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Shishir_84445's avatar
Shishir_84445
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May 24, 2011

CSS to F5

Hello,

 

I am doing CSS to F5 migration and got confused with one VIP config.

 

CSS has following config

 

balance aca --> what would be equivalent in F5?

 

advanced-balance cookies --> This will be cookie persistence.

 

sticky-inact-timeout 20 --> This will be timeout

 

string prefix "SMSESSION="

 

string process-length 36 --> This will be cookie length

 

string operation hash-crc32 --> This will be Hash Mode in Cookie Persistence

 

 

What is this "string prefix "SMSESSION=" " ? is it "Cookie Name" field in Cookie Persistence?

 

 

Thank you.

 

2 Replies

  • Hi Shishir,

     

     

    balance aca appears to be a load balancing algorithm. See these links for more info:

     

     

    http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/contnetw/ps792/products_configuration_example09186a008016c8e5.shtml

     

    https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/129625

     

     

     

    ArrowPoint Content Aware (ACA)

     

     

    The CSS 11500 uses the ArrowPoint Content Aware (ACA) service to gather response time data for every flow for building statistical averages/variances for every service and content rule. The best servers are used, while the slow servers are pruned from the eligible list. This service also can manage persistent connections for e-commerce based on IP addresses (range), Secure Socket Layer (SSL) application IDs, and cookies.

     

     

     

    You could use a dynamic LTM algorithm like Observed or Predictive:

     

     

    sol6406: Overview of Least Connections, Fastest, Observed, and Predictive load balancing modes

     

    http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/6000/400/sol6406.html

     

     

    I think string prefix is for parsing a cookie:

     

     

     

    http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/contnetw/ps792/products_configuration_example09186a0080093de2.shtml

     

     

    Configuring the Content Rule

     

     

    Note: Cookies require a Layer 5 rule. You can create a Layer 5 rule by adding a URL. For example, . A Layer 4 rule can be promoted to a Layer 5 rule by issuing the advanced-balance cookies command.

     

    ...

     

    Specify the prefix located in the string range.

     

     

    training4(config-owner-content[cookie-layer5]) string prefix "ASPSESSION"

     

    "Quoted textual information"(Len: 0-32)

     

     

     

    Regardless, you can use an iRule like this one to persist on a cookie name:

     

    http://devcentral.f5.com/wiki/default.aspx/iRules/ASP_SessionID_Persistence.html

     

     

    Or on a URI token and/or cookie:

     

    http://devcentral.f5.com/wiki/default.aspx/iRules/Weblogic_JSessionID_Persistence.html

     

     

    Aaron