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Steve_Warren_89's avatar
Steve_Warren_89
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Jan 15, 2009

iRule question for capturing simple VIP TCP stats

I am just getting started with iRules and have what I hope is a basic question. We need to report, on a daily basis, the total amount and maximum number of TCP connections established on one Virtual Server.

 

 

Not sure if it matters, but like most of our VSs, it uses SSL on the client side. At the current time OpCenter personnel are just using the GUI and retrieving these MAXIMUM and TOTAL stats from the "Statistics: Virtual Servers" screen. The danger here is several of us frequently reset these stats during fault isolation.

 

 

I had a look at "Content Type Tracking" which is part of the "Top 50 iRules '08" bundle. This seems like the proper type of solution where a STATS profile will store these connection counts independently.

 

 

Can someone point me in the right direction?
application delivery
dev
devops
iRules

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  • Steve_Warren_89's avatar
    Steve_Warren_89
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Jan 22, 2009
    Colin,

     

     

    Thanks for the tip. It helped get me started.

     

     

    The TOTAL connections statistic was very easy to set up. The next challenge for me (not a programmer by trade) is to gather the MAXIMUM connection statistic. Our NOC personnel need to create a daily report on the TOTAL number of connections as well as the 'high water mark', or MAXIMUM number of connections. We know that each of the servers in a 4 node pool can handle about 1,000 connections before the app starts to suffer. Our customer wants to know the MAX number on a daily basis.

     

     

    The NOC personnel will be able to live with retrieving and resetting the STAT profile using the GUI on a daily basis but I would like to eventually code it to write the stats to a log should they forget.

     

     

    Thanks again,

     

    Steve
  • JRahm's avatar
    JRahm
    Icon for Admin rankAdmin
    Jan 22, 2009
    It's not an iRule, but have you considered pulling these stats via snmp and graphing in a network management server? Cacti is an open-source solution that does this very well, and there are templates for LTM. An article I wrote on installing cacti is here: Click here. CactiEZ is way easier, though, so if you want to play around to see if it will work for you, I'd start there.
  • Steve_Warren_89's avatar
    Steve_Warren_89
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Jan 22, 2009
    I did see you writeup on Cacti some months ago. Our Chief Network Engineer has a Cacti effort underway and has one developer working on integrating Cacti into the NOC. Their primary focus is to status 1000+ Cisco devices spread across the network but I have added their server to the F5 SNMP access list. I pointed the developer to your writeup in hopes of helping her get the BigIP into a template.

     

     

    I will give the Cacti solution another look. I will still have to see the iRule solution through the end now that I have ventured down that path.

     

     

    Thanks to both of you for the quick feedback!!!