snat vs automap, whats the difference?
I'm trying to see the difference between the snat and automap for the Source Address Translation option.
Currently I have traffic coming in to the F5 using automap. What though specifically does that mean? And why wouldn't I use SNAT? All the nodes, (servers in our lan), are not configured to have the F5 as its default gateway. I have a lot of virtual servers configured and I'm not sure how the self-ip plays a role in the nating or snating if at all.
From what I understand (but could be wrong) an external client request is directed to the vip ip (since our firewall nats it there) and the destination IP is that of the vip. The F5 then translates the destination IP to that of the IP of the pool member. Then on the way back out the source is translated to the of the vip. But what about the selfip?
Can someone please explain all this? Thanks!