BIG IP Traffic

BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager: Implementations
version 10.0.0
MAN-0293-00
Product Version
This manual applies to version 10.0.0 of the BIG-IP product family.
Publication Date
This guide was published on March 11, 2009.
Legal Notices
Copyright
Copyright 2008-2009, F5 Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. F5 Networks, Inc. (F5) believes the information it furnishes to be accurate and reliable. However, F5 assumes no responsibility for the use of this information, nor any infringement of patents or other rights of third parties which may result from its use. No license is granted by implication or otherwise under any patent, copyright, or other intellectual property right of F5 except as specifically described by applicable user licenses. F5 reserves the right to change specifications at any time without notice.
Trademarks
F5, F5 Networks, the F5 logo, BIG-IP, 3-DNS, Acopia, Acopia Networks, Application Accelerator, Ask F5, Application Security Manager, ASM, ARX, Data Guard, Enterprise Manager, EM, FirePass, FreedomFabric, Global Traffic Manager, GTM, iControl, Intelligent Browser Referencing, Internet Control Architecture, IP Application Switch, iRules, Link Controller, LC, Local Traffic Manager, LTM, Message Security Module, MSM, NetCelera, OneConnect, Packet Velocity, SSL Accelerator, SYN Check, Traffic Management Operating System, TMOS, TrafficShield, Transparent Data Reduction, uRoam, VIPRION, WANJet, WebAccelerator, and ZoneRunner are trademarks or service marks of F5 Networks, Inc., in the U.S. and other countries, and may not be used without F5's express written consent.
Patents
This product protected by U.S. Patents 6,374,300; 6,473,802; 6,970,933; 7,051,126; 7,102,996; 7,146,354; 7,197,661; 7,206,282; 7,287,084. Other patents pending.
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This product may include cryptographic software. Under the Export Administration Act, the United States government may consider it a criminal offense to export this product from the United States.
RF Interference Warning
This is a Class A product. In a domestic environment this product may cause radio interference, in which case the user may be required to take adequate measures.
FCC Compliance
This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class A digital device pursuant to Part 15 of FCC rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference when the equipment is operated in a commercial environment. This unit generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instruction manual, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. Operation of this equipment in a residential area is likely to cause harmful interference, in which case the user, at his own expense, will be required to take whatever measures may be required to correct the interference. Any modifications to this device, unless expressly approved by the manufacturer, can void the user's authority to operate this equipment under part 15 of the FCC rules.
Canadian Regulatory Compliance

This class A digital apparatus complies with Canadian I CES-003.
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This product conforms to the IEC, European Union, ANSI/UL and Canadian CSA standards applicable to Information Technology products at the time of manufacture.
Acknowledgments
This product includes software developed by Bill Paul. This product includes software developed by Jonathan Stone. This product includes software developed by Manuel Bouyer. This product includes software developed by Paul Richards. This product includes software developed by the NetBSD Foundation, Inc. and its contributors. This product includes software developed by the Politecnico di Torino, and its contributors. This product includes software developed by the Swedish Institute of Computer Science and its contributors. This product includes software developed by the University of California, Berkeley and its contributors. This product includes software developed by the Computer Systems Engineering Group at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. This product includes software developed by Christopher G. Demetriou for the NetBSD Project. This product includes software developed by Adam Glass. This product includes software developed by Christian E. Hopps. This product includes software developed by Dean Huxley. This product includes software developed by John Kohl. This product includes software developed by Paul Kranenburg. This product includes software developed by Terrence R. Lambert. This product includes software developed by Philip A. Nelson. This product includes software developed by Herb Peyerl. This product includes software developed by Jochen Pohl for the NetBSD Project. This product includes software developed by Chris Provenzano. This product includes software developed by Theo de Raadt. This product includes software developed by David Muir Sharnoff. This product includes software developed by SigmaSoft, Th. Lockert. This product includes software developed for the NetBSD Project by Jason R. Thorpe. This product includes software developed by Jason R. Thorpe for And Communications, http://www.and.com. This product includes software developed for the NetBSD Project by Frank Van der Linden. This product includes software developed for the NetBSD Project by John M. Vinopal. This product includes software developed by Christos Zoulas. This product includes software developed by the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College and Garrett A. Wollman. This product includes software developed by Balazs Scheidler <bazsi@balabit.hu>, which is protected under the GNU Public License. This product includes software developed by Niels Mueller <nisse@lysator.liu.se>, which is protected under the GNU Public License. In the following statement, "This software" refers to the Mitsumi CD-ROM driver: This software was developed by Holger Veit and Brian Moore for use with "386BSD" and similar operating systems. "Similar operating systems" includes mainly non-profit oriented systems for research and education, including but not restricted to "NetBSD," "FreeBSD," "Mach" (by CMU). This product includes software developed by the Apache Group for use in the Apache HTTP server project (http://www.apache.org/). This product includes software licensed from Richard H. Porter under the GNU Library General Public License ( 1998, Red Hat Software), www.gnu.org/copyleft/lgpl.html. This product includes the standard version of Perl software licensed under the Perl Artistic License ( 1997, 1998 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington). All rights reserved. You may find the most current standard version of Perl at http://www.perl.com. This product includes software developed by Jared Minch.
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This product includes software developed by the OpenSSL Project for use in the OpenSSL Toolkit (http://www.openssl.org/). This product includes cryptographic software written by Eric Young (eay@cryptsoft.com). This product contains software based on oprofile, which is protected under the GNU Public License. This product includes RRDtool software developed by Tobi Oetiker (http://www.rrdtool.com/index.html) and licensed under the GNU General Public License. This product contains software licensed from Dr. Brian Gladman under the GNU General Public License (GPL). This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation <http://www.apache.org/>. This product includes Hypersonic SQL. This product contains software developed by the Regents of the University of California, Sun Microsystems, Inc., Scriptics Corporation, and others. This product includes software developed by the Internet Software Consortium. This product includes software developed by Nominum, Inc. (http://www.nominum.com). This product contains software developed by Broadcom Corporation, which is protected under the GNU Public License.
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
1
Introducing Implementations for BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager
Introducing BIG-IP system implementations ............................................................................1-1 Getting started .......................................................................................................................1-1 Using the Configuration utility ............................................................................................1-1 About this guide ..............................................................................................................................1-2 Additional information ..........................................................................................................1-2 Stylistic conventions ..............................................................................................................1-3 Finding help and technical support resources ..........................................................................1-5
2
Configuring nPath Routing
Introducing nPath routing .............................................................................................................2-1 Configuring nPath routing .............................................................................................................2-2 Creating a custom Fast L4 profile ......................................................................................2-3 Creating a server pool for nPath routing .........................................................................2-4 Creating a virtual server ......................................................................................................2-4 Configuring the virtual server on the content server loopback interface ................2-5 Setting the route for inbound traffic .................................................................................2-5 Enabling the connection.autolasthop bigdb key ..............................................................2-5 Setting timers for nPath configurations .....................................................................................2-6 Guidelines for configuring timeouts for UDP traffic .....................................................2-6 Guidelines for configuring timeouts for TCP traffic ......................................................2-6
3
Basic Web Site and E-Commerce Configuration
Working with a basic web site and e-commerce configuration ..........................................3-1 Configuring a basic e-commerce site .........................................................................................3-2 Creating load balancing pools .............................................................................................3-2 Creating virtual servers ........................................................................................................3-3
4
Installing a BIG-IP System without Changing the IP Network
Installing a BIG-IP system without changing IP networks ......................................................4-1 Configuring the BIG-IP system for the same IP network ......................................................4-3 Removing the self IP addresses from the individual VLANs ........................................4-3 Creating a VLAN group .......................................................................................................4-4 Creating a self IP address for the VLAN group ..............................................................4-5 Creating a pool of web servers ..........................................................................................4-5 Creating a virtual server ......................................................................................................4-6
5
Web Hosting for Multiple Customers
Introducing multiple customer hosting ......................................................................................5-1 Hosting multiple customers using an external switch ............................................................5-2 Creating VLANs with tagged interfaces ...........................................................................5-2 Creating load balancing pools .............................................................................................5-3 Creating virtual servers ........................................................................................................5-3 Directly hosting multiple customers ..........................................................................................5-5 Creating VLANs with untagged interfaces .......................................................................5-6
BIG-IP Local Traffic Manger: Implementations
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6
A Simple Intranet Configuration
Working with a simple intranet configuration .........................................................................6-1 Creating the simple intranet configuration ...............................................................................6-2 Creating pools ........................................................................................................................6-2 Creating virtual servers ........................................................................................................6-3
7
Load Balancing ISPs
Introducing ISP load balancing ......................................................................................................7-1 Configuring ISP load balancing .....................................................................................................7-2 Creating pools for an additional Internet connection ...................................................7-2 Creating virtual servers for an additional Internet connection ..................................7-3 Configuring address translation for outbound traffic .............................................................7-5
8
Load Balancing HTTP Traffic with Source Address Affinity Persistence
Introducing basic HTTP load balancing ......................................................................................8-1 Configuring HTTP load balancing with source address affinity persistence ......................8-2 Creating a pool .......................................................................................................................8-2 Creating a virtual server ......................................................................................................8-3
9
Load Balancing HTTP Traffic with Cookie Persistence
Introducing basic HTTP load balancing ......................................................................................9-1 Configuring HTTP load balancing with cookie persistence ..................................................9-2 Creating a custom persistence profile ..............................................................................9-2 Creating a pool .......................................................................................................................9-3 Creating a virtual server ......................................................................................................9-3
10
Compressing HTTP Responses
Introducing HTTP data compression ...................................................................................... 10-1 Creating a custom HTTP profile .............................................................................................. 10-2 Creating a virtual server ............................................................................................................. 10-3
11
Configuring HTTPS Load Balancing
Introducing HTTPS load balancing ........................................................................................... 11-1 Creating an SSL key and certificate ......................................................................................... 11-2 Creating a custom SSL profile ................................................................................................... 11-3 Creating a pool ............................................................................................................................. 11-5 Creating a virtual server ............................................................................................................. 11-6
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12
Configuring HTTPS Load Balancing with Data Compression
Introducing HTTPS load balancing with compression ......................................................... 12-1 Creating an SSL key and certificate ......................................................................................... 12-2 Creating a custom Client SSL profile ...................................................................................... 12-3 Creating a custom HTTP profile for compression .............................................................. 12-4 Creating a pool ............................................................................................................................. 12-6 Creating a virtual server ............................................................................................................. 12-7
13
Using RAM Cache for HTTP Traffic
Introducing HTTP RAM Cache ................................................................................................. 13-1 Creating a custom HTTP profile .............................................................................................. 13-2 Creating a virtual server ............................................................................................................. 13-3
14
Load Balancing Passive Mode FTP Traffic
Introducing FTP load balancing ................................................................................................. 14-1 Creating a custom FTP monitor ............................................................................................... 14-2 Creating a pool ............................................................................................................................. 14-3 Creating a virtual server ............................................................................................................. 14-4
15
Load Balancing Passive Mode FTP Traffic with Rate Shaping
Introducing FTP load balancing with rate shaping ................................................................ 15-1 Creating a custom FTP monitor ............................................................................................... 15-2 Creating a pool ............................................................................................................................. 15-3 Creating a rate class .................................................................................................................... 15-4 Creating a virtual server ............................................................................................................. 15-5
16
Setting up a One-IP Network Topology
Introducing the one-IP network topology ............................................................................. 16-1 Creating a pool for a one-IP network topology ................................................................... 16-2 Creating a virtual server ............................................................................................................. 16-3 Defining a default route .............................................................................................................. 16-4 Configuring a client SNAT ......................................................................................................... 16-5
17
Using Link Aggregation with Tagged VLANs
Introducing link aggregation with tagged VLAN interfaces ................................................ 17-1 Using the two-network aggregated tagged interface topology ......................................... 17-2 Aggregating the links .......................................................................................................... 17-3 Assigning a trunk to the VLANs ...................................................................................... 17-3 Creating a pool of web servers to load balance .......................................................... 17-4 Creating a virtual server to load balance the web servers ....................................... 17-5 Using the one-network aggregated tagged interface topology ......................................... 17-6 Removing the self IP addresses from the VLANs ....................................................... 17-7 Creating a VLAN group .................................................................................................... 17-7 Creating a self IP for the VLAN group .......................................................................... 17-8
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Setting Up Packet Filtering
Introducing packet filtering ........................................................................................................ 18-1 Configuring packet filtering ........................................................................................................ 18-2 Creating a SNAT ................................................................................................................. 18-2 Creating a gateway pool .................................................................................................... 18-2 Creating a forwarding virtual server .............................................................................. 18-3 Creating a packet filter rule ............................................................................................. 18-4
19
Implementing Health and Performance Monitors
Introducing health and performance monitors ..................................................................... 19-1 Creating a custom monitor ....................................................................................................... 19-3 Creating a pool ............................................................................................................................. 19-4 Assigning a monitor to a pool .......................................................................................... 19-4 Excluding a pool member from a monitor .................................................................... 19-5 Creating a virtual server ............................................................................................................. 19-6
20
Load Balancing Traffic to IPv6 Nodes
Configuring the radvd service ................................................................................................... 20-1 Configuring IPv4-to-IPv6 load balancing ................................................................................. 20-2 Creating a pool of IPv6 nodes ......................................................................................... 20-2 Creating a virtual server ................................................................................................... 20-3
21
Implementing Overlapping IP Addresses
Introducing overlapping IP addresses ...................................................................................... 21-1 What is a route domain? ................................................................................................... 21-1 Specifying route domain IDs ............................................................................................ 21-1 Configuring route domains ........................................................................................................ 21-2 Creating VLANs for route domains ............................................................................... 21-3 Creating self IP addresses for route domains .............................................................. 21-5 Creating route domain objects ........................................................................................ 21-6 Creating pool members for route domains ................................................................. 21-7 Creating static routes ........................................................................................................ 21-8 Creating virtual servers for route domains .................................................................. 21-9
22
Mitigating Denial of Service and Other Attacks
Basic denial of service security overview ............................................................................... 22-1 Configuring adaptive connection reaping ............................................................................... 22-2 Logging adaptive reaper activity ...................................................................................... 22-3 Simple DoS prevention configuration ..................................................................................... 22-4 Setting the TCP and UDP connection timers .............................................................. 22-4 Creating an IP rate class and applying it to a virtual server ...................................... 22-5 Setting connection limits on the main virtual server .................................................. 22-6 Filtering out attacks with iRules ............................................................................................... 22-7 Filtering out a Code Red attack ...................................................................................... 22-7 Filtering out a Nimda attack ............................................................................................. 22-7
Table of Contents
How the BIG-IP system handles several common attacks ................................................. 22-8 SYN flood ............................................................................................................................. 22-8 ICMP flood (Smurf) ............................................................................................................ 22-9 UDP flood ............................................................................................................................. 22-9 UDP fragment .................................................................................................................... 22-10 Ping of Death ..................................................................................................................... 22-10 Land attack ......................................................................................................................... 22-10 Teardrop ............................................................................................................................. 22-11 Data attacks ....................................................................................................................... 22-11 WinNuke ............................................................................................................................ 22-11 Sub 7 .................................................................................................................................... 22-11 Back Orifice ........................................................................................................................ 22-12
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Configuring Administrative Domains
Introducing administrative domains ......................................................................................... 23-1 Creating a partition ..................................................................................................................... 23-2 Configuring user access to a partition .................................................................................... 23-3 Viewing, managing, and creating objects in a partition ........................................................ 23-4 Viewing and managing system objects ........................................................................... 23-4 Creating BIG-IP system objects ....................................................................................... 23-5
24
Configuring Remote Authentication and Authorization for Administrative Traffic
Introducing remote authentication and authorization for BIG-IP system user accounts .... 24-1 Configuring the BIG-IP system to use remote authentication of user accounts .......... 24-2 Configuring access control for BIG-IP system users ........................................................... 24-6 Understanding the remoterole command .................................................................... 24-7 Using the remote role command .................................................................................... 24-7 Using variable substitution ................................................................................................ 24-8 Propagating remote authentication and authorization data to multiple BIG-IP devices ..... 24-11
25
Configuring Remote Authentication for Application Traffic
Introducing remote authentication for application traffic .................................................. 25-1 Configuring authentication that uses a remote LDAP or Active Directory server ..... 25-2 Creating an LDAP configuration object ........................................................................ 25-2 Creating an LDAP authentication profile ...................................................................... 25-5 Modifying a virtual server for LDAP authentication ................................................... 25-5 Configuring authentication that uses a remote RADIUS server ....................................... 25-7 Creating a RADIUS server object ................................................................................... 25-7 Creating a RADIUS configuration object ...................................................................... 25-8 Creating a RADIUS profile ............................................................................................... 25-9 Modifying a virtual server for RADIUS authentication .............................................. 25-9 Configuring authentication that uses a remote TACACS+ server ................................ 25-11 Creating a TACACS+ configuration object ................................................................ 25-11 Creating a TACACS+ profile ......................................................................................... 25-12 Modifying a virtual server for TACACS+ authentication ........................................ 25-13
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Configuring SSL-based authorization using a remote LDAP server ............................... 25-14 Creating an SSL CLient Certificate LDAP configuration object ............................ 25-14 Creating an SSL Client Certificate LDAP authentication profile ........................... 25-15 Modifying a virtual server for SSL Client Certificate LDAP authorization .......... 25-16 Configuring SSL certificate revocation using an OCSP responder ................................. 25-17 Creating an SSL OCSP responder object ................................................................... 25-17 Creating an SSL OCSP configuration object .............................................................. 25-18 Creating an SSL OCSP profile ....................................................................................... 25-18 Modifying a virtual server for SSL OCSP authentication ......................................... 25-19 Configuring a CRLDP authentication module ..................................................................... 25-20 Creating a CRLDP server object .................................................................................. 25-20 Creating a CRLDP configuration object ...................................................................... 25-21 Creating a CRLDP profile ............................................................................................... 25-22 Modifying a virtual server for CRLDP authentication .............................................. 25-23
26
Configuring Kerberos Delegation
Introducing Kerberos delegation infrastructure ................................................................... 26-1 Configuring the BIG-IP system for Kerberos delegation .................................................... 26-2 Adding a DNS server to the BIG-IP system ................................................................. 26-2 Joining the BIG-IP system to the trusted domain ........................................................ 26-3 Creating the Kerberos delegation configuration .................................................................. 26-5 Configuring Kerberos delegation using the Configuration utility ............................ 26-5 Configuring Kerberos delegation from the command line ....................................... 26-8 Authenticating Client Traffic ................................................................................................... 26-10
27
Configuring Multiple Authentication Servers
Introducing multiple authentication server configuration .................................................. 27-1 Meeting prerequisites .................................................................................................................. 27-2 Configuring BIG-IP system objects .......................................................................................... 27-2
28
Implementing Paired Tunneling
Introducing paired tunneling ...................................................................................................... 28-1 What is paired tunneling? .................................................................................................. 28-1 About data compression ................................................................................................... 28-2 Before you begin ................................................................................................................. 28-3 Configuring the client-side system ........................................................................................... 28-4 Creating a client-side endpoint pool .............................................................................. 28-4 Creating the client-side iSession profile ........................................................................ 28-5 Creating the client-side virtual server ........................................................................... 28-6 Configuring the server-side system ......................................................................................... 28-9 Creating the server-side virtual server ........................................................................ 28-10 Specifying service ports ................................................................................................... 28-11 Viewing data compression statistics ...................................................................................... 28-12
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29
Securing and Accelerating HTTP Traffic with ASM and WA
Overview of the configuration tasks ....................................................................................... 29-1 Completing basic configuration tasks on the Local Traffic Manager ................................ 29-2 Performing initial configuration tasks on the Local Traffic Manager ................................ 29-3 Creating the HTTP class profile ...................................................................................... 29-3 Defining a virtual server and pool on the BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager ............... 29-4 Defining an NTP server ..................................................................................................... 29-6 Creating an application profile for the WebAccelerator system ..................................... 29-7 Selecting an acceleration policy ....................................................................................... 29-7 Planning your host map ..................................................................................................... 29-8 Assigning the WebAccelerator application profile to the security policy in Application Security Manager ........................................................................................................................ 29-12 Running the Application Security Manager Deployment Wizard ................................... 29-13
30
Securing and Accelerating HTTP Traffic with PSM and WA
Overview of the configuration tasks ....................................................................................... 30-1 Completing basic configuration tasks on the Local Traffic Manager ................................ 30-2 Performing initial configuration tasks on the Local Traffic Manager ................................ 30-3 Creating the WebAccelerator HTTP class profile ..................................................... 30-4 Creating an HTTP service profile ................................................................................... 30-4 Creating a virtual server and pool on the BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager .............. 30-5 Creating an application profile for the WebAccelerator system ..................................... 30-7 Selecting an acceleration policy ....................................................................................... 30-7 Planning your host map ..................................................................................................... 30-8 Creating an HTTP security profile in the Protocol Security Module configuration ... 30-12
Glossary Index
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1
Introducing BIG-IP system implementations About this guide Finding help and technical support resources
Introducing BIG-IP system implementations

In a typical configuration, the BIG-IP system functions as a device on the network, directing different types of protocol and application traffic to an appropriate destination server. The system accomplishes this by forwarding the traffic to a load balancing server pool, sending the traffic directly to a specific server node, or sending it to a next-hop router or a pool of routers. The most basic configuration of the BIG-IP system includes two virtual local area networks (VLANs) with one or more BIG-IP interfaces (ports) assigned to each VLAN. Using the BIG-IP systems browser-based Configuration utility, you can implement many configuration scenarios simply by using the default VLAN configuration, and then creating BIG-IP system objects such as a customized virtual server, traffic profile, and load balancing pool.
Note
BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager is one of several products that constitute the BIG-IP product family. All products in the BIG-IP product family run on the powerful Traffic Management Operating System, commonly referred to as TMOSTM. For an overview of the complete BIG-IP product offering, see the introductory chapter of the TMOSTM Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems.
Getting started
Before you begin implementing a solution in this guide, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with additional resources such as other BIG-IP system guides and online help, and review the stylistic conventions that appear in this chapter. For more information, see About this guide, on page 1-2. Then, we recommend that you run the Setup utility on the BIG-IP system to configure basic network and network elements such as static and floating self IP addresses, interfaces, and VLANs. After running the Setup utility, you can use this guide to implement specific configuration scenarios. For information on running the Setup utility, see BIG-IP Systems: Getting Started Guide.
Using the Configuration utility

After running the Setup utility, you use the Configuration utility to perform additional configuration steps necessary for your configuration. For information on using the Configuration utility, see BIG-IP Systems: Getting Started Guide. For a list of browser versions that the Configuration utility supports, see the release notes for this product on the Ask F5SM web site, https://support.f5.com.
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About this guide

The chapters contained in this guide provide step-by-step procedures for implementing complete traffic management solutions using the Configuration utility. For example, Chapter 3, Basic Web Site and E-Commerce Configuration, describes how to configure the BIG-IP system objects that you need to set up an array of web servers that process e-commerce traffic.
Additional information
In addition to this guide, there are other sources of the documentation you can use in order to work with the BIG-IP system. The following guides are available in PDF format from the Ask F5SM web site, https://support.f5.com:
BIG-IP Systems: Getting Started Guide This guide provides detailed information about licensing and provisioning the BIG-IP system, as well as installing upgrades. TMOSTM Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems This guide contains any information you need to configure and maintain the network and system-related components of the BIG-IP system, such as routes, VLANs, and user accounts. Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Local Traffic Management This guide contains any information you need for configuring specific features of the BIG-IP system to manage local network traffic. BIG-IP Application Security Manager: Getting Started Guide This guide describes how to set up BIG-IP Application Security Manager to configure security policies. Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Application Security Management This guide provides configuration procedures to protect Web applications from both generalized and targeted application layer attacks.
Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Protocol Security Module This guide provides the procedures for configuring BIG-IP Protocol Security Module. Configuration Guide for the BIG-IP WebAcceleratorTM System This guide describes the core BIG-IP WebAccelerator concepts and provides the procedures for configuring and monitoring the WebAccelerator system.
Bigpipe Utility Reference Guide This guide contains information about using the bigpipe utility commands to manage the BIG-IP system. Traffic Management Shell (tmsh) Reference Guide This guide contains information about using the Traffic Management Shell (tmsh) commands to manage the BIG-IP system.
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Stylistic conventions
To help you easily identify and understand important information, all of our documentation uses the stylistic conventions described here.
Using the examples

All examples in this document use only private class IP addresses. When you set up the implementations we describe, you must use valid IP addresses suitable to your own network in place of our sample addresses.
Identifying new terms

To help you identify sections where a term is defined, the term itself is shown in bold italic text. For example, a floating IP address is an IP address assigned to a VLAN and shared between two computer systems.
Identifying references to products

We refer to all products in the BIG-IP product family as BIG-IP systems. We refer to the software modules by their name; for example, we refer to the Local Traffic Manager module as simply the Local Traffic Manager. If configuration information relates to a specific hardware platform, we note the platform.
Identifying references to objects, names, and commands

We apply bold text to a variety of items to help you easily pick them out of a block of text. These items include web addresses, IP addresses, utility names, and portions of commands, such as variables and keywords. For example, with the bigpipe self <ip_address> show command, you can specify a specific self IP address to show by specifying an IP address for the <ip_address> variable.
Identifying references to other documents

We use italic text to denote a reference to another document or section of a document. We use bold, italic text to denote a reference to a book title. For example, for installation instructions, see the guide titled BIG-IP Systems: Getting Started Guide.
Identifying command syntax

We show complete commands in bold Courier text. Note that we do not include the corresponding screen prompt, unless the command is shown in a figure that depicts an entire command line screen.
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For example, the following command shows the configuration of the specified pool name:
bigpipe self <ip_address> show
or
b self <ip_Address> show
Table 1.1 explains additional special conventions used in command line syntax.
Item in text \ Description Indicates that the command continues on the following line, and that users should type the entire command without typing a line break. Identifies a user-defined parameter. For example, if the command has <your name>, type in your name, but do not include the brackets. Separates parts of a command. Indicates that syntax inside the brackets is optional. Indicates that you can type a series of items.
< >
| [] ...
Table 1.1 Command line syntax conventions
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Finding help and technical support resources

You can find additional technical documentation and product information in the following locations:
Online help for local traffic management The Configuration utility has online help for each screen. The online help contains descriptions of each control and setting on the screen. Click the Help tab in the left navigation pane to view the online help for a screen. Welcome screen in the Configuration utility The Welcome screen in the Configuration utility contains links to many useful web sites and resources, including: The F5 Networks Technical Support web site The F5 Solution Center The F5 DevCentral web site Plug-ins, SNMP MIBs, and SSH clients
F5 Networks Technical Support web site The F5 Networks Technical Support web site, https://support.f5.com, provides the latest documentation for the product, including: Release notes for the BIG-IP system, current and past Updates for guides (in PDF form) Technical notes Answers to frequently asked questions The Ask F5SM Knowledge Base To access this site, you need to register at https://support.f5.com.
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Introducing nPath routing Configuring nPath routing Setting timers for nPath configurations
Introducing nPath routing

With the nPath routing configuration, you can route outgoing server traffic around the BIG-IP system directly to an outbound router. This method of traffic management increases outbound throughput because packets do not need to be transmitted to the BIG-IP system for translation and forwarding to the next hop. Figure 2.1 shows an nPath configuration.
Figure 2.1 An example of nPath implementation
Note
The type of virtual server that processes the incoming traffic must be a transparent, non-translating type of virtual server. In bypassing the BIG-IP system on the return path, nPath routing departs significantly from a typical load-balancing configuration. In a typical load-balancing configuration, the destination address of the incoming packet is translated from that of the virtual server to that of the server being load balanced to, which then becomes the source address of the returning packet. A default route set to the BIG-IP system then sees to it that packets returning
BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager: Implementations 2-1
Chapter 2
to the originating client return through the BIG-IP system, which translates the source address back to that of the virtual server. The nPath configuration differs from the typical load-balancing configuration, as you can see in the following section.
Note
Do not attempt to use nPath routing for Layer 7 traffic. Certain traffic features do not work properly if Layer 7 traffic bypasses the BIG-IP system on the return path. An example of such a feature is HTTP response compression.
Configuring nPath routing

The nPath routing configuration differs from the typical BIG-IP load balancing configuration in the following ways:
The default route on the content servers must be set to the routers internal address (10.1.1.1 in Figure 2.1, on page 2-1) rather than to the BIG-IP systems floating self-IP address (10.1.1.10). This causes the return packet to bypass the BIG-IP system. If you plan to use an nPath configuration for TCP traffic, you must create a Fast L4 profile with the following custom settings: Enable the Loose Close setting. When you enable the Loose Close setting, the TCP protocol flow expires more quickly, once a TCP FIN packet is seen. (A FIN packet indicates the tearing down of a previous connection.) Set the TCP Close Timeout setting to the same value as the profile idle timeout if you expect half closes. If not, you can set this value to 5 seconds.
Because address translation and port translation have been turned off, when the incoming packet arrives at the pool member it is load balanced to the virtual server address (176.16.1.1 in Figure 2.1, on page 2-1), not to the address of the server. For the server to respond to that address, that address must be configured on the loopback interface of the server and configured for use with the server software.
You need to complete the following tasks to configure the BIG-IP system to use nPath routing: Create a custom Fast L4 profile. Create a pool that contains the content servers. Define a virtual server with port and address translation disabled and assign the custom Fast L4 profile to it. Configure the virtual server address on each server loopback interface. Set the default route on your servers to the routers internal IP address.
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Ensure that the bigdb configuration key connection.autolasthop is enabled. Alternatively, on each content server, you can add a return route to the client. For background information on profiles, pools, and virtual servers, see the Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Local Traffic Management.
Note
You perform the tasks contained in this guide using the Configuration utility; however, the procedures do not include the step of logging on to the Configuration utility. Before you begin the tasks, log on to the Configuration utility.
Creating a custom Fast L4 profile

The first task you must complete to create an nPath routing configuration is to create a custom Fast L4 profile.
To create a custom Fast L4 profile

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. The HTTP Profiles screen opens. 2. From the Protocol menu, choose Fast L4. The Fast L4 Profiles screen opens. 3. To create a custom profile, click Create. The New Fast L4 Profile screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a Fast L4 profile. 4. In the New Fast L4 Profile screen, set the following attributes: a) In the Name box, type a name for the profile. b) Check the Loose Close box. c) Set the TCP Idle Timeout setting according to the type of traffic the virtual server is going to handle. For additional information about setting this timeout, see Setting timers for nPath configurations, on page 2-6. 5. Click Finished.
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Creating a server pool for nPath routing

After you create a custom Fast L4 profile, you need to create a server pool.
To create a pool
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Pools. The Pools screen opens. 2. To create a new pool, click Create. The New Pool screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a pool. 3. Type a pool name and add the member addresses for each of the servers. 4. Click Finished.
Creating a virtual server

After you create a server pool, you need to create a virtual server that references the custom Fast L4 profile and pool you created in the previous two tasks.
To create a standard virtual server

