indepth analysis of comms for health check

Hi

 

 

The best method we have found is to have F5 monitor a specific page and look for a string in the html returned. This way you can set the page (asp, php etc) to do a do a few tests eg a simple database query that will check to see if the back end systems are functioning.

 

 

If everything comes back ok then all the page has to do is display a message such as 'Success' or something similar or it if fails just have it return 'Fail'.

 

 

Have F5 check to see if that string is in the page html. If the checks fail for any reason the string will not be found so the F5 monitor will report the system as down and if the front end webserver fails the string will not appear again so you will catch both types of failure.

 

 

This works much better than checking for a 200 response as you can do an indepth check of the web application at all levels.

 

 

Cheers

 

 

Simon