource.
To delete a monitor
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Global Traffic and
click Monitors.
The main monitors screen opens.
2. Check the Select box for the monitor that you want to delete.
3. Click the Delete button.
A confirmation message opens.
4. Click the Delete button to delete the monitor.
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Configuring Monitors
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12
Viewing Statistics
Introducing statistics
Accessing statistics
Viewing the Status Summary screen
Understanding the types of statistics
Understanding persistence records
Viewing Statistics
Introducing statistics
One of the most important aspects of managing a network is timely access to
accurate information on network performance. This information can verify
that the Global Traffic Manager is handling your name resolution requests
as efficiently as possible, as well as provide data on the overall performance
of a specific resource, such as a data center or distributed application.
The Global Traffic Manager gathers statistical data on multiple aspects of
your network. You access these statistics through the statistics screen. The
types of statistics you can select from this screen include:
A summary of network components, as defined in the Global Traffic
Manager
Distributed applications
Wide IPs
Pools
Data centers
Links
Servers
Virtual servers
iRules
Paths
Local DNS
The Global Traffic Manager also contains persistence records. A persistence
record provides information on network load balancing when the
persistence option is enabled for a given pool or virtual server. This option
ensures that the system sends name resolution from the same source within a
given session to the same resource on your network.
The Global Traffic Manager gathers statistics through a software component
called the big3d agent. This agent probes the various monitors that you
assign to your network components, and returns statistics based on those
monitors. The gtmd utility manages those monitors, determining when to
probe and when to time out the probe attempts.
Statistics are often paired with metrics collection; however, the two have
different roles. Statistics pertain to a broad set of data that focuses on how
often a given set of resources are used and how well those resources are
performing. Metrics collection, on the other hand, focuses specifically on
data that relates to overall communication between the Global Traffic
Manager and a Local DNS. Unlike statistics, metrics collection is designed
to provide performance data, as opposed to usage or historical data. See
Chapter 13, Collecting Metrics, for more information on metrics.
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Accessing statistics
You can access Global Traffic Manager statistics in two ways:
Through the Statistics option on the Main tab of the navigation pane
Through the Statistics menu from various main screens for different
components
Both methods take you to the same screen within the Global Traffic
Manager. When you access statistics through a menu on the main screen for
a given network component, the Statistics screen is pre-configured for the
given network element, although you can switch to a different set of
statistics at any time.
Additionally, you can use the search feature to locate a specific component
or group of components. The default search value is an asterisk (*), which
instructs the system to display all relevant components in a list. You can
type a string in the box, and when you click the Search button, the system
modifies the list to show only those components that match the string. For
more information about how the search feature works, see Locating a
component using the search feature, on page 2-6.
Tip
You can also access statistics from the command line using the tmsh
command show. For more information about viewing statistics using tmsh,
see the Traffic Management Shell (tmsh) Reference Guide.
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Viewing Statistics
Object Type
The Object Type column describes the specific resource type. These
types are: distributed application, wide IPs, pools, data centers, links, and
servers.
Total
The Total column describes the total number of resources of the type
corresponding to the Object Type column, regardless of whether the
resource is available.
Available
The Available column describes the total number of resources of the type
corresponding to the Object Type column that the Global Traffic
Manager can verify as available.
Unavailable
The Unavailable column describes the total number of resources of the
type corresponding to the Object Type column that the Global Traffic
Manager can verify as unavailable.
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Offline
The Offline column describes the total number of resources of the type
corresponding to the Object Type column that the Global Traffic
Manager can verify as offline.
Unknown
The Available column describes the total number of resources of the type
corresponding to the Object Type column that the Global Traffic
Manager can verify as available.
Each value within the Total, Available, Unavailable, Offline, and Unknown
columns is a link. When you click the link, you access the main screen for
that resource, with the list of resources filtered to show only those resources
with the corresponding status. For example, if the Available column for data
centers has a value of 5, clicking the 5 brings up a filtered main screen for
data centers that shows only the five data centers that are available.
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Distributed applications
The statistics for distributed applications provide you with information
on what distributed applications exist, what wide IPs make up that
application, and how the Global Traffic Manager has load balanced
traffic to the application.
Wide IPs
The statistics for wide IPs provide you with information on what wide
IPs exist and how the Global Traffic Manager has load balanced traffic to
the wide IP.
Pools
The statistics for pools provide details on how the Global Traffic
Manager has load balanced traffic to each pool.
Data centers
The statistics for data centers revolve around the amount of traffic
flowing to and from each data center.
Links
The statistics for links focus on how much traffic is flowing in and out
through a specific link to the Internet.
Servers
The statistics for servers display the amount of traffic flowing to and
from each server.
Virtual servers
The statistics for virtual servers provide information on the amount of
traffic flowing to and from each virtual server.
Viewing Statistics
Paths
The statistics for paths provide information on how quickly traffic moves
between a Local DNS and a resource for which the Global Traffic
Manager is responsible.
Local DNS
The statistics for local DNS servers provide location details related to the
different Local DNS servers that communicate with the Global Traffic
Manager.
Status
The Status column indicates the current status of the wide IP. The
available status types are: Available, Unavailable, Offline, and
Unknown. Each status type is represented by a symbol; for example, the
available status type is represented by a green circle.
Distributed Application
The Distributed Application column displays the name of an application
for which the Global Traffic Manager is responsible. Each name appears
as a link. When you click the link, the properties screen for the
distributed application opens.
Members
The Members column provides a link that opens a wide IP details screen
for the distributed application. This screen displays load balancing
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statistics for each pool within the distributed application. You can return
to the main distributed application statistics screen by clicking the Back
button in the Display Options area of the screen.
Requests
The Requests column displays the cumulative number of DNS requests
sent to the distributed application.
Load Balancing
The Load Balancing column provides information on how the Global
Traffic Manager load balanced connection requests to this resource. This
column consists of four subcolumns:
The Preferred subcolumn displays the cumulative number of requests
that the Global Traffic Manager load balanced with the preferred load
balancing method.
The Alternate subcolumn displays the cumulative number of requests
that the Global Traffic Manager load balanced with the alternate load
balancing method.
The Fallback subcolumn displays the cumulative number of requests
that the Global Traffic Manager load balanced with the Fallback load
balancing method.
The Returned to DNS subcolumn displays the cumulative number of
requests that the Global Traffic Manager did not resolve and returned
to the Domain Name Server (DNS).
Wide IP statistics
The Global Traffic Manager captures several statistics related to the
performance of a wide IP. These statistics primarily focus on how many
resolution requests have been sent for the wide IP, and how the Global
Traffic Manager has load balanced these requests. You can access the wide
IP statistics by selecting Wide IPs from the Statistics Type list in the
Statistics screen. For information on accessing the Statistics screen, see
Accessing statistics, on page 12-2.
As an example of wide IP statistics, consider the fictional company
SiteRequest. The IT department at SiteRequest has a wide IP,
www.siterequest.com, which uses the Global Availability load balancing
mode. This mode sends all name resolution requests for this wide IP to a
specific pool until that pool is unavailable. Because the wide IP,
www.siterequest.com, is critical to SiteRequests operations, the IT
department wants to track traffic to the wide IP and ensure that the primary
pool is not at risk of getting overloaded. The wide IP statistics provide the
IT department the information they need to see how many requests are being
sent for the wide IP, allowing them to plan additional resource allocations
more effectively.
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Viewing Statistics
The wide IP statistics screen consists of a Wide IP Statistics table. This table
contains the following information:
Status
The Status column indicates the current status of the wide IP. The
available status types are: Available, Unavailable, Offline, and
Unknown. Each status type is represented by a symbol; for example, the
available status type is represented by a green circle.
Wide IP
The Wide IP column displays the name of a wide IP for which the Global
Traffic Manager is responsible. Each name appears as a link. When you
click the link, the properties screen for the wide IP opens.
Pools
The Pools column provides a link that opens a pool details screen for the
wide IP. This screen displays load balancing statistics for each pool
within the wide IP. You can return to the main wide IP statistics screen
by clicking the Back button in the Display Options area of the screen.
Requests
The Requests column displays the cumulative number of DNS requests
sent to the wide IP.
Requests Persisted
The Requests Persisted column displays the cumulative number of
requests that persisted. Persisted requests use the same pool during a
connection session.
Load Balancing
The Load Balancing column provides information on how the Global
Traffic Manager load balanced connection requests to this resource. This
column consists of four subcolumns:
The Preferred subcolumn displays the cumulative number of requests
that the Global Traffic Manager load balanced with the preferred load
balancing method.
The Alternate subcolumn displays the cumulative number of requests
that the Global Traffic Manager load balanced with the alternate load
balancing method.
The Fallback subcolumn displays the cumulative number of requests
that the Global Traffic Manager load balanced with the Fallback load
balancing method.
The Returned to DNS subcolumn displays the cumulative number of
requests that the Global Traffic Manager did not resolve and returned
to the Domain Name Server (DNS).
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Pool statistics
The pool statistics available through the Global Traffic Manager focus on
how the Global Traffic Manager has load balanced name resolution
requests. You can access the pool statistics by selecting Pools from the
Statistics Type list in the Statistics screen. For information on accessing the
Statistics screen, see Accessing statistics, on page 12-2.
As an example of pool statistics, consider the fictional company
SiteRequest. The IT department at SiteRequest has a wide IP,
www.siterequest.com, which contains pools that use the dynamic load
balancing mode, Quality of Service. This mode acquires statistical data on
response times between the Global Traffic Manager and a Local DNS server
sending a name resolution request. There has been some concern of late as
to how well this new load balancing mode is working and if the Global
Traffic Manager is able to gather the statistical information it needs to load
balance with this mode, or if it has to resort to an alternate or fallback
method. By using the pool statistics screen, the IT department can track how
many name resolution requests are load balanced using the preferred Quality
of Service method, and how many are load balanced using another method.