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. To create a new virtual server, click Create. The New Virtual Server screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a virtual server. 3. Type the virtual server name, select a destination type, and type the IP address. 4. For the Type setting, select Performance (Layer 4). 5. Set the following attributes: a) For Protocol, select either UDP, TCP, or *All Protocols from the list. b) For Protocol Profile (Client), select the name of the custom Fast L4 profile that you created. c) Clear the Address Translation check box to disable address translation.
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d) Clear the Port Translation check box to disable port translation. e) In the Resources section, choose the pool you created that contains the content servers. 6. Click Finished.
Configuring the virtual server on the content server loopback interface

You must place the IP address of the virtual server (176.16.1.1 in Figure 2.1 on page 2-1) on the loopback interface of each server. Most UNIX variants have a loopback interface named lo0. Microsoft Windows has an MS Loopback interface in its list of network adaptors. For some versions of Windows, you must install the loopback interface using the installation CD. Consult your server operating system documentation for information about configuring an IP address on the loopback interface. The loopback interface is ideal for the nPath configuration because it does not participate in the ARP protocol.
Setting the route for inbound traffic

For inbound traffic, you must define a route through the BIG-IP system self IP address to the virtual server. In the example, this route is 176.16.1.1, with the external self IP address 10.1.1.10 as the gateway.
Note
You need to set this route only if the virtual server is on a different subnet than the router. For information about how to define this route, please refer to the documentation provided with your router.
Enabling the connection.autolasthop bigdb key

To ensure that npath routing works correctly, you must ensure that the bigdb configuration key connection.autolasthop is set to enable. This is relevant for both IPv4 and IPv6 addressing formats. To ensure that this bigdb key is enabled, type this command:
bigpipe db connection.autolasthop enable
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Chapter 2
Setting timers for nPath configurations

When you create an nPath configuration, the BIG-IP system sees only client requests. Therefore, the timer for the connection timeout is only reset when clients transmit. In general, this means the timeout for an nPath connection should be at least twice as long as for a comparable connection where BIG-IP system sees both client requests and node responses. Following are descriptions of scenarios for setting the timers for UDP and TCP traffic.
Guidelines for configuring timeouts for UDP traffic

When you configure nPath for UDP traffic, the BIG-IP system tracks packets sent between the same source and destination address to the same destination port as a connection. This is necessary to ensure that client requests that are part of a session always go to the same server. Therefore, a UDP connection is really a form of persistence, since UDP is a connectionless protocol. To calculate the timeout for UDP, estimate the maximum amount of time that a server transmits UDP packets before a packet is sent by the client. In some cases, the server might transmit hundreds of packets over several minutes before ending the session or waiting for a client response.
Guidelines for configuring timeouts for TCP traffic

When you configure nPath for TCP traffic, the BIG-IP system sees only the client side of the connection. For example, in the TCP three-way handshake, the BIG-IP system sees the SYN from the client to the server, and does not see the SYN acknowledgement from the server to the client, and does see the acknowledgement of the acknowledgement from the client to the server. The timeout for the connection should match the combined TCP retransmission timeout (RTO) of the client and the node as closely as possible to ensure that all connections are successful. The maximum initial RTO observed on most UNIX and Windows systems is approximately 25 seconds. Therefore, a timeout of 51 seconds should adequately cover the worst case. Once a TCP session is established, an adaptive timeout is used. In most cases, this results in a faster timeout on the client and node. Only if your clients are on slow, lossy networks should you ever need a higher TCP timeout for established connections.
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Working with a basic web site and e-commerce configuration Configuring a basic e-commerce site
Working with a basic web site and e-commerce configuration

The most common use for the BIG-IP system is distributing traffic across an array of web servers that host standard web traffic, including e-commerce traffic. Figure 3.1 shows a configuration where a BIG-IP system load balances two sites: www.siterequest.com and store.siterequest.com. The www.siterequest.com site provides standard web content, and the store.siterequest.com site is the e-commerce site that sells items to www.siterequest.com customers.
Figure 3.1 A basic load balancing configuration
To set up load balancing for these sites, you need to create two pools that are referenced by two virtual servers, one for each site. Even though the sites are related and they may even share the same IP address, each requires its own virtual server because it uses a different port to support its particular protocol: port 80 for the HTTP traffic going to www.siterequest.com, and port 443 for the SSL traffic going to store.siterequest.com. Note that this is true even when there is a port 80 and port 443 on the same physical server, as in the case of Server2.
Note
All examples in this document use only private class IP addresses. When you set up the configurations we describe, you must use valid IP addresses suitable to your own network in place of our sample addresses.
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Chapter 3
Configuring a basic e-commerce site

To configure the e-commerce site, you need to complete the following tasks in order: Create the load balancing pools. Create a pool to load balance HTTP connections, and a pool to load balance SSL connections. Create virtual servers for the inbound traffic. Create the virtual servers that reference the HTTP and SSL pools.
Creating load balancing pools

The first task in a basic configuration is to define the two load balancing pools: a pool to load balance HTTP connections, and a pool to load balance SSL connections. As shown in Figure 3.1, on page 3-1, the two servers for the HTTP pool are 192.168.100.1:80 and 192.168.100.2:80 (Server1 and Server 2). The two servers for the SSL pool are 192.168.100.2:443 and 192.168.100.3:443 (Server2 and Server 3). Use the Configuration utility to create these two pools. For additional information about configuring a pool, see the online help.
To create a pool for load balancing HTTP traffic

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Pools. The Pools screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Pool screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a pool. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the pool. In the example in Figure 3.1, on page 3-1, this pool name is http_pool. 4. In the Resources area of the screen, use the New Members setting to add the pool members. In the example in Figure 3.1, on page 3-1, these pool members are 192.168.100.1:80 and 192.168.100.2:80. 5. Click Finished.
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To create a pool for load balancing SSL traffic

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Pools. The Pools screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Pool screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a pool. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the pool. In the example in Figure 3.1, on page 3-1, this pool name is ssl_pool. 4. In the Resources area of the screen, use the New Members setting to add the pool members. In the example in Figure 3.1, on page 3-1, these pool members are 192.168.100.2:443 and 192.168.100.3:443. 5. Click Finished.
Creating virtual servers

The next task in a basic configuration is to define the virtual servers that reference the HTTP and SSL pools, respectively. You use the Configuration utility to create these virtual servers. For additional information about configuring a virtual server, click the Help button.
To define a virtual server for HTTP traffic

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Virtual Server screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a virtual server. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the virtual server, such as vs_http. 4. In the Destination box, verify that the type of virtual server is Host, and in the Address box, type an IP address for the virtual server, such as 192.168.200.10:80. 5. In the Service Port box, type 80, or select HTTP from the list. 6. In the Configuration area of the screen, locate the HTTP Profile setting and select http. 7. In the Resources area of the screen, locate the Default Pool setting and select http_pool. 8. Click Finished.
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To define a virtual server for SSL traffic

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Virtual Server screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a virtual server. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the virtual server, such as vs_ssl. 4. In the Destination box, verify that the type of virtual server is Host, and in the Address box, type an IP address for the virtual server, such as 192.168.200.10:443. 5. In the Service Port box, type 443, or select HTTPS from the list. 6. In the Configuration area of the screen, locate the SSL Profile (Client) setting and select clientssl. 7. In the Resources area of the screen, locate the Default Pool setting and select ssl_pool. 8. Click Finished.
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Installing a BIG-IP system without changing IP networks Configuring the BIG-IP system for the same IP network
Installing a BIG-IP system without changing IP networks

A combination of several features of the BIG-IP system allows you to place a BIG-IP system in a network without changing the existing IP network. Figure 4.1 shows the data center topology before you add the BIG-IP system. The data center has one LAN, with one IP network, 10.0.0.0. The data center has one router to the Internet, two web servers, and a back-end mail server.
Figure 4.1 Existing data center network structure
The existing data center structure does not support load balancing or high availability. Figure 4.2, on page 4-2 is an example of the data center topology after you add the BIG-IP system.
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Figure 4.2 New structure after adding the BIG-IP system
Both the internal and external interfaces of the BIG-IP system are on the same IP network, 10.0.0.0, but they are effectively on different LANs. Figure 4.2 introduces a second switch.
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Configuring the BIG-IP system for the same IP network

To configure the BIG-IP system for this implementation, you must create a VLAN group, a pool of web servers, and a virtual server. More specifically, you must complete these tasks:
Remove the self IP addresses from the individual VLANs Routing is handled by the self IP address you create for the VLAN group. Create a VLAN group Create a VLAN group that includes the internal and external VLANs. This enables Layer 2 forwarding. (Layer 2 forwarding causes the two VLANs to behave as a single network.) Create a self IP for the VLAN group The self IP for the VLAN group provides a route for packets destined for the network. Create a pool of web servers Create a pool that contains the web servers that you want to load balance. Create a virtual server Create a virtual server that load balances the web servers.
Note
This example assumes that you are using the default internal and external VLAN configuration with self IP addresses on each of the VLANs that are on the same IP network on which you are installing the BIG-IP system.
Important
The default route on each content server should be set to the IP address of the router. In this example, you set the default route to 10.0.0.2.
Removing the self IP addresses from the individual VLANs

Remove the self IP addresses from the individual VLANs. After you create the VLAN group, you will create another self IP address for the VLAN group for routing purposes. The individual VLANs no longer need their own self IP addresses.
WARNING
We recommend that you perform this step from the console or from a self IP address you are not going to delete. If you are connected from a remote workstation through a self IP address that you are going to delete, you will be disconnected when you delete it.
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To remove the self IP addresses from the default VLANs

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Network, and click Self IPs. The Self IPs screen opens. 2. Using the IP Address and VLANs columns, locate the self IP addresses for the VLANs internal and external. 3. To the left of each self IP address you want to delete, check the Select box. Note: If the Delete button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to delete a self IP address. 4. Click Delete. A confirmation screen appears. 5. Click Delete again.
Creating a VLAN group

Create a VLAN group that includes the internal and external VLANs. Packets received by a VLAN in the VLAN group are copied onto the other VLAN in the group. This allows traffic to pass through the BIG-IP system on the same IP network.
To create a VLAN group

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Network, and click VLANs. The VLANs screen opens. 2. From the VLAN Groups menu, choose List. This opens the VLAN Groups screen. 3. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. This opens the New VLAN Group screen. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a VLAN group. 4. In the Name box, type the name myvlangroup. 5. For the VLANs setting, from the Available box select the internal and external VLAN names, and click the Move button (<<) to move the VLAN names to the Members box. 6. Click Finished.
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Creating a self IP address for the VLAN group

The self IP address for the VLAN group provides a route for packets destined for the network. With the BIG-IP system, the path to an IP network is a VLAN. However, with the VLAN group feature used in this example, the path to the IP network 10.0.0.0 is actually through more than one VLAN. Since IP routers are designed to have only one physical route to a network, a routing conflict can occur. The self IP address feature on the BIG-IP system allows you to resolve the routing conflict by putting a self IP address on the VLAN group.
To create a self IP address for a VLAN group

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Network, and click Self IPs. The Self IPs screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a self IP address. 3. In the IP Address box, type a self IP address for the VLAN group. In the example shown in Figure 4.2, on page 4-2, this IP address is 10.0.0.6. 4. In the Netmask box, type a netmask for the self IP address. 5. For the VLAN setting, select the name myvlangroup from the list. 6. Click Finished.
Creating a pool of web servers

After you create the network environment for the BIG-IP system, you can create the pool of web servers you want to load balance.
To create a pool
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Pools. The Pools screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Pool screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a pool. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the pool, such as myweb_pool. 4. In the Resources area of the screen, use the New Members setting to add the pool members. In our example, pool members are 10.0.0.3:80 and 10.0.0.4:80. 5. Click Finished.
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After you create the pool of web servers you want to load balance, you can create the virtual server.
To create a virtual server

1. On the Main tab, of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Virtual Server screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a virtual server. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the virtual server, such as vs_myweb. 4. In the Destination box, verify that the type of virtual server is Host, and in the Address box, type an IP address. Continuing with our example, this address would be 10.0.0.5. 5. From the Service Port list, select *All Ports. 6. In the Resources area of the screen, locate the Default Pool setting and select the name of the pool you created using the previous procedure. In our example, this pool name is myweb_pool. 7. Click Finished.
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Introducing multiple customer hosting Hosting multiple customers using an external switch Directly hosting multiple customers
Introducing multiple customer hosting

You can use the BIG-IP system to load balance and provide hosting services for multiple customers. In the example shown in Figure 5.1, the BIG-IP system has an interface (5.1) assigned to three VLANs on a network. The three VLANs are vlanA, vlanB, and vlanC. Interface 5.1 processes traffic for all three VLANs. Note that each VLAN contains two servers, and serves a specific customer.
Figure 5.1 An example of multiple site hosting
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Hosting multiple customers using an external switch

To configure the BIG-IP system for this implementation, you must complete the following tasks: Create VLANs with tagged interfaces. For more information on tagged interfaces, see the TMOSTM Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems. Create load balancing pools. Create three pools of web servers, one pool for each VLAN, to which you want to load balance traffic. Create virtual servers. Create three virtual servers that load balance traffic to the pools of web servers.
Creating VLANs with tagged interfaces

The first task in configuring the BIG-IP system for multiple-customer hosting is creating VLANs with tagged interfaces. In this procedure, you assign the same interface to each VLAN that you create, and you assign the interface as a tagged interface. (For more information on tagged interfaces, see the TMOSTM Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems.) For example, in Figure 5.1, on page 5-1, there are three VLANs, where each VLAN processes traffic for a different subnet. Thus, vlanA processes traffic for the 10.1.1 subnet, vlanB, processes traffic for the 10.1.2 subnet, and vlanC processes traffic for the 10.1.3 subnet. The interface assigned to all three VLANs is 5.1.
To create a VLAN with a tagged interface

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Network, and click VLANs. The VLAN screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. This displays the settings to configure for the VLAN. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a VLAN. 3. Type the VLAN name and tag number. If you do not provide a tag number, the BIG-IP system automatically generates a number. In Figure 5.1, on page 5-1, an example of a VLAN name and tag number is vlanA, with a tag number of 0001.
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4. For the Interfaces setting, from the Available box select the name of an interface on your internal network, and click the Move button (<<) to move the interface name to the Tagged box. This assigns the selected interface to the VLAN, as a tagged interface. In our example, the interface is 5.1. 5. Click Finished.
Creating load balancing pools

After you create the VLANs for the BIG-IP system, create three load balancing pools, one for each VLAN. In Figure 5.1, on page 5-1, each pool has two pool members.
To create a pool
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Pools. The Pools screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Pool screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a pool. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the pool, such as customerA_pool. 4. In the Resources area of the screen, use the New Members setting to add the pool members. For example, in Figure 5.1, on page 5-1, the pool members for vlanA are 10.1.1.1:80 and 10.1.1.2:80. The pool members for vlanB are 10.1.2.1:80 and 10.1.2.2:80, and the pool members for vlanC are 10.1.3.1:80 and 10.1.3.2:80. 5. Click Finished.

After you create the web server pools that you want to load balance, create a virtual server for each pool.

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Virtual Server screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a virtual server.
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3. In the Name box, type a name for the virtual server, such as vs_customerA. 4. In the Destination box, verify that the type of virtual server is Host, and in the Address box, type an IP address for the virtual server, such as 10.1.10.10:80. 5. In the Service Port box, type 80, or select HTTP from the list. 6. In the Configuration area of the screen, locate the HTTP Profile setting and select http. 7. In the Resources area of the screen, locate the Default Pool setting and select the pool corresponding to the virtual server you are creating. For example, for vs_customerA, you would select the pool customerA_pool. For vs_customerB, you would select the pool customerB_pool, and so on. 8. Click Finished.
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Directly hosting multiple customers

The configuration shown in Figure 5.1, on page 5-1, uses an external switch between the BIG-IP system and the server nodes. However, another way to implement this solution is to remove the external switch, and instead use multiple interfaces on the BIG-IP system to directly host traffic for multiple customers. With this scenario, it is still necessary to configure the VLANs, but you must configure them with untagged instead of tagged interfaces. Figure 5.2 shows an example of this scenario.
Figure 5.2 Multiple customer hosting using VLAN switching
In Figure 5.2, two BIG-IP system interfaces are assigned to each VLAN. For example, interfaces 1.1 and 1.2 are assigned to the vlanA VLAN. Each interface is assigned to a VLAN as an untagged interface. The first scenario, shown in Figure 5.1, on page 5-1, requires an additional switch, but requires the use of only one interface on the internal network. The second scenario, shown in Figure 5.2, removes the need for an additional switch, but requires the use of multiple BIG-IP system interfaces.
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Creating VLANs with untagged interfaces

The first task in configuring the BIG-IP system for directly hosting multiple customers is to create VLANs, adding untagged interfaces to them. (For more information on tagged interfaces, see the TMOSTM Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems.)
To create VLANs with untagged interfaces

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Network, and click VLANs. The VLAN screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. This displays the settings to configure for the VLAN. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a VLAN. 3. Enter the VLAN name and tag number. If you do not provide a tag number, the BIG-IP system automatically generates a number. In Figure 5.2, on page 5-5, an example of a VLAN name and tag number is vlanA, with a tag number of 0001. 4. For the Interfaces setting, from the Available box select the name of an interface on your internal network, and click the Move button (>>) to move the interface name to the Untagged box. This assigns the selected interface to the VLAN, as an untagged interface. In Figure 5.2, on page 5-5, vlanA as interfaces 1.1 and 1.2 assigned to it. vlanB has interfaces 1.3 and 1.4 assigned to it, and vlanC has interfaces 1.5 and 1.6 assigned to it. 5. Click Finished.
Once you have created your VLANs and assigned untagged interfaces to them, you can create the pools and virtual servers, just as you did in the section Hosting multiple customers using an external switch, on page 5-2.
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Working with a simple intranet configuration Creating the simple intranet configuration
Working with a simple intranet configuration

The simple intranet implementation described in this chapter is commonly found in a corporate intranet (see Figure 6.1). In this implementation, the BIG-IP system performs load balancing for several different types of connection requests:
HTTP connections to the companys intranet web site. The BIG-IP system load balances the two web servers that host the corporate intranet web site, Corporate.main.net. HTTP connections to Internet content. These are handled through a pair of cache servers that are also load balanced by the BIG-IP system. Non-HTTP connections to the Internet.
Figure 6.1 A simple intranet configuration
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As Figure 6.1, on page 6-1 shows, the non-intranet connections are handled by wildcard virtual servers, that is, servers with the IP address 0.0.0.0. The wildcard virtual server that is handling traffic to the cache servers is port specific, specifying port 80 for HTTP requests. This way all HTTP requests not matching an IP address on the intranet are directed to the cache server. The wildcard virtual server handling non-HTTP requests is a default wildcard server. A default wildcard virtual server is one that uses only port 0. This makes it a catch-all match for outgoing traffic that does not match any standard virtual server or any port-specific wildcard virtual server.
Creating the simple intranet configuration

To create this configuration, you need to complete the following tasks in order: Create load balancing pools. Create pools for the intranet servers you want to load balance, and one for the cache server. Create virtual servers. Create the virtual servers for each pool, and for the non-HTTP requests.
Creating pools
The first task in a basic configuration is to define the two load balancing pools: a pool for the intranet content servers, and a pool for the Internet cache servers.
To create pool
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Pools. The Pools screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Pool screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a pool. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the pool, such as http_pool. 4. In the Resources area of the screen, use the New Members setting to add the pool members. For example, in Figure 6.1, on page 6-1, the pool members for http_pool are 192.168.100.10:80 and 192.168.100.11:80. The pool members for specificport_pool are 192.168.100.20:80 and 192.168.100.21:80. 5. Click Finished.
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The next task in a basic configuration is to create the virtual servers that reference http_pool and specificport_pool, respectively. You must also create a forwarding virtual server (with no pool) for remaining Internet traffic.

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Virtual Server screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a virtual server. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the virtual server, such as vs_http, vs_specificport, or vs_non-http. 4. In the Destination box, verify that the type of virtual server is Host, and in the Address box, type an IP address for the virtual server. For example, you can assign the IP address 192.168.200.30:80 to the virtual server that processes HTTP traffic. For load balancing connections to cache servers, you can assign the address 0.0.0.0:80 to the virtual server, making it a wildcard virtual server. To create a forwarding virtual server, you can assign the address 0.0.0.0:0. 5. In the Service Port box, type 80, or select HTTP from the list. 6. In the Configuration area of the screen, locate the Type setting and do the following: a) Select Standard if the virtual server is to process HTTP traffic to an intranet web site or to cache servers. b) Select Forwarding (IP) if the virtual server is to forward outgoing non-HTTP traffic. 7. If you are creating a virtual server to process HTTP connections to an intranet web site, locate the HTTP Profile setting and select http. 8. In the Resources area of the screen, locate the Default Pool setting and select the pool corresponding to the virtual server you are creating. For example, for vs_http, you would select the pool http_pool. Note: If you are creating a Forwarding (IP) virtual server, you do not select a pool. 9. Click Finished.
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Load Balancing ISPs
Introducing ISP load balancing Configuring ISP load balancing Configuring address translation for outbound traffic
Load Balancing ISPs
Introducing ISP load balancing

You may find that as your network grows, or network traffic increases, you need to add an additional connection to the internet. You can use this configuration to add an additional Internet connection to your existing network. Figure 7.1 shows a network configured with two Internet connections.
Figure 7.1 An example of an additional internet connection
This type of configuration requires you to configure network address translation (NAT) on your routers. If your routers cannot perform NAT, you can use the VLAN SNAT automap feature on the BIG-IP system.
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Configuring ISP load balancing

When you set up ISP load balancing, you have several tasks to complete on the BIG-IP system:
Create two load balancing pools Define one pool that load balances the content servers. Define another pool that load balances the inside addresses of the routers. Configure virtual servers for inbound and outbound traffic Configure virtual servers to load balance inbound connections across the servers, and one to load balance outbound connections across the routers. Configure NATs or a SNAT automap for outbound traffic Configure NATs or SNAT automap for outbound traffic so that replies arrive though the same ISP the request went out on.
Creating pools for an additional Internet connection

First, create one pool that load balances the content servers, and one pool to load balance the routers.
To create a pool
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Pools. The Pools screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Pool screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a pool. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the pool, such as content_pool or router_pool. 4. In the Resources area of the screen, use the New Members setting to add the pool members. For example, in Figure 7.1, on page 7-1, the pool members for pool content_pool are 10.1.1.1:80, 10.1.1.2:80, and 10.1.1.3:80. The pool members for pool router_pool are 192.168.100.1:0 and 192.168.200.1:0. 5. Click Finished.
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Load Balancing ISPs
Creating virtual servers for an additional Internet connection

After you create the pools, you can configure the two virtual servers, one to load balance inbound connections to the servers, and one to load balance outbound connections to the routers.
To create a virtual server for inbound content server traffic

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Virtual Server screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a virtual server. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the virtual server, such as vs_content. 4. In the Destination box, verify that the type of virtual server is Host, and in the Address box, type an IP address for the virtual server. For example, you could assign the IP address 172.100.12.20:80. 5. For the Service Port setting, type a port number, or select a service from the list. 6. If the traffic to be load balanced is of a certain type, select the profile type that matches the connection type. For example, if the traffic to be load balanced is HTTP traffic, locate the HTTP Profile setting and select http. 7. In the Resources area of the screen, locate the Default Pool setting and select the pool corresponding to the virtual server you are creating. For example, for vs_content, you would select the pool content_pool. 8. Click Finished.
To create a virtual server for outbound traffic for routers

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Virtual Server screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a virtual server. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the virtual server, such as vs_routers.
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4. In the Destination box, verify that the type of virtual server is Host, and in the Address box, type an IP address for the virtual server. For example, you can assign the IP address 0.0.0.0:0 to the virtual server, making it a wildcard virtual server. 5. In the Resources area of the screen, locate the Default Pool setting and select the pool corresponding to the virtual server you are creating. For example, for vs_routers, you would select the pool router_pool. 6. Click Finished.
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Load Balancing ISPs
Configuring address translation for outbound traffic

You must now set up address translation for outbound traffic so that replies arrive through the same ISP that the request initially came through. Specifically, you must either configure your routers so that they perform network address translation (NAT), or you must configure SNAT automapping on the BIG-IP system. You must also assign self IP addresses to the external VLAN.
Note
For instructions on configuring routers to perform network address translation, see the vendor documentation that pertains to your router. To configure address translation for outbound traffic, you must: Assign IP-specific self IP addresses to the BIG-IP system external VLAN, corresponding to the IP networks of the two routers. Enable SNAT automap for each of the external VLAN self IP addresses and the internal VLAN.
To create self IP addresses for the external VLAN

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Network, and click Self IPs. The Self IP screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. This displays the settings that you can configure for a self IP address. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a self IP address. 3. In the IP Address box, type a self IP address that matches the network of the router. Note: Verify that the inside IP network address of the router is enabled. 4. From the VLAN list, select external. 5. Click Repeat. 6. Create another self IP address for the external VLAN. 7. Click Finished.
To enable SNAT automap for internal and external VLANs

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click SNATs. The SNATs screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner, click Create. The New SNAT screen opens.
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Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a SNAT. 3. In the Name box, type a unique name for the SNAT. 4. From the Translation list, select Automap. 5. From the VLAN Traffic list, select Enabled On. This displays the VLAN List setting. 6. For the VLAN List setting, from the Available box select the internal and external VLAN names, and click the Move button (<<) to move the VLAN names to the Selected box. 7. Click Finished.
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Introducing basic HTTP load balancing Configuring HTTP load balancing with source address affinity persistence
Introducing basic HTTP load balancing

Many computing environments want to use a BIG-IP system to intelligently manage their HTTP traffic. You can easily control your HTTP traffic by implementing a BIG-IP system feature known as an HTTP profile. An HTTP profile is a group of settings that affect the behavior of HTTP traffic. An HTTP profile defines the way that you want the BIG-IP system to manage HTTP traffic. You can use the default HTTP profile, with all of its default values, or you can create a custom HTTP profile. When you create a custom HTTP profile, you not only modify the setting values, but you can enable more advanced features such as data compression of server responses. When you configure the BIG-IP system to manage HTTP traffic, you can also implement simple session persistence, also known as source address affinity persistence. Source address affinity persistence directs session requests to the same server based solely on the source IP address of a packet. To implement source address affinity persistence, the BIG-IP system offers a default persistence profile that you can implement. Just as for HTTP, you can use the default profile, or you can create a custom simple persistence profile. The remainder of this chapter describes how to set up a basic HTTP load balancing scenario and source address affinity persistence, using the default HTTP and persistence profiles. For detailed information on managing HTTP traffic and setting up source address affinity persistence, see the Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Local Traffic Management.
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Configuring HTTP load balancing with source address affinity persistence

To set up basic HTTP load balancing with persistence that is based on source IP addresses, you need to complete the following tasks: Create a load balancing pool. Create a pool to load balance HTTP connections. Create a virtual server. Create a virtual server to process the HTTP traffic and send it to the pool. Because this implementation configures HTTP load balancing and session persistence using the default HTTP and source address affinity profiles, you do not need to specifically configure these profiles. Instead, you simply configure some settings on the virtual server when you create it.
Creating a pool
The first task in a basic configuration is to create a load balancing pool to load balance HTTP connections. Use the Configuration utility to create this pool.

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Pools. The Pools screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Pool screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a pool. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the pool, such as http_pool. 4. For the Health Monitors setting, from the Available box select http, and click the Move button (<<) to move the monitor name to the Active box. 5. For the New Members setting, add the pool members: a) Click the New Address option. b) In the Address box, type the IP address of a server in the pool. c) In the Service Port box, type 80, or select HTTP. d) Click Add. e) Repeat steps b, c, and d for each server in the pool. 6. Click Finished.
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The next task in a basic configuration is to define a virtual server that references the HTTP pool. You use the Configuration utility to create the virtual server.
To create a virtual server for HTTP traffic

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Virtual Server screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a virtual server. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the virtual server, such as vs_http. 4. In the Destination box, verify that the type of virtual server is Host, and in the Address box, type an IP address for the virtual server. 5. In the Service Port box, type 80, or select HTTP from the list. 6. In the Configuration area of the screen, locate the HTTP Profile setting and select http. This assigns the default HTTP profile to the virtual server. 7. In the Resources area of the screen, locate the Default Pool setting and select the name of the HTTP pool you created in the previous section (for example, http_pool). 8. From the Default Persistence Profile setting, select source_addr. This implements simple persistence, using the default source address affinity profile. 9. Click Finished.
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Introducing basic HTTP load balancing Configuring HTTP load balancing with cookie persistence
Introducing basic HTTP load balancing

Many computing environments want to use a BIG-IP system to intelligently manage their HTTP traffic. You can easily control your HTTP traffic by implementing a BIG-IP system feature known as an HTTP profile. An HTTP profile is a group of settings that affects the behavior of HTTP traffic. An HTTP profile defines the way that you want the system to manage HTTP traffic. You can use the default HTTP profile, with all of its default values, or you can create a custom HTTP profile. When you create a custom HTTP profile, you not only modify the setting values, but you can enable more advanced features such as data compression of server responses. When you configure the BIG-IP system to manage HTTP traffic, you can also implement cookie-based session persistence. Cookie persistence directs session requests to the same server based on HTTP cookies that the BIG-IP system stores in the clients browser. To implement cookie persistence, the BIG-IP system offers a default persistence profile that you can implement, or you can create a custom cookie persistence profile. This chapter describes how to set up a basic HTTP load balancing scenario and cookie persistence, using the default HTTP profile and a custom cookie persistence profile. For detailed information on managing HTTP traffic and setting up cookie persistence, see the Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Local Traffic Management.
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Configuring HTTP load balancing with cookie persistence

To set up basic HTTP load balancing with persistence that is based on cookies, you need to: Create a custom cookie persistence profile. Create a load balancing pool. Create a virtual server to process the HTTP traffic and send it to the pool. Because this implementation configures HTTP load balancing using the existing default HTTP profile, you do not need to specifically configure a profile for managing HTTP traffic. The only profile you need to configure is the custom cookie persistence profile.
Creating a custom persistence profile

A good way to implement cookie persistence is to create a custom cookie persistence profile.
To create a custom cookie persistence profile

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. The HTTP Profiles screen opens. 2. On the menu bar, click Persistence. This displays the list of default persistence profiles. 3. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Persistence Profile screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a profile. 4. In the Name box, type a name for the profile, such as mycookie_profile. 5. From the Persistence Type list, select Cookie. 6. From the Parent Profile list, select cookie. 7. To the far right of the Cookie Method setting, check the Custom select box. 8. From the Cookie Method list, select HTTP Cookie Insert. 9. Leave the Cookie Name setting disabled. 10. In the Expiration setting, clear the Session Cookie check box. Additional settings appear. 11. In the Minutes box, type 60. 12. Click Finished.
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Creating a pool
The next task is to create a load balancing pool to which to load balance HTTP connections.

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Pools. The Pools screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Pool screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a pool. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the pool, such as http_pool. 4. From the Health Monitors list, from the Available box select http, and click the Move button (<<) to move the monitor name to the Active box. 5. For the New Members setting, add the pool members: a) Click the New Address option. b) In the Address box, type the IP address of a server in the pool. c) In the Service Port box, type 80, or select HTTP. d) Click Add. e) Repeat steps b, c, and d for each server in the pool. 6. Click Finished.

