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santsboy_145140's avatar
santsboy_145140
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Mar 06, 2014
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BIG-IP awareness of VM vmotion from one DC to the other

Hi,

 

We have twin DCs active/active and I would like to know if BIG-IP WOM on 2 LTM BIG-IP load balancers (each load balancer in each DC), could be aware that a VM has moved from one DC to the other.

 

If Load balancer in DC-A is sending traffic to a VM in DC-A and we move that VM from DC-A to DC-B. I would like to know if with LTM Big-IP WOM, load Balancer in DC-A will detect that the VM is now in DC-B and stop sending traffic to that VM. Then Load Balancer in DC-B will detect the new VM and start to send traffic to that VM in DC-B.

 

Can Big-IP LTM do this without the need of a GTM? We have a cloud solution site selector that we must maintain that sends 50% of the traffic to each DC. How the GTM will fit in our solution?

 

Thank you very much for your time and attention.

 

Regards,

 

JJBN

 

application delivery
BIG-IP DNS
cloud
deployment
design
LTM
vmware

7 Replies

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  • IheartF5_45022's avatar
    IheartF5_45022
    Icon for Nacreous rankNacreous
    Mar 06, 2014

    I don't think the BigIP will be aware - the IP/MAC will remain the same after vMotion, however you should be able to setup an external script that will detect the event (using Vcentre logs?) and then you can use iControl to disable the relevant node.

     

    I have to ask - if you don't want to access the VM after a vMotion - why vMotion it? Or why not vMotion to a physical host within the same datacentre?

     

    • IheartF5_45022's avatar
      IheartF5_45022
      Icon for Nacreous rankNacreous
      Mar 06, 2014
      Ignore the last question - I hadn't fully read your question. If you setup the GTM to use VS Capacity mode, then as long as you have an equal number of members active at each DC you will get round-robin (which should give you 50/50, however once you start having members moved from site to site and disabled/enabled as we discuss above, then you will get a skew of traffic to the site with more capacity. I would imagine this would be a desirable behaviour.
  • Nojan_Moshiri_4's avatar
    Nojan_Moshiri_4
    Historic F5 Account
    Mar 06, 2014

    Yes, the BIG-IP will be aware of the shift if you are using EtherIP. You have to keep in mind already established connections versus new connections coming in. First established connections the user of EtherIP would keep them connected, while GTM or some other solution would start sending traffic to the new datacenter. Using EtherIP + Virtual Location Monitor will solve this exact problem for you. This is all outlined the vMotion deployment guide here: http://www.f5.com/pdf/deployment-guides/f5-vmotion-flexcache-dg.pdf

     

    It is complicated, but certainly possible if your business case needs this.

     

  • santsboy_145140's avatar
    santsboy_145140
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Mar 10, 2014

    Thanks a lot for the answers, much appreciated.

     

    Another question I have is if I can use the 2 BIG-IPs in my DC's as LTM and also as GTM? So the same box, but with LTM and GTM liscenses?

     

    Thank you very much.

     

    Regards,

     

    JJBN

     

  • santsboy_145140's avatar
    santsboy_145140
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Mar 10, 2014

    Thanks a lot for the reply. Now I am using BIG-IP 10200v and running 11.3.0 . Would the triple-play GTM/LTM/WOM be able to work at the same time if I buy the licenses?

     

    Thank you.

     

    Regards,

     

    JJBN