The pool statistics screen consists of a Pool Statistics table. This table
contains the following information:
Status
The Status column indicates the current status of the pool. The available
status types are: Available, Unavailable, Offline, and Unknown. Each
status type is represented by a symbol; for example, the available status
type is represented by a green circle.
Pool
The Pool column displays the name of a wide IP for which the Global
Traffic Manager is responsible. Each name appears as a link. When you
click the link, the properties screen for the pool opens.
Members
The Members column provides a link that opens a virtual server details
screen for the pool. This screen displays connection statistics for each
virtual server within the pool, including the number of times the virtual
server was selected for a name resolution request and the amount of
traffic flowing from and to the virtual server. You can return to the main
wide IP statistics screen by clicking the Back button in the Display
Options area of the screen.
Load Balancing
The Load Balancing column provides information on how the Global
Traffic Manager load balanced connection requests to this resource. This
column consists of four subcolumns:
The Preferred subcolumn displays the cumulative number of requests
that the Global Traffic Manager load balanced with the preferred load
balancing method.
The Alternate subcolumn displays the cumulative number of requests
that the Global Traffic Manager load balanced with the alternate load
balancing method.
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Viewing Statistics
Status
The Status column indicates the current status of the data center. The
available status types are: Available, Unavailable, Offline, and
Unknown. Each status type is represented by a symbol; for example, the
available status type is represented by a green circle.
Data Center
The Data Center column displays the name of a data center. Each name
appears as a link. When you click the link, the properties screen for the
data center opens.
Servers
The Servers column provides a link that opens a server details screen for
the data center. This screen displays connection statistics for each server
at a data center, including the number of times the server was selected for
a name resolution request and the amount of traffic flowing from and to
the server. You can return to the main data center statistics screen by
clicking the Back button in the Display Options area of the screen.
Connections
The Connections column displays the cumulative number of requests that
the Global Traffic Manager resolved using a resource from the
corresponding data center.
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Throughput (bits/sec)
The Throughput (bits/sec) column contains two subcolumns:
The In column displays the cumulative number of bits per second sent
to the data center.
The Out column displays the cumulative number of bits per second
sent from the data center.
Throughput (packets/sec)
The Throughput (packets/sec) column contains two subcolumns:
The In column displays the cumulative number of packets per second
sent to the data center.
The Out column displays the cumulative number of packets per
second sent from the data center.
Link statistics
Link statistics focus on how much traffic is flowing in and out through a
specific link to the Internet. This information can help you prevent a link
from getting over-used, saving your organization from higher bandwidth
costs. You can access the link statistics by selecting Links from the
Statistics Type list in the Statistics screen. For information on accessing the
Statistics screen, see Accessing statistics, on page 12-2.
As an example of how the statistics for data centers can help you manage
your network resources, consider the fictional company SiteRequest.
SiteRequest has two links with two different Internet Service Providers
(ISPs). The primary ISP is paid in advance for a specific amount of
bandwidth usage. This allows SiteRequest to save money, but if the
bandwidth exceeds the prepaid amount, the costs increase considerably. As
a result, the IT department uses a second ISP, which has a slower connection
but considerably lower costs. By using the links statistics, the IT department
can ensure that links to the Internet are used as efficiently as possible.
The link statistics screen consists of a Link Statistics table. This table
contains the following information:
Status
The Status column indicates the current status of the link. The available
status types are: Available, Unavailable, Offline, and Unknown. Each
status type is represented by a symbol; for example, the available status
type is represented by a green circle.
Link
The Link column displays the name of a link for which the Global
Traffic Manager is responsible. Each name appears as a link. When you
click the link, the properties screen for the link opens.
Throughput (bits/sec)
The Throughput (bits/sec) column contains four subcolumns:
The In column displays the cumulative number of bits per second sent
to the data center.
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Viewing Statistics
The Out column displays the cumulative number of bits per second
sent from the data center.
The Total column displays the cumulative number of both incoming
and outgoing bits per second for the link.
The Over Prepaid column displays the amount of traffic, in bits per
second, that has exceeded the prepaid traffic allotment for the link.
In addition to viewing the link data as a table, you can also view it in a graph
format. To use this format, click the Graph button. A graph screen opens,
which shows the amount of traffic used over time. You can change the
amount of time shown in the graph by selecting a value from the Graph
Interval list, located in the Display Options area of the screen.
Server statistics
With server statistics, you can analyze the amount of traffic flowing to and
from each server. This information can tell you if your resources are
distributed appropriately for your network. You can access the server
statistics by selecting Servers from the Statistics Type list in the Statistics
screen. For information on accessing the Statistics screen, see Accessing
statistics, on page 12-2.
As an example of how the statistics for servers can help you manage your
network resources, consider the fictional company SiteRequest. The IT
department at SiteRequest is considering whether it needs a few more
servers to better manage name resolution requests; however, there is some
debate as to whether the servers should be consolidated at the New York
data center (which the New York team prefers) or spread out over all of the
data centers. It is also possible that an under-utilized server at one data
center might be moved to another data center. By using the server statistics,
the IT department can look at how much traffic is handled by each server,
giving them the information they need to decide where these new servers, if
any, should go.
The server statistics screen consists of a Server Statistics table. This table
contains the following information:
Status
The Status column indicates the current status of the server. The
available status types are: Available, Unavailable, Offline, and
Unknown. Each status type is represented by a symbol; for example, the
available status type is represented by a green circle.
Server
The Server column displays the name of a server for which the Global
Traffic Manager is responsible. Each name appears as a link. When you
click the link, the properties screen for the server opens.
Virtual Servers
The Virtual Servers column provides a link that opens a virtual server
details screen for the server. This screen displays connection statistics for
each virtual server at a data center, including the number of times the
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virtual server was selected for a name resolution request and the amount
of traffic flowing from and to the server. You can return to the main data
center statistics screen by clicking the Back button in the Display
Options area of the screen.
Picks
The Picks column displays the cumulative number of times the Global
Traffic Manager picked a server to handle a name resolution request.
Connections
The Connections column displays the cumulative number of requests that
the Global Traffic Manager resolved using a resource from the
corresponding data center.
Throughput (bits/sec)
The Throughput (bits/sec) column contains two subcolumns:
The In column displays the cumulative number of bits per second sent
to the server.
The Out column displays the cumulative number of bits per second
sent from the server.
Throughput (packets/sec)
The Throughput (packets/sec) column contains two subcolumns:
The In column displays the cumulative number of packets per second
sent to the server.
The Out column displays the cumulative number of packets per
second sent from the server.
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Viewing Statistics
Status
The Status column indicates the current status of the server. The
available status types are: Available, Unavailable, Offline, and
Unknown. Each status type is represented by a symbol; for example, the
available status type is represented by a green circle.
Virtual Server
The Virtual Server column displays the name of a virtual server for
which the Global Traffic Manager is responsible. Each name appears as a
link. When you click the link, the properties screen for the virtual server
opens.
Server
The Servers column provides a link that opens a server details screen for
the data center. This screen displays connection statistics for each server
at a data center, including the number of times the server was selected for
a name resolution request and the amount of traffic flowing from and to
the server. You can return to the main data center statistics screen by
clicking the Back button in the Display Options area of the screen.
Picks
The Picks column displays the cumulative number of times the Global
Traffic Manager picked a server to handle a name resolution request.
Connections
The Connections column displays the cumulative number of requests that
the Global Traffic Manager resolved using a resource from the
corresponding data center.
Throughput (bits/sec)
The Throughput (bits/sec) column contains two subcolumns:
The In column displays the cumulative number of bits per second sent
to the server.
The Out column displays the cumulative number of bits per second
sent from the server.
Throughput (packets/sec)
The Throughput (packets/sec) column contains two subcolumns:
The In column displays the cumulative number of packets per second
sent to the server.
The Out column displays the cumulative number of packets per
second sent from the server.
Paths statistics
The paths statistics captured by the Global Traffic Manager provide
information on how quickly traffic moves between a local DNS and a
resource for which the Global Traffic Manager is responsible. Information
presented in the paths statistics screen includes details on round trip times
(RTT), hops, and completion rates. You can access the paths statistics by
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selecting Paths from the Statistics Type list in the Statistics screen. For
information on accessing the Statistics screen, see Accessing statistics, on
page 12-2.
Paths statistics are primarily used when you employ a dynamic load
balancing mode for a given wide IP or pool. You can use the information in
the Paths statistics to get an overall sense of how responsive your wide IPs
are in relation to the Local DNS servers that have been sending name
resolution requests to a wide IP.
The paths statistics screen consists of a paths statistics table. This table
contains the following information:
Link
The Link column displays the ISP link that the Global Traffic Manager
used to send and receive data from the Local DNS.
Hops
The Hops column contains two subcolumns:
The Current subcolumn displays the current number of hops between
the Local DNS and the Global Traffic Manager.
The Average subcolumn displays the average number of hops
between the Local DNS and the Global Traffic Manager.
Completion Rate
The Completion Rate column contains two subcolumns:
The Current subcolumn displays the current completion rate of
transactions between the Local DNS and the Global Traffic Manager.
The Average subcolumn displays the average completion rate of
transactions between the Local DNS and the Global Traffic Manager.
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Viewing Statistics
IP Address
The IP Address column displays the IP address of each Local DNS that
has sent a name resolution request for a wide IP for which the Global
Traffic Manager is responsible.
Requests
The Requests column displays the number of times this Local DNS has
made a name resolution request that the Global Traffic Manager handled.
Last Accessed
The Last Accessed column displays the last time the Local DNS
attempted a connection to the Global Traffic Manager.
Location
The Location column contains four subcolumns:
The Continent subcolumn displays the continent on which the Local
DNS resides.
The Country subcolumn displays the country in which the Local DNS
is located.
The State subcolumn displays the state in which the Local DNS is
located.