The next task in a basic configuration is to define a virtual server that references the HTTP pool.
To create a virtual server for HTTP traffic

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Virtual Server screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a virtual server. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the virtual server, such as vs_http.
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4. In the Destination box: a) Verify that the type of virtual server is Host b) In the Address box, type an IP address for the virtual server. 5. In the Service Port box, type 80, or select HTTP from the list. 6. In the Configuration area of the screen, retain the value of the Protocol setting, TCP. 7. From the HTTP Profile list, select http. This assigns the default HTTP profile to the virtual server. 8. In the Resources area of the screen, locate the Default Pool setting and select the name of the HTTP pool you created in the previous section (for example, http_pool). 9. From the Default Persistence Profile list, select the name of the custom cookie profile you created earlier, such as mycookie_profile. This implements cookie persistence, using the custom cookie profile. 10. Click Finished.
Note
You can also use HTTP Cookie Insert persistence wtih a Performance (HTTP) type of virtual server.
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Introducing HTTP data compression Creating a custom HTTP profile Creating a virtual server
Introducing HTTP data compression

An optional feature of the BIG-IP system is the systems ability to off-load HTTP compression tasks from the target server. All of the tasks that you need to configure HTTP compression, as well as the compression software itself, are centralized on the BIG-IP system. The primary way to enable the HTTP compression option is by setting the Compression setting of an HTTP profile to Enabled. This causes the system to compress HTTP content for any responses matching the values that you specify in the Request-URI or Content-Type settings of the HTTP profile.
Tip
If you want to enable HTTP compression for specific connections, you can write an iRule that specifies the HTTP:compress enable command. Using the BIG-IP system HTTP compression feature, you can include or exclude certain types of URIs or files that you specify. This is useful because some URI or file types might already be compressed. F5 does not recommend using CPU resources to compress already-compressed data because the cost of compressing the data usually outweighs the benefits. Examples of regular expressions that you might want to specify for exclusion are .*\.pdf, .*\.gif, or .*\.html. To configure HTTP data compression, you need to: Create a custom HTTP profile. Create a virtual server to process compressed HTTP responses. For more detailed, background information on configuring compression and virtual servers, see the Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Local Traffic Management.
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Creating a custom HTTP profile

The first task in configuring HTTP data compression on the BIG-IP system is to create a custom HTTP profile. An HTTP profile defines the way that you want the BIG-IP system to manage HTTP traffic. After you create the custom HTTP profile, you create a virtual server and assign the custom profile to that virtual server.
To create a custom HTTP profile

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. This displays a list of any existing HTTP profiles, including the default profile http. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New HTTP Profile screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a profile. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the custom profile, such as http_compress. 4. Ensure that the Parent Profile setting is set to http. 5. In the Settings area of the screen, retain all default values. 6. In the Compression area, for the Compression setting, on the far right side of the screen, check the Custom box and select Enabled from the list. 7. If you want to base compression on URIs specified in the HTTP request headers: a) Locate the URI Compression setting, check the Select box on the far right of the screen, and select URI List from the list. This displays the URI List settings. b) Specify any regular expressions that you want to include or exclude from compression. Examples of regular expressions are .*\.pdf, .*\.gif, or .*\.html. 8. If you want to base compression on the type of response content: a) Locate the Content Compression setting, check the Select box on the far right of the screen, and select Content List from the list. This displays the Content List settings. b) Specify values for content you want to include or exclude from compression. Examples of content types that you can specify are application/pdf and image/**.
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9. For all other settings in the Compression area of the screen, retain the default values, or configure them to suite your needs. 10. Click Finished.

The next task in configuring HTTP compression is to define a virtual server that references the custom HTTP profile that you created in the previous task.
To create a virtual server for HTTP compression

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Virtual Server screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a virtual server. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the virtual server, such as vs_http_compress. 4. In the Destination box, verify that the type of virtual server is Host, and in the Address box, type an IP address for the virtual server. 5. In the Service Port box, type 80, or select HTTP from the list. 6. In the Configuration area of the screen, retain the value of the Protocol setting, TCP. 7. From the HTTP Profile list, select the custom HTTP profile that you created in the previous section. In our example, this value would be http_compress. This assigns the custom HTTP profile to the virtual server. 8. In the Resources area of the screen, locate the Default Pool setting and select a pool name. 9. From the Default Persistence Profile list, select source_addr. This implements the default profile for source address affinity persistence. 10. Click Finished.
After you have created a custom HTTP profile and a virtual server, you can test the configuration by attempting to pass HTTP traffic through the virtual server. Check to see that the BIG-IP system includes and excludes the responses that you specified in the custom profile, and that the system compresses the data as specified.
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Introducing HTTPS load balancing Creating an SSL key and certificate Creating a custom SSL profile Creating a pool Creating a virtual server
Introducing HTTPS load balancing

When you want to load balance HTTPS traffic, you can configure the BIG-IP system to perform the SSL handshake that target web servers normally perform. There are two types of SSL processing that you can configure. You can configure either type, or both. They are:
Client-side SSL A common way to configure the BIG-IP system is to enable client-side SSL. This enables the system to decrypt client requests before sending them on to a server, and encrypt server responses before sending them back to the client. In this case, you need to install only one key/certificate pair on the system. Server-side SSL Another way to configure the BIG-IP system is to enable server-side SSL. This enables the system to encrypt requests that the BIG-IP system sends to the target web server, and decrypt server responses before sending them back to the client. In this case, you need to install a second key/certificate pair on the system (in addition to the key/certificate pair that you install for client-side SSL).
The first step in the configuration is to install the required key/certificate pairs. Then you can create a custom Client SSL profile, and optionally, a custom Server SSL profile. Client SSL and Server SSL profiles are traffic profiles that determine the way that the BIG-IP system processes client requests or server responses that are sent by way of a fully SSL-encapsulated protocol (in this case, HTTPS). Next, you create a pool of servers for load balancing the HTTPS requests. Finally, you must create a virtual server to process the HTTPS traffic, according to the settings you configured in the custom Client SSL and Server profiles. For more detailed, background information on SSL certificates, SSL profiles, load balancing pools, and virtual servers, see the Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Local Traffic Management.
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Creating an SSL key and certificate

Before you can load balance HTTPS traffic, you must create one or more SSL keys and certificates to install onto the BIG-IP system. With SSL keys and certificates, and a custom Client SSL and optional Server SSL profile that you create, the BIG-IP system can perform the SSL handshaking normally performed by a target web server. For purposes of testing that you can pass HTTPS traffic successfully, you can use a self-signed certificate, rather than one signed by a trusted certificate authority.
To create a self-signed key/certificate pair

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click SSL Certificates. This displays a list of existing SSL certificates. 2. On the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. This opens the New SSL Certificate screen. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create SSL certificates. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the certificate, such as my_clientside_cert or my_serverside_cert. 4. From the Issuer list, select Self. 5. In the Common Name box, type either the IP address for the virtual server you will create later on, or a DNS name that resolves to the virtual servers IP address. 6. In the Division box, type your company name. 7. In the Organization box, type your department name. 8. In the Locality box, type your city name. 9. In the State or Province box, type your state or province name. 10. From the Country list, select the name of your country. 11. In the E-mail Address box, type your email address. 12. In the Challenge Password box, type a password. 13. In the Confirm Password box, re-type the password you typed in the Challenge Password box. 14. In the Key Properties area of the screen, from the Size list, select 1024. 15. Click Finished.
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Creating a custom SSL profile

The second task in configuring HTTPS load balancing on the BIG-IP system is to create a custom SSL profile. For client-side SSL processing, you create a custom Client SSL profile. For server-side SSL processing, you create a custom Server SSL profile. An SSL profile is a group of settings that enable the BIG-IP system to perform decryption and encryption of SSL traffic. Some of the data you specify in a custom SSL profile are the names of any key and certificate you created in the previous task. After you create a custom SSL profile, you create a load balancing pool, and then create a virtual server, assigning the custom profile to that virtual server.
To create a custom Client SSL profile

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. 2. From the SSL menu, choose Client. This displays a list of any existing Client SSL profiles, including the default profile clientssl. 3. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Client SSL Profile screen opens. 4. In the Name box, type a name for the custom profile, such as my_clientssl_profile. 5. Ensure that the Parent Profile setting is set to clientssl. 6. For the Certificate setting, check the Custom box on the right side of the screen. 7. From the Certificate list, select the name of the certificate you created in the previous section. Using our example, this name would be my_clientside_cert.crt. 8. For the Key setting, check the Custom box on the right side of the screen. 9. From the Key list, select the name of the key you created in the previous section. Using our example, this name would be my_clientside_cert.key. 10. Click Finished.
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To create a custom Server SSL profile

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. 2. From the SSL menu, choose Server. This displays a list of any existing Server SSL profiles, including the default profile serverssl. 3. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Server SSL Profile screen opens. 4. In the Name box, type a name for the custom profile, such as my_serverssl_profile. 5. Ensure that the Parent Profile setting is set to serverssl. 6. For the Certificate setting, check the Custom box on the right side of the screen. 7. From the Certificate list, select the name of the certificate you created in the previous section. Using our example, this name would be my_serverside_cert.crt. 8. For the Key setting, check the Custom box on the right side of the screen. 9. From the Key list, select the name of the key you created in the previous section. Using our example, this name would be my_serverside_cert.key. 10. Click Finished.
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Creating a pool
The next task in this process is to create a load balancing pool to load balance HTTPS connections. After you create the pool, you assign it to a virtual server that you create.
To create a pool for load balancing HTTPS traffic

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Pools. The Pools screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Pool screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a pool. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the pool, such as http_pool. 4. For the Health Monitors setting, from the Available box select http, and click the Move button (<<) to move the monitor name to the Active box. 5. For the New Members setting, add the pool members: a) Click the New Address option. b) In the Address box, type the IP address of a server in the pool. c) In the Service Port box, type 80, or select HTTP. d) Click Add. e) Repeat steps b, c, and d for each server in the pool. 6. Click Finished.
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The final task in configuring HTTPS load balancing is to define a virtual server that references the custom Client SSL profile and the load balancing pool that you created in previous tasks.
To create a virtual server for HTTPS

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Virtual Server screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a virtual server. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the virtual server, such as vs_clientssl. 4. In the Destination box, verify that the type of virtual server is Host, and in the Address box, type an IP address for the virtual server. 5. In the Service Port box, type 443, or select HTTPS from the list. 6. In the Configuration area of the screen, retain the value of the Protocol setting, TCP. 7. From the Client SSL Profile list, select the name of the custom Client SSL profile that you created previously. In our example, this name is my_clientssl_profile. This assigns the custom Client SSL profile to the virtual server. 8. If you created a custom Server SSL profile, then from the Server SSL Profile list, select the name of that profile. In our example, this name is my_serverssl_profile. This assigns the custom Server SSL profile to the virtual server. 9. In the Resources area of the screen, locate the Default Pool setting and select the pool name that you created in a previous section. Using our example, this would be http_pool. 10. From the Default Persistence Profile list, select source_addr. This implements the default profile for source address affinity persistence. 11. Click Finished.
After you have created the required SSL key/certificate pairs, one or two custom SSL profiles, a load balancing pool, and a virtual server, you can test the configuration by attempting to pass HTTPS traffic through the virtual server to the pool.
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Introducing HTTPS load balancing with compression Creating an SSL key and certificate Creating a custom Client SSL profile Creating a custom HTTP profile for compression Creating a pool Creating a virtual server
Introducing HTTPS load balancing with compression

When you want to enable data compression of HTTPS traffic, and load balance the traffic, you can configure the BIG-IP system to perform the SSL handshake that target web servers normally perform. A common way to configure the BIG-IP system is to enable it to decrypt client requests before sending them on to a server, and encrypt server responses before sending them back to the client. In general, the way to configure the BIG-IP system to perform SSL handshaking (and thus process HTTPS traffic), is to first request and install an SSL key and certificate onto the BIG-IP system. Using the key/certificate pair, the BIG-IP system can act as a server to decrypt the client request before sending it on to the server, and it can encrypt the server response before sending it back to the client. After installing the key/certificate pair, you can create a custom Client SSL profile. A Client SSL profile is a type of traffic profile that determines the way that the BIG-IP system processes client requests that are sent by way of a fully SSL-encapsulated protocol (in this case, HTTPS requests). Next, you create a custom HTTP profile and enable data compression on the BIG-IP system. Then, you must create a pool of servers for load balancing the HTTPS requests. Finally, you must create a virtual server to process the HTTPS traffic, according to the settings you configured in the custom Client SSL profile. For more detailed, background information on SSL certificates, SSL profiles, load balancing pools, and virtual servers, see the Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Local Traffic Management.
Note
For information on configuring server-side SSL processing, see Chapter 11, Configuring HTTPS Load Balancing.
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Creating an SSL key and certificate

Before you can load balance HTTPS traffic and enable compression, you must create an SSL key and certificate to install onto the BIG-IP system. With an SSL key and certificate, and the custom Client SSL profile that you create next, the BIG-IP system can perform the SSL handshaking normally performed by a target web server. For purposes of testing that you can pass HTTPS traffic successfully, you can use a self-signed certificate, rather than one signed by a trusted certificate authority.
To create a self-signed key/certificate pair

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click SSL Certificates. This displays a list of existing SSL certificates. 2. On the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. This opens the New SSL Certificate screen. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create SSL certificates. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the certificate, such as my_cert. 4. From the Issuer list, select Self. 5. In the Common Name box, type either the IP address for the virtual server you will create later on in this chapter, or a DNS name that resolves to the virtual servers IP address. 6. In the Division box, type your company name. 7. In the Organization box, type your department name. 8. In the Locality box, type your city name. 9. In the State or Province box, type your state or province name. 10. From the Country list, select the name of your country. 11. In the E-mail Address box, type your email address. 12. In the Challenge Password box, type a password. 13. In the Confirm Password box, re-type the password you typed in the Challenge Password box. 14. In the Key Properties area of the screen, from the Size list, select 1024. 15. Click Finished.
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Creating a custom Client SSL profile

The next task in configuring HTTPS load balancing with compression is to create a custom Client SSL profile. A Client SSL profile is a group of settings that enable the BIG-IP system to perform decryption and encryption for client-side SSL traffic. Some of data you specify in the Client SSL profile are the names of the key and certificate you created in the previous section. After you create the custom Client SSL profile, you create a load balancing pool, and then create a virtual server, assigning the custom profile to that virtual server.
To create a custom Client SSL profile

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. The HTTP Profiles screen opens. 2. From the SSL menu, choose Client SSL. This displays a list of any existing Client SSL profiles, including the default profile clientssl. 3. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Client SSL Profile screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a profile. 4. In the Name box, type a name for the custom profile, such as clientssl_profile. 5. Ensure that the Parent Profile setting is set to clientssl. 6. For the Certificate setting, check the Custom box on the far right side of the screen. 7. From the Certificate list, select the name of the certificate you created in the previous section. Using our example, this name would be my_cert.crt. 8. For the Key setting, check the Custom box on the far right side of the screen. 9. From the Key list, select the name of the key you created in the previous task. Using our example, this name would be my_cert.key. 10. Click Finished.
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Creating a custom HTTP profile for compression

To enable HTTP data compression on the BIG-IP system, you must create a custom HTTP profile. An HTTP profile defines the way that you want the BIG-IP system to manage HTTP traffic. After you create the custom HTTP profile, you create a load balancing pool. Then you create a virtual server, assigning the custom HTTP profile to that virtual server.
To create a custom HTTP profile for compression

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. This displays a list of any existing HTTP profiles, including the default profile http. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New HTTP Profile screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a profile. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the custom profile, such as http_compress. 4. Ensure that the Parent Profile setting is set to http. 5. In the Settings area of the screen, retain all default values. 6. For the Compression setting, on the far right side of the screen, check the Select box and select Enabled from the list. 7. If you want to base compression on URIs specified in the HTTP request headers: a) Locate the URI Compression setting, check the Select box on the far right of the screen, and select URI List from the list. This displays the URI List settings. b) Specify any regular expressions that you want to include or exclude from compression. Examples of regular expressions are .*\.pdf, .*\.gif, or .*\.html. 8. If you want to base compression on the type of response content: a) Locate the Content Compression setting, check the Select box on the far right of the screen, and select Content List from the list. This displays the Content List settings.
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b) Specify values for content you want to include or exclude from compression. Examples of content types that you can specify are application/pdf and image/**. 9. For all other settings in the Compression area of the screen, retain the default values, or configure them to suite your needs. 10. Click Finished.
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Creating a pool
The next task in the process is to create a load balancing pool to load balance HTTPS connections. After you create the pool, you assign it to a virtual server that you create.
To create a pool for load balancing HTTPS traffic

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Pools. The Pools screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Pool screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a pool. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the pool, such as http_pool. 4. For the Health Monitors setting, from the Available box select http, and click the Move button (<<) to move the monitor name to the Active box. 5. In the Resource area, for the New Members setting, add the pool members: a) Click the New Address option. b) In the Address box, type the IP address of a server in the pool. c) In the Service Port box, type 80, or select HTTP. d) Click Add. e) Repeat steps b, c, and d for each server in the pool. 6. Click Finished.
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The final task in configuring HTTPS load balancing is to define a virtual server that references the custom Client SSL profile and the load balancing pool that you created in previous tasks.
To create a virtual server for HTTP compression

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Virtual Server screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a virtual server. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the virtual server, such as vs_clientssl. 4. In the Destination box, verify that the type of virtual server is Host, and in the Address box, type an IP address for the virtual server. 5. In the Service Port box, type 443, or select HTTPS from the list. 6. In the Configuration area of the screen, retain the value of the Protocol setting, TCP. 7. From the HTTP Profile list, select the name of the HTTP profile that you created. Using our example, this value would be http_compress. 8. From the Client SSL Profile list, select the custom Client SSL profile that you created in a previous section. In our example, this value would be clientssl_profile This assigns the custom Client SSL profile to the virtual server. 9. In the Resources area of the screen, locate the Default Pool setting and select the pool name that you created in a previous section. Using our example, this would be http_pool. 10. From the Default Persistence Profile list, select source_addr. This implements the default profile for source address affinity persistence. 11. Click Finished.
You can now test the configuration by attempting to pass HTTPS traffic through the virtual server. Check to see that the BIG-IP system includes and excludes the responses that you specified in the custom HTTP profile, and that the system compresses the data as specified.
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Introducing HTTP RAM Cache Creating a custom HTTP profile Creating a virtual server
Introducing HTTP RAM Cache

The BIG-IP system includes a feature known as HTTP RAM Cache. A RAM cache is a cache of HTTP objects stored in the BIG-IP systems random-access memory (RAM) that subsequent connections can reuse to reduce the amount of load on the back-end servers.
When to use the RAM Cache

The RAM Cache feature provides the ability to reduce the traffic load to back-end servers. This ability is useful if an object on a site is under high demand, if the site has a large quantity of static content, or if the objects on the site are compressed.
High demand objects This feature is useful if a site has periods of high demand for specific content. With RAM Cache configured, the content server only has to serve the content to the BIG-IP system once per expiration period. Static content This feature is also useful if a site consists of a large quantity of static content such as CSS, javascript, or images and logos. Content compression For compressible data, the RAM Cache can store data for clients that can accept compressed data. When used in conjunction with the compression feature on the BIG-IP system, the RAM Cache takes stress off of the BIG-IP system and the content servers.
The items you can cache

The RAM Cache feature is fully compliant with the cache specifications described in RFC 2616, Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1. This means that you can configure RAM Cache to cache the following content types: 200, 203, 206, 300, 301, and 410 responses Responses to GET methods by default Other HTTP methods for URIs specified in the URI Include list or specified in an iRule Content based on the User-Agent and Accept-Encoding values. The RAM Cache holds different content for Vary headers To use the RAM Cache feature, you need to: Create a custom HTTP profile. Create a virtual server. For more detailed, background information on configuring the RAM Cache feature, see the Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Local Traffic Management.
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Creating a custom HTTP profile

The first task in configuring the HTTP RAM Cache feature on the BIG-IP system is to create a custom HTTP profile. An HTTP profile defines the way that you want the BIG-IP system to manage HTTP traffic. After you create the custom HTTP profile, you create a virtual server and assign the custom profile to that virtual server.
To create a custom HTTP profile

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. This displays a list of any existing HTTP profiles, including the default profile http. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New HTTP Profile screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a profile. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the custom profile, such as http_ramcache. 4. Ensure that the Parent Profile setting is set to http. 5. In the Settings area of the screen, retain all default values. 6. Scroll down to the RAM Cache area of the screen. 7. For the RAM Cache setting, on the far right side of the screen, check the Select box, and select Enabled from the RAM Cache list. 8. For all other settings in the RAM Cache area of the screen, retain the default values, or configure them to suit your needs. 9. Click Finished.
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The next task in configuring the RAM Cache feature is to define a virtual server that references the custom HTTP profile that you created in the previous task.
To create a virtual server for HTTP RAM Cache

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Virtual Server screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a virtual server. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the virtual server, such as vs_http_compress. 4. In the Destination box, verify that the type of virtual server is Host, and in the Address box, type an IP address for the virtual server. 5. In the Service Port box, type 80, or select HTTP from the list. 6. In the Configuration area of the screen, retain the value of the Protocol setting, TCP. 7. From the HTTP Profile list, select the custom HTTP profile that you created in the previous section. In our example, this value would be http_ramcache. This assigns the custom HTTP profile to the virtual server. 8. In the Resources area of the screen, locate the Default Pool setting and select a pool name. 9. From the Default Persistence Profile list, select source_addr. This implements the default profile for source address affinity persistence. 10. Click Finished.
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14
Introducing FTP load balancing Creating a custom FTP monitor Creating a pool Creating a virtual server
Introducing FTP load balancing

You can set up the BIG-IP system to load balance passive mode FTP traffic. To do this, you perform the following tasks: Create a custom FTP health monitor. Create a pool for load balancing FTP traffic. Create a virtual server for processing FTP traffic. When you create the virtual server, you can configure it to use the default FTP profile. An FTP profile determines the way that the BIG-IP system processes FTP traffic. This chapter describes how to create the objects listed above, using the default FTP profile. For more detailed information on managing FTP traffic, see the Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Local Traffic Management.
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Creating a custom FTP monitor

You can create a custom FTP monitor to monitor files on your FTP server.
To create a custom FTP monitor

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Monitors. This displays a list of existing health and performance monitors. 2. On the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. This opens the New Monitor screen. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the custom monitor, such as my_ftp_monitor. 4. From the Type list, select FTP. This displays additional FTP monitor settings. 5. In the User Name box, type the logon name for the FTP server. 6. In the Password box, type the password for the logon name. 7. In the Path/Filename box, type the path and name for the file you want to monitor. 8. Verify that the Mode setting is set to Passive. 9. For all other settings, retain the default values. 10. Click Finished. After you have created a custom FTP monitor, you can create a load balancing pool for your FTP traffic.
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Creating a pool
To load balance passive mode FTP traffic, you create a load balancing pool. When you create the pool, you assign the custom FTP monitor that you created in the previous task. After creating the pool, you assign it to the virtual server that you create.
To create a pool for load balancing FTP traffic

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Pools. The Pools screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Pool screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a pool. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the pool, such as ftp_pool. 4. For the Health Monitors setting, from the Available box select the name of the custom FTP monitor, such as my_ftp_monitor, and click the Move button (<<) to move the monitor name to the Active box. 5. Ensure that Priority Group Activation is set to Disabled. 6. For the New Members setting, add the pool members: a) Click the New Address option. b) In the Address box, type the IP address of a server in the pool. c) From the Service Port list, select FTP. d) Click Add. e) Repeat steps b, c, and d for each server in the pool. 7. Click Finished.
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The next task in a basic configuration is to define a virtual server that references the FTP profile and the FTP pool.
To create a virtual server for FTP traffic

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Virtual Server screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a virtual server. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the virtual server, such as vs_ftp. 4. In the Destination box, verify that the type of virtual server is Host, and in the Address box, type an IP address for the virtual server. 5. From the Service Port list, select FTP. 6. From the FTP Profile list, select ftp. This assigns the default FTP profile to the virtual server. 7. In the Resources area of the screen, locate the Default Pool setting and select the name of the FTP pool you created in the previous task (for example, ftp_pool). 8. From the Default Persistence Profile setting, select source_addr. This implements simple persistence, using the default source address affinity profile. 9. Click Finished.
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15
Introducing FTP load balancing with rate shaping Creating a custom FTP monitor Creating a pool Creating a rate class Creating a virtual server
Introducing FTP load balancing with rate shaping

You can set up the BIG-IP system to load balance passive mode FTP traffic with rate shaping. To do this, you perform the following tasks: Create a custom FTP health monitor. Create a pool for load balancing FTP traffic. Create a rate class. Create a virtual server for processing FTP traffic. When you create the virtual server, you can configure it to use the default FTP profile. An FTP profile determines the way that the BIG-IP system processes FTP traffic. This chapter describes how to create the objects listed above, using the default FTP profile. For more detailed information on managing FTP traffic, see the Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Local Traffic Management. Note that the rate shaping feature is optional on the BIG-IP system. Therefore, you must have purchased a license for the rate shaping feature before you can use rate shaping to control the load balancing of passive FTP traffic.
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Creating a custom FTP monitor

You can create a custom FTP monitor to monitor files on your FTP server.
To create a custom FTP monitor

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Monitors. This displays a list of existing health and performance monitors. 2. On the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. This opens the New Monitor screen. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a custom monitor. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the custom monitor, such as my_ftp_monitor. 4. From the Type list, select FTP. This displays additional FTP monitor settings. 5. In the User Name box, type the logon name for the FTP server. 6. In the Password box, type the password for the logon name. 7. In the Path/Filename box, type the path and name for the file you want to monitor. 8. Verify that the Mode setting is set to Passive. 9. For all other settings, retain the default values. 10. Click Finished. After you create the custom FTP monitor, you can create a load balancing pool for your FTP traffic.
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Creating a pool
To load balance passive mode FTP traffic, you create a load balancing pool. When you create the pool, you assign the custom FTP monitor that you created in the previous task.
To create a pool for load balancing FTP traffic with rate shaping
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Pools. The Pools screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Pool screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a pool. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the pool, such as ftp_pool. 4. For the Health Monitors setting, from the Available box select the name of the custom FTP monitor, such as my_ftp_monitor, and click the Move button (<<) to move the monitor name to the Active box. 5. Ensure that the Priority Group Activation setting is set to Disabled. 6. For the New Members setting, add the pool members: a) Click the New Address option. b) In the Address box, type the IP address of a server in the pool. c) From the Service Port list, select FTP. d) Click Add. e) Repeat steps b, c, and d for each server in the pool. 7. Click Finished.
After you create the pool, you assign it to the virtual server that you create in the next task.
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Creating a rate class

To implement rate shaping, you create a rate class. By creating a rate class, you can load balance passive mode FTP traffic that is controlled by rate shaping.
Note
Rate shaping is an optional feature of the BIG-IP system. Before attempting to implement rate shaping, verify that you are licensed to use the feature.
To create a rate class

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Rate Shaping. The Rate Shaping screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Rate Class screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a rate class. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the rate class, such as ftp_rateclass. 4. In the Base Rate box, type 1 and select Mbps from the list. 5. In the Ceiling Rate box, type 10 and select Mbps from the list. 6. In the Burst Rate box, type 10000. 7. For all other settings, retain the default values. 8. Click Finished.
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The next task in a basic configuration is to define a virtual server that references the FTP profile and the FTP pool.
To create a virtual server for FTP traffic with rate shaping

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Virtual Server screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a virtual server. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the virtual server, such as vs_ftp. 4. In the Destination box, verify that the type of virtual server is Host, and in the Address box, type an IP address for the virtual server. 5. From the Service Port list, select FTP. 6. From the FTP Profile list, select ftp. This assigns the default FTP profile to the virtual server. 7. From the Rate Class list, select the name of the rate class you created in the previous section (for example, ftp_rateclass). 8. In the Resources area of the screen, locate the Default Pool setting and select the name of the FTP pool you created in the previous section (for example, ftp_pool). 9. From the Default Persistence Profile setting, select source_addr. This implements simple persistence, using the default source address affinity profile. 10. Click Finished.
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Introducing the one-IP network topology Creating a pool for a one-IP network topology Creating a virtual server Defining a default route Configuring a client SNAT
Introducing the one-IP network topology

Another configuration option you can use with the BIG-IP system is a one-IP network topology. This differs from the typical two-network configuration in two ways: Because there is only one physical network, this configuration does not require more than one interface on the BIG-IP system. Clients need to be assigned SNATs to allow them to make connections to servers on the network in a load balancing pool. The single interface configuration is shown in Figure 16.1.
Figure 16.1 An example of a single interface topology
To set up this configuration, you need to complete the following tasks on the BIG-IP system: Create a load balancing pool for the content servers. Create a virtual server to load balance traffic to the content server pool. Define a default route for the external VLAN. Configure a SNAT for the client.
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Creating a pool for a one-IP network topology

The first task required to set up this implementation is to create a pool that contains the content servers that you want to load balance. Before creating the pool, verify that all content servers for the pool are in the network of VLAN external.
To create a pool
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Pools. The Pools screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Pool screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a pool. 3. From the Configuration list, select Advanced. 4. In the Name box, type a name for the pool, such as server_pool. 5. For the Health Monitors setting, from the Available box select http, and click the Move button (<<) to move the monitor name to the Active box. 6. For the Allow SNAT setting, verify that the value is Yes. 7. For the remaining settings in the Configuration area of the screen, retain the default values. 8. In the Resources area of the screen, use the default values for the Load Balancing Method and Priority Group Activation settings. 9. For the New Members setting, add the pool members: a) Click the New Address option. b) In the Address box, type the IP address of a server in the pool. c) In the Service Port box, type 80, or select HTTP. d) Click Add. e) Repeat steps b, c, and d for each server in the pool. 10. Click Finished.
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The second task required to set up this implementation is to create a virtual server that references the pool of servers that you want to load balance. The pool that the virtual server references is the pool you created in the previous task.

