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David_adasha_30's avatar
David_adasha_30
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Nov 08, 2017

Node Maintanis - best practice

Hi, what is the best practice to take the node down for maintenance mode ? My client wants to forward the active connections from node 1 to node 2 for maintenance mode. Is it possible ?

 

as I understand, to choose reselect "actoin on the service down" , it is not for TCP connections.

 

6 Replies

  • Hi David,

     

    I think there is a difference between a server down for maintenance or down because there is a problem (failed health monitor).

     

    When you want to perform maintenance on a server, just put it offline. Only active connections are allowed and new sessions are send to the other pool members. Once all connections to that pool member are gone, you can perform whatever you want to do on that server. When you are done, just enable the pool member.

     

    Is the server down because the health monitor fails, you are right. TCP connections cannot be send to the other member with the reselect option.

     

    https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K15095

     

    You can create a health monitor and configure a disable string. This way, the administrator of the server is responsible for putting the server in maintenance mode. Most of the time, server administrators do not have access to the BIGIP configuration to put pool members in disabled or offline state.

     

    Regards, Martijn

     

    • David_adasha_30's avatar
      David_adasha_30
      Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus

      Hi,

       

      thank you for the replay.

       

      could you please explain the meaning : "You can create a health monitor and configure a disable string. This way, the administrator of the server is responsible for putting the server in maintenance mode. Most of the time, server administrators do not have access to the BIGIP configuration to put pool members in disabled or offline state."

       

    • Martijn_144688's avatar
      Martijn_144688
      Icon for Cirrostratus rankCirrostratus

      David,

       

      If the backend server is a web server, you can ask the administrator to put some kind of text file in a directory. With a GET you can retrieve this file and look at the content. If the administrator puts the word 'maintenance' in the file, you now the server is in maintenance.

       

      Regards, Martijn.

       

  • Hi David,

     

    I think there is a difference between a server down for maintenance or down because there is a problem (failed health monitor).

     

    When you want to perform maintenance on a server, just put it offline. Only active connections are allowed and new sessions are send to the other pool members. Once all connections to that pool member are gone, you can perform whatever you want to do on that server. When you are done, just enable the pool member.

     

    Is the server down because the health monitor fails, you are right. TCP connections cannot be send to the other member with the reselect option.

     

    https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K15095

     

    You can create a health monitor and configure a disable string. This way, the administrator of the server is responsible for putting the server in maintenance mode. Most of the time, server administrators do not have access to the BIGIP configuration to put pool members in disabled or offline state.

     

    Regards, Martijn

     

    • David_adasha_30's avatar
      David_adasha_30
      Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus

      Hi,

       

      thank you for the replay.

       

      could you please explain the meaning : "You can create a health monitor and configure a disable string. This way, the administrator of the server is responsible for putting the server in maintenance mode. Most of the time, server administrators do not have access to the BIGIP configuration to put pool members in disabled or offline state."

       

    • Martijn_van_de1's avatar
      Martijn_van_de1
      Icon for Cirrus rankCirrus

      David,

       

      If the backend server is a web server, you can ask the administrator to put some kind of text file in a directory. With a GET you can retrieve this file and look at the content. If the administrator puts the word 'maintenance' in the file, you now the server is in maintenance.

       

      Regards, Martijn.