The City subcolumn displays the city in which the Local DNS is
located.
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Level
The Level column displays the level at which the persistent connection is
based. Available types are wide IPs and distributed applications.
Destination
The Destination column displays the wide IP or distributed application to
which the name resolution request was directed.
Target Type
The Target Type column displays the type of resource on which
persistence is based. Examples of target types include data centers,
servers, pools, and virtual servers.
Target Name
The Target Name column displays the name of the resource on which
persistence is based.
Expires
The Expires column displays the time at which the persistence for the
given LDNS request expires.
13
Collecting Metrics
Collecting Metrics
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Defining metrics
When you decide to use the Global Traffic Manager to collect metrics on the
LDNS servers that attempt to access your network resources, you can define
the following characteristics:
Types of metrics collected (either hops, paths, both, or disabled)
Time-to-live (TTL) values for each metric
Frequency at which the system updates the data
Size of a packet sent (relevant for hop metrics only)
Length of time that can pass before the system times out the collection
attempt
Number of packets sent for each collection attempt
While each of these settings is important, the ones that perhaps require the
most planning beforehand are the TTL values. In general, the lower the TTL
value, the more often the Global Traffic Manager probes an LDNS. This
improves the accuracy of the data, but increases bandwidth usage.
Conversely, increasing the TTL value for a metric lowers the bandwidth
your network uses, but increases the chance that the Global Traffic Manager
is basing its load balancing operations off of stale data
An additional consideration is the number of LDNS servers that the Global
Traffic Manager queries. The more LDNS servers that the system queries,
the more bandwidth is required to ensure those queries are successful.
Therefore, setting the TTL values for metrics collection can require
incremental fine-tuning. F5 Networks recommends that you periodically
check the TTL values, and verify that they are appropriate for your network.
To define metrics
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand System and click
Configuration.
The General properties screen opens.
2. From the Global Traffic menu, choose Metrics Collection.
The metrics collection screen opens.
3. In the Configuration area, assign values to the metrics-related
settings.
For detailed information about these settings, see the online help.
4. Click the Update button.
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Collecting Metrics
DNS_REV
The DNS_REV probe sends a DNS message to the probe target LDNS
querying for a resource record of class IN, type PTR. Most versions of
DNS answer with a record containing their fully-qualified domain name.
The system makes these requests only to measure network latency and
packet loss; it does not use the information contained in the responses.
DNS_DOT
The DNS.DOT probe sends a DNS message to the probe target LDNS
querying for a dot (.). If the LDNS is not blocking queries from unknown
addresses, it answers with a list of root name servers. The system makes
these requests only to measure network latency and packet loss; it does
not use the information contained in the responses.
UDP
The UDP probe uses the user datagram protocol (UDP) to query the
responsiveness of an LDNS. The UDP protocol provides simple but
unreliable datagram services. The UDP protocol adds a checksum and
additional process-to-process addressing information. UDP is a
connectionless protocol which, like TCP, is layered on top of IP. UDP
neither guarantees delivery nor requires a connection. As a result, it is
lightweight and efficient, but the application program must take care of
all error processing and retransmission.
TCP
The TCP probe uses the transmission control protocol (TCP) to query the
responsiveness of an LDNS. The TCP protocol is the most common
transport layer protocol used on Ethernet and Internet. The TCP protocol
adds reliable communication, flow-control, multiplexing, and
connection-oriented communication. It provides full-duplex,
process-to-process connections. TCP is connection-oriented and
stream-oriented.
ICMP
The ICMP probe uses the Internet control message protocol (ICMP) to
query the responsiveness of an LDNS. The ICMP protocol is an
extension to the Internet Protocol (IP). The ICMP protocol generates
error messages, test packets, and informational messages related to IP.
With these probes, it does not matter if the Global Traffic Manager receives
a valid response, such as the name of the LDNS, as queried by the
DNS_REV probe, or a request refused statement. The relevant information
is the metrics generated between the probe request and the response. For
example, the Global Traffic Manager uses the DNS_REV probe to query
Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Global Traffic ManagerTM
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Chapter 13
two LDNS servers. The first LDNS responds to the probe with its name, as
per the request. The second LDNS, however, responds with a request
refused statement, because it is configured to not allow such requests. In
both cases, the probe was successful, because the Global Traffic Manager
was able to acquire data on how long it took for both LDNS servers to
respond to the probe.
You can configure the Global Traffic Manager to use a select number of
probes, or you can assign all five. The more probes that the Global Traffic
Manager uses, the more bandwidth is required.
To assign a probe
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand System and click
Configuration.
The General screen opens.
2. From the Global Traffic menu, choose Metrics Collection.
The metrics collection screen opens.
3. In the Local DNS (LDNS) area, use the options provided in the
Metrics Collection Protocol option to assign the relevant probes.
4. In the Metrics Caching box, define the number of seconds for
which the Global Traffic Manager keeps the collected metrics data.
This value determines how often the system probes a given LDNS.
The default value is 3600 seconds, or one hour.
5. In the Inactive Local DNS TTL box, define the number of seconds
for which an LDNS can be inactive before the Global Traffic
Manager considers it inactive.
The Global Traffic Manager stops probing LDNS servers that are
considered inactive. The default value is 2419200, or 28 days.
6. Click the Update button to save your changes.
13 - 4
Collecting Metrics
Description
Default number of
seconds
Hops TTL
604800
(seven days)
Paths TTL
2400
604800
(seven days)
2419200
(28 days)
Each resource also has a timer value. A timer value defines the frequency
(measured in seconds) at which the Global Traffic Manager refreshes the
metrics information it collects. In most cases, the default values for the TTL
and timer parameters are adequate. However, if you make changes to any
TTL or timer values, keep in mind that an objects TTL value must be
greater than its timer value.
Table 13.2 describes each timer value, as well as its default setting.
Parameter
Description
Default
Metrics Caching
Specifies the interval (in seconds) at which the Global Traffic Manager
archives the paths and metrics data.
3600
Specifies how long (in seconds) the BIG-IP system waits before
attempting another probe, if a previous probe failed.
120
Timeout
Specifies the number of seconds that the big3d agent waits for a
probe.
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Collecting Metrics
13 - 7
Chapter 13
13 - 8
14
Viewing Performance Data
14 - 1
Chapter 14
14 - 2
15
Managing iRules
Managing iRules
What is an iRule?
An iRule is a script that you write if you want individual connections to
target a pool other than the default pool defined for a virtual server. iRules
allow you to more directly specify the pools to which you want traffic to be
directed. Using iRules, you can send traffic not only to pools, but also to
individual pool members or hosts.
The iRules you create can be simple or sophisticated, depending on your
content-switching needs. Figure 15.1 shows an example of a simple iRule.
when DNS_REQUEST {
if { [IP::addr [IP::client_addr] equals 10.10.10.10] } {
pool my_pool
}
}
15 - 1
Chapter 15
The syntax that you use to write iRules is based on the Tool Command
Language (Tcl) programming standard. Thus, you can use many of the
standard Tcl commands, plus a set of extensions that the Global Traffic
Manager provides to help you further increase load balancing efficiency.
For information about standard Tcl syntax, see the Tcl Reference Manual at
http://tmml.sourceforge.net/doc/tcl/index.html.
Creating iRules
You can create an iRule using the Configuration utility.
To create an iRule
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Global Traffic and
click iRules.
The iRules screen opens.
2. Click the Create button.
3. In the Name box, type a 1- to 31-character name.
4. In the Definition box, type the syntax for your iRule.
5. If you want to expand the length of the Definition box, check
Extend Text Area. Also, if you want the contents of the iRule to
wrap within the box, check Wrap Text.
6. Click the Finished button to save your changes.
For detailed syntax information on writing iRules, see pages 15-4 through
15-9.
15 - 2
Managing iRules
Assigning iRules
Within the Global Traffic Manager, you assign iRules to the wide IPs in
your network configuration.
To assign an iRule
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Global Traffic and
then click Wide IPs.
The main screen for wide IPs opens.
2. Click the name of the wide IP to which you want to assign an iRule.
The properties screen for the wide IP opens.
3. On the menu bar, click iRules.
The main iRules screen for the wide IP opens.
4. Click the Manage button.
The Manage iRules screen opens.
5. From the iRule list, select an appropriate iRule.
6. Click the Add button.
The new rule appears in the list of assigned iRules.
7. Click the Finished button to save your changes.
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Chapter 15
Specifying events
The iRules feature includes several types of event declarations that you can
make in an iRule. Specifying an event declaration determines when the
Global Traffic Manager evaluates the iRule. The following sections list and
describe these event types. Also described is the concept of iRule context
and the use of the when keyword.
Event types
The event declarations that you can make in an iRule are listed in Table
15.1.
iRule Event
Description
DNS_REQUEST
LB_SELECTED
Triggered when the Global Traffic Manager has selected a target node.
LB_FAILED
Triggered when a connection to the server was unable to complete. This might
occur if the pool has no available members or a selected pool member is
otherwise not available.
RULE_INIT
Triggered when an iRule that contains the RULE_INIT event is changed, or when
the gtmd utility restarts.
Note that only the following commands are valid with this event: whoami,
whereami, crc32, findstr, log, substr, and whereis.
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Managing iRules
15 - 5
Chapter 15
Description
discard
drop
if { <expression> } {
<statement_command>
}
Asks a true or false question and, depending on the answer, takes some
action.
elseif { <expression> } {
<statement_command>
}
Note that the maximum number of if statements that you can nest in an iRule
is 100.
Causes the Global Traffic Manager to load balance traffic to the named pool.
This statement must be conditionally associated with an if statement.