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Virtual Server screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a virtual server. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the virtual server, such as vs_one_ip. 4. For the Destination setting: a) Verify that the type of virtual server is Host b) In the Address box, type an IP address for the virtual server. 5. In the Service Port box, type 80, or select HTTP from the list. 6. In the Configuration area of the screen, retain the value of the Protocol setting, TCP. 7. From the HTTP Profile list, select http. This assigns the default HTTP profile to the virtual server. 8. In the Resources area of the screen, locate the Default Pool setting and select the name of the pool you created in the previous section (using our example, this would be server_pool). 9. Click Finished.
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Defining a default route

Another task that you must perform to implement one-IP network load balancing is to define a default route for the VLAN external.
To define a default route

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Network and click Routes The Routes screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Add. The New Route screen opens. Note: If the Add button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to add a route. 3. For the Type setting, verify that it is set to Default Gateway. This disables the Destination and Netmask settings. 4. For the Resource setting: a) From the list on the left, select Use VLAN. b) From the list on the right, select external. 5. Click Finished.
Note
If you are defining a default route for a route domain other than route domain 0 (the default route domain), the procedure varies slightly. For more information, see the TMOSTM Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems.
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Configuring a client SNAT

Finally, configure the BIG-IP system to handle connections originating from the client. You must define a SNAT in order to change the source address on the packet to the SNAT external address, which is located on the BIG-IP system. Otherwise, if the source address of the returning packet is the IP address of the content server, the client does not recognize the packet because the client sent its packets to the IP address of the virtual server, not the content server. If you do not define a SNAT, the server returns the packets directly to the client without giving the BIG-IP system the opportunity to translate the source address from the server address back to the virtual server. If this happens, the client might reject the packet as unrecognizable.
To configure a client SNAT

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click SNATs. The SNATs screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New SNAT screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a SNAT. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the SNAT, such as snat_one_ip. 4. In the Translation box, type an IP address that you want to use as a translation IP address. 5. From the Origin list, select Address List. This displays additional configuration settings. 6. For the Address List setting: a) For the Type setting, verify that Host is enabled. b) In the Address box, type a client IP address. c) Click Add. d) Repeat this process for each client to which you want to assign the translation address. 7. From the VLAN Traffic list, select Enabled on. 8. For the VLAN List setting, from the Available box select external, and click the Move button (<<) to move the VLAN name to the Active box. 9. Click Finished.
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17
Introducing link aggregation with tagged VLAN interfaces Using the two-network aggregated tagged interface topology Using the one-network aggregated tagged interface topology
Introducing link aggregation with tagged VLAN interfaces

You can use the BIG-IP system in an aggregated two-interface load balancing topology. Link aggregation is the process of combining multiple links so that the links function as a single link with higher bandwidth. Link aggregation occurs when you create a trunk. A trunk is a combination of two or more interfaces and cables configured as one link. The examples in this chapter show a trunk that includes two tagged interfaces aggregated together. A tagged interface is an interface that is configured to process traffic for multiple VLANs. A VLAN tag identifies the specific VLAN and allows traffic to be passed through that specific VLAN. In order to cause traffic for multiple VLANs to be passed through a single trunk, you must assign the same trunk to each VLAN. In the examples, we create a trunk (trunk1) that includes two interfaces, 1.1 and 1.2, and then assign trunk1 as a tagged interface to both VLAN external and VLAN internal. Consequently, inbound and outbound traffic passing between the BIG-IP system and the vendor switch can use either interface. For example, traffic destined for VLAN external can pass through either interface, 1.1 or 1.2. Aggregating the two interfaces into a trunk to create a link has the following advantages: It increases the bandwidth of the individual network interface cards (NICs) in an additive manner. If one link goes down, the other link can handle the traffic by itself. The examples in this chapter show you how to use link aggregation in two configurations, a two-network configuration and a single-network configuration.
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Using the two-network aggregated tagged interface topology

Figure 17.1 shows a two-IP network topology, with one network connected to VLAN external, and a separate network connected to VLAN internal.
Figure 17.1 An example of an aggregated two-interface load balancing configuration with two IP networks
To configure the BIG-IP system for the two-network implementation, you must complete the following tasks: Create a trunk to aggregate the links. Add the trunk as a tagged interface to VLAN internal and VLAN external. Create a pool of web servers that you want to load balance. Create a virtual server that load balances the web servers.
Note
This example assumes that you are using the default internal and external VLAN configuration. It also assumes that the self IP addresses on each VLAN are on the same IP networks as the BIG-IP system.
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Aggregating the links

The first task for this implementation is to aggregate the links. To do this, you must create a trunk, assign interfaces to the trunk as members, and then enable Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP).
To aggregate links
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Network, and click Trunks. The Trunks screen opens. 2. On the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Trunk screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a trunk. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the trunk, such as trunk1. 4. For the Interfaces setting, locate the Available box and select an interface. Note: The lowest-numbered interface is the controlling or reference interface. 5. Using the Move button, move the interface number to the Members box. 6. Repeat step 5 for all interfaces that you want to include as trunk members. 7. For the LACP setting, check the box. This enables dynamic link aggregation. 8. Click Finished.
Assigning a trunk to the VLANs

After you aggregate the links, you assign the trunk to the VLAN as a tagged interface.
WARNING
You should perform this task from the management interface; otherwise you will be disconnected from the BIG-IP system.
To add tagged interfaces to an existing VLAN

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Network, and click VLANs. The VLAN screen opens. 2. In the Name column, click the VLAN name internal. This displays the properties of that VLAN.
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3. For the Interfaces setting, locate the Available box and select the name of the trunk that you created in the previous procedure. 4. Click the Move button to move the trunk name to the Tagged box. This assigns the trunk to the VLAN, as a tagged interface. 5. Click Update. 6. Return to the list of existing VLANs. 7. Repeat steps 2 - 5 for VLAN external. 8. Click Update.
Creating a pool of web servers to load balance

After you create the network environment for the BIG-IP system, you can create the pool of web servers you want to load balance.
To create a pool
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Pools. The Pools screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Pool screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a pool. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the pool, such as myweb_pool. 4. For the New Members setting, add the pool members: a) Click the New Address option. b) In the Address box, type the IP address of a web server in the pool. c) From the Service Port list, select a service. d) Click Add. e) Repeat steps b, c, and d for each server in the pool. 5. Click Finished.
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Creating a virtual server to load balance the web servers

After you create the pool of web servers you want to load balance, you can create the virtual server.

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Virtual Server screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a virtual server. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the virtual server, such as vs_myweb. 4. In the Destination box, verify that the type of virtual server is Host, and in the Address box, type an IP address for the virtual server. Using the example in Figure 17.1, on page 17-2, this address could be 10.0.10.30. 5. In the Resources area of the screen, locate the Default Pool setting and select the name of the pool you created in the previous section (for example, myweb_pool). 6. From the Default Persistence Profile setting, select source_addr. This implements simple persistence, using the default source address affinity profile. 7. Click Finished.
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Using the one-network aggregated tagged interface topology

Figure 17.2 shows a single IP network topology. The one-network topology is identical to the two-network topology in all respects except that in the one-network implementation, VLAN internal and VLAN external are on the same internal network. This requires that the two VLANs be grouped in order to be able to exchange packets directly.
Figure 17.2 An example of an aggregated two-interface load balancing configuration with one IP network
You configure the one-network topology in exactly the same way as the two-network topology (allowing for the fact that the virtual server address will now belong to the same network as the servers), with one additional step: the internal and external VLANs need to be grouped. Therefore, to configure the BIG-IP system for this implementation, you must complete the following tasks: Configure the tagged interfaces, load balancing pool, virtual server, and trunk exactly as in the two-network configuration. For more information, see Using the two-network aggregated tagged interface topology, on page 17-2. Remove the self IP addresses from the internal and external VLANs. Combine the internal and external VLANs into a VLAN group. Assign a self IP address to the VLAN group.
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Removing the self IP addresses from the VLANs

Before you can create a VLAN group, you must remove the self IP addresses from the individual VLANs. After you create the VLAN group, you create a self IP address for the VLAN group, for routing purposes. The individual VLANs no longer need their own self IP addresses.
WARNING
You should perform this task from the management interface; otherwise you will be disconnected from the BIG-IP system.
To remove the self IP addresses from the default VLANs

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Network, and click Self IPs. The Self IPs screen opens. 2. Using the IP Address and VLANs columns, locate the self IP addresses for the internal and external VLANs. 3. To the left of each self IP address you want to delete, check the Select box. 4. Click Delete. A confirmation screen appears. Note: If the Delete button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to delete a self IP address. 5. Click Delete again.
Creating a VLAN group

Create a VLAN group that includes the internal and external VLANs. Packets received by a VLAN in the VLAN group are copied onto the other VLAN. This allows traffic to pass through the BIG-IP system on the same IP network.
Tip
A VLAN group name can be used anywhere that a VLAN name can be used.
To create a VLAN group

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Network, and click VLANs. The VLANs screen opens. 2. From the VLAN Groups menu, choose List. This opens the VLAN Groups screen. 3. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. This opens the New VLAN Group screen.
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Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a VLAN group. 4. In the Name box, type the name myvlangroup. 5. For the VLANs setting, use the Move button to move the internal and external VLAN names from the Available box to the Members box. 6. Click Finished.
Creating a self IP for the VLAN group

After you have created the VLAN group, create a self IP address for the VLAN group. The self IP address for the VLAN group provides a route for packets destined for the network. With the BIG-IP system, the path to an IP network is a VLAN. However, with the VLAN group feature used in this example, the path to the IP network 10.0.0.0 is actually through more than one VLAN. Since IP routers are designed to have only one physical route to a network, a routing conflict can occur. The self IP address feature on the BIG-IP system allows you to resolve the routing conflict by putting a self IP address on the VLAN group.
To create a self IP address for a VLAN group

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Network, and click Self IPs. The Self IPs screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a self IP address. 3. In the IP Address box, type a self IP address for the VLAN group. 4. In the Netmask box, type a netmask for the self IP address. 5. For the VLAN setting, select the name myvlangroup from the list. 6. Click Finished.
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Introducing packet filtering Configuring packet filtering
Introducing packet filtering

Packet filters enhance network security by specifying whether a BIG-IP system interface should accept or reject certain packets based on criteria that you specify. Packet filters enforce an access policy on incoming traffic. They apply to incoming traffic only. You implement packet filtering by creating packet filter rules. The primary purpose of a packet filter rule is to define the criteria that you want the BIG-IP system to use when filtering packets. Examples of criteria that you can specify in a packet filter rule are: The source IP address of a packet The destination IP address of a packet The destination port of a packet You specify the criteria for applying packet filter rules within an expression. When creating a packet filter rule, you can instruct the Configuration utility to build an expression for you, in which case you need only choose the criteria from predefined lists, or you can write your own expression text, using the syntax of the tcpdump utility. For more information on the tcpdump utility, see the online man page for the tcpdump command.
Note
Packet filter rules are unrelated to iRulesTM. You can also configure global packet filtering that applies to all packet filter rules that you create. The following sections describe how to set global packet filtering options, and how to create and manage individual packet filters rules. By setting up some basic IP routing and configuring packet filtering, specific hosts on the internal VLAN can connect to the internal VLANs self IP address. These hosts can also use common Internet services such as HTTP, HTTPS, DNS, FTP, and SSH. Traffic from all other hosts in the internal VLAN is rejected. To configure this implementation, you must: Create a SNAT. Create a pool of routers (also known as a gateway pool). Create a forwarding virtual server. Create a packet filter rule.
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Configuring packet filtering

This section describes each of the tasks that you need to perform to fully configure packet filtering.
Creating a SNAT
The first task in implementing packet filtering is to create a SNAT.
To create a SNAT
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click SNATs. The SNATs screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner, click Create. The New SNAT screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a SNAT. 3. In the Name box, type a unique name for the SNAT. 4. From the Translation list, select Automap. 5. From the VLAN Traffic list, select Enabled On. This displays the VLAN List setting. 6. For the VLAN List setting, from the Available box select internal and external, and click the Move button (<<) to move the VLAN names to the Selected box. 7. Click Finished.
Creating a gateway pool

The next task is to define a pool of routers, also known as a gateway pool.
To create a gateway pool

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Pools. The Pools screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Pool screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a pool. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the pool, such as gateway_pool.
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4. In the Resources area of the screen, use the New Members setting to add the pool members. The members you add are router IP addresses. 5. Click Finished.
Creating a forwarding virtual server

The next task is to create a forwarding virtual server that references the pool gateway_pool.
To create the virtual servers

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Virtual Server screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a virtual server. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the virtual server, such as vs_packetfilter. 4. For the Destination setting: a) For Type, select Network. b) In the Address box, type the IP address 0.0.0.0. c) In the Mask box, type the netmask 0.0.0.0. 5. From the Service Port list, select *All Ports. 6. In the Configuration area of the screen, locate the Type setting and select Forwarding (IP). 7. From the Protocol list, select *All Protocols. 8. From the VLAN Traffic list, select Enabled On. 9. For the VLAN List setting, from the Available box select internal, and click the Move button (<<) to move the VLAN name to the Selected box. 10. In the Resources area of the screen, locate the Default Pool setting and select the pool you created previously (gateway_pool). 11. Click Finished.
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Creating a packet filter rule

The final task in implementing packet filtering is to create a packet filter rule. Note that a packet filter rule is different from an iRule.
To create a packet filter rule

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Network, and click Packet Filters. This displays the setting to enable or disable packet filtering. 2. From the Packet Filtering list, select Enabled. This displays additional settings. 3. From the Unhandled Packet Action list, select Accept. 4. Click Update. 5. On the menu bar, click Rules. This displays a list of existing packet filter rules, if any. 6. On the upper right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Packet Filter Rule screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a packet filter rule. 7. In the Name box, type a packet filter name, such as pf_internal. 8. From the Order list, select First. 9. From the Action list, select Reject. 10. From the Apply to VLAN list, select internal. 11. From the Logging list, select Enabled. 12. From the Filter Expression Method list, select Enter Expression Text. This displays the Filter Expression text box. 13. In the text box, type an expression. For example:
not dst port 80 and not dst port 443 and not dst port 53 and not dst port 22 and not dst port 20 and not dst port 21 and not dst host <internal self IP address>
Note: Replace <internal self IP address> with the actual self IP address of VLAN internal. Also, see the tcpdump man page for general information about building expresssions. 14. Click Finished.
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Introducing health and performance monitors Creating a custom monitor Creating a pool Creating a virtual server
Introducing health and performance monitors

You can set up the BIG-IP system to monitor the health or performance of certain nodes or servers that are members of a load balancing pool. Monitors verify connections on pool members and nodes. A monitor can be either a health monitor or a performance monitor, designed to check the status of a pool, pool member, or node on an ongoing basis, at a set interval. If a pool member or node being checked does not respond within a specified timeout period, or the status of a pool member or node indicates that performance is degraded, the BIG-IP system can redirect the traffic to another pool member or node. Some monitors are included as part of the BIG-IP system, while other monitors are user-created. Monitors that the BIG-IP system provides are called pre-configured monitors. User-created monitors are called custom monitors. Before configuring and using monitors, it is helpful to understand some basic concepts regarding monitor types, monitor settings, and monitor implementation.
Monitor types Every monitor, whether pre-configured or custom, is a certain type of monitor. Each type of monitor checks the status of a particular protocol, service, or application. For example, one type of monitor is HTTP. An HTTP type of monitor allows you to monitor the availability of the HTTP service on a pool, pool member, or node. A WMI type of monitor allows you to monitor the performance of a pool, pool member, or node that is running the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) software. An ICMP type of monitor simply determines whether the status of a node is up or down. Monitor settings Every monitor consists of settings with values. The settings and their values differ depending on the type of monitor. In some cases, the BIG-IP system assigns default values. For example, Figure 19.1 shows the settings and default values of an ICMP-type monitor.
Name my_icmp Type ICMP Interval 5 Timeout 16 Transparent No Alias Address * All Addresses
Figure 19.1 Example of a monitor with default values
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To implement a health monitor, you complete these tasks: Create a custom monitor or decide to use a pre-configured monitor. Create a pool for load balancing traffic, and assign a monitor to the pool. Create a virtual server for processing traffic. The remainder of this chapter describes how to create these objects.
Note
If you want to monitor the performance of a RealNetworks RealServer server or a Windows server equipped with Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), you must first download a special plug-in file onto the BIG-IP system. For more information, see the Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Local Traffic Management.
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Creating a custom monitor

When you want to monitor a node, a server, or a pool of servers, you can use a pre-configured monitor, or you create a custom monitor. The following procedure describes how to create a custom monitor. If you want to use a pre-configured monitor, you can skip this procedure and move on to the next section, Creating a pool, on page 19-4.
To create a custom monitor

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Monitors. This displays a list of existing health and performance monitors. 2. On the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. This opens the New Monitor screen. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a monitor. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the custom monitor. For example, if you are creating a custom HTTP monitor, you can assign the name my_http_monitor. 4. From the Type list, select the type of monitor you want to create. This displays additional monitor settings for you to configure. Note: For a detailed description of each monitor type, see the Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Local Traffic Management. 5. Change the values of any monitor settings to suit your needs. 6. Click Finished. After you have created a custom monitor, you can create a load balancing pool and assign the monitor name to the pool.
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Creating a pool
When you create the pool to load balance traffic, you assign the custom monitor that you created in the previous section to a load balancing pool. Then, after creating the pool, you assign it to the virtual server that you create in the next section.
Assigning a monitor to a pool

One way to assign a monitor is to create the pool and assign the monitor to the pool itself. When you assign a monitor to a pool, all members of the pool inherit the monitor. If you want to exclude one or more pool members from inheriting the monitor that you assign to a pool, see Excluding a pool member from a monitor, on page 19-5.
To create a pool and assign a monitor

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Pools. The Pools screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Pool screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a pool. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the pool, such as http_pool. 4. For the Health Monitors setting, from the Available box select the name of the custom monitor, such as my_http_monitor, and click the Move button (<<) to move the monitor name to the Active box. 5. In the Resources section, ensure that the Load Balancing Method setting is set to Round Robin. 6. Ensure that the Priority Group Activation setting is set to Disabled. 7. For the New Members setting, add the pool members: a) Click the New Address option. b) In the Address box, type the IP address of a server in the pool. c) From the Service Port list, select FTP. d) Click Add. e) Repeat steps b, c, and d for each server in the pool. 8. Click Finished.
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Excluding a pool member from a monitor

After you create the pool, you can exclude a pool member from inheriting a monitor in one of two ways: Remove the monitor from the pool member. Assign a different monitor to the pool member. Removing a monitor assignment from a pool member is useful if you want to monitor some, but not all, of the servers in a load balancing pool. When you exclude a pool member from inheriting the monitor that you assigned to the pool, you have the option of assigning a different monitor to that pool member. In this case, the other pool members are still monitored by the monitor you assigned to the pool itself. To exclude a pool member from monitor you assigned to the pool, you must first follow the procedure described in To create a pool and assign a monitor, on page 19-4. Then you can use one of the following procedures.
To remove a monitor from a pool member

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Pools. This displays a list of existing pools. 2. In the Name column, click the name of the pool you created in Assigning a monitor to a pool, on page 19-4. 3. On the menu bar, click Members. The Current Members area of the screen lists the members of the pool. 4. In the Members column, click the address of the pool member from which you want to remove the monitor. This displays the properties of that pool member. 5. From the Configuration list, select Advanced. This displays the Health Monitors setting. 6. From the Health Monitors list, select None. 7. Click Update.
To assign a unique monitor to a pool member

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Pools. This displays a list of existing pools. 2. In the Name column, click the name of the pool you created in Assigning a monitor to a pool, on page 19-4. 3. On the menu bar, click Members. The Current Members area of the screen lists the members of the pool.
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4. In the Members column, click the address of the pool member for which you want to assign a unique monitor. This displays the properties of that pool member. 5. From the Configuration list, select Advanced. This displays the Health Monitors setting. 6. From the Health Monitors list, select Member Specific. 7. Click Update.

The last task in a basic configuration is to define a virtual server that references the pool that you created in Creating a pool, on page 19-4. You use the Configuration utility to create the virtual server.

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Virtual Server screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a virtual server. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the virtual server, such as vs_httppool. 4. In the Destination box, verify that the type of virtual server is Host, and in the Address box, type an IP address for the virtual server. 5. From the Service Port list, select a service. 6. In the Resources area of the screen, locate the Default Pool setting and select the name of the pool you created (such as http_pool). 7. Click Finished.
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Configuring the radvd service Configuring IPv4-to-IPv6 load balancing
Configuring the radvd service

The first task to setting up the BIG-IP system to function as an IPv4-to-IPv6 gateway is an optional one: to configure the radvd service. You configure the radvd service to send out ICMPv6 routing advisory messages, and to respond to ICMPv6 route solicitation messages. When you perform this task, the BIG-IP system begins to support auto-configuration of downstream nodes. Also, the downstream nodes automatically discover that the BIG-IP system is their router. Configuring the radvd service to perform these functions ultimately advertises the networks global address prefix on the internal VLAN. For more information on BIG-IP system services, see the TMOSTM Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems.
To configure the radvd service

1. Using a serial console or the IP address of the BIG-IP system management interface, access an operating system prompt on the BIG-IP system. 2. Copy the file /etc/radvd.conf.example to a new file named /etc/radvd.conf. 3. Using the nano or vi text editor, open the file /etc/radvd.conf. 4. Using the example in the file, create an advertising configuration for the networks global address prefix. Note: Replace the prefix option with an address appropriate for your network. 5. Save the /etc/radvd.conf file and exit the editor. 6. Start the radvd service as follows:
bigstart startup radvd
7. Verify that the IPv6 nodes have auto-configured their addresses for this prefix. 8. Take note of the addresses of the HTTP service IPv6 nodes. These addresses are required for the next step in the process, configuring IPv4-to-IPv6 load balancing.
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Configuring IPv4-to-IPv6 load balancing

When you configure IPv4-to-IPv6 load balancing, you must create a pool for load balancing traffic to IPv6 nodes, and then create an IPv4 virtual server that processes application traffic. For more information about these tasks, click the Help tab in the Configuration utility, or see the Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Local Traffic Management.
Creating a pool of IPv6 nodes

The first task in configuring IPv4-to-IPv6 load balancing is to create a pool to load balance connections to IPv6 nodes. Use the Configuration utility to create this pool.
To create a pool of IPv6 nodes

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Pools. The Pools screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Pool screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a pool. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the pool, such as ipv6_pool. 4. For the Health Monitors setting, from the Available box select a monitor for the type of traffic you want to load balance, and click the Move button (<<) to move the monitor name to the Active box. 5. For the New Members setting, add the IPv6 pool members: a) Click the New Address option. b) In the Address box, type the IPv6 address of a node in the pool. c) In the Service Port box, type a service number, such as 80, or select a service name, such as HTTP. d) Click Add. e) Repeat steps b, c, and d for each node in the pool. 6. Click Finished.
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The next task in a basic configuration is to define a virtual server that references the pool of IPv6 nodes. You use the Configuration utility to create the virtual server.
To create a virtual server for IPv6 nodes

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Virtual Server screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a virtual server. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the virtual server, such as vs_ipv6. 4. In the Destination box, verify that the type of virtual server is Host, and in the Address box, type an IP address for the virtual server. 5. In the Service Port box, type a service number, such as 80, or select a service name, such as HTTP, from the list. 6. In the Configuration area of the screen, locate the profile setting for the type of traffic you want to load balance, such as HTTP Profile, and select a profile name, such as http. This assigns the selected profile to the virtual server. 7. In the Resources area of the screen, locate the Default Pool setting and select the name of the pool you created in the previous section (for example, ipv6_pool). 8. Click Finished.
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Introducing overlapping IP addresses Configuring route domains
Introducing overlapping IP addresses

The BIG-IP system includes a feature that allows you to use overlapping (duplicate) IP addresses on a network. This feature is known as route domains.
What is a route domain?

A route domain is a BIG-IP object that you create, that represents a particular address space on the network. Multiple nodes that each reside in a separate route domain on the network can have the same IP address. This allows a service provider, for example, to assign the same IP address to multiple pool members in a pool, where each pool member represents a different physical server. In this case, each pool member resides in a separate route domain. One common reason to use route domains is when you want each physical server to process traffic for a different customer. For example, if you are processing traffic for two different customers, you can create two separate route domains. The same node address (such as 10.10.10.1) can reside in both route domains, in the same pool or in different pools, and you can assign a different monitor to each of the two corresponding pool members. In general, the route domains feature performs two main functions: The BIG-IP system acts as if two more octets were added to each IP address. However, on the network, the system still shows the 4-octet IP address. Each route domain has its own routing table, and traffic does not cross route domains unless explicitly configured to do so (default deny). You can configure route domains using the Configuration utility, the bigpipe utility, or tmsh.
Specifying route domain IDs

Each route domain that you create has a unique integer ID. The address format required for using overlapping IPv4 addresses is A.B.C.D%ID, where ID is the ID of the route domain in which the IP address resides. For example, three distinct pool members can have the IP address 10.10.10.1:80, where one member resides in route domain 1, another member resides in route domain 2, and the third member resides in route domain 3. In this case, the three pool members are identified as 10.10.10.1%1:80, 10.10.10.1%2:80, and 10.10.10.1%3:80, respectively. If you do not create any route domains, then all BIG-IP objects that you create reside in a single, default route domain. The default route domain has an ID of 0. If you use the default route domain only, then you do not need to specify ID 0 in any IP addresses, and this ID does not appear on the system.
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Configuring route domains

To create a typical route domain configuration, you create these BIG-IP system objects for each route domain: VLANs Self IP addresses Route domain objects Pool members Static routes Virtual servers For any of these BIG-IP objects that require an IP address, you must include the relevant route domain ID in the address, using the %ID format. (For information on route domain IDs, see Specifying route domain IDs, on page 21-1.) Figure 21.1 shows an example of configuring two distinct route domains for the purpose of using overlapping IP addresses on your network. Note in this example that the same IP addresses for objects in route domain 1 are used for objects in route domain 2. The only difference in the duplicate IP addresses is the distinct route ID.
Figure 21.1 Sample route domain configuration
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The sample configuration in Figure 21.1, on page 21-2 contains these objects:
Two route domains The route domains are named 1 and 2. Two VLANs per route domain For route domain 1, these VLANs are named vlan_clientside1 and vlan_serverside1. For route domain 2, these VLANs are named vlan_clientside2 and vlan_serverside2. Two self IP addresses per route domain For route domain 1, the self IP addresses are 12.1.1.254%1 and 10.2.1.254%1). For route domain 2, the self IP addresses are 12.1.1.254%2 and 10.2.1.254%2. Two client nodes per route domain For route domain 1, the client IP addresses are 12.1.1.101%1 and 12.1.1.102%1. For route domain 2, the client IP addresses are 12.1.1.101%2 and 12.1.1.102%2. Two server nodes per route domain For route domain 1, the server node IP addresses are 10.2.1.101%1 and 10.2.1.102%1. For route domain 2, the server node IP addresses are 10.2.1.101%2 and 10.2.1.102%2. Two virtual addresses per route domain For route domain 1, the virtual addresses are 12.1.1.253%1 and 10.2.1.253%1. For route domain 2, the virtual addresses are 12.1.1.253%2 and 10.2.1.253%2.
Note
For information on the syntax for bigpipe or tmsh commands, see the Bigpipe Utility Reference Guide and the Traffic Management Shell (tmsh) Reference Guide.
Creating VLANs for route domains

The first step to creating a route domain configuration is to create the VLANs. In our example, we need to create a total of four VLANs: Two VLANs for application A (vlan_clientside1 and vlan_serverside1), corresponding to route domain 1. Two VLANs for application B (vlan_clientside2 and vlan_serverside2), corresponding to route domain 2. Each VLAN is created with one tagged interface, such as 1.1.
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To create VLANs for route domain 1

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Network and click VLANs. This displays a list of all existing VLANs. 2. In the upper-right corner, click Create. The VLANs screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, you do not have permission to create a VLAN. You must have the appropriate user role assigned to your user account. 3. Locate the General Properties area, and in the Name box, type a unique name for the VLAN. In our example, this name is vlan_clientside1. 4. In the Tag box, type a tag for the VLAN, or leave the box blank. If you do not specify a tag, the BIG-IP system assigns one automatically. 5. In the Resources area, for the Interfaces setting, click an interface number or trunk name in the Available box, and using a Move button (<< or >>), move the interface number to the Tagged box. Repeat this step as necessary. For more information on tagged interfaces, see the TMOSTM Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems. 6. If you want to enable source checking, then in the Configuration area, click the Source Check box. 7. For the MTU setting, use the default value or type a new value. 8. In the MAC Masquerade box, type a MAC address. For more information, see the TMOSTM Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems. 9. For the Fail-safe setting, check the box if you want to base redundant-system failover on VLAN-related events. For more information, see the TMOSTM Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems. 10. Click Finished. 11. Repeat this procedure to create the second VLAN for route domain 1, assigning the name vlan_serverside1 in step 3.
To create VLANs for route domain 2

To continue with our example, use the procedure in the preceding section to create the VLANs for route domain 2. In this case, you assign the names vlan_clientside2 and vlan_serverside2 to the VLANs.
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Creating self IP addresses for route domains

The next step in the configuration process is to create a self IP address for each VLAN. In our example, we are creating four self IP addresses: one for each of two VLANs in route domain 1, and one for each of two VLANs in route domain 2. Note that the two self IP addresses within a route domain must be unique, but any two self IP addresses that fall within separate route domains can have duplicate addresses, as long as the route domain ID in each address is unique.
To create self IP addresses for VLANs in route domain 1

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Network, and click Self IPs. This displays a list of existing self IP addresses. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click the Create button. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, you do not have permission to create a self IP address. You must have the appropriate user role assigned to your user account. 3. In the IP Address box, type the self IP address that you want to assign to VLAN vlan_clientside1, including the route domain ID (1). In our example, the self IP address for vlan_clientside1 is 12.1.1.254%1. 4. In the Netmask box, type a netmask. In our example, the netmask is 255.255.255.0. 5. For the VLAN setting, select the name of the VLAN that you want to assign to the self IP address. In our example, this is vlan_clientside1. 6. For the Port Lockdown setting, select Allow Default. 7. If you want to configure the self IP address as a floating IP address, check the Floating IP box. 8. To finish the configuration of this self IP address and create other self IP addresses, click Repeat and perform all previous steps until all self IP addresses have been created. 9. Click Finished. 10. Repeat this procedure to create a self IP address for the other VLAN in route domain 1. In our example, this self IP address is 10.2.1.254%1 and the corresponding VLAN is vlan_serverside1.
To create self IP addresses for VLANs in route domain 2

To continue with our example, use the procedure in the preceding section to create the self IP addresses for VLANs in route domain 2. The self IP addresses for VLANs in route domain 2 are the same as the addresses in
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route domain 1, except for the route ID. In our example, the self IP addresses for route domain 2 are 12.1.1.254%2 and 10.2.1.254%2, and you assign the VLANs vlan_clientside2 and vlan_serverside2 to these addresses.
Creating route domain objects

The next step to creating a route domain configuration is to create route domain objects. In our example, we create two route domain objects, and assign two existing VLANs to each route domain.
To create a route domain object for route domain 1

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Network, and click Route Domains. This displays a list of existing route domains. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click the Create button. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, you do not have permission to create a self IP address. You must have the appropriate user role assigned to your user account. 3. In the ID box, type an integer for the route domain ID. For our example, this number is 1. 4. In the Description box, type a textual description of the route domain. 5. From the Parent ID box, select None. 6. For the VLANs setting, click the VLAN name vlan_clientside1 in the Available box, and using a Move button (<< or >>), move the name to the Members box. Repeat the process for VLAN name vlan_serverside1. 7. Click Finished.
To create a route domain object for route domain 2

To continue with our example, use the procedure in the preceding section to create route domain 2. In this case, assign the VLANs vlan_clientside2 and vlan_serverside2 to the route domain.
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Creating pool members for route domains

Next, you must create pools with pool members for each route domain. To continue with our example, create two pool members for each pool, specifying the route domain IDs in the pool member addresses. In our example, each route domain has the same set of pool members; only the route domain ID differs within each route domain. Thus, route domains 1 and 2 each have the same pool members 10.2.1.101:80 and 10.2.1.102:80.
To create pool members for route domain 1

