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mdiamore_227819's avatar
mdiamore_227819
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
May 20, 2016

Can traffic exit 1 VS and re-enter through another? A TCP pull routing question

I'm in the process of configuring a TCP pull from my internally connected pool member servers out to external clients, and I'm a bit confused on how to get this traffic to pass through correctly. Is there a way to have a single VS handle the outbound connection establishment and inbound data receipt while still load-balancing the incoming traffic, or does this need to be achieved by 2 separate VS?

 

Technically, the F5 is inline (relative to the pool members and the data feeds/sources), but it may be important to note that the F5 internal self-IP is NOT the default gateway of the pool members (it is just another IP on the shared data landing area VLAN).

 

So far, I've initially managed to receive this traffic via a configured forwarding VS for the specific outbound path and port, but ideally I'd like to have the incoming data be load-balanced between the pool members, rather than coming back through the forwarding VS as it seems to be (which is also confusing, wouldn't a targetted forwarder be unidirectional?)

 

Appreciate any insight.

 

1 Reply

  • nathe's avatar
    nathe
    Icon for Cirrocumulus rankCirrocumulus

    Mdiamore,

     

    This won't work I'm afraid. An incoming packet will be evaluated against the connection table and match a pre-existing connection. This will happen before, and hence bypass, and load balancing.

     

    Hope this helps,

     

    N