Optionally, you can specify a specific pool member to which you want to direct
the traffic.
reject
return
15 - 6
Managing iRules
Description
cname <cname>
Returns the number of pools or a list of pools in the wide IP that are
in the specified state. If you do not specify a state, returns all pools.
ttl <value>
wideip name
15 - 7
Chapter 15
Description
findstr
Finds a string within another string and returns the string starting at the offset specified from the
match.
substr
Finds a string within another string and returns the string starting at the offset specified from the
match.
findclass
Finds the member of a data group that contains the result of the specified expression, and returns
that data group member or the portion following the separator, if a separator was provided.
host
Description
crc32 <string>
Returns the crc32 checksum for the provided string, or if an error occurs, an empty string. Used to
ensure data integrity.
md5 <string>
Returns the RSA Data Security, Inc. MD5 Message Digest Algorithm (md5) message digest of the
provided string, or if an error occurs, an empty string. Used to ensure data integrity.
15 - 8
Managing iRules
Description
Returns the name of the server selected for a load balancing operation.
Returns the number or list of pool members in the specified pool that are in
the specified state. If you do not specify a state, returns all pool members.
uptime
Returns the number of seconds the local Global Traffic Manager has been up.
whereami
Returns the datacenter name for the local Global Traffic Manager.
whoami
Returns the server name for the local Global Traffic Manager.
Local Traffic Manager virtual servers can have a pool with multiple nodes. If
there is not a monitor on the Local Traffic Manager side, the server is blue.
However, the Global Traffic Manager interprets this blue virtual server as
green, and the nodes_up value is 1.
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Chapter 15
IP commands
The Global Traffic Manager supports the following IP commands.
Protocol Command
Description
IP::remote_addr
Returns the IP address of the client for a given name resolution request.
Equivalent to IP::client_addr.
IP::local_addr
Returns the IP address of the server for a given name resolution request.
Equivalent to IP::server_addr.
IP::client_addr
Returns the IP address of the client for a given name resolution request.
Equivalent to IP::remote_addr.
IP::server_addr
Returns the IP address of the server for a given name resolution request.
Equivalent to IP::local_addr.
IP::protocol
TCP commands
The Global Traffic Manager supports the following TCP commands.
Protocol Command
Description
TCP::client_port
TCP::server_port
UDP commands
The Global Traffic Manager supports the following UDP commands.
Protocol Command
Description
UDP::client_port
UDP::server_port
15 - 10
Managing iRules
Removing iRules
Within the Global Traffic Manager, you can remove an iRule from a wide IP
at any time.
To remove an iRule
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Global Traffic and
then click Wide IPs.
The main screen for wide IPs opens.
2. Click the name of the wide IP to which you want to assign an iRule.
The properties screen for the wide IP opens.
3. On the menu bar, click iRules.
The main iRules screen for the wide IP opens.
4. Click the Manage button
The Manage iRules screen opens.
5. Select the iRule that you want to remove, and then click Remove.
6. Click the Finished button to save your changes.
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15 - 12
16
Managing DNS Files with ZoneRunner
Introducing ZoneRunner
Working with zone files
Working with resource records
Working with views
Managing the named.conf file
Introducing ZoneRunner
One of the modes in which you can operate the Global Traffic Manager
system is the node mode. In node mode, the Global Traffic Manager is
responsible not only for load balancing name resolution requests and
monitoring the health of your physical and logical network; it is also
responsible for maintaining the DNS zone files that map name resolution
requests to the appropriate network resource.
In the Global Traffic Manager, you create, manage, and maintain DNS files
using the ZoneRunner utility. The ZoneRunner utility is a zone file
management utility that can manage both DNS zone files and your BIND
configuration. With the ZoneRunner utility, you can:
Manage the DNS zones and zone files for your network, including
importing and transferring zone files
Manage the resource records for those zones
Manage views (a BIND 9 feature)
Manage a local name server and its configuration file, named.conf
In the Configuration utility, you must configure a zone before you configure
any other objects in the ZoneRunner utility.
The remainder of this chapter discusses these tasks in detail.
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16 - 2
Primary (Master)
Zone files for a primary zone contain, at minimum, the start of authority
(SOA) and name server (NS) resource records for the zone. Primary
zones are authoritative, that is, they respond to DNS queries for the
domain or sub-domain. A zone can have only one SOA record, and must
have at least one NS record.
Secondary (Slave)
Zone files for a secondary zone are copies of the principal zone files. At
an interval specified in the SOA record, secondary zones query the
primary zone to check for and obtain updated zone data. A secondary
zone responds authoritatively for the zone as long as the zone data is
valid.
Stub
Stub zones are similar to secondary zones, except that stub zones contain
only the NS records for the zone. Note that stub zones are a specific
feature of the BIND implementation of DNS. F5 Networks recommends
that you use stub zones only if you have a specific requirement for this
functionality.
Forward
The zone file for a forwarding zone contains only information to forward
DNS queries to another name server on a per-zone (or per-domain) basis.
Hint
The zone file for a hint zone specifies an initial set of root name servers
for the zone. Whenever the local name server starts, it queries a root
name server in the hint zone file to obtain the most recent list of root
name servers.
To create a zone
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Global Traffic and
click ZoneRunner.
The Resource Records List screen opens.
2. On the menu bar, click Zone List.
The Zone List screen opens.
3. Click the Create button.
The New Zone screen opens.
4. From the View Name list, select a view with which to associate the
new zone.
5. In the Zone Name box, type a fully-qualified domain name for the
zone.
Note: Do not forget the trailing dot ( . ) at the end of the name.
6. From the Zone Type list, select the type of zone that you are
configuring.
The screen refreshes to display the configuration settings for the
zone type.
Each zone type has unique characteristics. The following sections describe
how to create each zone type.
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Chapter 16
Modifying zones
You can use the ZoneRunner utility to modify zones on an as-needed basis.
For example, you can increase or decrease the time-to-live (TTL) value for
the zone, or change the master server for the zone.
You can also add resource records to an existing zone file. For more
information, see Working with resource records, on page 16-12.
To modify a zone
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Global Traffic and
click ZoneRunner.
The Resource Records List screen opens.
2. On the menu bar, click Zone List.
The main screen for the zone opens.
3. Click the name of the zone that you want to modify.
The properties screen for the zone opens.
4. Modify the settings for the zone as needed.
5. Click the Update button to save your changes.
16 - 10
Deleting zones
With the ZoneRunner utility, you can delete zones that either have become
obsolete or are no longer relevant to the Global Traffic Manager due to a
network configuration change. For example, you might adjust your name
servers, after which the Global Traffic Manager is no longer responsible for
a specific zone.
To delete a zone
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Global Traffic and
click ZoneRunner.
The Resource Records List screen opens.
2. On the menu bar, click Zone List.
The main screen for the zone opens.
3. Click the Select box next to the zone name that you want to delete.
4. Click the Delete button.
A confirmation screen opens.
5. Click the Delete button again to delete the zone.
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Chapter 16
Although case is preserved in names and data fields when loaded into the
name server, comparisons and lookups in the name server database are not
case-sensitive.
16 - 12
A (Address)
The Address record, or A record, lists the IP address for a given host
name. The name field is the hosts name, and the address is the network
interface address. There should be one A record for each IP address of
the machine.
MX (Mail Exchanger)
The Mail Exchange resource record, MX, defines the mail system(s) for
a given domain.
NS (Name Server)
The name server resource record, NS, defines the name servers for a
given domain, creating a delegation point and a subzone. The first name
field specifies the zone that is served by the name server that is specified
in the name servers name field. Every zone needs at least one name
server.
PTR (Pointer)
A name pointer resource record, PTR, associates a host name with a
given IP address. These records are used for reverse name lookups.
SRV (Service)
The Service resource record, SRV, is a pointer that allows an alias for a
given service to be redirected to another domain. For example, if the
fictional company SiteRequest had an FTP archive hosted on
archive.siterequest.com, the IT department can create an SRV record
that allows an alias, ftp.siterequest.com to be redirected to
archive.siterequest.com.
TXT (Text)
The Text resource record, TXT, allows you to supply any string of
information, such as the location of a server or any other relevant
information that you want available.
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Chapter 16
6. In the TTL box, type the time-to-live value for the record.
7. From the Type list, select the type of resource record that you are
configuring.
The screen refreshes to display the configuration settings for the
resource record type.
8. Configure settings as needed.
9. Click the Finished button to save your changes.
Each resource record type has unique characteristics. The following sections
describe how to create each resource record type, using the steps listed in
this procedure, and specifying details for each record type.
To create an A record
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Global Traffic and
click ZoneRunner.
The Resource Records List screen opens.
2. Click the Create button.
The New Resource Record screen opens.
3. From the View Name list, select a view with which to associate the
new zone.
4. In the Zone Name box, select the zone with which this record is
associated.
5. In the Name box, type the name for the resource record.
6. In the TTL box, type the time-to-live value for the record.
7. From the Type list, select A.
The screen refreshes to display the configuration options for an A
resource record.
8. In the IP Address box, type the IP address for the A record.
9. If you want to create a reverse record that corresponds to this record,
for the Create Reverse Record option, check the Enable box.
10. Click the Finished button to save your changes.
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Chapter 16
16 - 16
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Chapter 16
To create an MX record
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Global Traffic and
click ZoneRunner.
The Resource Records List screen opens.
2. Click the Create button.
The New Resource Record screen opens.
3. From the View Name list, select a view with which to associate the
new zone.
4. In the Zone Name box, select the zone with which this record is
associated.
5. In the Name box, type the name for the resource record.
6. In the TTL box, type the time-to-live value for the record.
7. From the Type list, select MX.
The screen refreshes to display the configuration options for an MX
resource record.
8. In the Preference box, type the preference for the mail server.
Preference is a numeric value for the preference of this mail
exchange host relevant to all other mail exchange hosts for the
domain. Lower numbers indicate a higher preference, or priority.
9. In the Mail Server box, type the appropriate domain name for the
mail server.
10. Click the Finished button to save your changes.
To create an NS record
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Global Traffic and
click ZoneRunner.