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Pools This displays a list of existing pools. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click the Create button. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, you do not have permission to create a pool. You must have the appropriate user role assigned to your user account. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the pool, such as pool_rd1. 4. For the Health Monitors setting, click a monitor name in the Available box, and using a Move button (<< or >>), move the interface number to the Active box. 5. For the New Members setting: a) In the Address box, type a pool member address, including the route domain ID. For our example, this address is 10.2.1.101%1. b) In the Service Port box, type a service name, or select one from the list. c) Click Add. d) Repeat steps a, b, and c for the second pool member. For our example, this address is 10.2.1.102%1. 6. Click Finished.
To create pool members for route domain 2

To continue with our example, use the procedure in the preceding section to create pool members for route domain 2. In our example, you create a pool with a name such as pool_rd2, and assign IP addresses 10.2.1.101%2 and 10.2.1.102%2 to the pool members. Note that these are the same IP addresses that you specified for the pool members in pool_rd1, except for the route domain ID.
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Creating static routes

Next, you must create static routes that apply to each route domain. In the example, for each route domain, the routes apply to both client-side and server-side destinations.
To create static routes for route domain 1

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Network, and click Routes. The Routes screen opens. 2. On the upper-right corner of the screen, click Add. Note: If the Add button is unavailable, you do not have permission to create a static route. You must have the appropriate user role assigned to your user account. 3. From the Type list, select Route. 4. In the Destination box, type a destination IP address, including the route domain ID. For example, the destination can be the node address of a pool member, such as 10.2.1.101%1 (in pool_rd1). 5. In the Netmask box, type the netmask for the IP address you typed in the Destination box. 6. For the Resource property, select either of the following: a) Use Gateway In the box, type the self IP of a VLAN within route domain 1, such as 10.2.1.254%1. (This is the self IP address for vlan_serverside1.) b) Use VLAN In the box, type the name of a VLAN in route domain 1, such as vlan_serverside1. 7. Click Finished. 8. Using our example, repeat this procedure to create these other static routes for route domain 1: a) A route to the other server-side node in pool_rd1 (10.2.1.102%1). In this case, the gateway address and VLAN name are the same as for the route you created in steps 1 through 7 (10.2.1.254%1 and vlan_serverside1, respectively). b) A route to a client-side node in route domain 1. In this case, using our example, the destination address is 12.1.1.101%1, the gateway address is 12.1.1.254%1, and the VLAN name is vlan_clientside1.
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c) A route to the other client-side node in route domain 1. In this case, still using our example, the destination address is 12.1.1.102%1, and the gateway address and VLAN name are the same as in the previous step (12.1.1.254%1 and vlan_clientside1, respectively).
To create static routes for route domain 2

To continue with our example, use the procedure in the preceding section to create static routes for route domain 2. In this case, you create these routes:
Two routes corresponding to each of the two server-side nodes in pool_rd2 (nodes 10.2.1.101%2 and 10.2.1.102%2), specifying either the gateway address 10.2.1.254%2 or the VLAN name vlan_serverside2. Two routes corresponding to each of the two client-side nodes (nodes 12.1.1.101%2 and 12.1.1.102%2), where the gateway address and VLAN name are 12.1.1.254%2 and vlan_clientside2, respectively).
Creating virtual servers for route domains

Finally, you must create virtual servers for each route domain, assigning a pool to each virtual server. In our example, the two nodes in pool_rd1 use the same two pool member addresses as the nodes in pool_rd2, although the routing IDs specified in the pool member addresses differ by route domain.
To create virtual servers for route domain 1

1. On the Main tab, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. On the upper right portion of the screen, click the Create button. The New Virtual Server screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a virtual server. You must have the appropriate user role assigned to your user account. 3. In the Name box, type a name for a virtual server in route domain 1, for example, vs_serverside_rd1. 4. In the Destination box: a) Verify that the Host button is selected. b) In the Address box, type an IP address for the virtual server, for example, 10.2.1.253%1. 5. In the Service Port box, either type a service number (such as 80), or from the list, select a service name (such as HTTP). 6. Verify that the State setting is set to Enabled.
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7. From the Configuration list, select Advanced and do the following: a) From the Type list, select Performance (Layer 4). For information on this virtual server type, see the Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Local Traffic Management. b) Except for the Default Pool setting, retain all default values. 8. From the Default Pool list, select the name of the pool for route domain 1. In our example, this name is pool_rd1. 9. Click Finished. 10. Repeat this procedure to create a client-side virtual server for route domain 1. In our example, the virtual server name is vs_clientside_rd1 and the virtual server address is 12.1.1.253%1. You can skip step 8, selecting a default pool name.
To create virtual servers for route domain 2

To continue with our example, use the procedure in the preceding section to create virtual servers for route domain 2:
Create a virtual server with a name such as vs_serverside_rd2 with an IP address of 10.2.1.253%2. Create a virtual server with a name such as vs_clientside_rd2 with an IP address of 12.1.1.253%2. You can skip step 8, selecting a default pool name.
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22
Basic denial of service security overview Configuring adaptive connection reaping Simple DoS prevention configuration Filtering out attacks with iRules How the BIG-IP system handles several common attacks
Basic denial of service security overview

The BIG-IP system contains several features and configurations that provide you the ability to create a configuration that contributes to the security of your network. In particular, the BIG-IP system is in a unique position to mitigate some types of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks that try to consume system resources in order to deny service to the intended recipients. The following features of the BIG-IP system help it resist many types of DoS attacks:
Hardened and dedicated kernel The BIG-IP kernel has a mechanism built in to protect against SYN Flood attacks by limiting simultaneous connections, and tearing down connections that have unacknowledged SYN/ACK packets after some time period as passed. (A SYN/ACK packet is a packet that is sent as part of the TCP three-way handshake). High performance BIG-IP system can handle tens of thousands of Layer 4 (L4) connections per second. It would take a very determined attack to affect either the BIG-IP system itself, or the site, if sufficient server resources and bandwidth are available. Large amount of available memory SYN floods, or denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, can consume all available memory. The BIG-IP system supports a large amount of memory to help it resist DoS attacks.
This chapter describes several configurations that help mitigate DoS attacks. The configurations described include: How to configure the adaptive reapers to allow the BIG-IP system to respond to attacks, following. A basic configuration to defend against denial of service attacks, on page 22-4. Several examples of iRulesTM syntax you can use to filter out specific known attacks, on page 22-7. For more information about these tasks, click the Help tab in the Configuration utility, or see the Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Local Traffic Management.
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Chapter 22
Configuring adaptive connection reaping

The BIG-IP system contains two global settings that provide the ability to reap connections adaptively. Connection reaping is a condition where connections are removed from the BIG-IP system when the connection load uses enough memory to trigger the start of aggressive reaping. To prevent denial-of-service attacks, you can specify a low-water mark threshold and a high-water mark threshold: The low-water mark threshold determines at what point adaptive reaping becomes more aggressive. The high-water mark threshold determines when unestablished connections through the BIG-IP system will no longer be allowed. The value of this variable represents a percentage of memory utilization. Once memory utilization has reached the high-water mark, connections are disallowed until the available memory has been reduced to the low-water mark threshold.
WARNING
The adaptive reaper settings do not apply to SSL connections. However, you can set TCP and UDP connection timeouts that reap idle SSL connections. For more information see Setting the TCP and UDP connection timers, on page 22-4.
To set the adaptive reapers using the Configuration utility

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand System, and click Configuration. The General screen opens. 2. From the Local Traffic menu, choose General. The System screen opens. 3. In the Properties table, set the following values: Set the Reaper High-water Mark property to 95. Set the Reaper Low-water Mark property to 85. 4. Click Update.
Tip
There is generally no need to change these values as they represent an optimal solution for most BIG-IP system deployments.
Important
Setting both of the adaptive reaper values to 100 disables this feature.
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Logging adaptive reaper activity

You can log adaptive reaper activity by setting the logging levels on the BIG-IP system to a more sensitive level. When you set this logging level, the system logs a rate-limited message (maximum once every 10 seconds), informing you that the adaptive reaping mode has been entered or exited. This log message has a priority of warning. For more information about the log level, refer to the db man page.
Important
When the adaptive reaper high water limit is reached, the LCD displays the message Blocking DoS Attack.
To set the adaptive reaper logging level from the command line
1. Open a console on the BIG-IP system. 2. Type the following command to view the adaptive reaper logging level:
bp db Log.DosProtect.Level list
The output looks as follows:

db Log.DosProtect.Level "Warning"
3. Choose the logging level for the adaptive reaper. The following levels display the message Blocking DoS Attack on the LCD when the Reaper High Water Mark is exceeded: Emergency Alert Critical Error Warning The following levels do not display the Blocking DoS Attack message on the LCD. Notice Informational 4. Type the following command to set the adaptive reaper logging level, where <log level> is the logging level:
bp db Log.DosProtect.Level "<log level>"
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Chapter 22
Simple DoS prevention configuration

DoS prevention is a simple configuration you can employ to mitigate the impact of denial-of-service attacks. The configuration consists of four tasks: Set the global TCP and UDP connection reap times to 60 seconds. Set an IP rate class of 20Mbps, outstanding queue maximum size of 2Mbps. Set the connection limit on the main virtual server to the approximate amount of RAM in KB * 0.8.
Setting the TCP and UDP connection timers

You can set the TCP and UDP timers in the profile settings for the TCP profile and the UDP profiles. You should set these timers for the services that you use for your virtual servers. For example, 60 for HTTP connections, 60 for SSL connections.
To set the TCP connection reaper time

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. The HTTP Profiles screen opens. 2. From the Protocol menu, choose TCP. The TCP profile list screen opens. 3. Click the name of the profile you want to configure. The properties screen for the profile opens. 4. Set the Idle Timeout to 60. 5. Click Update.
To set the UDP connection reaper time

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. The HTTP Profiles screen opens. 2. From the Protocol menu, choose UDP. The UDP profile list screen opens. 3. Click the name of the profile you want to configure. The properties screen for the profile opens. 4. Set the Idle Timeout to 60. 5. Click Update.
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Creating an IP rate class and applying it to a virtual server

The next task in setting up a simple configuration for DoS is to create a rate class. You must first create a rate class, and then apply the rate class to a virtual server.
Important
The rate class module requires a license key. If you do not have this functionality and you would like to purchase a license key, contact F5 Networks.
To create a rate class

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Rate Shaping. The Rate Shaping screen displays. 2. Click the Create button to create a new rate class. The New Rate Class screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a rate class. 3. Configure the following class properties: In the Class Name box, type the name you want to use for this class. In the Base Rate box, type 2000000 (2 Mbps). In the Ceiling Rate box, type 20000000 (20 Mbps). In the Burst Size box, type 500, and select Megabytes from the list. From the Direction list, select Any. From the Queue Discipline list, select Stochastic Fair Queue. 4. Click Finished.
After you create a rate class, you can apply it to the virtual servers in the configuration.
To apply a rate class to a virtual server

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers List screen opens. 2. On the Virtual Servers List screen, click the virtual server you want to modify. 3. From the Rate Class list, select the rate class you created. 4. Click Update.
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Setting connection limits on the main virtual server

This section describes how to set the connection limits on the main virtual server. The connection limits determine the maximum number of concurrent connections allowed on a virtual server. In this context, the main virtual server is the virtual server that receives the most traffic to your site.
To calculate a connection limit for the main virtual server

Before you set a connection limit, use the following formula to figure out what to set the connection limit value to on the main virtual server: Connection Limit = Approximate Amount of RAM in KB * 0.8. For example, if you have 256 MB of RAM, the calculation looks like this: 256,000 * 0.8 = 20480 In this case, you set the connection limit to 20480.
To set the connection limits on the main virtual server

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers List screen opens. 2. On the Virtual Servers List screen, click the virtual server you want to modify. 3. In the Connection Limit box, type the number you calculated for the connection limit. 4. Click the Update button.
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Filtering out attacks with iRules

You can create BIG-IP rules to filter out malicious DoS attacks. Once you identify a particular attack, you can write an iRule that discards packets that contain the elements that identify the packet as malicious.
Filtering out a Code Red attack

The BIG-IP system is able to filter out the Code Red attack by using an iRule to send the HTTP request to a dummy pool. For example, Figure 22.1 illustrates an iRule that discards Code Red attacks.
when HTTP_REQUEST { if {string tolower [HTTP::uri] contains "default.ida" } { discard } else { pool RealServerPool } }
Figure 22.1 A sample iRule for filtering out a Code Red attack
Filtering out a Nimda attack

The Nimda worm is designed to attack systems and applications based on the Microsoft Windows operating system. For Nimda, an iRule can be written as shown in Figure 22.2.
when HTTP_REQUEST { set uri [string tolower [HTTP::uri]] if { ($uri contains "cmd.exe") or ($uri contains "root.exe") or ($uri contains "admin.dll") } { discard } else { pool ServerPool } }
Figure 22.2 Sample iRule syntax to discard Nimda worm
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How the BIG-IP system handles several common attacks

You might want to know how the BIG-IP system reacts to certain common attacks that are designed to deny service by breaking the service or the network devices. The following pages list the most common attacks, along with how the BIG-IP system functionality handles the attack.
WARNING
Take care any time you lower the idle session reaping time outs. It is possible that valid connections will be reaped if the application cannot respond in time.
SYN flood
A SYN flood is an attack against a system for the purpose of exhausting that systems resources. An attacker launching a SYN flood against a target system attempts to occupy all available resources used to establish TCP connections by sending multiple SYN segments containing incorrect IP addresses. Note that the term SYN refers to a type of connection state that occurs during establishment of a TCP/IP connection. More specifically, a SYN flood is designed to fill up a SYN queue. A SYN queue is a set of connections stored in the connection table in the SYN-RECEIVED state, as part of the standard three-way TCP handshake. A SYN queue can hold a specified maximum number of connections in the SYN-RECEIVED state. Connections in the SYN-RECEIVED state are considered to be half-open and waiting for an acknowledgement from the client. When a SYN flood causes the maximum number of allowed connections in the SYN-RECEIVED state to be reached, the SYN queue is said to be full, thus preventing the target system from establishing other legitimate connections. A full SYN queue therefore results in partially-open TCP connections to IP addresses that either do not exist or are unreachable. In these cases, the connections must reach their timeout before the server can continue fulfilling other requests.
Alleviating SYN flooding

The BIG-IP system includes a feature designed to alleviate SYN flooding. Known as SYN Check, this feature sends information about the flow, in the form of cookies, to the requesting client, so that the system does not need to keep the SYN-RECEIVED state that is normally stored in the connection table for the initiated session. Because the SYN-RECEIVED state is not kept for a connection, the SYN queue cannot be exhausted, and normal TCP communication can continue.
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The SYN Check feature complements the existing adaptive reaper feature in the BIG-IP system. While the adaptive reaper handles established connection flooding, SYN Check prevents connection flooding altogether. That is, while the adaptive reaper must work overtime to flush connections, the SYN Check feature prevents the SYN queue from becoming full, thus allowing the target system to continue to establish TCP connections. You can configure the BIG-IP system to activate the SYN Check feature when some threshold of connections has been reached on the system.
To set the threshold on the BIG-IP system

1. On the Main menu of the navigation pane, expand System, and click Configuration. The General Properties screen opens. 2. From the Local Traffic menu, choose General. The General screen opens. 3. In the SYN CheckTM Activation Threshold box, type the number of connections that you want to define for the threshold. 4. Click Update.
ICMP flood (Smurf)

The ICMP flood, sometimes referred to as a Smurf attack, is an attack based on a method of making a remote network send ICMP Echo replies to a single host. In this attack, a single packet from the attacker goes to an unprotected networks broadcast address. Typically, this causes every machine on that network to answer with a packet sent to the target. The BIG-IP system is hardened against these attacks because it answers only a limited number of ICMP requests per second, and then drops the rest. On the network inside the BIG-IP system, the BIG-IP system ignores directed subnet broadcasts, and does not respond to the broadcast ICMP Echo that a Smurf attacker uses to initiate an attack. You do not need to make any changes to the BIG-IP system configuration for this type of attack.
UDP flood
The UDP flood attack is most commonly a distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS), where multiple remote systems are sending a large flood of UDP packets to the target. The BIG-IP system handles these attacks similarly to the way it handles a SYN flood. If the port is not listening, the BIG-IP system drops the packets. If the port is listening, the reaper removes the false connections.
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Chapter 22
Setting the UDP idle session timeout to between 5 and 10 seconds reaps these connections quickly without impacting users with slow connections. However, with UDP this may still leave too many open connections, and your situation may require a setting of between 2 and 5 seconds.
UDP fragment
The UDP fragment attack is based on forcing the system to reassemble huge amounts of UDP data sent as fragmented packets. The goal of this attack is to consume system resources to the point where the system fails. The BIG-IP system does not reassemble these packets, it sends them on to the server if they are for an open UDP service. If these packets are sent with the initial packet opening the connection correctly, then the connection is sent to the back-end server. If the initial packet is not the first packet of the stream, the entire stream is dropped. You do not need to make any changes to the BIG-IP system configuration for this type of attack.
Ping of Death
The Ping of Death attack is an attack with ICMP echo packets that are larger than 65535 bytes. Since this is the maximum allowed ICMP packet size, this can crash systems that attempt to reassemble the packet. The BIG-IP system is hardened against this type of attack. However, if the attack is against a virtual server with the Any IP feature enabled, then these packets are sent on to the server. It is important that you apply the latest update patches to your servers. You do not need to make any changes to the BIG-IP system configuration for this type of attack.
Land attack
A Land attack is a SYN packet sent with the source address and port the same as the destination address and port. The BIG-IP system is hardened to resist this attack. The BIG-IP system connection table matches existing connections so that a spoof of this sort is not passed on to the servers. Connections to the BIG-IP system are checked and dropped if spoofed in this manner. You do not need to make any changes to the BIG-IP system configuration for this type of attack.
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Teardrop
A Teardrop attack is carried out by a program that sends IP fragments to a machine connected to the Internet or a network. The Teardrop attack exploits an overlapping IP fragment problem present in some common operating systems. The problem causes the TCP/IP fragmentation re-assembly code to improperly handle overlapping IP fragments. The BIG-IP system handles these attacks by correctly checking frame alignment and discarding improperly aligned fragments. You do not need to make any changes to the BIG-IP system configuration for this type of attack.
Data attacks
The BIG-IP system can also offer protection from data attacks to the servers behind the BIG-IP system. The BIG-IP system acts as a port-deny device, preventing many common exploits by simply not passing the attack through to the server. For information about iRule examples for thwarting two common data attacks, see Filtering out attacks with iRules, on page 22-7.
WinNuke
The WinNuke attack exploits the way certain common operating systems handle data sent to the NetBIOS ports. NetBIOS ports are 135, 136, 137 and 138, using TCP or UDP. The BIG-IP system denies these ports by default. On the BIG-IP system, do not open these ports unless you are sure your servers have been patched against this attack.
Sub 7
The Sub 7 attack is a Trojan horse that is designed to run on certain common operating systems. This Trojan horse allows the system to be controlled remotely. This Trojan horse listens on port 27374 by default. The BIG-IP system does not allow connections to this port from the outside, so a compromised server cannot be controlled remotely. Do not open high ports (ports above 1024) without explicit knowledge of what applications will be running on these ports.
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Chapter 22
Back Orifice
Back Orifice is a Trojan horse that is designed to run on certain common operating systems. This Trojan horse allows the system to be controlled remotely. This Trojan horse listens on UDP port 31337 by default. The BIG-IP system does not allow connections to this port from the outside, so a compromised server cannot be controlled remotely. Do not open high ports (ports above 1024) without explicit knowledge of what will be running on these ports.
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23
Introducing administrative domains Creating a partition Configuring user access to a partition Viewing, managing, and creating objects in a partition
Introducing administrative domains

The BIG-IP system includes a powerful authorization feature known as administrative domains. Using the administrative domains feature, you ensure that BIG-IP system grants administrative users exactly the right type and amount of access to BIG-IP system resources. As a result, you can tailor user access to resources to exactly fit the needs of your organization. The administrative domains feature consists of several important components:
Partitions Partitions represent containers for BIG-IP system objects. You can use partitions to limit user access to certain objects. For more information on partitions, see the TMOSTM Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems. User accounts User accounts grant administrative access to the BIG-IP system. The properties that you set on a user account determine that users permissions for administering BIG-IP system resources. For more information on user accounts, see the TMOSTM Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems. User roles One of the properties that you set on a user account is the user role. A user role determines that users permissions, that is, the specific objects that the user can access and the tasks that the user can perform. The user roles that you can assign to a user account are: Administrator, Resource Administrator, User Manager, Manager, Application Editor, Application Security Policy Editor, Operator, or Guest.You can also specify that a user account has no access to system resources. For descriptions of these user roles, see the TMOSTM Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems. BIG-IP system objects BIG-IP system objects are the entities that you can manage on the BIG-IP system. Examples of objects that you can place into partitions are pools, virtual servers, and profiles. When objects reside in partitions, you can control the type and amount of administrative user access to those objects. Most local traffic objects, as well as user accounts, can reside in partitions. For descriptions of local traffic objects, see the Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Local Traffic Management.
By combining all of these components, you can finely-tune administrative access to many of your BIG-IP system resources. This chapter describes the procedure for configuring the administration domains feature on the BIG-IP system.
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Chapter 23
Creating a partition
When you first install the BIG-IP system, a default partition exists, known as partition Common. Partition Common contains certain objects that the system automatically creates during installation, such as the admin user account, the default profiles, and the pre-configured health and performance monitors. Some types of BIG-IP system objects reside in partitions, while others do not. In general, most local-traffic objects reside in partitions. Network objects, such as self IP addresses, VLANs, interfaces, and so on, cannot reside in partitions. At a minimum, most BIG-IP system user accounts have Read access to objects in partition Common, regardless of their user roles. User accounts that have the Administrator and Resource Administrator roles assigned to them not only can view the objects in Common, but also can create, modify, and delete objects in that partition. While managing partition Common is useful as a starting point for controlling user access to BIG-IP system objects, creating other partitions offers a much finer degree of access control for administrative users. The first step in giving a user the authority to manage objects in a specific partition is to create the partition. Once you have created the partition, you choose the user that you want to manage the objects in the new partition. Finally, you modify the properties of that users account, to assign both the appropriate user role and the partition that you want to authorize the user to manage. Once you have granted authority to the user to manage the partition, the user can then manage those objects in certain ways, such as creating HTTP virtual servers and profiles, within that partition.
Important
To create a partition, you must have the Administrator or Resource Administrator user role assigned to your user account. For the admin account, the BIG-IP system automatically assigns the Administrator role.
To create a partition
1. On the main tab of the navigation pane, expand System, and click Users, The Users screen opens. 2. On the menu bar, click Partitions List. This displays the list of partitions that you are allowed to view. 3. On the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. 4. In the Name box, type a unique name for the partition, such as partition_App1.
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5. In the Description box, type a description of the partition, for example, This partition contains objects for managing traffic for the App1 application. 6. Click Create.
Configuring user access to a partition

The next step, after you create the partition, is to assign a user role to a user account and give that user authority to manage the new partition. The level of authority that the user has is determined by the user role you assign to the user account. For example: If you assign a user role of Manager to the user account, the user can perform all tasks related to the objects (except user account objects) in the relevant partition, such as creating, modifying, or deleting those objects. If you assign a user role of Operator to the account, the user is restricted to enabling and disabling the nodes and pool members that reside in the assigned partition. If you assign a user role of Guest to the account, the user can only view the objects in the partition. The user cannot create, modify, or delete any objects in the assigned partition. You can configure user access to a partition either when you first create the user account or when you modify the user account properties. The following procedure shows how to configure partition access to an existing user account.
Note
This procedure pertains to local user accounts only. For information on configuring partition access to remote user accounts, see the TMOSTM Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems.
To configure user access to a partition

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand System, and click Users. The User List screen opens. 2. In the Name column, click the user account name. The properties screen for that user account opens. 3. To grant an access level other than No Access, use the Role setting and select a user role.
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4. From the Partition Access list, select a partition name. You can select a single partition name, or All. Note: For user accounts to which you assign the Administrator role, this value is automatically set to All. 5. Click Finished.
Viewing, managing, and creating objects in a partition

It is important to understand what happens when an administrative user logs into the BIG-IP system and attempts to view, manage, or create BIG-IP system objects.
Viewing and managing system objects

Once you have assigned user roles and partitions to user accounts, the users see only those objects on the BIG-IP system to which they have been granted access. They can view only those objects, and no others. For example, suppose user Jane Smith logs into the system with her user account (jsmith), and she has the role of Manager and is authorized to manage partition A. In this case, she sees and can manage all objects contained in partition A (excluding user account objects), and she can see objects in partition Common. She has no access to other objects on the system. This means that if she uses the Configuration utility to view a list of virtual servers on the system, she sees and can manage virtual servers contained in partition A, and she can see any virtual servers in partition Common (if any). Similarly, if she views the list of pools, she sees and can manage those pools contained in partition A, and she can see any pools in partition Common (if any), and so on. She has no access (either Read or Write access) to objects in other partitions. By contrast, a user with a role such as Administrator can see and manage all objects on the system, regardless of the partition in which the objects reside. Users with this type of role can also actively select a specific partition to view and manage.
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Creating BIG-IP system objects

When a BIG-IP system user has a user role that grants the authority to create objects on the BIG-IP system in a specific partition, the object that the user creates automatically resides in the partition that the user is authorized to manage. For example, suppose that Barry Jones has the user account bjones, and this user account is authorized to manage partition B. When Barry logs into the BIG-IP system using the bjones account, any object that he creates automatically resides in partition B. Conversely, if a user with a role that does not allow object creation (such as the Operator role) is logged into the system, no Create buttons appear on the Configuration utility screens. If the logged-in user has universal access (such as a user with the Administrator role), the user can actively select the partition in which to view, manage, or create a BIG-IP system object.
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Introducing remote authentication and authorization for BIG-IP system user accounts Configuring the BIG-IP system to use remote authentication of user accounts Configuring access control for BIG-IP system users Propagating remote authentication and authorization data to multiple BIG-IP devices
Introducing remote authentication and authorization for BIG-IP system user accounts
The BIG-IP system includes a comprehensive solution for managing BIG-IP administrative accounts on your network. With this solution, you can:
Use a remote server for storing BIG-IP user accounts The BIG-IP system includes support for using a remote authentication server to store BIG-IP system user accounts. After creating BIG-IP system accounts on the remote server, you configure the BIG-IP system to use remote user authentication, using either the browser-based Configuration utility or the command-line-based bigpipe utility. For more information, see Configuring the BIG-IP system to use remote authentication of user accounts, on page 24-2. Assign group-based access control The BIG-IP system includes a remoterole command within the bigpipe utility. You use the remoterole command to specify access control data on a group-wide basis for remotely-stored BIG-IP system user accounts. The remoterole command can use the existing group definitions assigned to those remote accounts to define access control properties (privileges) for those users. The remoterole command not only provides more granularity and flexibility in assigning user privileges, but also removes any need to duplicate remote user accounts on the BIG-IP system for the purpose of assigning those privileges. For more information, see Configuring access control for BIG-IP system users, on page 24-6. Propagate a set of authorization data to multiple BIG-IP devices The BIG-IP system includes a tool for propagating user access control data easily to multiple BIG-IP devices on the network. This access control data includes user role specifications, partition access, and BIG-IP system console access. To propagate user authorization data to multiple BIG-IP devices, you use the Single Configuration File feature within the bigpipe utility. For more information, see Propagating remote authentication and authorization data to multiple BIG-IP devices, on page 24-11.
By using all of the above features together, you can define user privileges on a group-wise basis, and you can centrally manage all BIG-IP user accounts, thus negating any need to create and manage user accounts separately on each individual BIG-IP device on the network.
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Configuring the BIG-IP system to use remote authentication of user accounts

Once you have created the accounts on the remote server, you must configure the BIG-IP system to specify the type of remote authentication server. This allows the BIG-IP system to access that remote data when authenticating BIG-IP system users. The BIG-IP system supports several types of authentication servers for storing BIG-IP system administrative user accounts. The actual procedure you use to specify the type of remote server you are using to store user accounts differs depending on the server type: Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) servers Microsoft Windows Active Directory servers Remote Authentication Dial-in User Service (RADIUS) servers Terminal Access Controller Access-Control System Plus (TACACS+) servers
Specifying a remote LDAP or Active Directory server

You can configure the BIG-IP system to use an LDAP or Microsoft Windows Active Directory server for authenticating BIG-IP system user accounts, that is, traffic that passes through the management interface (MGMT). If the remote authentication server is set up to authenticate SSL traffic, there is an additional feature that you can enable. You can configure the BIG-IP system to perform the server-side SSL handshake that the remote server would normally perform when authenticating client traffic. In this case, there are some preliminary steps you must perform to prepare for remote authentication using SSL.
To prepare for SSL-based remote authentication

On the BIG-IP system, import the certificates, using the Configuration utility. For information on importing certificates, see the TMOSTM Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems. Once you have performed these preliminary SSL tasks, you can enable SSL as part of the procedure described in To specify a remote LDAP or Active Directory server, following.
To specify a remote LDAP or Active Directory server

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand System, and click Users. The Users screen opens. 2. On the menu bar, click Authentication. The Authentication screen opens. 3. Click Change.
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4. From the User Directory list, select Remote - Active Directory or Remote - LDAP. 5. In the Host box, type the IP address of the remote server. 6. For the Port setting, retain the default port number (389) or type a new port number in the box. This setting represents the port number that the BIG-IP system uses to access the remote server. 7. In the Remote Directory Tree box, type the file location (tree) of the user authentication database on the LDAP or Active Directory server. At minimum, you must specify a domain component (that is, dc=<value>). 8. For the Scope setting, retain the default value (Sub) or select a new value. This setting specifies the level of the remote server database that the BIG-IP system searches for to authenticate users. For more information on this setting, see the online help. 9. For the Bind setting, specify a user ID login for the remote server: a) In the DN box, type the Distinguished Name for the remote user ID. b) In the Password box, type the password for the remote user ID. c) In the Confirm box, re-type the password that you typed in the Password box. 10. If you want to enable SSL-based authentication, click the SSL box and, if necessary, configure the following settings. Important: Be sure to specify the full path name of the storage location on the BIG-IP system. For example, if the certificate is stored in the directory /config/ssl/ssl.crt, type the value /config/ssl/ssl.crt. a) In the SSL CA Certificate box, type the name of a chain certificate, that is, the third-party CA or self-signed certificate that normally resides on the remote authentication server. b) In the SSL Client Key box, type the name of the client SSL key. Use this setting only in the case where the remote server requires that the client present a certificate. If a client certificate is not required, you do not need to configure this setting. c) In the SSL Client Certificate box, type the name of the client SSL certificate. Use this setting only in the case where the remote server requires that the client present a certificate. If a client certificate is not required, you do not need to configure this setting. 11. Click Finished.
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Specifying a remote RADIUS server

You can configure the BIG-IP system to use a RADIUS server for authenticating BIG-IP system user accounts, that is, traffic that passes through the management interface (MGMT).
To specify a remote RADIUS server