The Resource Records List screen opens.
2. Click the Create button.
The New Resource Record screen opens.
3. From the View Name list, select a view with which to associate the
new zone.
4. In the Zone Name box, select the zone with which this record is
associated.
16 - 18
5. In the Name box, type the name for the resource record.
6. In the TTL box, type the time-to-live value for the record.
7. From the Type list, select NS.
The screen refreshes to display the configuration options for an NS
resource record.
8. In the Name Server box, type the appropriate domain name for the
resource record.
9. Click the Finished button to save your changes.
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16 - 20
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Chapter 16
16 - 22
Adding views
If you have a DNS that is accessed from multiple communities, you can
create a view for each community. Depending on the community, the name
server uses a different configuration for resolving name requests.
To add a view
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Global Traffic and
click ZoneRunner.
The Resource Records List screen opens.
2. On the menu bar, click View List.
The View List screen opens.
3. Click the Create button.
The New View screen opens.
4. In the View Name box, type a name for the view.
5. From the View Order list, select where the view resides in the view
hierarchy for the name server.
6. In the Options box, specify the criteria that determines when the
DNS should use the zone files associated with this view.
7. Click the Finished button to save your changes.
Modifying views
As the needs of the communities attempting to access the Global Traffic
Manager as a DNS change, you might need to modify your views. Through
the ZoneRunner utility, you can modify a view at any time.
To modify a view
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Global Traffic and
click ZoneRunner.
The Resource Records List screen opens.
2. On the menu bar, click View List.
The View List screen opens.
3. Click the name of the view you want to modify.
The properties screen for the view opens.
4. Modify the view settings as needed. Note that you cannot change
the name of the view.
5. Click Update to apply your changes.
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Chapter 16
Deleting views
If a view is no longer necessary for your name resolutions, you can delete it
from the ZoneRunner utility.
To delete a view
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Global Traffic and
click ZoneRunner.
The Resource Records List screen opens.
2. On the menu bar, click View List.
The View List screen opens.
3. Click the Select box next to the name of the view that you want to
delete.
4. Click the Delete button.
A confirmation screen opens.
5. Click the Delete button again to delete the view.
16 - 24
In the following procedure, we assume that you are fully familiar with the
named.conf file and the syntax of its contents. Modifying the named.conf
file carries a high level of risk, as a syntax error can prevent the entire
BIND system from performing as expected. For this reason, F5 Networks
recommends that you use the user interface of the ZoneRunner utility
whenever possible, and that you exercise caution when editing the
named.conf file.
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Chapter 16
16 - 26
A
Working with the big3d Agent
F5 Networks recommends that you have at least one BIG-IP system running
the big3d agent in each data center in your network. This ensures that the
Global Traffic Manager has timely access to the metrics associated with
network traffic.
Important
A-1
Appendix A
A-2
Server performance
The big3d agent returns server metrics, such as the packet rate, for
BIG-IP systems or SNMP-enabled hosts. The Global Traffic Manager
uses packet rate to determine the best virtual server to answer the request
when a pool uses the Packet Rate, KBPS, Least Connections, or Quality
of Service load balancing modes.
A-3
Appendix A
A-4
type
generic
box {
address 10.1.0.1
unit_id 1
}
monitor "http"
vs {
name
"Generic_VS1"
address
10.1.0.1:80 // http
}
}
To
Protocol
From Port
To Port
GTM system
big3d agent
TCP
>1023
4353
big3d agent
GTM system
TCP
4353
>1023
A-5
Appendix A
Table A.2 shows the protocols and corresponding ports used for iQuery
communications between big3d agents and SNMP agents that run on host
servers.
From
To
Protocol
From Port
To Port
Purpose
big3d agent
UDP
>1023
161
big3d agent
UDP
161
>1023
Table A.2 Communication between big3d agents and SNMP agents on hosts
Table A.3 shows the ports used for communications between big3d agents
and virtual servers that are not hosted by a BIG-IP system.
From
To
Protocol
From Port
To Port
Purpose
big3d agent
virtual server
UDP
>1024
Service
Port
big3d agent
virtual server
TCP
>1024
Service
Port
Table A.3 Communication between big3d agents and virtual servers not hosted by BIG-IP systems
A-6
To
Protocol
big3d
LDNS
ICMP
big3d
LDNS
LDNS
From Port
To Port
Purpose
N/A
N/A
TCP
>1023
53
big3d
TCP
53
>1023
big3d
LDNS
UDP
53
33434
LDNS
big3d
ICMP
N/A
N/A
big3d
LDNS
dns_rev
dns_dot
>1023
53
LDNS
big3d
dns_rev
dns_dot
53
>1023
Table A.4 Communications between big3d agents and local DNS servers
A-7
Appendix A
A-8
B
Understanding Probes
Introducing probes
Understanding iQuery
Determining probe responsibility
Selecting a big3d agent
Designating a specific server
Managing LDNS probes
Using log entries to tune probes
Understanding Probes
Introducing probes
When you install a Global Traffic Manager in a network, that system
typically works within a larger group of BIG-IP products. These products
include other Global Traffic Manager systems, Link Controller systems,
and Local Traffic Manager systems. The Global Traffic Manager must be
able to communicate with these other systems to maintain an accurate
assessment of the health and availability of different network components.
For example, the Global Traffic Manager must be able to acquire statistical
data from resources that are managed by a Local Traffic Manager in a
different data center. BIG-IP systems acquire this information through the
use of probes. A probe is an action a BIG-IP system takes to acquire data
from other network resources.
Probes are an essential means by which the Global Traffic Manager tracks
the health and availability of network resources; however, it is equally
important that the responsibility for conducting probes be distributed across
as many BIG-IP products as possible. This distribution ensures that no one
system becomes overloaded with conducting probes, which can cause a
decrease in performance in the other tasks for which a BIG-IP system is
responsible.
To distribute probe requests effectively across multiple BIG-IP systems,
Global Traffic Manager systems employ several different technologies and
methodologies, including:
iQuery, which is the communication protocol used between Global
Traffic Manager systems and the big3d agents that reside on other
BIG-IP systems
A selection methodology that determines which Global Traffic Manager
is responsible for managing the probe request
A selection methodology that determines which big3d agent actually
conducts the probe
One of the important concepts to remember when understanding how the
Global Traffic Manager acquires network data is that the process consists of
several tasks:
A Global Traffic Manager is chosen to be responsible for the probe.
The Global Traffic Manager delegates the probe to a big3d agent.
The big3d agent conducts the probe.
The big3d agent broadcasts the results of the probe, allowing all Global
Traffic Manager systems to receive the information.
B-1
Appendix B
Understanding iQuery
At the heart of probe management with Global Traffic Manager systems is
iQuery, the communications protocol that these systems use to send
information from one system to another. With iQuery, Global Traffic
Manager systems in the same synchronization group can share configuration
settings, assign probe requests to big3d agents, and receive data on the
status of network resources.
The iQuery protocol is an XML protocol that is sent between each system
using gzip compression and SSL. These communications can only be
allowed between systems that have a trusted relationship established, which
is why configuration tools such as big3d_install, bigip_add, and gtm_add
are critical when installing or updating Global Traffic Manager systems. If
two systems have not exchanged their SSL certificates, they cannot share
information with each other using iQuery.
In addition to requiring trusted relationships, systems send iQuery
communications only on the VLAN in which the system received the
incoming message. Also, iQuery communications occur only within the
same synchronization group. If your network consists of two
synchronization groups, with each group sharing a subset of network
resources, these groups both probe the network resources and communicate
with iQuery separately.
Generally, iQuery communications require no user intervention; however,
on occasion it can be necessary to view the data transmitted between each
system. For example, you might be troubleshooting the reason that a Global
Traffic Manager is exhibiting a particular behavior. In such a situation, you
can use the command, iqdump.
One of the first pieces of information the system displays when running
iQuery is the version of the remote big3d agent. This allows you to
determine if a system is running the latest version of the big3d agent.
B-2
Understanding Probes
Characteristics
Los Angeles
New York
London
Now, consider that you want to acquire statistical data from a resource in the
New York data center. First, the Global Traffic Manager systems, based on
their iQuery communications with each other, identify whether there is a
Global Traffic Manager that belongs to the New York data center. In this
case, the answer is yes; the New York data center contains a Global Traffic
Manager. Next, the systems determine if more than one Global Traffic
Manager belongs to the New York data center. In this case, the answer is no;
the New York data center has only a stand-alone system. Consequently, the
Global Traffic Manager in the New York data center assumes responsibility
for conducting the probe on this particular resource.
B-3
Appendix B
In situations where more than one Global Traffic Manager belongs to a data
center, the systems use an algorithm to distribute the responsibility for
probes equally among Global Traffic Manager systems. This distribution
ensures that each Global Traffic Manager has an equal chance of being
responsible for managing a probe request.
To demonstrate how probe requests are delegated between two Global
Traffic Manager systems at the same data center, consider again the network
configuration at SiteRequest. This time, the company needs to acquire data
from a resource that resides at the Los Angeles data center. As with the
previous example, the first step identifies whether the Los Angeles data
center has any Global Traffic Manager systems; in this case, the answer is
yes. The next criteria is whether there is more than one Global Traffic
Manager at that data center; in this case, the answer is also yes: the Los
Angeles data center has a redundant system configuration that consists of
two Global Traffic Manager systems. Because there are two Global Traffic
Manager systems at this data center, each system compares the hash value of
the resource with its own information; whichever Global Traffic Manager
has the closest value to the resource becomes responsible for managing the
probe request.
A final consideration is if a data center does not have any Global Traffic
Manager systems at all, such as the London data center in the configuration
for SiteRequest. In these situations, the responsibility for probing a resource
at that data center is divided among the other Global Traffic Manager
systems; much in the same way as the responsibility is divided among
Global Traffic Manager systems within the same data center.
Once a Global Traffic Manager becomes responsible for managing a probe,
it remains responsible for that probe until the network configuration changes
in one of the following ways:
The Global Traffic Manager goes offline.
A new Global Traffic Manager is added to the data center.
The network configuration of the resource (such as its IP address)
changes.
B-4
Understanding Probes
Characteristics
Los Angeles
New York
London
Now, consider that a Global Traffic Manager in the Los Angeles data center
has assumed responsibility for managing a probe for a network resource. At
this data center, the system can assign the probe to one of four big3d agents:
one for each BIG-IP system at the data center. To select a big3d, the Global
Traffic Manager looks to see which big3d agent has the fewest number of
B-5
Appendix B
probes for which it is responsible. The big3d agent with the lowest number
of probes is tasked with conducting the probe. The Global Traffic Manager
checks this statistic each time it needs to delegate the probe; as a result, the
big3d select can change from probe instance to probe instance.
In situations where a big3d agent does not reside in the same data center as
the resource, the designated Global Traffic Manager selects a big3d from all
available big3d agents on the network. Again, the agent selected is the agent
with the fewest number of probe requests, and this check occurs each time
the probe is conducted.
For example, SiteRequest adds a new set of web servers in Tokyo. At this
location, the company has yet to install its BIG-IP systems; however, the
current set of Global Traffic Manager systems in Los Angeles and New
York are managing traffic to these web servers. When initiating a probe
request to determine the availability of one of these servers, a Global Traffic
Manager is selected to manage the probe request. Then, that system chooses
a big3d agent to probe the web server, selecting any big3d agent located in
Los Angeles, New York, or London.
B-6
Understanding Probes
The Global Traffic Manager uses the specified BIG-IP system to conduct
probes on this server unless that system becomes unavailable.
B-7
Appendix B
If you do not use Quality of Service load balancing, the Global Traffic
Manager does not conduct probes of LDNS servers.
When a given LDNS server makes a DNS request for a wide IP, that request
is sent to a single Global Traffic Manager. The Global Traffic Manager then
creates an LDNS server entry, and assigns that entry one of the following
states:
New: the Global Traffic Manager has not come across this particular
LDNS server before
Active: the Global Traffic Manager already has an existing entry for this
LDNS server
Pending: the Global Traffic Manager has been contacted by this LDNS
server before, however, this server has yet to respond to a probe from a
Global Traffic Manager on this network
In general, the New and Pending states are temporary states; an LDNS
server remains in one of these states only until it responds to the first probe
request from a Global Traffic Manager. Once the Global Traffic Manager
receives a response, the LDNS entry is moved to the Active state. Each
Global Traffic Manager within a given synchronization group shares the
LDNS entries that are assigned this state, resulting in the synchronization
group having a common list of known LDNS servers.
Unlike internal probes, LDNS probes are not load balanced across Global
Traffic Manager systems. Instead, the Global Traffic Manager that the
LDNS server first queries becomes responsible for the initial probe to that
LDNS. These probes are load balanced, however, across the multiple big3d
agents, with preference given to big3d agents that either belong to the same
data center as the responding Global Traffic Manager, or belong to the same
link through which the Global Traffic Manager received the LDNS query.
After the initial probe, an algorithm is used to load balance subsequent
probes across the available Global Traffic Manager systems.
B-8
Understanding Probes
If you do not use Quality of Service load balancing modes, the Global
Traffic Manager systems do not conduct LDNS server probe.
B-9
Appendix B
For information about the command syntax you use to change this variable,
see the Traffic Management Shell (tmsh) Reference Guide and the Bigpipe
Utility Reference Guide.
For monitors:
The time in microseconds that each monitor spends in the active
queue
For each active monitor, the log file displays the following
information:
Base name
Monitor name
Number of total instances
B - 10
Understanding Probes
B - 11
Appendix B
B - 12
Glossary
Glossary
3-DNS Controller
See Global Traffic Manager.
A record
The A record is the ADDRESS resource record that a Global Traffic
Manager returns to a local DNS server in response to a name resolution
request. The A record contains a variety of information, including one or
more IP addresses that resolve to the requested domain name.
access control list (ACL)
An access control list is a list of local DNS server IP addresses that are
excluded from path probing or hops queries.
active unit
In a redundant system configuration, an active unit is a system that currently
load balances name resolution requests. If the active unit in the redundant
system fails, the standby unit assumes control and begins to load balance
requests.
alternate method
The alternate method specifies the load balancing mode that the Global
Traffic Manager uses to pick a virtual server if the preferred method fails.
See also fallback method, preferred method.
auto-discovery
Auto-discovery is a process through which the Global Traffic Manager
identifies a resource automatically so you can manage it.
big3d agent
The big3d agent is a monitoring agent that collects metrics information
about server performance and network paths between a data center and a
specific local DNS server. The Global Traffic Manager uses the information
collected by the big3d agent for dynamic load balancing.
BIG-IP system
A BIG-IP system can be a Global Traffic Manager, a Local Traffic
Manager, or a Link Controller.
BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain)
BIND is the most common implementation of the Domain Name System
(DNS). BIND provides a system for matching domain names to IP
addresses. For more information, refer to
http://www.isc.org/products/BIND.
Glossary - 1
Glossary
bridge mode
Bridge mode instructs the Global Traffic Manager to forward the traffic it
receives to another part of the network.
CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing)
Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) is an expansion of the IP address
system that allows a single IP address to be used to designate many unique
IP addresses. A CIDR IP address looks like a standard IP address except that
it ends with a slash followed by a number, which is the IP network prefix.
For example: 172.200.0.0/16
CNAME record
A canonical name (CNAME) record acts as an alias to another domain
name. A canonical name and its alias can belong to different zones, so the
CNAME record must always be entered as a fully qualified domain name.
CNAME records are useful for setting up logical names for network
services so that they can be easily relocated to different physical hosts.
completion rate
The completion rate is the percentage of packets that a server successfully
returns during a given session.
Completion Rate mode
The Completion Rate mode is a dynamic load balancing mode that
distributes connections based on which network path drops the fewest
packets, or allows the fewest number of packets to time out.
Configuration utility
The Configuration utility is the browser-based application that you use to
configure the BIG-IP system.
content delivery network (CDN)
A content delivery network (CDN) is an architecture of web-based network
components that helps dramatically reduce the wide-area network latency
between a client and the content they wish to access. A CDN includes some
or all of the following network components: wide-area traffic managers,
Internet service providers, content server clusters, caches, and origin content
providers.
custom monitor
A custom monitor is a user-created monitor. See also monitor, health
monitor, performance monitor, pre-configured monitor.
data center
A data center is a physical location that houses one or more Global Traffic
Manager systems, BIG-IP systems, or host machines.
Glossary - 2
Glossary
Glossary - 3
Glossary
Glossary - 4
Glossary
fallback method
The fallback method is the third method in a load balancing hierarchy that
the Global Traffic Manager uses to load balance a resolution request. The
Global Traffic Manager uses the fallback method only when the load
balancing modes specified for the preferred and alternate methods fail.
Unlike the preferred method and the alternate method, the fallback method
uses neither server nor virtual server availability for load balancing
calculations. See also preferred method, alternate method.
Global Availability mode
Global Availability is a static load balancing mode that bases connection
distribution on a particular server order, always sending a connection to the
first available server in the list. This mode differs from Round Robin mode
in that it searches for an available server always starting with the first server
in the list, while Round Robin mode searches for an available server starting
with the next server in the list (with respect to the server selected for the
previous connection request).
Global Traffic Manager
The Global Traffic Manager provides wide-area traffic management and
high availability of IP applications/services running across multiple data
centers.
gtmd
The gtmd utility processes communications between two Global Traffic
Manager systems.
health monitor
A health monitor checks a node to see if it is up and functioning for a given
service. If the node fails the check, it is marked down. Different monitors
exist for checking different services. See also monitor, custom monitor,
pre-configured monitor, performance monitor.
host
A host is a network server that manages one or more virtual servers that the
Global Traffic Manager uses for load balancing.
ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol)
ICMP is an Internet communications protocol used to determine information
about routes to destination addresses, such as nodes that are managed by
BIG-IP systems.
iQuery
The iQuery protocol is used to exchange information between Global
Traffic Manager systems and BIG-IP systems. The iQuery protocol is
officially registered with IANA for port 4353, and works on UDP and TCP
connections.
Glossary - 5
Glossary
key-signing key
The Global Traffic Manager uses key signing keys to sign only the
DNSKEY record of a DNSSEC record set. See also DNSSEC (DNS Security
Extensions), DNSSEC zones, and zone-signing key.
Kilobytes/Second mode
The Kilobytes/Second mode is a dynamic load balancing mode that
distributes connections based on which available server currently processes
the fewest kilobytes per second.
Least Connections mode
The Least Connections mode is a dynamic load balancing mode that bases
connection distribution on which server currently manages the fewest open
connections.
link
A link is a logical representation of a physical device (router), which
connects your network to the rest of the Internet.
Link Controller
The Link Controller is an IP application switch that manages traffic to and
from a site across multiple links, regardless of connection type or provider.
listener
A listener is an object that listens for DNS queries. A listener instructs the
Global Traffic Manager to listen for network traffic destined for a specific
IP address.
load balancing methods
Load balancing methods are the settings that specify the hierarchical order
in which the Global Traffic Manager uses three load balancing modes. The
preferred method specifies the first load balancing mode that the Global
Traffic Manager tries, the alternate method specifies the next load balancing
mode to try if the preferred method fails, and the fallback method specifies
the last load balancing mode to use if both the preferred and the alternate
methods fail.
load balancing mode
A load balancing mode is the way in which the Global Traffic Manager
determines how to distribute connections across an array.
local DNS
A local DNS is a server that makes name resolution requests on behalf of a
client. With respect to the Global Traffic Manager, local DNS servers are
the source of name resolution requests. Local DNS is also referred to as
LDNS.