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand System, and click Users. The Users screen opens. 2. On the menu bar, click Authentication. The Authentication screen opens. 3. Click Change. 4. From the User Directory list, select Remote - RADIUS. 5. From the Server Configuration list, select either Primary Only or Primary & Secondary. 6. For the Primary setting, configure these settings: a) In the Host box, type the IP address of the remote server. b) In the Port box, retain the default port number (1812) or type a new port number in the box. This setting represents the port number that the BIG-IP system uses to access the remote server. c) In the Secret box, type the RADIUS secret. d) In the Confirm box, re-type the secret that you typed in the Secret box. Note that the values of the Secret and Confirm settings must match. 7. If you selected Primary & Secondary in step 5, configure the Secondary setting. 8. Click Finished.
Specifying a TACACS+ server

You can configure the BIG-IP system to use a TACACS+ server for authenticating BIG-IP system user accounts, that is, traffic that passes through the management interface (MGMT).
To configure remote TACACS+ authentication

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand System, and click Users. The Users screen opens. 2. On the menu bar, click Authentication. The Authentication screen opens.
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3. Click Change. 4. From the User Directory list, select Remote - TACACS+. 5. From the Configuration list, select Advanced. Additional settings appear on the screen. 6. In the Servers box, type an IP address and click Add. 7. In the Secret box, type the TACACS+ secret. 8. In the Confirm Secret box, re-type the TACACS+ secret that you specified in the Secret box. 9. From the Encryption list, retain the default value (Enabled) or select Disabled. This setting is optional. 10. In the Service Name box, type the name of a service. 11. In the Protocol Name box, type the name of a protocol. This setting is optional. 12. From the Authentication list, select either Authenticate to first server or Authenticate to each server until success. 13. From the Accounting Information list, select either Send to first available server or Send to all servers. 14. From the Debug Logging list, select either Disabled or Enabled. 15. Click Finished.
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Configuring access control for BIG-IP system users

After specifying the type of remote server you are using to store user accounts, you can configure authorization properties (that is, a user role, partition access, and terminal access) for those accounts. When you configured the BIG-IP system to indicate the type of remote server being used to store BIG-IP system user accounts, the BIG-IP system automatically created a single user entity on the BIG-IP system that represents all remotely-stored accounts. Named Other External Users, this user entity includes a default set of access control values. These access-control values are: Role = No Access Partition = All Terminal Access = Disabled
Note
You can use the Configuration utility to change the values that the BIG-IP system uses as the default values when assigning privileges to remote user accounts. If you want to use non-default values for all of the user accounts represented by Other External Users, you have two options:
Use the remoterole command (recommended). This allows you to assign privileges on a group basis. Using the remoterole command gives you flexibility and granularity in controlling access to BIG-IP system resources by remote user accounts. For more information, see Understanding the remoterole command, on page 24-7. Use the Configuration utility to assign privileges on a per-user basis. Using the Configuration utility, you can assign non-default privileges to any individual user account that is stored remotely. If you do this, you must first duplicate the user account on the BIG-IP system. For more information, see the TMOSTM Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems.
Note
For detailed descriptions of the user roles that you can assign to accounts, see the TMOSTM Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems.
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Understanding the remoterole command

The remoterole command assigns privileges to remote user accounts by mapping a vendor-specific attribute (such as an LDAP attribute for defining a user group) to a set of access-control properties that you define. These access-control properties are: A user role Console access or restriction A user partition assignment By mapping a remote authentication server attribute to a set of access-control properties, you can easily define a different set of access-control properties for each group of BIG-IP user accounts stored on a remote authentication server. Without the remoterole command, you must either assign the same privileges to all remotely-stored user accounts, or you must individually duplicate each remote user account on the BIG-IP system to assign unique privileges to that account. Once you have used the remoterole command, you can use the Single Configuration File feature to propagate that access control data to other BIG-IP devices on the network. For more information, see Propagating remote authentication and authorization data to multiple BIG-IP devices, on page 24-11.
Using the remote role command

You use the remoterole command to assign group-wide privileges to remote user accounts. The command is available from within the bigpipe utility. The following section shows the syntax for the remoterole command, and shows an example of its use, with the resulting access control data.
To assign privileges to remote user accounts

Type the bigpipe remoterole command, using the following syntax:
bigpipe remoterole role info <user group> attribute (<string> | none) console \ (enable | disable) line order <number> role <user role> user partition \ (<string> | none)
For example, suppose that your BIG-IP system user accounts are stored on an LDAP remote authentication server and that those accounts are divided between the groups BigIPOperatorsGroup and BigIPManagersGroup. In this case, you can type the following remoterole command sequence to define the privileges for those groups:
bigpipe remoterole role info BigIPOperatorsGroup { attribute "memberOF=cn=BigIPOperatorsGroup,cn=users,dc=dev,dc=net" console disable line order 1 role operator user partition App_A } role info BigIPManagersGroup { attribute "MemberOF=cn=BigIPManagersGroup,cn=users,dc=dev,dc=net" console enable line order 2 role manager user partition App_B }
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Table 24.1 shows the resulting configuration, where each group has a set of privileges assigned to it:
Group Name BigIPOperatorsGroup Assigned Privileges console disable role operator user partition App_A BigIPManagersGroup console enable role manager user partition App_B
Table 24.1 Privilege assignments resulting from the remoterole command
Note
After you use the remoterole command to configure group-based privileges, any user who logs on to the BIG-IP system and does not have a group assignment on the remote server is denied access to the BIG-IP system. Also, whenever you change the user role or partition assignment (or both) for a remote account, all remote users are immediately logged off the system, including those logged in as Other External Users.
Using variable substitution

Some BIG-IP environments might be using a large number of administrative partitions and user roles, and therefore require several different combinations of user roles and partitions. For example, if a BIG-IP system is configured to use ten administrative partitions and five different user roles, the system could require up to 50 combinations of partitions and user roles, making use of the remoterole command unwieldy. To mitigate this problem, the remoterole command supports the use of variable substitution. That is, for the role, user partition, and console arguments of the remoterole command, you can specify %<variable> for the value.
Example
Suppose that you configure a remote RADIUS authentication server to return a vendor-specific attribute and three variables, and their values. F5-LTM-User-Info-1 = DC1 F5-LTM-User-Role = 400 Note: See Considerations for variable evaluation, on page 24-9 for more information. F5-LTM-User-Partition = App_C F5-LTM-User-Console = 1
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The remoterole command can use the first attribute (F5-LTM-User-Info-1) on which to match. The command can then read the role, user partition, and console values from the remaining three variables, rather than you specifying them explicitly. The command does this when you specify each of the three variables on the command line, preceded by the string %, as arguments. The following shows a sample use of the remoterole command. This particular command matches on the vendor-specific attribute F5-LTM-User-Info-1 and then assigns the access-control values listed above (Operator, App_C, and 1) to any user accounts that are part of Datacenter 1 (DC1):
b remoterole role info DC1 { attribute "F5-LTM-User-Info-1=DC1" console "%F5-LTM-User-Console" role "%F5-LTM-User-Role" user partition "%F5-LTM-User-Partition" line order 1 }
Considerations for variable evaluation

When using variable substitution with the remoterole command, you should consider these rules that the system follows:
Incorrect variable values If the value of a variable is incorrect, the user is not authorized. For example, if the %F5-LTM-User-Partition variable evaluates to p1, but the p1 partition does not exist or the partition is named P1 instead of p1, the user receives an error message when attempting to log on. The role variable The variable that you specify on the command line with the role argument (for example, %F5-LTM-User-Role) must evaluate to one of these values: 0 (Administrator) 20 (Resource Administrator) 40 (User Manager) 100 (Manager) 300 (Application Editor) 400 (Operator) 700 (Guest) 800 (Application Security Policy Editor) 900 (None) Missing variables When a variable does not exist in the authentication attributes, the system assigns these privileges to the user account: Role = No Access Partition = None Terminal access = Disabled
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No matching attributes If the user is properly authenticated but there is no match on any of the remoterole attributes, the system assigns the default privileges. For more information on default privileges for remote user accounts, see Configuring access control for BIG-IP system users, on page 24-6.
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Propagating remote authentication and authorization data to multiple BIG-IP devices

The final step in configuring remote authentication and authorization for BIG-IP administrative users is to propagate the BIG-IP authentication and authorization configuration data to the other BIG-IP devices on the network. You perform this step using the bigpipe export and bigpipe import commands, which are part of the Single Configuration File feature. The bigpipe export command exports BIG-IP configuration data to a special .scf file (SCF). The bigpipe import command uses the data in that SCF to configure other BIG-IP devices. If you performed the previous task (using the remoterole command to define access control data for remote user accounts), any subsequent SCF that you create using the bigpipe export command contains those access control definitions. You can then use the bigpipe import command to propagate that access control data to the other BIG-IP devices on the network. The following procedures describe how to create an SCF and import the SCF onto another BIG-IP device. For a more detailed description of the SCF feature and how to use it, see the TMOSTM Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems.
To create an SCF
1. Access the bigpipe shell. 2. Run the command export, and include a name for the SCF, for example:
bp> export myConfiguration053107
The system creates the file, myConfiguration053107.scf, in the /var/local/scf directory. To create the SCF in another location, specify a full path for the file. For example, the command export /config/myConfiguration creates the SCF in the /config directory.
To use an SCF to configure another BIG-IP system

1. Copy the SCF that you created in the previous section to a location on your network that you can access from the system that you want to configure. 2. Edit the SCF to reflect the management routing and special passwords of the BIG-IP system that you want to configure: a) Open the SCF in an editor. b) Where necessary, change the values of the management IP address, network mask, management default route, self IP addresses, virtual server IP addresses, routes, default routes, and host name fields to the values for the new system.
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c) If necessary, change the passwords for the root and admin accounts using the command user <name> password none newpassword <password>. Important: When configuring a unit that is part of a redundant system using the SCF from the other unit in the system, do not modify the root and admin accounts. These accounts must be identical on both units of a redundant system. d) Save the edited SCF. 3. On the BIG-IP system that you want to configure, use the import command to import the SCF:
bp> import myConfiguration
The system saves a backup of the running configuration in the /var/local/scf directory, and then resets the running configuration with the configuration contained in the SCF you are importing. 4. To save the new running configuration to the stored configuration, use the save all command. The system saves the running configuration to the stored configuration.
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Introducing remote authentication for application traffic Configuring authentication that uses a remote LDAP or Active Directory server Configuring authentication that uses a remote RADIUS server Configuring authentication that uses a remote TACACS+ server Configuring SSL-based authorization using a remote LDAP server Configuring SSL certificate revocation using an OCSP responder Configuring a CRLDP authentication module
Introducing remote authentication for application traffic

As an administrator in a large computing environment, you might prefer to store your sites user accounts remotely, on a dedicated authentication server. Fortunately, you can set up the BIG-IP system to use this server to authenticate any network traffic passing through the BIG-IP system. Remote authentication servers typically use these protocols: Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Remote Authentication Dial-in User Service (RADIUS) TACACS+ (derived from Terminal Access Controller Access Control System [TACACS]) Online Status Certificate Protocol (OCSP) Certificate Revocation List Distribution Point (CRLDP) Using a remote authentication server, the BIG-IP system can authenticate two types of network traffic: Application traffic that is slated for load balancing This type of traffic passes through a virtual server and through Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM) interfaces. To configure remote authentication for this type of traffic, you must create a configuration object and a profile that correspond to the type of authentication server you are using to store your user accounts. For example, if your remote authentication server is an LDAP server, you create an LDAP configuration object and an LDAP profile. For more information, see the remainder of this chapter, click the Help tab in the Configuration utility, or see the Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Local Traffic Management. Management traffic for administering the BIG-IP system This type of traffic does not pass through a virtual server, and instead passes through the management interface (MGMT). You configure remote authentication for this type of traffic when you create your administrative user accounts. For more information, see Chapter 24, Configuring Remote Authentication and Authorization for Administrative Traffic in this guide, and the TMOSTM Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems. When you want to use a remote server to authenticate application traffic passing through the BIG-IP system, you can use one of these server types: An LDAP or Active Directory server A RADIUS server A TACACS+ server An SSL OCSP responder A CRLDP server A Kerberos server
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To configure remote user authentication for application traffic, you must create both a configuration object and an authentication profile. Each authentication server type requires a different configuration object and profile. For example, to configure the BIG-IP system to use an LDAP authentication server, you must create an LDAP configuration object and a custom LDAP profile. When implementing a RADIUS, SSL OCSP, or CRLDP authentication module, you must also create a third type of object. For RADIUS and CRLDP authentication, this object is referred to as a server object. For SSL OCSP authentication, this object is referred to as an OCSP responder.
Note
To configure Kerberos authentication, see Chapter 26, Configuring Kerberos Delegation.
Configuring authentication that uses a remote LDAP or Active Directory server

You can configure the BIG-IP system to use an LDAP or Active Directory server for authenticating traffic that passes through the TMM interfaces of the BIG-IP system. By default, client credentials are based on basic HTTP authentication (that is, user name and password). However, you can also enable SSL authentication, which is based on SSL keys and certificates. To configure LDAP or Active Directory authentication for application traffic, you complete these tasks: Create an LDAP-type configuration object. Create an LDAP-type authentication profile. Modify a virtual server that is configured to manage HTTP traffic.
Creating an LDAP configuration object

The first task in configuring LDAP-based or Active Directory-based remote authentication on the BIG-IP system is to create a custom LDAP configuration object, using the Configuration utility. An LDAP configuration object specifies information that the BIG-IP system needs to perform the remote authentication. For example, the configuration object specifies the remote LDAP tree that the system uses as the source location for the authentication data. If the remote authentication server uses LDAP or Active Directory and is set up to authenticate SSL authentication traffic, there is an additional feature that you can enable. You can configure the BIG-IP system to perform the server-side SSL handshake that the remote server would normally perform when authenticating client traffic. In this case, there are some preliminary tasks you must perform to prepare for remote authentication using SSL.
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To prepare for SSL-based remote authentication

1. Convert the Certificate Authority (CA) or self-signed certificates to PEM format. 2. On the BIG-IP system, import the certificates, using the Configuration utility. You can store the certificates in any location on the BIG-IP system.
Once you have performed these preliminary SSL tasks, you can enable SSL-based remote server authentication. You do this as part of creating the LDAP configuration object, which includes these Advanced settings: SSL CA Certificate This represents the name of the certificate that normally resides on the remote authentication server. SSL Client Key This represents the name of the SSL key that the client sends to the BIG-IP system. This key specification is only necessary when the remote server requires a client certificate. SSL Client Certificate This represents the name of the SSL certificate that the client sends to the BIG-IP system. This certificate specification is only necessary when the remote server requires a client certificate.
Important
When specifying key and certificate files while creating an LDAP configuration object, be sure to specify the full path name of the storage location on the BIG-IP system. For example, if the certificate is stored in the directory /config/ssl/ssl.crt, type the value /config/ssl/ssl.crt. After you create the custom LDAP configuration object, you create a custom LDAP profile, and then assign the custom profile to an HTTP virtual server.
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To create a custom LDAP configuration object

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. The HTTP Profiles screen opens. 2. From the Authentication menu, choose Configurations. The Authentication Configurations screen opens. 3. On the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Authentication Configuration screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create an LDAP configuration object. 4. In the Name box, type a unique name for the configuration object, such as my_ldap_config. 5. From the Type list, select LDAP. This displays the configuration object settings that you can configure. 6. For the Configuration area, select Basic or Advanced. Selecting Advanced causes additional settings to appear on the screen. 7. In the Remote LDAP Tree box, type the file location (tree) of the user authentication database on the LDAP or Active Directory server. At a minimum, you must specify a domain component (that is, dc=<value>). 8. For the Hosts setting: a) Type the IP address of the remote LDAP or Active Directory server. b) Click Add. The IP address appears in the text window. 9. Retain or change the Service Port value. 10. Retain or change the LDAP Version value. 11. If you selected a basic configuration in step 6, click Finished. If you selected an advanced configuration in step 6, configure the remaining settings and then click Finished.
Note
For information about enabling SSL authentication, see the beginning of this section, Creating an LDAP configuration object, on page 25-2.
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Creating an LDAP authentication profile

The next task in configuring LDAP-based or Active Directory-based remote authentication on the BIG-IP system is to create a custom LDAP profile. An LDAP profile specifies information such as the LDAP authentication mode (Enabled or Disabled), and the name of the LDAP configuration object you previously created. After you create the custom LDAP profile, you assign the custom profile and a default iRule to a virtual server.
To create a custom LDAP profile

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. The HTTP Profiles screen opens. 2. From the Authentication menu, choose Profiles. The Authentication Profiles screen opens. 3. On the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Authentication Profile screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create an LDAP profile. 4. In the Name box, type a unique name for the profile, such as my_ldap_profile. 5. From the Type list, select LDAP. This displays the profile settings that you can configure. 6. From the Parent Profile list, verify that ldap is selected This causes the new profile to inherit its default configuration values from the default profile, named ldap. 7. From the Configuration list, select the name of the LDAP configuration object that you previously created. 8. For all remaining settings, retain the default values. 9. Click Finished.
Modifying a virtual server for LDAP authentication

The final task in the process of implementing authentication using a remote LDAP server is to assign the custom LDAP profile and a default LDAP authentication iRule to a virtual server that is configured to process HTTP traffic (that is, a virtual server to which an HTTP profile is assigned).
Note
The virtual server to which you assign the profiles and the iRule must be a Standard type of virtual server.
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To modify a virtual server for LDAP authentication

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the Name column, click the name of a Standard-type virtual server to which an HTTP profile is assigned. This displays the properties of that virtual server. 3. From the Configuration list, select Advanced. This displays additional properties. 4. From the Authentication Profiles list, from the Available box select the name of the custom LDAP profile that you previously created, and click the Move button (<<). This moves the profile name to the Enabled box. Note: If the Authentication Profiles list is unavailable for modification, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to modify a virtual server. 5. Click Update.
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Configuring authentication that uses a remote RADIUS server

A RADIUS authentication module is a mechanism for authenticating client connections passing through a BIG-IP system. You use this module when your authentication data is stored on a remote RADIUS server. In this case, client credentials are based on basic HTTP authentication (that is, user name and password). To implement a RADIUS authentication module, you must configure the BIG-IP system to access data on a remote RADIUS server. To do this, you must: Create one or more high-level RADIUS server objects. Create a RADIUS configuration object. Create a RADIUS profile. Modify a virtual server to assign the RADIUS profile to it.
Creating a RADIUS server object

The first task in configuring RADIUS-based remote authentication on the BIG-IP system is to create a custom RADIUS server object. After you create the custom RADIUS server object, you create a custom RADIUS configuration object and a custom RADIUS profile, and then assign the custom profile and a default iRule to an HTTP virtual server.
To create a RADIUS server object

1. On the Main tab in the navigation page, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. The Profiles screen opens. 2. From the Authentication menu, choose RADIUS Servers. This displays the RADIUS Server List screen. 3. In the upper right corner of the screen, click Create. This displays the RADIUS Server screen. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a RADIUS server object. 4. For the Name setting, type a unique name for the RADIUS server object, such as my_radius_server. 5. For the Server setting, type a host name or IP address for the remote RADIUS server. 6. For the Secret and Confirm Secret settings, type the RADIUS secret.
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7. Retain the default Timeout value. 8. Click Finished.
Creating a RADIUS configuration object

The next task in configuring RADIUS-based remote authentication on the BIG-IP system is to create a custom RADIUS configuration object. A RADIUS configuration object specifies information that the BIG-IP system needs to perform the remote authentication. After you create the custom RADIUS configuration object, you create a custom RADIUS profile, and then assign the custom profile and a default iRule to an HTTP virtual server.
To create a RADIUS configuration object

1. On the Main tab, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. The Profiles screen opens. 2. From the Authentication menu, choose Configurations. This displays the Authentication Configurations screen. 3. In the upper right corner of the screen, click Create. This displays the New Authentication Configuration screen. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a RADIUS configuration object. 4. For the Name setting, specify a unique name for the configuration object, such as my_radius_config. 5. For the Type setting, select RADIUS. The screen expands to show several settings. 6. From the Configuration list, select Basic or Advanced. Selecting Advanced causes additional settings to appear on the screen. 7. For the RADIUS Servers setting, from the Available box select the IP address of the RADIUS server and click the Move button (<<). This moves the server name to the Selected box. 8. In the Client ID box, type a NAS-Identifier string. Required for RADIUS authentication, the NAS-Identifier string appears in Access-Request packets and identifies the NAS that originates the packet. An example of a NAS-Identifier string is a fully-qualified domain name (FQDN). 9. If you selected a basic configuration in step 7, click Finished. If you selected an advanced configuration in step 7, configure the remaining settings and then click Finished.
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Creating a RADIUS profile

The next task in configuring RADIUS-based remote authentication on the BIG-IP system is to create a custom RADIUS profile. A RADIUS profile specifies information such as the RADIUS authentication mode (Enabled or Disabled), and the name of the RADIUS configuration object you previously created. After you create the profile, you assign the custom profile and a default iRule to an HTTP virtual server.
To create a custom RADIUS profile

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. The HTTP Profiles screen opens. 2. From the Authentication menu, choose Profiles. The Authentication Profiles screen opens. 3. On the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Authentication Profile screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a RADIUS profile. 4. From the Type list, select RADIUS. This displays the profile settings that you can configure. 5. In the Name box, type a unique name for the profile, such as my_radius_profile. 6. From the Parent Profile list, verify that radius is selected. This causes the new profile to inherit configuration values from the default profile, named radius. 7. From the Configuration list, select the name of the RADIUS configuration object that you previously created. 8. For all remaining settings, retain the default values. 9. Click Finished.
Modifying a virtual server for RADIUS authentication

The final task in the process of implementing authentication using a remote RADIUS server is to assign the custom RADIUS profile to a virtual server that is configured to process HTTP traffic (that is, a virtual server to which an HTTP profile is assigned).
Note
The virtual server to which you assign an authentication profile must be a Standard type of virtual server.
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To modify a virtual server for RADIUS authentication

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the Name column, click the name of a virtual server. This displays the properties of that virtual server. 3. From the Configuration list, select Advanced. This displays additional properties. 4. From the Authentication Profiles list, from the Available box select the name of the custom RADIUS profile that you previously created, and click the Move button (<<). This moves the profile name to the Enabled box. Note: If the Authentication Profiles list is unavailable for modification, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to modify a virtual server. 5. Click Update.
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Configuring authentication that uses a remote TACACS+ server

You can configure the BIG-IP system to use a TACACS+ server for authenticating traffic that passes through the TMM interfaces of the BIG-IP system. In this case, client credentials are based on basic HTTP authentication (that is, user name and password). To configure TACACS+ authentication for application traffic, you complete these tasks: Create a TACACS+-type configuration object. Create a TACACS+-type authentication profile. Modify a virtual server configured to manage HTTP traffic.
Creating a TACACS+ configuration object

The first task in configuring TACACS+ remote authentication on the BIG-IP system is to create a custom TACACS+ configuration object. A TACACS+ configuration object specifies information that the BIG-IP system needs to perform the remote authentication. For example, the configuration object specifies the IP address of the remote TACACS+ server.
To create a custom TACACS+ configuration object

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. The HTTP Profiles screen opens. 2. From the Authentication menu, choose Configurations. The Authentication Configurations screen opens. 3. On the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Authentication Configuration screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a TACACS+ configuration object. 4. From the Type list, select TACACS+. This displays the configuration object settings that you can configure. 5. In the Name box, type a unique name for the configuration object, such as my_tacacs_config. 6. For the Configuration area, select Basic or Advanced. Selecting Advanced causes additional settings to appear on the screen.
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7. In the Servers box, type the IP address of the remote TACACS+ server and click Add. The IP address appears in the text box. 8. For the Hosts setting, type the IP address of the remote LDAP or Active Directory server and click Add. The IP address appears in the text window. 9. In the Secret box, type a TACACS+ secret. key to be used for encrypting or decrypting packets sent to or from the server. 10. In the Confirm Secret box, re-type the secret key you typed in the Secret box. 11. If you selected a basic configuration in step 6, click Finished. If you selected an advanced configuration in step 6, configure the remaining settings and then click Finished.
Once you have created the TACACS+ configuration object, you must create a custom TACACS+ profile and modify an HTTP virtual server.
Creating a TACACS+ profile

The next task in configuring TACACS+-based remote authentication on the BIG-IP system is to create a custom TACACS+ profile. After you create the profile, you assign the custom profile, the default http profile, and a default iRule to a virtual server.
To create a custom TACACS+ profile

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. The HTTP Profiles screen opens. 2. From the Authentication menu, choose Profiles. The Authentication Profiles screen opens. 3. On the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Authentication Profile screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a TACACS+ profile. 4. From the Type list, select TACACS+. This displays the profile settings that you can configure. 5. In the Name box, type a unique name for the profile, such as my_tacacs_profile. 6. From the Parent Profile list, verify that tacacs is selected. This causes the new profile to inherit its default configuration values from the default profile, named tacacs.
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7. From the Configuration list, select the name of the TACACS+ configuration object that you previously created. 8. For all remaining settings, retain the default values. 9. Click Finished.
Modifying a virtual server for TACACS+ authentication

The final task in the process of implementing authentication using a remote TACACS+ server is to assign the custom TACACS+ profile and an existing default authentication iRule to a virtual server that is configured to process HTTP traffic (that is, a virtual server to which an HTTP profile is assigned).
Note
The virtual server to which you assign an authentication profile and iRule must be a Standard type of virtual server.
To modify a virtual server for TACACS+ authentication

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the Name column, click the name of a virtual server. This displays the properties of that virtual server. 3. From the Configuration list, select Advanced. This displays additional properties. 4. From the Authentication Profiles list, from the Available box select the name of the custom TACACS+ profile that you previously created, and click the Move button (<<). This moves the profile name to the Enabled box. Note: If the Authentication Profiles list is unavailable for modification, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to modify a virtual server. 5. Click Update.
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Configuring SSL-based authorization using a remote LDAP server

With the SSL Client Certificate LDAP authentication module, you can use a remote LDAP server to impose access control on application traffic. The module bases this access control on SSL certificates and roles that you specify. To configure SSL Client Certificate LDAP-based authentication for application traffic, you complete these tasks: Create an SSL Client Certificate LDAP-type configuration object. Create an SSL Client Certificate LDAP-type authentication profile. Modify a virtual server that is configured to manage HTTP traffic.
Creating an SSL CLient Certificate LDAP configuration object

The first task in configuring SSL Client Certificate LDAP-based remote authentication on the BIG-IP system is to create a custom SSL Client Certificate LDAP configuration object, using the Configuration utility. An SSL Client Certificate LDAP configuration object specifies information that the BIG-IP system needs to perform the remote authentication. After you create the custom SSL Client Certificate LDAP configuration object, you create a custom SSL Client Certificate LDAP profile, and then assign the custom profile to an SSL virtual server.
To create a custom SSL Client Certificate LDAP configuration object

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. The HTTP Profiles screen opens. 2. From the Authentication menu, choose Configurations. The Authentication Configurations screen opens. 3. On the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Authentication Configuration screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create an SSL Client Certificate LDAP configuration object. 4. In the Name box, type a unique name for the configuration object, such as my_ssl_client_cert_ldap_config. 5. From the Type list, select SSL Client Certificate LDAP. This displays the configuration object settings that you can configure. 6. For the Configuration area, select Basic or Advanced. Selecting Advanced causes additional settings to appear on the screen.
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7. For the Hosts setting: a) Type the IP address of the remote LDAP. b) Click Add. The IP address appears in the text window. 8. From the Search Type list, select User, Certificate Map, or Certificate. 9. In the User Base DN box, type the search base for the sub tree that the LDAP server uses to perform a User or Certificate search type. 10. In the User Key box, type the attribute that the LDAP server uses to designate a user ID. 11. If you selected a basic configuration in step 6, click Finished. If you selected an advanced configuration in step 6, configure the remaining settings and then click Finished.
Creating an SSL Client Certificate LDAP authentication profile

The next task in configuring LDAP-based remote authentication on the BIG-IP system is to create a custom SSL Client Certificate LDAP profile. An SSL Client Certificate LDAP profile specifies information such as the the name of the LDAP configuration object you previously created. After you create the custom SSL Client Certificate LDAP profile, you assign the custom profile and a default iRule to a virtual server.
To create a custom SSL Client Certificate LDAP profile

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. The HTTP Profiles screen opens. 2. From the Authentication menu, choose Profiles. The Authentication Profiles screen opens. 3. On the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Authentication Profile screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create an SSL Client Certificate LDAP profile. 4. In the Name box, type a unique name for the profile, such as my_ssl_client_cert_ldap_profile. 5. From the Type list, select SSL Client Certificate LDAP. This displays the profile settings that you can configure. 6. From the Parent Profile list, verify that sol ldap is selected This causes the new profile to inherit its default configuration values from the default profile, named ldap.
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7. From the Configuration list, select the name of the LDAP configuration object that you previously created. 8. For all remaining settings, retain the default values. 9. Click Finished.
Modifying a virtual server for SSL Client Certificate LDAP authorization

The final task in the process of implementing authorization using a remote LDAP server is to assign the custom SSL Client Certificate LDAP profile and a default LDAP authentication iRule to a virtual server that is configured to process HTTP traffic (that is, a virtual server to which an HTTP profile is assigned).
Note
The virtual server to which you assign the profiles and the iRule must be a Standard type of virtual server.
To modify a virtual server for SSL Client Certificate LDAP authorization

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the Name column, click the name of a Standard-type virtual server to which an HTTP server profile is assigned. This displays the properties of that virtual server. 3. From the Configuration list, select Advanced. This displays additional properties. 4. From the Authentication Profiles list, from the Available box select the name of the custom SSL CLient Certificate LDAP profile that you previously created, and click the Move button (<<). This moves the profile name to the Enabled box. Note: If the Authentication Profiles list is unavailable for modification, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to modify a virtual server. 5. Click Update.
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Configuring SSL certificate revocation using an OCSP responder

An SSL OCSP authentication module is a mechanism for authenticating client connections passing through a local traffic management system. More specifically, an SSL OCSP authentication module checks the revocation status of an SSL certificate, as part of authenticating that certificate. To implement an OCSP authentication module, you must: Create one or more high-level OCSP responder objects. Create an SSL OCSP configuration object. Create an SSL OCSP profile. Modify a virtual server to assign the SSL OCSP profile to it.
Creating an SSL OCSP responder object

The first task in configuring SSL OCSP-based remote authentication on the BIG-IP system is to create a custom SSL OCSP responder object. An SSL OCSP responder object is an object that you create that includes a URL for an external SSL OCSP responder. You must create a separate SSL OCSP responder object for each external SSL OCSP responder. After you create the custom SSL OCSP responder object, you create a custom SSL OCSP configuration object and a custom SSL OCSP profile, and then assign the custom profile and a default iRule to an HTTP virtual server.
To create an SSL OCSP responder object

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. The Profiles screen opens. 2. From the Authentication menu, choose OCSP Responders. This displays the OCSP Responders list screen. 3. In the upper right corner of the screen, click Create. This displays the New OCSP Responder screen. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create an SSL OCSP responder object. 4. For the Name setting, type a unique name for the OCSP responder object, such as my_ocsp_responder. 5. Type or retain all configuration values. 6. Click Finished.
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Creating an SSL OCSP configuration object