Glossary - 6
Glossary
Glossary - 7
Glossary
NS record
A name server (NS) record is used to define a set of authoritative name
servers for a DNS zone. A name server is considered authoritative for some
given zone when it has a complete set of data for the zone, allowing it to
answer queries about the zone on its own, without needing to consult
another name server.
packet rate
The packet rate is the number of data packets per second processed by a
server.
Packet Rate mode
The Packet Rate mode is a dynamic load balancing mode that distributes
connections based on which available server currently processes the fewest
packets per second.
path
A path is a logical network route between a data center server and a local
DNS server.
path probing
Path probing is the process of collecting metrics data, such as round trip
time and packet rate, for a given path between a requesting LDNS server
and a data center server.
performance monitor
Performance monitors check the performance of a pool or virtual server, and
dynamically load balance traffic accordingly. See also monitor,
pre-configured monitor, custom monitor, health monitor.
persistence
On a Global Traffic Manager, persistence is a series of related requests
received from the same local DNS server for the same wide IP name. When
persistence is turned on, a Global Traffic Manager sends all requests from a
particular local DNS server for a specific wide IP to the same virtual server,
instead of load balancing the requests.
physical network components
Physical network components have a direct correlation with one or more
physical entities on the network. See also logical network components.
picks
Picks represent the number of times a particular virtual server is selected to
receive a load balanced connection.
Glossary - 8
Glossary
pool
A pool is a group of virtual servers managed by a BIG-IP system, or a host.
The Global Traffic Manager load balances among pools (using the Pool LB
Mode), as well as among individual virtual servers.
pool-level load balancing
With pool-level load balancing, after the Global Traffic Manager uses wide
IP-level load balancing to select the best available pool, it uses a pool-level
load balancing to select a virtual server within that pool. If the first virtual
server within the pool is unavailable, the Global Traffic Manager selects the
next best virtual server based on the load balancing mode assigned to that
pool. See also tiered load balancing and wide IP-level load balancing.
pool ratio
A pool ratio is a ratio weight applied to pools in a wide IP. If the Pool LB
mode is set to Ratio, the Global Traffic Manager uses each pool for load
balancing in proportion to the weight defined for the pool.
preferred method
The preferred method specifies the first load balancing mode that the Global
Traffic Manager uses to load balance a resolution request. See also alternate
method, fallback method.
pre-configured monitor
Pre-configured monitors are monitors that the Global Traffic Manager
provides. See also monitor, custom monitor, health monitor.
probe
A probe is a specific query, initiated by a big3d agent, that attempts to
gather specific data from a given network resource. Probes are most often
employed when a health monitor attempts to verify the availability of a
resource.
QoS equation
The QoS equation is the equation on which the Quality of Service load
balancing mode is based. The equation calculates a score for a given path
between a data center server and a local DNS server. The Quality of Service
mode distributes connections based on the best path score for an available
data center server. You can apply weights to the factors in the equation, such
as round trip time and completion rate.
Quality of Service mode
The Quality of Service load balancing mode is a dynamic load balancing
mode that bases connection distribution on a configurable combination of
the packet rate, completion rate, round trip time, hops, virtual server
capacity, kilobytes per second, link capacity, and topology information.
Glossary - 9
Glossary
ratio
A ratio is the parameter in a virtual server statement that assigns a weight to
the virtual server for load balancing purposes.
Ratio mode
The Ratio load balancing mode is a static load balancing mode that
distributes connections across an pool of virtual servers in proportion to the
ratio weight assigned to each individual virtual server.
Ratio weighting
Ratio weighting is a methodology in which the system uses a frequency that
you set to determine to which link to send traffic.
redundant system configuration
A redundant system configuration is a pair of units that are configured for
failover. One system runs as the active unit and the other system runs as the
standby unit. If the active unit fails, the standby unit takes over and manages
resolution requests.
region
A region is a customized collection of topologies. See topology.
request source statement
A request source statement defines the origin of a name resolution request
for a connection.
resource record
A resource record is a record in a DNS database that stores data associated
with domain names. A resource record typically includes a domain name, a
TTL, a record type, and data specific to that record type. See also A record,
CNAME record, NS record.
reverse domain
A reverse domain is a type of DNS resolution request that matches a given
IP address to a domain name. The more common type of DNS resolution
request starts with a given domain name and matches that to an IP address.
root name server
A root name server is a master DNS server that maintains a complete DNS
database. There are approximately 13 root name servers in the world that
manage the DNS database for the World Wide Web.
Round Robin mode
Round Robin mode is a static load balancing mode that bases connection
distribution on a set server order. Round Robin mode sends a connection
request to the next available server in the order.
Glossary - 10
Glossary
Glossary - 11
Glossary
standby unit
A standby unit is the system in a redundant system configuration that is
always prepared to become the active unit if the active unit fails.
static load balancing modes
Static load balancing modes base the distribution of name resolution
requests to virtual servers on a pre-defined list of criteria and server and
virtual server availability; they do not take current server performance or
current connection load into account. See also dynamic load balancing
modes.
subdomain
A subdomain is a sub-section of a higher level domain. For example, .com is
a high level domain, and F5.com is a subdomain within the .com domain.
synchronization
Synchronization means that each Global Traffic Manager regularly
compares the timestamps of its configuration files with the timestamps of
the configuration files on the other Global Traffic Manager systems on the
network.
synchronization group
A synchronization group is a group of Global Traffic Manager systems that
synchronize system configurations and zone files (if applicable). All
synchronization group members receive broadcasts of metrics data from the
big3d agents throughout the network. All synchronization group members
also receive broadcasts of updated configuration settings from the Global
Traffic Manager that has the latest configuration changes.
tiered load balancing
Tiered load balancing is load balancing that occurs at more than one point
during the resolution process. See also wide IP-level load balancing and
pool-level load balancing.
tmsh
The Traffic Management Shell (tmsh) is a command-line utility that you
can use to configure the Global Traffic Manager.
topology
A topology is a set of characteristics that identify the origin of a given name
resolution request.
Glossary - 12
Glossary
Topology mode
The Topology mode is a static load balancing mode that bases the
distribution of name resolution requests on the weighted scores for topology
records. Topology records are used by the Topology load balancing mode to
redirect DNS queries to the closest virtual server, geographically, based on
location information derived from the DNS query message.
topology record
A topology record specifies a score for a local DNS server location endpoint
and a virtual server location endpoint.
topology score
The topology score is the weight assigned to a topology record when the
Global Traffic Manager is filtering the topology records to find the best
virtual server match for a DNS query.
topology statement
A topology statement is a collection of topology records.
TTL (Time to Live)
The TTL is the number of seconds for which a DNS record or metric is
valid, or for which a DNSSEC key is cached by a client resolver. When a
TTL expires, the server usually must refresh the information before using it
again. See also DNSSEC (DNS Security Extensions).
unavailable
The unavailable status is used for data center servers and virtual servers.
When a data center server or virtual server is unavailable, the Global
Traffic Manager does not use it for load balancing.
unknown
The unknown status is used for data center servers and virtual servers.
When a data center server or virtual server is new to the Global Traffic
Manager and does not yet have metrics information, the Global Traffic
Manager marks its status as unknown. The Global Traffic Manager can use
unknown servers for load balancing, but if the load balancing mode is
dynamic, the Global Traffic Manager uses default metrics information for
the unknown server until it receives live metrics data.
up
The up status is used for data center servers and virtual servers. When a data
center server or virtual server is up, the data center server or virtual server is
available to respond to name resolution requests.
Glossary - 13
Glossary
Index
Index
A
A record
creating 16-14
defined 16-12
AAAA record
creating 16-15
defined 16-12
address exclusion list 13-7
alias addresses 11-35
alternate load balancing method 7-2
applications
See distributed applications.