The next task in configuring SSL OCSP-based remote authentication on the BIG-IP system is to create a custom SSL OCSP configuration object. An SSL OCSP configuration object specifies information that the BIG-IP system needs to perform the remote authentication. After you create the custom SSL OCSP configuration object, you create a custom SSL OCSP profile, and then assign the custom profile and a default iRule to an HTTP virtual server.
To create an SSL OCSP configuration object

1. On the Main tab, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. The Profiles screen opens. 2. From the Authentication menu, choose Configurations. This displays the Authentication Configurations screen. 3. In the upper right corner of the screen, click Create. This displays the New Authentication Configuration screen. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create an SSL OCSP configuration object. 4. For the Name setting, specify a unique name for the configuration object, such as my_ocsp_config. 5. For the Type setting, select SSL OCSP. 6. For the Responders setting, from the Available box select the name of an OCSP responder object and click the Move button (<<). This moves the name to the Selected box. 7. Repeat the previous step for each responder object. 8. Click Finished.
Creating an SSL OCSP profile

The next task in configuring SSL OCSP-based remote authentication on the BIG-IP system is to create a custom SSL OCSP profile. An SSL OCSP profile specifies information such as the name of the SSL OCSP configuration object you previously created. After you create the profile, you assign the custom profile and a default iRule to an HTTP virtual server.
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To create a custom SSL OCSP profile

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. The HTTP Profiles screen opens. 2. From the Authentication menu, choose Profiles. The Authentication Profiles screen opens. 3. On the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Authentication Profile screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create an SSL OCSP profile. 4. From the Type list, select SSL OCSP. This displays the profile settings that you can configure. 5. In the Name box, type a unique name for the profile, such as my_ssl_ocsp_profile. 6. From the Parent Profile list, verify that ssl_ocsp is selected. This causes the new profile to inherit configuration values from the default profile, named ssl_ocsp. 7. From the Configuration list, select the name of the SSL OCSP configuration object that you previously created. 8. For all remaining settings, retain the default values. 9. Click Finished.
Modifying a virtual server for SSL OCSP authentication

The final task in the process of implementing SSL OCSP authentication is to assign the custom SSL OCSP profile to a virtual server that is configured to process HTTP traffic (that is, a virtual server to which an HTTP profile is assigned).
Note
To modify a virtual server for SSL OCSP authentication

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the Name column, click the name of a virtual server. This displays the properties of that virtual server. 3. From the Configuration list, select Advanced. This displays additional properties.
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4. From the Authentication Profiles list, from the Available box select the name of the custom SSL OCSP profile that you previously created, and click the Move button (<<). This moves the profile name to the Enabled box. Note: If the Authentication Profiles list is unavailable for modification, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to modify a virtual server. 5. Click Update.
Configuring a CRLDP authentication module

A Certificate Revocation List Distribution Point (CRLDP) authentication module is a mechanism for authenticating client connections passing through a local traffic management system. More specifically, a CRLDP authentication module checks the revocation status of an SSL certificate, as part of authenticating that certificate. To implement a CRLDP authentication module, you must: Create one or more high-level CRLDP server objects. Create a CRLDP configuration object. Create a CRLDP profile. Modify a virtual server to assign the CRLDP profile to it.
Creating a CRLDP server object

The first task in configuring CRLDP-based remote authentication on the BIG-IP system is to create a custom CRLDP server object. A CRLDP server object is an object that you create that includes a URL for an external CRLDP server. You must create a separate CRLDP server object for each external CRLDP responder. After you create the custom CRLDP object, you create a custom CRLDP configuration object and a custom CRLDP profile, and then assign the custom profile and a default iRule to an HTTP virtual server.
To create a CRLDP responder object

1. On the Main tab, expand Local Traffic. 2. Click Profiles. The Profiles screen opens. 3. From the Authentication menu, choose CRLDP Servers. This displays the CRLDP Servers list screen.
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4. In the upper right corner of the screen, click Create. This displays the New CRLDP Server screen. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a CRLDP responder object. 5. For the Name setting, type a unique name for the CRLDP server object, such as my_crldp_server. 6. Type or retain all configuration values. 7. Click Finished.
Creating a CRLDP configuration object

The next task in configuring CRLDP-based remote authentication on the BIG-IP system is to create a custom CRLDP configuration object. A CRLDP configuration object specifies information that the BIG-IP system needs to perform the remote authentication. After you create the custom CRLDP configuration object, you create a custom CRLDP profile, and then assign the custom profile and a default iRule to an HTTP virtual server.
To create a CRLDP configuration object

1. On the Main tab, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. The Profiles screen opens. 2. From the Authentication menu, choose Configurations. This displays the Authentication Configurations screen. 3. In the upper right corner of the screen, click Create. This displays the New Authentication Configuration screen. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a CRLDP configuration object. 4. For the Name setting, specify a unique name for the configuration object, such as my_crldp_config. 5. For the Type setting, select CRLDP. 6. For the Servers setting, from the Available box select the name of a CRLDP server object and click the Move button (<<). This moves the name to the Selected box. 7. Repeat the previous step for each server object. 8. Click Finished.
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Creating a CRLDP profile

The next task in configuring CRLDP-based remote authentication on the BIG-IP system is to create a custom CRLDP profile. A CRLDP profile specifies information such as the name of the CRLDP configuration object you previously created. After you create the profile, you assign the custom profile and a default iRule to an HTTP virtual server.
To create a custom CRLDP profile

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. The HTTP Profiles screen opens. 2. From the Authentication menu, choose Profiles. The Authentication Profiles screen opens. 3. On the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Authentication Profile screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a CRLDP profile. 4. From the Type list, select CRLDP. This displays the profile settings that you can configure. 5. In the Name box, type a unique name for the profile, such as my_crldp_profile. 6. From the Parent Profile list, verify that ssl_crldp is selected. This causes the new profile to inherit configuration values from the default profile, named ssl_crldp. 7. From the Configuration list, select the name of the CRLDP configuration object that you previously created. 8. For all remaining settings, retain the default values. 9. Click Finished.
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Modifying a virtual server for CRLDP authentication

The final task in the process of implementing CRLDP authentication is to assign the custom CRLDP profile to a virtual server that is configured to process HTTP traffic (that is, a virtual server to which an HTTP profile is assigned).
Note
To modify a virtual server for CRLDP authentication

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the Name column, click the name of a virtual server. This displays the properties of that virtual server. 3. From the Configuration list, select Advanced. This displays additional properties. 4. From the Authentication Profiles list, from the Available box select the name of the custom CRLDP profile that you previously created, and click the Move button (<<). This moves the profile name to the Enabled box. Note: If the Authentication Profiles list is unavailable for modification, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to modify a virtual server. 5. Click Update.
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Introducing Kerberos delegation infrastructure Configuring the BIG-IP system for Kerberos delegation Creating the Kerberos delegation configuration Authenticating Client Traffic
Introducing Kerberos delegation infrastructure

The Kerberos delegation feature provides the ability to authenticate client traffic with Microsoft Windows Integrated Authentication. You can also set cross-realm authentication if the two realms have a trust relationship. Table 26.1 shows the infrastructure requirements for Kerberos delegation.
Infrastructure Primary domain controller
Configuration Requirements This Kerberos delegation scenario uses a Microsoft primary domain controller (PDC) The time on the PDC must be synchronized with the time on the client and web servers. The primary domain controller must be a DNS server and have knowledge of the web servers.
Client
Client machines must be in the domain. The time on the client must be synchronized with the time on the web servers and PDC. The client must be using Windows Internet Explorer version 3.x or later.
Web server
The Web servers must be set up to use Windows Integrated Authentication with anonymous access disabled. Please refer to the Microsoft documentation for more information about load balancing Kerberos web servers if you plan to set up more than one server in your server pool. The time on the web server must be synchronized with the time on the client and PDC.
BIG-IP system
The BIG-IP system must be in a domain with the PDC. The BIG-IP system must be able to process secure traffic between the client and its web server. The BIG-IP system must use a DNS server that knows about the PDC. The BIG-IP system must have its time synchronized with the PDC.
Table 26.1 Infrastructure requirements for Kerberos delegation
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Configuring the BIG-IP system for Kerberos delegation

Configuring the BIG-IP system for Kerberos delegation requires you to complete these tasks: Add the DNS server to the BIG-IP system. Join the BIG-IP system to the trusted domain. Set up the Kerberos delegation configuration.
Adding a DNS server to the BIG-IP system

The first step for configuring the BIG-IP system for Kerberos delegation is to add the DNS server to the BIG-IP system. This section describes how to test the DNS server from the BIG-IP system, and how to add the DNS server to the BIG-IP system from either the Configuration utility or the command line interface.
To test the DNS server before you define it on the BIG-IP system
Before you configure the DNS server on the BIG-IP system, you can test the DNS server(s) that you want to define on the BIG-IP system by typing the following command at the Linux prompt:
dig @<DNS_Server_IP_Address>
If the test is successful, the system displays a list of the root name servers.
To configure DNS name resolution using the Configuration utility

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand System, and click Configuration. The General screen opens. 2. From the Device menu, choose DNS. The DNS screen opens. 3. Locate the DNS Lookup Server List setting. 4. In the Address box, type the DNS server IP address. 5. Click Add. 6. Click Update.
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To configure DNS name resolution from the command line

1. Log on to the command line. 2. Define the DNS server(s) on the BIG-IP system by typing the following command:
bigpipe dns nameservers <DNS_Server_IP_Address> add
For example, if you want to add the DNS name server IP addresses 192.168.10.20 and 192.168.10.22 to the BIG-IP system, type the following command:
bigpipe dns nameservers 192.168.10.20 192.168.10.22 add
3. Save the changes by typing the following command:

bigpipe save
The local /etc/resolv.conf file is now configured with the following entries:
nameserver nameserver 192.168.10.20 192.168.10.22
Joining the BIG-IP system to the trusted domain

After you have added the DNS server to the BIG-IP system, you can add the BIG-IP system to the trusted domain. Use the domaintool command to add the BIG-IP system to the trusted domain. You use the domaintool command to add the system to the domain, where <domainname> is the name of the domain in all uppercase letters, and <name> is the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of the Kerberos Key Distribution Center (KDC). Optionally, you can use the IP address of the KDC. The command syntax is:
domaintool --add <domainname> --kdc <name|IP address>
If you are setting up cross-domain authentication, use the --dnsdomain option to this command. All hosts found in a certain DNS domain are automatically in the correct Kerberos realm. Use the domaintool --add command for each realm that the BIG-IP system may contact. Now that the BIG-IP system is configured with the domains it may contact, you must use the domaintool command to create service principals within the domain. These service principals are named after the FQDN of the virtual servers you create:
domaintool --join <domainname> --admin_principal <admin principal> --host <hostname>
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This command prompts you for a password. Typically, the value of the admin_principal argument is administrator; however, you can use any administrator name. The host argument specifies the FQDN of the virtual server you configure for traffic. Run this command for each virtual server you plan to configure.
Important
For additional information about these commands, see the domaintool man page.
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Creating the Kerberos delegation configuration

Now that you have added the DNS server to the BIG-IP system, and the BIG-IP system to the domain, you need to create a Kerberos delegation configuration. This section describes how to create a Kerberos delegation configuration from the Configuration utility (following) or from the command line interface (see Configuring Kerberos delegation from the command line, on page 26-8). For this configuration, you need to create the following objects: Kerberos delegation configuration Kerberos delegation profile Kerberos delegation Client SSL profile Kerberos delegation pool for load balancing Kerberos delegation virtual server
Important
The Kerberos delegation profile includes a set-cookie operation. To ensure that an attacker cannot intercept this set-cookie header, always use the Kerberos Delegation profile in conjunction with a Client SSL profile.
Configuring Kerberos delegation using the Configuration utility

This section provides all procedures for configuring Kerberos delegation, using the Configuration utility. For the procedures on configuring Kerberos delegation using the command line interface, see Configuring Kerberos delegation from the command line, on page 26-8.
To create a Kerberos delegation configuration object

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. The Profiles screen opens. 2. From the Authentication menu, choose Configurations. The Authentication Configurations screen opens. 3. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Authentication Configuration screen opens. 4. For the Name setting, type a unique name for the configuration object, such as my_kerberos_config. Note: Any alphabetic characters in the name must be lowercase. 5. For the Type setting, select Kerberos Delegation. The screen expands to show several settings.
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6. In the Client Principal Name box, type the client principal name. The client principal name is the name of the virtual server on the BIG-IP system. Use the following format, where <name> is the admin_principal name that you previously added to the domain:
HTTP/<name>
7. In the Server Principal Name box, type the server principal name. The server principal name is the name of the web server. Use the following format, where <FQDN> is the fully-qualified domain name of the web server in the pool:
HTTP/<FQDN>
8. Click Finished.
To create a Kerberos delegation profile object

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. The Profiles screen opens. 2. From the Authentication menu, choose Profiles. The Authentication Profiles screen opens. 3. In the upper right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Authentication Profile screen opens. 4. For the Name setting, type a unique name for the configuration object, such as my_kerberos_profile. Note: Any alphabetic characters in the name must be lowercase. 5. For the Type setting, select Kerberos Delegation. The screen expands to show several settings. 6. For the Cookie Name setting, type a unique name. 7. For the Cookie Key setting, type a strong password. Note: The Cookie Key value is an encryption key that encrypts cookie data. A default value is supplied; however, you should change the default value so that attackers who know this value cannot decrypt cookie data and impersonate trusted users. 8. Click Finished.
To create a Client SSL profile

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. A list of profiles displays. 2. From the SSL menu, choose Client. The list of existing SSL profiles displays.
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3. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Client SSL Profile screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a pool. 4. In the Name box, type a unique name for the profile. 5. On the far right side of the screen, click the Custom box. 6. From the Certificate list, select the name of an existing certificate. 7. From the Key list, select the name of an existing key. 8. At the bottom of the screen, click Finished.
To create a load balancing pool

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Pools. The Pools screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Pool screen opens. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, this indicates that your user role does not grant you permission to create a pool. 3. From the Configuration list, select Advanced. 4. For the Name setting, type a name for the pool, such as webserverpool. 5. Specify, retain, or change the remaining settings. Note: For the New Members setting, add the IP address and port for each of the web servers in the Kerberos delegation infrastructure. 6. Click Finished.
To create a virtual server and add the Kerberos delegation and Client SSL profiles to the virtual server
1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers screen opens. 2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click Create. The New Virtual Server screen opens. 3. For the Name setting, type a unique name for the virtual server, such as my_kerberos_virtual. 4. For the Destination setting, click Host and type an IP address. 5. For the Service Port setting, type 80, or from the service list, select HTTP. 6. From the Configuration list, select Advanced.
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7. For the Type setting, select Standard. 8. For the Protocol setting, select TCP. 9. For the HTTP Profile setting, select http. 10. From the SSL Profile (Client) list, select the name of the Client SSL profile you created previously. 11. For Authentication Profiles setting, use the Move button (<< or >>) to enable the profile you created for Kerberos delegation. 12. In the Resources area of the screen, from the Default Pool list, select the pool you created that contains the web servers. 13. Click Finished.
Configuring Kerberos delegation from the command line

This section describes how to configure Kerberos delegation from the command line, using the bigpipe utility. To configure Kerberos delegation using the Configuration utility, see Configuring Kerberos delegation using the Configuration utility, on page 26-5.
To create a Kerberos delegation configuration object from the command line

Type the following command to create the Kerberos delegation configuration object:
auth krbdelegate my_kerberos_config { server principal "HTTP/<FQDN>" client principal "HTTP/<FQDN>" }
For the server principal, use the FQDN of the web server. For each client principal, use the FQDN of the virtual server you plan to create on the BIG-IP system.
To create the Kerberos delegation profile object from the command line
After you create the Kerberos delegation configuration object, you can create the profile for the configuration. Be sure to set a cookie name and strong password for the cookie encryption key on the profile. In this example, the cookie name is kerbc and the key is kerbc.
profile auth my_kerberos_profile { defaults from krbdelegate config my_kerberos_config type krbdelegate cookie name kerbc cookie key "kerbc" }
Note
The Cookie Key value is an encryption key that encrypts cookie data. A default value is supplied; however, you should change the default value so that attackers who know this value cannot decrypt cookie data and impersonate trusted users.
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To create the Client SSL profile from the command line

The next task in configuring Kerberos delegation is to create a Client SSL profile. Type the profile clientssl command as follows:
profile clientssl my_client_ssl_profile ( defaults from clientssl key my_key_name cert my_cert_name )
To create the load balancing pool from the command line

After you create the configuration object and the profile for the Kerberos delegation configuration, create a pool of web servers using the following command, where <ip addr> is the IP address of the web server:
pool webserverpool { monitor all http members <ip addr>:http }
To create the Kerberos delegation virtual server from the command line
To complete the configuration of the BIG-IP system for Kerberos delegation, create the virtual server for the configuration. Type the following command to create the virtual server, where <ip addr>:http is the virtual server address, webserverpool is the pool of webservers, my_client_profile is the Client SSL profile you created, and my_kerberos_profile is the profile you created for Kerberos delegation:
virtual my_kerberos_virtual { snat automap pool webserverpool destination <ip addr>:http ip protocol tcp profiles http tcp my_clientssl_profile auth my_kerberos_profile }
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Authenticating Client Traffic

After the network is configured, and the BIG-IP system is configured, Kerberos delegation authenticates clients. Figure 26.1 shows how client authentication works with Kerberos delegation.
Figure 26.1 How Kerberos delegation authenticates client traffic
The process for authenticating client traffic with Kerberos delegation is as follows: 1. The user logs on to the domain. 2. The client browser connects to the BIG-IP virtual server and passes Windows Integrated Authentication credentials, as well as SSL credentials. 3. The BIG-IP system verifies the credentials and uses those credentials to fetch credentials from domain 2 on behalf of the user from domain 1. 4. The BIG-IP system passes the credentials obtained in step 3 to the application server in domain 2. 5. The application server responds. 6. The BIG-IP system passes the response to the client.
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Introducing multiple authentication server configuration Meeting prerequisites Configuring BIG-IP system objects
Introducing multiple authentication server configuration

One of the features of the BIG-IP system is its ability to authenticate local administrative traffic when user accounts are stored on a remote LDAP, RADIUS, or TACACS+ server. In fact, the BIG-IP system allows you to configure the use of not just one, but two remote servers for authenticating local administrative traffic. For most customers, this ability to configure one or two remote authentication servers is more than sufficient. However, there are two potential issues: Some customers need more than two remote servers for local authentication. During authentication, the BIG-IP system queries the servers in a certain order (server 1, then server 2) even when one or more servers are unavailable. This can lead to a TCP timeout occurring on every incoming connection, resulting in performance degradation. To solve these problems, you can create virtual authentication servers. A virtual authentication server is a virtual server that you configure to act as an additional remote LDAP, RADIUS, or TACACS+ server. You can configure as many virtual authentication servers as you need. In general, to implement a multiple authentication server configuration, you must complete several tasks: First, you create a health monitor to monitor the server nodes and mark them as up or down. You then create a server object (for RADIUS servers only) and an authentication configuration object. Next, you create a load-balancing pool, where multiple authentication servers are members of that pool and are monitored with the monitor you previously created. For those server nodes marked as down, the BIG-IP system refrains from querying them during authentication. Finally, you create a virtual authentication server, associate it with the pool of servers, and configure your applications to target that virtual server.
Note
As an alternative to associating the pool with the virtual server, you can associate the pool with each proxy or authentication source directly. The remainder of this chapter describes how to successfully create a multiple authentication server configuration. For example purposes only, the information is written for RADIUS servers, but it applies to LDAP or TACACS+ servers also, except for some minor differences: If your servers are LDAP or TACACS+ servers, any information about RADIUS secrets does not apply. Also, you should replace any mention of a RADIUS
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configuration object with an LDAP or TACACS+ configuration object. Finally, you can ignore any information that pertains to a RADIUS server object.
Meeting prerequisites
Before continuing, you must ensure that the following requirements are met: The RADIUS secret must be the same for all RADIUS servers. The address of the virtual server that you create to reference the RADIUS pool cannot be a loopback address. The virtual server that references the RADIUS pool must be in the same VLAN as the RADIUS servers. For example, if the RADIUS server addresses are 10.1.1.10 and 10.1.1.11 and reside in the VLAN internal, then you must associate the RADIUS pool with a virtual server that is routable to those addresses (such as 10.1.1.99). This causes the source address of the RADIUS traffic to be the self IP address of VLAN internal, rather than the virtual server address.
Configuring BIG-IP system objects

To create a multiple RADIUS server configuration, you need to configure a few local-traffic objects. Table 27.1 shows these objects, as well as the Configuration utility screens you use to create these objects. Note that the screens are all available in the Configuration utility from the Main tab, under Local Traffic. For additional information on using these screens, see the online help.
Configuration utility screen Monitors Profiles Profiles
Object RADIUS health monitor A RADIUS server object A Radius configuration object that references the RADIUS server object A load-balancing pool that references the RADIUS health monitor A virtual server that references the load-balancing pool
Pools
Virtual Servers
Table 27.1 Required Configuration utility screens
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Figure 27.1 shows relevant sample entries in the bigip.conf file.

monitor my_radius_monitor { defaults from radius password "jdoe" secret "testing123" username "jdoe" } radius server system_auth_name1 { host "10.1.1.99" service 1645 secret "testing123" } auth radius system-auth { server system_auth_name1 } pool radius_pool { monitor all my_radius_monitor member 10.1.1.10:1812 member 10.1.1.12:1645 } virtual radius_virtual_server { destination 10.1.1.99:1645 ip protocol udp pool radius_pool
Figure 27.1 Example of relevant entries in the bigip.conf file As seen in Figure 27.1, you configure these BIG-IP system objects: A RADIUS monitor named my_radius_monitor. A RADIUS server object named system_auth_name1 with IP address and port 10.1.1.99:1645. A RADIUS configuration object named system-auto that references the RADIUS server object. A pool named radius_pool that references the RADIUS monitor and contains two pool members (10.1.1.10:1812 and 10.1.1.12:1645). Note that port 1812 is the registered port number for the RADIUS service. A virtual authentication server named radius_virtual_server that references the pool radius_pool and uses the same IP address and port as the RADIUS server object. Note that this virtual server is defined on the same VLAN as the RADIUS servers in the pool. Once you have added entries to the bigip.conf file that are similar to those in the above example, you can use the virtual server as a virtual remote authentication server.
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Introducing paired tunneling Configuring the client-side system Configuring the server-side system Viewing data compression statistics
Introducing paired tunneling

When you have two BIG-IP systems that are separated by a wide area network (WAN), you can optimize the data transfer between the two systems. You accomplish this by creating a special optimization pathway, or tunnel, between the two systems. When either system sends data to the other using this tunnel, the data is compressed in a way that optimizes compression quality and speed. You can also configure the two systems to encrypt and decrypt the traffic that passes through the tunnel, to ensure a secure connection for the traffic when it crosses the WAN. To implement these optimizations, you can set up a BIG-IP system configuration known as paired tunneling.
What is paired tunneling?

In a paired tunneling configuration, two BIG-IP systems running Local Traffic Manager are located on either side of a wide area network (WAN) and have established a tunnel between them, for the purpose of optimizing data transfer across the WAN. Figure 28.1 shows this configuration.
Figure 28.1 Sample paired tunneling configuration
The client-side system is the system closest to the client node that initiates a request over the WAN for data that resides on a server node. The server-side system is the system closest to the server node that services the request. You can configure paired tunneling using either the Configuration utility or the bigpipe utility.
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About data compression

In a paired tunneling configuration, the BIG-IP systems compress data and headers pertaining to any TCP-related protocol, such as FTP, Telnet, HTTP, and so on. A paired tunneling configuration can also compress dynamically-generated data. The method of compression that the BIG-IP systems actually use depends on some combination of user configuration and performance optimization. The compression methods available for the BIG-IP systems in a paired tunneling configuration are:
deflate This is a higher-quality compression algorithm that is typically slower than the lzo algorithm, unless the system is also using hardware acceleration. The deflate algorithm is ideal for achieving better compression through slower links (for example, a T1 or DS3 link). lzo This is a fast, medium-quality compression algorithm with low latency. The Lempel-Ziv-Oberhumer (lzo) algorithm is ideal for interactive protocols (such as Telnet) or high-bandwidth protocols that compress easily (such as data replication). adaptive This is a compression method that chooses the best algorithm (deflate, lzo, or off) as traffic conditions change. The adaptive method is both the recommended and the default compression method. off When the compression method is set to off, no compression occurs for traffic passing between the two BIG-IP systems. This option is ideal for protocols that cannot be compressed, such as streaming media (already compressed), or encrypted protocols.
The compression methods that you configure on the two BIG-IP systems must match, unless one of them is set to adaptive compression. For example: If you configure one system to use the deflate method and the other to use the lzo method, any connections currently passing through the tunnel are reset, and no further traffic is allowed. If you configure one system to use deflate and the other to use adaptive compression, the data is compressed using the deflate method. If you configure both systems to use the adaptive method (the default setting), the systems uses either deflate, lzo, or off, depending on traffic conditions. This is the recommended configuration.
WARNING
You should ensure that the data that a BIG-IP system sends through the iSession tunnel is not already compressed or encrypted through some other mechanism. Data targeted for the tunnel that has been already optimized cannot be optimized any further and could produce adverse effects.
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Before you begin

Before creating a paired tunneling configuration, you should consider the following details: All local traffic management objects that you create, such as pools, profiles, and virtual servers, are created in the current administrative partition. Therefore, you should ensure that the current administrative partition on each system is set appropriately. You must have a user role assigned to your user account that allows you to create pools, profiles, and virtual servers. Paired tunneling configurations fully support route domains. That is, any virtual servers and pool members that you create as part of a paired tunneling configuration can reside in a non-default route domain. For more information on these topics, see the TMOSTM Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems.
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Configuring the client-side system

The configuration procedure for the client-side BIG-IP system requires you to perform the following tasks, in the order shown: Create an endpoint pool with one member, whose IP address is the same address that you intend to assign to the virtual server on the server-side BIG-IP system. (For information on creating the virtual server on the server-side system, see Configuring the server-side system, on page 28-9.) Create a custom iSession profile that references the endpoint pool. Create a virtual server to process traffic, and assign the iSession profile and an SSL profile to it. The following subsections describe in detail how to perform these tasks using the Configuration utility.
Creating a client-side endpoint pool

The first task in configuring the client-side system is to create an endpoint pool on the client-side system (for example, clientside_endpoint_pool). This pool acts as an endpoint of the tunnel between the two systems. The pool has one pool member, which is the server-side virtual server (IP address and service).
To create the endpoint pool on the client-side system

1. On the Main tab of the navigation menu, expand Local Traffic, and click Pools. This displays the list of pools on the system. 2. In the upper-right corner, click Create. The New Pool screen displays. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, you do not have permission to create a pool. You must have the appropriate user role assigned to your user account. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the pool, such as clientside_endpoint_pool. 4. For the New Members setting: a) Click New Address. b) In the Address box, type the virtual address assigned to the virtual server on the server-side BIG-IP system. c) In the Service Port box, specify a service.
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d) Click Add. This adds the specified IP address and service to the pool as a pool member. 5. Click Finished.
Creating the client-side iSession profile

The next task is to create a custom iSession profile on the client-side system. The iSession profile specifies the type of compression that you want the BIG-IP system to use, and specifies the endpoint pool that you created in the previous section.
To create a custom client-side iSession profile

1. On the Main tab of the navigation menu, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. This displays the list of HTTP profiles on the system. 2. From the Services menu, choose iSession. 3. In the upper-right corner, click Create. The New iSession Profile screen displays. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, you do not have permission to create a profile. You must have the appropriate user role assigned to your user account. 4. In the Name box, type a name for the profile, such as clientside_isession_profile. 5. Verify that the Mode setting is set to Enabled. 6. From the Compression list, select the compression algorithm that you want the system to use. Note: The compression algorithm you select must match the type you select on the server-side system, unless one of the systems is set to adaptive. The default value is adaptive. 7. Verify that the Port Transparency and Reuse Connection settings are set to Enabled. 8. Verify that the Target Virtual setting is set to None. 9. From the Endpoint Pool list, select the endpoint pool that you created earlier on the server-side system. In our example, this pool name is clientside_endpoint_pool. 10. Click Finished.
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Creating the client-side virtual server

The final task in setting up the client-side BIG-IP system is to create a virtual server. The purpose of this virtual server is to capture client traffic that is destined for a specific server node or subnet that resides on the other side of the wide-area network (WAN). The virtual server then forwards that traffic through the iSession tunnel for optimization. Figure 28.2 shows a sample client-side virtual address configuration, based on the destination IP address of the packet.
Figure 28.2 Sample client-side virtual address configuration
If the virtual address you specify is an address representing a subnet, the BIG-IP systems in the paired tunneling configuration optimize traffic for the entire subnet on which the destination server resides. When you create the virtual server, you configure it to reference these profiles:
The default TCP optimization profiles By configuring the virtual server to reference two default TCP optimization profiles, you ensure optimal system performance when processing both local and wide-area TCP traffic. The default Server SSL profile The BIG-IP system provides a default profile named serverssl, which enables server-side SSL processing. The serverssl profile ensures that traffic sent from the client-side BIG-IP system to the server-side BIG-IP system is encrypted. The custom iSession profile This profile, which you created in the previous step, specifies the endpoint pool that you previously created, which in turn references the server-side virtual server address.
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Note
As an option, you can use the RAM Cache feature. The result is that the client-side BIG-IP system can process some client requests without needing to connect to a backend server on the other side of the WAN.
To create a client-side virtual server

1. On the Main tab of the navigation menu, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. This displays the list of virtual servers on the system. 2. In the upper-right corner, click Create. The New Virtual Server screen displays. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, you do not have permission to create a virtual server. You must have the appropriate user role assigned to your user account. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the virtual server, such as clientside_virtual_server. 4. For the Destination setting: a) Click Host or Network, depending on whether the address you specify represents a specific server node or a subnet, respectively. b) In the Address box, type a destination IP address This address should be either the destination IP address of the specific server node to which the client node is sending the request, or an address that matches the subnet on which the server node resides. c) If you clicked Network in step 4.a., then in the Mask box, type the subnet mask. 5. From the Service Port list, select a service, such as HTTP or *All Ports. This causes the virtual server to listen for traffic on the specified port or ports. If you select a specific service port (such as HTTP), the virtual server ignores all other traffic types. 6. From the Configuration list, select Advanced. 7. Verify that the Type value is Standard. 8. From the Protocol Profile (Client) list, select tcp-lan-optimized. 9. From the Protocol Profile (Server) list, select tcp-wan-optimized. 10. From the SSL Profile (Client) list, retain the default value of None. 11. From the SSL Profile (Server) list, select serverssl. This causes the BIG-IP system to initiate an SSL connection to send the traffic through the tunnel. 12. From the VLAN Traffic list, select All VLANS.
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13. For the iSession Profile setting: a) From the list on the left, select the name of the custom iSession profile you created previously on this system. In our example, this is clientside_isession_profile. b) From the Context list, select Server. Selecting Server specifies that the local endpoint of the tunnel is located on the server-side of the virtual server you are creating. 14. Click Finished.
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Configuring the server-side system