auto-discovery
described 3-14
setting polling frequency 3-15
availability, defined 8-3
communications
and big3d A-5
and probes B-1
system 3-4
Completion Rate load balancing mode 7-7
Configuration utility
introducing 1-4, 1-5
connections, resuming 8-10
CPU load balancing mode 7-7
custom monitors
importing from another custom monitor 11-6
importing from pre-configured monitor 11-6
importing from template 11-6
using 11-5
using pre-configured 11-5
D
B
big3d agent
and broadcasting sequence A-3
and configuration trade-offs A-4
and data collection A-3
and dynamic load balancing 7-6
and iQuery A-5, B-2
and metrics A-2
defined 1-3
getting version number B-2
installing A-3
introducing A-1
selecting for probe requests B-3, B-5
setting up A-3
using with system communications 3-4
big3d_install script
and setup tasks 3-6, 3-9
running 3-8, 3-9
BIG-IP health monitor 11-13
BIG-IP Link health monitor 11-14
bigip_add script
and setup tasks 3-6, 3-8
billing, and links 5-23
BIND configuration and DNSSEC 10-12
Bridge mode
and listeners 4-1
configuring listeners for traffic forwarding 4-4
defined 4-1
broadcast sequence and big3d agent A-3
C
cache poisoning, preventing 10-1
CNAME record
creating 16-15
defined 16-12
Index - 1
Index
E
EAV monitors 11-2
ECV monitors 11-2
Index - 2
F
failover
enabling network-based 3-3
for hardware-based 1-4, 3-4
for network-based 1-4, 3-4
Fallback IP load balancing mode 7-4
fallback load balancing
and load balancing mode usage 7-2
configuring 7-16
introducing 7-16
selecting 7-2
features of Global Traffic Manager 1-1
FirePass health monitors 11-15
firewalls and iQuery A-6
forward zone files
creating 16-6
defined 16-2
FTP health monitors 11-16
G
Gateway ICMP health monitor 11-8
generations
modifying for DNSSEC keys 10-6
geolocation data, reloading default data 9-13
Global Availability load balancing mode 7-4
Global Traffic Manager
and components 2-1
and DNSSEC keys and zones 10-1
and operation modes 4-1
defining current 3-2, 5-6
selecting for probe requests B-3
graphs for performance data 14-1
GTM Performance graph 14-1
GTM Request Breakdown graph 14-1
gtm_add script
and setup tasks 3-6
running 3-6
gtmd 3-5
H
hardware-based failover 1-4, 3-4
health monitor settings 11-1
health monitor types 11-38
health monitors
and alias addresses 11-35
and default settings 11-1
and disabled resources 3-17
and extended content verification 11-10
and external application verification 11-12
Index
host 5-10
host servers
defined 5-10
using Generic Host option 5-12
HTTP health monitor 11-10
HTTPS health monitor 11-11
I
ID hacking, preventing 10-1
if statement
and syntax 15-6
nesting 15-6
ignore path TTL option 7-17
IMAP health monitor 11-16
internet protocols 1-2
IP geolocation database
downloading and installing updates 9-10
iqdump command, using B-2
iQuery
and firewalls A-6
and probes B-1
and VLANs B-2
defined A-5
using with system communications 3-4
iRule evaluation, controlling 15-4
iRule event types 15-4
iRule functions 15-8
iRule statement syntax
using IP commands 15-10
using statement commands 15-6
using TCP commands 15-10
using UDP commands 15-10
using utility commands 15-8, 15-9
using wide IP commands 15-7
iRules
adding to wide IPs 6-16
and statement commands 15-6
and wide IPs 6-15
assigning 15-5
creating 15-2
introducing 15-1
organizing within wide IPs 6-17
removing from wide IPs 6-16
K
key expiration 10-2
key generations
rolling over DNSSEC 10-7
understanding DNSSEC keys 10-1
keys, DNSSEC 10-4
key-signing keys
about 10-5
managing 10-4
Kilobytes/Second load balancing mode 7-7
Index - 3
Index
L
last resort pool 8-13
LDAP health monitor 11-17
LDNS probes B-8
Least Connections load balancing mode 7-7
limit setting
defined 8-3
establishing 8-3
using Kilobytes 8-3
using Packets 8-3
limit settings
See limit thresholds.
limit thresholds
and BIG-IP systems 8-3
and pool members 5-16
and pools 5-15
and servers 5-14
and virtual servers 5-15
introducing 5-13
using Total Connections 8-3
Link Controller, defined 5-8
link statistics 12-10
links
adding 5-21, 5-22
and defining physical network components 5-1
and monitors 5-22, 5-23
billing 5-23
defined 2-3
determining availability 8-6
managing 5-21
removing 5-22
weighting 5-23
listeners
deleting 4-6
introducing 4-1
modifying 4-5
load balancing
and dynamic modes 7-6
and pools 7-1, 7-15
and static modes 7-3
and wide IPs 7-1, 7-14
configuring 7-14
enabling ignore path TTL option 7-17
introducing 7-1
using alternate methods 7-1
using dynamic load balancing modes 7-1
using fallback method 7-16
using pool-level 7-1
using static load balancing modes 7-1
using tiered 7-1
using Topology mode 9-12
using wide IP-level 7-1
verifying virtual server availability 7-17
load balancing methods
defined 7-1
using fallback load balancing 7-2
Index - 4
M
manual resume 8-10
master zone files
See primary zone files.
metrics
assigning to local DNS 13-3
defined 13-2
introducing 13-1
Index
metrics collection
and big3d agent A-2
and probes 13-6
and TTL and timers 13-5
excluding local DNS from probes 13-6
removing local DNS from probes 13-7
sequence A-3
setting TTL and timer values 13-5
monitors
checking virtual servers associated with servers 8-5
configuring global 3-15
defined 8-4
determining availability of links 8-6
determining availability of pools 8-6
determining availability of virtual servers 8-4
See also health monitors.
summary of types 11-2
using custom 11-5
MSSQL health monitor
troubleshooting 11-19
using to perform service checks 11-18
mx record
creating 16-18
defined 16-13
N
named.conf file 16-25
network management tools 1-2
network traffic flows, graphs 14-1
network-based failover
and redundant system configurations 1-4, 3-4
enabling 3-3
NIST, and standards for DNSSEC zone-signing keys 10-5
NNTP health monitor 11-19
Node mode
and listeners 4-1, 4-3
defined 4-1
NoError response, implementing 6-18
None load balancing mode
using 7-4
using to skip load balancing 7-3
NS record
creating 16-18
defined 16-13
NTP
defining 3-10
synchronizing systems 3-10
O
Oracle health monitor 11-20
Index - 5
Index
Q
QoS
See Quality of Service load balancing mode.
Quality of Service coefficients 7-10
Quality of Service load balancing mode
and default settings 7-9
and values of coefficients 7-10
customizing 7-8, 7-12
introducing 7-9
using dynamic ratio 7-8, 7-12
R
RADIUS health monitor 11-21
Ratio load balancing mode 7-5
Real Server health monitor 11-22
regions 9-4
request source statements 9-1
requests
draining 8-12
on performance graph 14-1
resolutions, on performance graph 14-1
resource availability
and limit settings 8-3
and monitor availability requirements 8-3
and monitors 11-2
and virtual server dependencies 8-3
defined 8-3
resource health, determining 8-2
resource records
about DNSSEC and BIND 10-12
adding to zone files 16-22
and CNAME records 16-15
and HINFO records 16-17
and MX records 16-18
and NS records 16-13
and PTR records 16-13
and SOA records 16-12
and SRV records 16-20
and TXT records 16-21
and types of records 16-12
modifying 16-21
viewing DNSSEC 10-12
resources
discovering automatically 5-17
monitoring disabled 3-17
Return to DNS load balancing mode
using 7-5
using to skip load balancing 7-3
reverse mode 11-35
Round Robin load balancing mode 7-5
Round Trip Times load balancing mode 7-9
Router mode
and listeners 4-1
configuring listeners for traffic forwarding 4-4
defined 4-1
Index - 6
S
Scripted health monitor 11-24
search feature
locating components 2-6
using to find servers 5-12
using to find wide IPs 6-10
using to find zones 16-10
secondary zone files
creating 16-4
defined 16-2
security features 1-2
server statistics 12-11
server weight, and topologies 9-1
servers
about 2-2
and BIG-IP systems defined 5-5
and defining physical network components 5-1
and limit thresholds 5-14
defining current Global Traffic Manager 5-6
defining host servers 5-10
defining Link Controller systems 5-8
defining load balancing servers 5-9
defining Local Traffic Managers 5-7
defining NTP 3-10
introducing 5-5
service checks, troubleshooting 11-19
setup tasks 1-1
Setup Utility, using 3-1
simple monitors 11-2
SIP health monitor 11-25
slave zone files
See secondary zone files.
SMTP 1-2
SMTP health monitor 11-26
SNMP health monitor 11-26
SNMP Link health monitor 11-28
SNMP MIB 1-4, 1-5
SNMP, using for system communications 3-5
SOA record, defined 16-12
SOAP health monitor 11-28
spoofing, preventing 10-1
SQL Enterprise Manager 11-19
SQL Server-based services 11-18
SRV record
creating 16-20
defined 16-13
SSL 1-2
Index
T
tasks, setup 1-1
Tcl syntax 15-2
TCP Half Open health monitor 11-9
TCP health monitor 11-12
test accounts 11-19
tiered load balancing 7-1
timer values
and metrics collection 13-5
introducing 13-5
Tools Command Language syntax 15-2
topologies
and destination statements 9-1
and pools 9-12
and regions 9-4
and request source statements 9-1
and server weight 9-1
and wide IPs 9-12
configuring for pools 9-7
configuring for wide IPs 9-5
configuring for wide IPs and pools 9-8
implementing 9-10
introducing 9-1
Topology load balancing mode
using 7-6
topology records
creating 9-11
removing 9-14
topology score, and topology records
transparent mode 11-35
TTL values
and metrics collection 13-5
introducing 13-5
TTL, setting for DNSSEC keys 10-2
TXT record
creating 16-21
defined 16-13
U
UDP health monitor 11-29
use pool statement syntax 15-6
Index - 7
Index
V
validation, domain 3-18
Verify Virtual Server Availability option 7-17
views
adding 16-23
adding zones to 16-24
and BIND 9 16-22
deleting 16-24
modifying 16-23
Virtual Server Score load balancing mode 7-9
virtual server statistics 12-12
virtual servers
about 2-3
adding 5-19
adding to pools 6-3
and defining physical network components 5-1
and iRules 15-5
and limit thresholds 5-15
creating dependencies 8-7
determining availability 8-4
editing 5-20
managing 5-19
organizing dependencies 8-9
organizing within pools 6-4
removing 5-20
removing dependencies 8-8
removing from pools 6-4
setting dependencies 8-7
weighting within pools 6-5
VS Capacity load balancing mode 7-9
W
WAP health monitor 11-30
weight
See topology score, and topology records.
weighting, using with links 5-23
when keyword, using with iRules 15-5
whereis iRule command 15-7
wide IP load balancing, and load balancing modes 7-2
wide IP statistics 12-6
wide IP-level load balancing 7-1
wide IPs
adding iRules to 6-16
adding pools to 6-11
adding to distributed applications 6-20
and configuring topologies 9-5, 9-8
and iRules 6-15
and load balancing 7-14
and persistent connections 8-11
and topology load balancing 9-12
creating 6-9
disabling 6-15
enabling 6-15
maintaining 6-10
organizing iRules 6-17
Index - 8
Z
zone files
adding to views 16-24
synchronizing 3-13
zones
creating 16-3
creating DNSSEC 10-10
deleting DNSSEC 10-11
managing DNSSEC 10-10
modifying DNSSEC 10-11
zone-signing keys
about 10-5
managing 10-4