To configure the server-side BIG-IP system for paired tunneling, you simply need to create a virtual server. The purpose of this virtual server is strictly to forward traffic to the local-area network (LAN) behind the server-side BIG-IP system, rather than to load balance connections to a pool of servers. The IP address that you assign to the virtual server can be any address to which the client-side virtual server can route. In a typical configuration, this address resides on the same subnet as the actual destination server node. Note that the address you assign to this server-side virtual server is also specified as the single member of the endpoint pool that you configured on the client-side BIG-IP system. Figure 28.3 shows a sample server-side virtual address configuration, based on the client-side virtual address configuration.
Figure 28.3 Sample server-side virtual server configuration
The virtual server on the server-side system references these profiles:
The default TCP optimization profiles By configuring the virtual server to reference two default TCP optimization profiles, you ensure optimal system performance when processing both local and wide-area TCP traffic. The default Client SSL profile The BIG-IP system provides a default profile named clientssl, which enables client-side SSL processing. The clientssl profile ensures that traffic sent from the client-side BIG-IP system to the server-side BIG-IP system is authenticated and decrypted. The default iSession profile Assigning this profile to the virtual server implements the server-side endpoint for the paired tunneling configuration.
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Note
For the server-side BIG-IP system, you do not need to create an endpoint pool or a custom iSession profile.
Creating the server-side virtual server

You can use the following procedure to create the server-side virtual server.
To create a server-side virtual server

1. On the Main tab of the navigation menu, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. This displays the list of virtual servers on the system. 2. In the upper-right corner, click Create. The New Virtual Server screen displays. Note: If the Create button is unavailable, you do not have permission to create a virtual server. You must have the appropriate user role assigned to your user account. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the virtual server, such as serverside_forwarding_virtual_server. 4. For the Destination setting: a) Click Host. b) In the Address box, type an IP address. Important: This IP address should match the pool member address you specified when creating the endpoint pool on the client-side BIG-IP system. 5. From the Service Port list, select *All Ports. For more information, see Specifying service ports, on page 28-11. 6. From the Configuration list, select Advanced. 7. Verify that the Type value is Standard. 8. From the Protocol Profile (Client) list, select tcp-wan-optimized. This setting is optional. 9. From the Protocol Profile (Server) list, select tcp-lan-optimized. 10. From the SSL Profile (Client) list, select clientssl. This causes the BIG-IP system to terminate the SSL connection for traffic coming from the tunnel. 11. Verify that the SSL Profile (Server) setting is set to None. 12. From the VLAN Traffic list, select All VLANS.
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13. For the iSession Profile setting: a) From the list on the left, select isession. b) From the Context list, select Client. Selecting Client specifies that the local endpoint of the tunnel is located on the client-side of the virtual server you are creating. 14. Click Finished.
Specifying service ports

When you configure the server-side virtual server, F5 recommends that you set the Service Port setting to *All Ports. In this case, the actual service ports on which the server-side virtual server listens vary, depending on how you have configured port transparency on the client-side BIG-IP system. Port transparency is a feature that you configure within the client-side iSession profile. Table 28.1 shows how the Port Transparency setting on the client-side system affects server-side virtual server behavior.
If client-side port transparency is set to... Enabled (the default setting) Then the server-side virtual server listens on... The same service port that is configured on the client-side virtual server. For example...
If the client-side service port is set to HTTP, then the server-side virtual server listens on port 80. If the client-side service port is set to HTTP, then the server-side virtual server listens on port 3701.
Disabled
iSession port 3701.
Table 28.1 Effect of the client-side Port Transparency setting on server-side virtual server
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Viewing data compression statistics

Once you have created a paired tunneling configuration, and the two BIG-IP systems are processing traffic across the WAN, you can view data compression statistics on the client-side system.
To view data compression statistics

To view these statistics, you can use the bigpipe utility on the client-side system, as follows:
bp> profile isession isession show
The statistics show both raw and optimized statistics.
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Overview of the configuration tasks Completing basic configuration tasks on the Local Traffic Manager Performing initial configuration tasks on the Local Traffic Manager Creating an application profile for the WebAccelerator system Assigning the WebAccelerator application profile to the security policy in Application Security Manager Running the Application Security Manager Deployment Wizard
Overview of the configuration tasks

This implementation describes the tasks that configure the BIG-IP Application Security Manager and the BIG-IP WebAccelerator system to run on the same virtual server. For this implementation, you must perform the following tasks before the system can secure connectivity and accelerate HTTP traffic to your applications.
Complete basic configuration on the BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager Before you can begin this implementation, you must complete the basic configuration requirements on the BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager. See Completing basic configuration tasks on the Local Traffic Manager, on page 29-2, for more information. Perform initial configuration tasks on the BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager To prepare the BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager to run the Application Security Manager and the WebAccelerator system on the same virtual server, there are initial configuration tasks you must complete. See Performing initial configuration tasks on the Local Traffic Manager, on page 29-3, for more information. Create an application profile for the WebAccelerator system An application profile provides all of the basic information required for the WebAccelerator system to begin expediting traffic to your applications. See Creating an application profile for the WebAccelerator system, on page 29-7, for more information. Run the Application Security Manager Deployment Wizard The Deployment Wizard automates the fundamental tasks required to initially build and deploy a security policy for your applications. See Running the Application Security Manager Deployment Wizard, on page 29-13, for more information.
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Completing basic configuration tasks on the Local Traffic Manager

Before you can begin the processes required to run the Application Security Manager and the WebAccelerator system on the same virtual server, you must have already completed some basic configuration tasks on the BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager. The following tasks must be completed:
Licensing and provisioning for the Application Security Manager and the WebAccelerator system For more information, see the BIG-IP Systems: Getting Started Guide. Configuring virtual server settings For more information, see the Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Local Traffic Management. Configuring name resolution (DNS or entries to the host file) For more information, see the TMOS Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems.
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Performing initial configuration tasks on the Local Traffic Manager

Once you have performed the basic configuration tasks on the BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager, you can complete the initial configuration tasks required to prepare the BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager to run both the Application Security Manager and the WebAccelerator system on the same virtual server. The following list describes the initial configuration for the Local Traffic Manager:
Creating an HTTP class profile for the Application Security Manager and the WebAccelerator system The HTTP class profile uses the HTTP header, cookie, host, and path, and other HTTP properties, to specify the HTTP traffic to which the system applies security and acceleration. See Creating the HTTP class profile, following, for more information. Defining a virtual server and pool The virtual server load balances traffic to one or more pools that are hosting the web application. A pool is made up of members, which are the servers that host the web application resources that you want to protect with the Application Security Manager, and whose traffic you want to expedite with the WebAccelerator system. See Defining a virtual server and pool on the BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager, on page 29-4, for more information. Configuring a Network Time Protocol (NTP) server To properly maintain its cache and synchronize configurations, the system requires that the time on the application servers and the time on the BIG-IP system be the same. See Defining an NTP server, on page 29-6, for more information.
Creating the HTTP class profile

The first task required to prepare the BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager to run the Application Security Manager and the WebAccelerator system, is to create an HTTP class profile. An HTTP class profile uses the HTTP header, cookie, host, and path, and other HTTP properties, to specify the HTTP traffic to which the system applies security and acceleration. For this implementation, you create one HTTP class profile that enables both the Application Security Manager and the WebAccelerator system.
Important
When you enable application security for an HTTP class profile, the system automatically creates a web application configuration and default security policy for Application Security Manager.
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To create an HTTP class profile

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Application Security, and click Classes. The HTTP Class screen opens. 2. Click the Create button. The New HTTP Class Profile screen opens. 3. In the Name box, type a unique name for the HTTP class profile. 4. From the Parent Profile list, select httpclass. 5. In the Configuration area, check the Custom box (on the right) to activate the WebAccelerator setting, and then select Enabled from the list. 6. Verify that the Application Security setting is also enabled. 7. Click the Finished button. The system adds the new HTTP class profile, and displays the HTTP Class Profiles screen.
An important consideration when configuring HTTP class profiles

In the Configuration utility, you can create HTTP class profiles from more than one section of the navigation pane. When you create an HTTP class profile from the Local Traffic section, by default both the WebAccelerator setting and the Application Security setting are disabled. In this case, you must explicitly enable both of these settings if you want the HTTP class to accelerate and secure your traffic. When you create an HTTP class profile from either the Application Security section or the WebAccelerator section of the Configuration utility, then in the HTTP class profile configuration, the respective setting is enabled by default. In this case, you must explicitly enable only one of the corresponding settings.
Defining a virtual server and pool on the BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager
The second task you need to perform is to define a virtual server and pool. As part of the definition, you associate the HTTP class profile that you created in the previous procedure with the virtual server. The virtual server then processes and routes incoming traffic according to the settings that you configure in the associated HTTP class profile. The pool hosts the web application content that clients are accessing.
Note
The following procedure outlines only the basic virtual server and pool configuration. For detailed information about virtual servers, pools, and the other local traffic components, see the Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Local Traffic Management.
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To configure a virtual server and pool

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Servers list screen displays. 2. Click the Create button. The New Virtual Server screen displays. 3. In the General Properties area, for the Name setting, type a unique name for the virtual server. 4. For the Destination setting, click the Host button, and type an IP address in the Address box. 5. For the Service Port setting, type the appropriate service port for your application. For example, for HTTP, the port is 80. Alternatively, you can select a service type from the list. 6. From the State list, select Enabled. 7. Above the Configuration area, select Advanced. The screen refreshes to display the additional configuration options. 8. In the Configuration area, from the HTTP Profile list, select http-acceleration. Important: We strongly recommend that you leave RAM Cache enabled for the http-acceleration service profile, and that you do not make any modifications to the RAM Cache default settings for Minimum Object Size, Maximum Object Size, URI Caching, and Ignore Headers. Doing so will adversely affect the way the BIG-IP WebAccelerator system manages HTTP traffic for your site. 9. For the Port Translation setting, ensure that the setting is enabled (checked). Important: If the Port Translation setting is disabled for the virtual server, the WebAccelerator system cannot properly accelerate traffic. 10. For the SNAT Pool setting, select Auto Map. 11. In the Resources area, for the HTTP Class Profiles setting, in the Available list, select the Application Security Manager/WebAccelerator-enabled HTTP class profile that you created, and click the Move button (<<) to add the profile to the Enabled list. 12. Next to the Default Pool setting, click the Add (+) button. The New Pool screen opens. 13. In the Configuration area, for the Name setting, type a unique name for the pool. 14. For the Health Monitors setting, from the Available list, select a health monitor or monitors, and click the Move button (<<) to add the monitor to the Active list.
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15. In the Resources area, from the Load Balancing Method list, select a load balancing option. 16. Leave the Priority Group Activation setting at the default, Disabled. 17. For the New Members setting, select New Address, and in the Address and Service Port boxes, type the address and port for the pool members. Alternately, you can select Node List, and select nodes to add to the New Members list. 18. Click the Add button. 19. Click Finished. The screen refreshes, and returns to the New Virtual Server screen, where you see the new pool in the Default Pool list. 20. Click Finished again. The system updates the configuration, and displays the Virtual Server list screen, where you can see the virtual server that you created.
Defining an NTP server

Next, you need to define a Network Time Protocol (NTP) server. NTP is a protocol that synchronizes the clocks on your network with a defined NTP server. This synchronization ensures that the Local Traffic Manager properly maintains its cache, and synchronizes configuration changes for optional symmetric deployments in the WebAccelerator system.
To define an NTP server

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand System, and then click Configuration. The General screen displays. 2. From the Device menu, choose NTP. The NTP screen displays. 3. For the Time Server List setting, in the Address box, type either the IP address or the fully-qualified domain name for an NTP server. 4. Click the Add button to add the server to the list. 5. Click Update to save the changes.
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Creating an application profile for the WebAccelerator system

Once you have completed the first series of tasks that set up the local area network, you create an application profile for the WebAccelerator system. The application profile provides the key information that the WebAccelerator system needs to appropriately handle requests to your sites web applications. Creating an application profile consists of the following tasks: Selecting an acceleration policy to manage traffic to your application Planning and defining your host map Verifying your application profile
Selecting an acceleration policy

To begin the process of creating an application profile, you must first decide which acceleration policy you want to associate with your application. One option is to select a pre-defined acceleration policy that is associated with your specific application publisher. If you do not want to use an acceleration policy that is specific to a certain application publisher, you may use one of the two pre-defined general delivery acceleration policies. Both work well for most sites that use Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) applications. Level 1 Delivery This pre-defined acceleration policy is compliant with HTML version 2.0. For this acceleration policy, the WebAccelerator system: Sends all requests for HTML pages to the origin web server for content. Ignores any no-cache directives included in HTTP Cache-Control request header, and uses the cache response directives that it receives from the origin web server. Level 2 Delivery This pre-defined acceleration policy is compliant with HTML version 3.0 and later. For this acceleration policy, the WebAccelerator system: Caches HTML pages and assigns a lifetime setting of 0, which prompts the WebAccelerator system to provide fresh content by making subsequent requests for that content, using a conditional GET. Uses the Intelligent Browser Referencing feature only for documents and includes. Ignores any no-cache directives included in HTTP Cache-Control request header, and uses the cache response directives that it receives from the origin web server.
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In addition to these application-specific and general delivery acceleration policies, the WebAccelerator system also provides a deployment-specific acceleration policy, called Symmetric Deployment. You can select this option if you are configuring an optional symmetric deployment. For more information about this option, see the Configuration Guide for the BIG-IP WebAccelerator System. If, however, you have a unique application for which you cannot use a pre-defined acceleration policy, you can customize the WebAccelerator systems behavior by creating a user-defined acceleration policy. In most cases, you do this by copying a pre-defined acceleration and modifying it as required. You also have the option of importing a signed acceleration policy that is created, certified, and encrypted by its author, such as a consultant or vendor. For information about acceleration policy features, and instructions about how to create user-defined acceleration policies or import signed acceleration policies, see the Policy Management Guide for the BIG-IP WebAccelerator System.
Tip
You can change the selected acceleration policy at any time after you create the application profile.
Planning your host map

When the WebAccelerator system receives an HTTP request, it compares the host on the request to those in its host map to determine which application profile to apply. Once it matches to an application profile, it can use the associated acceleration policy to handle the request. When you create a host map, you identify the domain as it appears on the HTTP Host request header. These domains are called requested hosts. When you specify the host name for the requested host in a host map, you can use a wildcard, an asterisk (*) followed by a period, for the first character in the domain. This wildcard can represent one or more subdomains, enabling you to map several subdomains to one origin web server in one step. Using a wildcard saves time if your site has several subdomains.
Note
The WebAccelerator system is also capable of managing requests for unmapped domains, which are called unmapped requests. For more information, see the Configuration Guide for the BIG-IP WebAccelerator System.
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Following are examples of valid requested host names that use wildcards.
*.sales.siterequest.com maps to the following (all to the same destination host): direct.sales.siterequest.com marketing.sales.siterequest.com marcom.marketing.sales.siterequest.com
*siterequest.com maps to the following (all to the same destination host): www.siterequest.com engineering.siterequest.com direct.sales.siterequest.com marketing.sales.siterequest.com marcom.marketing.sales.siterequest.com
*.com maps all incoming requests that end in .com to one destination host. * maps all incoming requests to one destination host.
If the WebAccelerator system can map multiple requested host names to a request, it chooses the host name that most closely matches the request. Consider the following defined host names: a.com www.a.com *.b.a.com *.a.com If the WebAccelerator system receives requests that contain these URLs, it maps to the requested hosts as follows: A request to www.a.com maps to www.a.com, and does not map to *.a.com. A request to a.com maps to a.com. Requests to c.a.com and b.a.com both map to *.a.com. A request to c.b.a.com maps to *.b.a.com.
To create an application profile

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand WebAccelerator and click Applications. The Applications screen displays in a new window. 2. Click the Create button. The New Application screen opens. 3. In the Application Name box, type a name for the application.
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4. In the Description box, type an optional description. 5. From the Central Policy list, select the acceleration policy that you want the WebAccelerator system to use when requesting information from the associated application. If you have configured an optional symmetric deployment, we recommend that you select the Symmetric Deployment pre-defined acceleration policy, because it is specifically designed to manage content assembly in a symmetric deployment. For more information, see the Configuration Guide for the BIG-IP WebAccelerator System. 6. If you have a symmetric deployment, from the Remote Policy list, select an acceleration policy for the remote WebAccelerator system. We recommend that you select Symmetric Deployment. If you do not have a symmetric deployment, do not select a remote policy. 7. In the Hosts section at the bottom of the screen, click the Add Host button. 8. In the Requested Host box, type a valid host name for each client host that you want to allow access to the application. 9. Click the Save button.
Verifying the application profile

After you create an application profile, you must verify that the WebAccelerator system is able to properly send data to and receive data from the origin web servers.
To verify the application profile

1. On a machine separate from the WebAccelerator system, and from which you can run a web browser, open the hosts file and add the host name that you used to access the web site application. The host name must point to the IP address for the virtual server that you configured. Note: On Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP machines, the hosts file is located at C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts For example, if you can access the web site at the www.siterequest.com domain, and the virtual server is at IP address 11.1.11.3, add the following line to the hosts file on the machine running the browser:
11.1.11.3 www.siterequest.com
All network traffic from the web browser machine for www.siterequest.com subsequently goes to the virtual server. 2. From the web browser machine, request a page from www.siterequest.com.
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You should see the page that you would have received if your browser had accessed the origin web servers directly. If the browser times out the request, it means that either the WebAccelerator system is not running, or the firewall is blocking access to port 80 on the WebAccelerator system. 3. If you receive an Access denied by intermediary. Domain not recognized. error, perform the following tasks: Verify that the hosts file is correct. Verify that the host map for the application profile is correct. Verify that you used a domain in the request that matches a requested host in the host map, and that it maps to the destination host. 4. After you confirm the host mapping, remove any entries that you changed or added.
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Assigning the WebAccelerator application profile to the security policy in Application Security Manager
Before you run the Deployment Wizard for the Application Security Manager, you must assign the WebAccelerator application profile to the security policy. If you have more than one application profile configured, you can change the assignment on the Policy Properties screen in the Application Security Manager.
To assign the WebAccelerator application profile to the security policy

1. On the Main tab of the Application Security navigation pane, click Policies List. The Security Policies screen opens. 2. In the editing context area, ensure that the edited web application and security policy are those that you want to update. 3. In the Security Policies area, in the Security Policy Name column, click the name of the security policy that you want to edit. The Security Policy Properties screen opens. 4. Above the Configuration area, select Advanced. The screen refreshes, and displays additional configuration options. 5. For the WebAccelerator Cache Clear Settings option, from the Available WA Applications list, select the WebAccelerator application profile that you created, and click the Move button (<<) to add the profile to the Assigned WA Applications list. 6. Click the Save button.
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Running the Application Security Manager Deployment Wizard

Once you have configured the WebAccelerator systems application profile, you can create the Application Security Managers security policy. The most efficient way to build a security policy for a new web application is to use the Deployment Wizard. The Deployment Wizard automates the fundamental tasks required to initially build and deploy a security policy. The Deployment Wizard uses several deployment scenarios, which represent several typical environments that use application security, to guide you through the configuration process. The deployment scenarios include: A web application in a production environment A web application in a test environment A web services application A system-supplied application-ready security policy.
To start the Deployment Wizard

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Application Security and click Web Applications. The Web Applications screen opens. 2. Click the Set Language link for the new web application. The Select Deployment Scenario screen opens. 3. In the Select Deployment Scenario area, select a deployment scenario. For more information about deployment scenarios, see the BIG-IP Application Security Manager: Getting Started Guide guide, which is available on the Ask F5SM web site, https://support.f5.com. 4. Click the Run Deployment Wizard button. The Application Security Manager Deployment Wizard starts.
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Overview of the configuration tasks Completing basic configuration tasks on the Local Traffic Manager Performing initial configuration tasks on the Local Traffic Manager Creating an application profile for the WebAccelerator system Creating an HTTP security profile in the Protocol Security Module configuration
Overview of the configuration tasks

This implementation describes the tasks that configure the BIG-IP Protocol Security Module and the BIG-IP WebAccelerator system to run on the same virtual server. For this implementation, you must perform the following tasks before the system can secure connectivity and accelerate HTTP traffic to your applications.
Complete basic configuration on the BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager. Before you can begin this implementation, you must complete the basic configuration requirements on the BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager. See Completing basic configuration tasks on the Local Traffic Manager, on page 30-2, for more information. Perform initial configuration tasks on the BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager. To prepare the BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager to run the Protocol Security Module and the WebAccelerator system on the same virtual server, there are initial configuration tasks you must complete. See Performing initial configuration tasks on the Local Traffic Manager, on page 30-3, for more information. Create an application profile for the WebAccelerator system. An application profile provides all of the basic information required for the WebAccelerator system to begin expediting traffic to your applications. See Creating an application profile for the WebAccelerator system, on page 30-7, for more information. Create an HTTP security profile in the Protocol Security Module configuration. The final task is to create a custom HTTP security profile in the Protocol Security Module configuration, and associate the WebAccelerator application profile with it. See Creating an HTTP security profile in the Protocol Security Module configuration, on page 30-12, for more information.
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Completing basic configuration tasks on the Local Traffic Manager

Before you can begin the configuration tasks to set up and run the Protocol Security Module and the WebAccelerator system on the same virtual server, you must perform basic configuration tasks on the BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager. Ensure that the following tasks have been completed:
License and provision the Protocol Security Module and the WebAccelerator system. When you add new modules to a BIG-IP system, you activate add-on license keys, and also provision the system for the new software. Provisioning reallocates system resources, such as disk storage and memory. For more information, see the BIG-IP Systems: Getting Started Guide. Configure at least one DNS server. You configure a DNS server to enable name resolution for your virtual servers and applications. For more information, see the TMOS Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems. Configure at least one NTP server. The WebAccelerator system relies on the NTP protocol to keep system clocks synchronized. This synchronization ensures that the system properly maintains its cache, and synchronizes configuration changes for optional symmetric deployments. For more information, see the TMOS Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems.
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Performing initial configuration tasks on the Local Traffic Manager

Once you have performed the basic configuration tasks on the BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager, you complete the initial configuration tasks required to prepare the BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager to run both the Protocol Security Module and the WebAccelerator system on the same virtual server. The virtual server load balances pools that host the web application for which the Protocol Security Module is checking security and the WebAccelerator system is expediting traffic. The virtual server is also the bridge that connects the Protocol Security Module and WebAccelerator, by using their respective profiles. For this implementation, perform the following tasks to configure the Local Traffic Manager:
Create a WebAccelerator HTTP class profile. The first step in configuring the Protocol Security Module and WebAccelerator is to create the WebAccelerator class profile. See Creating the WebAccelerator HTTP class profile, on page 30-4, for more information. Create an HTTP service profile After you create the WebAccelerator profile, you create a custom HTTP service profile. This profile enables the protocol security checking that is performed on incoming HTTP traffic. See Creating an HTTP service profile, on page 30-4, for more information. Create a virtual server and pool. In this step, you configure the virtual server, including assigning the HTTP class profile and the HTTP service profile to the virtual server, and define one or more pools. See Creating a virtual server and pool on the BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager, on page 30-5, for more information.
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Creating the WebAccelerator HTTP class profile

The first task required to prepare the BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager to run the Protocol Security Module and the WebAccelerator system together is to create the WebAccelerator HTTP class profile.
To create the WebAccelerator HTTP class profile

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand WebAccelerator, and then click Class Profiles. The HTTP Class screen opens. 2. Click the Create button. The New HTTP Class Profile screen opens. 3. In the General Properties area, for the Name setting, type a unique name for the HTTP class profile. 4. From the Parent Profile list, select httpclass. 5. In the Configuration area, verify that the WebAccelerator setting is enabled. 6. Click the Finished button. The system adds the new HTTP class profile, and displays the HTTP Class Profiles screen.
Creating an HTTP service profile

The second task that you perform is to create an HTTP service profile. The HTTP service profile (in the Local Traffic configuration) uses the HTTP security profile (in the Protocol Security Module configuration) to scan for vulnerabilities specific to the protocol. For more information about security profiles, see Creating an HTTP security profile in the Protocol Security Module configuration, on page 30-12.
To create an HTTP service profile

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Profiles. The Profiles:Services:HTTP screen opens. 2. Click the Create button. The New HTTP Profile screen opens. 3. In the General Properties area, for the Name setting, type a unique name for the profile. 4. For the Parent Profile setting, select the existing HTTP protocol from which you want the new profile to inherit settings. The default setting is http. 5. Above the Settings area, check the Custom check box. The system activates the editing mode for the individual settings.
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6. Check the Protocol Security check box to enable HTTP security checks. 7. Modify any other settings on the screen as required by your configuration. 8. Click Finished. The screen refreshes and displays the new HTTP service profile in the list.
Note
For more information about HTTP service profiles in general, see the Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Local Traffic Management.
Creating a virtual server and pool on the BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager
The next configuration task is to create a virtual server and pool on the local area network. The virtual server processes the incoming traffic, which includes applying the protocol security checks and the acceleration policy. The pool hosts the web application content that clients are accessing.
Note
The following procedure outlines only the basic virtual server configuration. For detailed information on virtual servers, including SSL virtual servers, and other local traffic components, see the Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Local Traffic Management.
To create a virtual server and pool

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand Local Traffic, and click Virtual Servers. The Virtual Server List screen opens. 2. Click the Create button. The New Virtual Server screen opens. 3. In the Name box, type a name for the virtual server. 4. For the Destination Type setting, click the Host button and type an IP address in the Address box. 5. In the Service Port box, type 80 or select HTTP from the list. 6. From the Configuration list, select Advanced. The screen refreshes to display the advanced configuration options. 7. In the Configuration area, from the HTTP Profile list, select the HTTP service profile that you created. 8. For the SNAT Pool setting, select Auto Map.
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9. In the Resources area, for the HTTP Class Profiles setting, from the Available list, select the HTTP class profile that you created, and click the Move button (<<) to add the class to the Enabled list. 10. Next to the Default Pool list, click the Add (+) button. The New Pool screen opens. 11. In the Name box, type a name for the pool. 12. For Health Monitors, from the Available list, select a health monitor or monitors and click the Move button (<<) to add the monitor to the Active list. 13. In the Resources area, from the Load Balancing Method list, select a load balancing option. 14. Leave the Priority Group Activation setting at the default, Disabled. 15. For the New Members setting, select New Address, and in the Address and Service Port boxes, type the address and port for the pool members. Alternately, you can select Node List, and select nodes to add to the New Members list. 16. Click the Add button. 17. Click Finished. The screen refreshes and opens the New Virtual Server screen, where you see the new pool in the Default Pool list. 18. Click Finished again. The system updates the configuration, displays the Virtual Server list screen, where you can see the virtual server that you created.
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Creating an application profile for the WebAccelerator system

The application profile provides the key information that the WebAccelerator system needs to appropriately handle requests to your sites web applications. Creating an application profile consists of the following tasks: Selecting an acceleration policy to manage traffic to your application Planning and defining your host map Verifying your application profile
Selecting an acceleration policy

To begin the process of creating an application profile, you must first decide which acceleration policy you want to associate with your application. One option is to select a pre-defined acceleration policy that is associated with your specific application publisher. If you do not want to use an acceleration policy that is specific to a certain application publisher, you may use one of the two pre-defined general delivery acceleration policies. Both work well for most sites that use Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) applications. Level 1 Delivery This pre-defined acceleration policy is compliant with HTML version 2.0. For this acceleration policy, the WebAccelerator system: Sends all requests for HTML pages to the origin web server for content. Ignores any no-cache directives included in HTTP Cache-Control request headers, and uses the cache response directives that it receives from the origin web server. Level 2 Delivery This pre-defined acceleration policy is compliant with HTML version 3.0 and later. For this acceleration policy, the WebAccelerator system: Caches HTML pages and assigns a lifetime setting of 0, which prompts the WebAccelerator system to provide fresh content by making subsequent requests for that content, using a conditional GET. Uses the Intelligent Browser Referencing feature only for documents and includes. Ignores any no-cache directives included in HTTP Cache-Control request header, and uses the cache response directives that it receives from the origin web server. In addition to these application-specific and general delivery acceleration policies, the WebAccelerator system also provides a deployment-specific acceleration policy, called Symmetric Deployment. You can select this
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option if you are configuring an optional symmetric deployment. For more information about this option, see the Configuration Guide for the BIG-IP WebAccelerator System. If, however, you have a unique application for which you cannot use a pre-defined acceleration policy, you can customize the WebAccelerator systems behavior by creating a user-defined acceleration policy. In most cases, you do this by copying a pre-defined acceleration policy and modifying it as required. You also have the option of importing a signed acceleration policy that is created, certified, and encrypted by its author, such as a consultant or vendor. For information about acceleration policy features, and instructions about how to create user-defined acceleration policies or import signed acceleration policies, see the Policy Management Guide for the BIG-IP WebAccelerator System.
Tip
You can change the selected acceleration policy at any time after you create the application profile.
Planning your host map

When the WebAccelerator system receives an HTTP request, it compares the host on the request to those in its host map to determine which application profile to apply. Once it matches to an application profile, it can use the associated acceleration policy to handle the request. When you create a host map, you identify the domain as it appears on the HTTP Host request header. These domains are called requested hosts. When you specify the host name for the requested host in a host map, you can use a wildcard, an asterisk (*) followed by a period, for the first character in the domain. This wildcard can represent one or more subdomains, enabling you to map several subdomains to one origin web server in one step. Using a wildcard saves time if your site has several subdomains.
Note
The WebAccelerator system is also capable of managing requests for unmapped domains, which are called unmapped requests. For more information, see the Configuration Guide for the BIG-IP WebAccelerator System.
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Following are examples of valid requested host names that use wildcards.
*.sales.siterequest.com maps to the following (all to the same destination host): direct.sales.siterequest.com marketing.sales.siterequest.com marcom.marketing.sales.siterequest.com
*siterequest.com maps to the following (all to the same destination host): www.siterequest.com engineering.siterequest.com direct.sales.siterequest.com marketing.sales.siterequest.com marcom.marketing.sales.siterequest.com
*.com maps all incoming requests that end in .com to one destination host. * maps all incoming requests to one destination host.
If the WebAccelerator system can map multiple requested host names to a request, it chooses the host name that most closely matches the request. Consider the following defined host names: a.com www.a.com *.b.a.com *.a.com If the WebAccelerator system receives requests that contain these URLs, it maps to the requested hosts as follows: A request to www.a.com maps to www.a.com, and does not map to *.a.com. A request to a.com maps to a.com. Requests to c.a.com and b.a.com both map to *.a.com. A request to c.b.a.com maps to *.b.a.com.
To create an application profile

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand WebAccelerator and click Applications. The Applications screen displays in a new window. 2. Click the Create button. The New Application screen opens. 3. In the Application Name box, type a name for the application.
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4. In the Description box, type an optional description. 5. From the Central Policy list, select the acceleration policy that you want the WebAccelerator system to use when requesting information from the associated application. If you have configured an optional symmetric deployment, we recommend that you select the Symmetric Deployment pre-defined acceleration policy, because it is specifically designed to manage content assembly in a symmetric deployment. For more information, see the Configuration Guide for the BIG-IP WebAccelerator System. 6. If you have a symmetric deployment, from the Remote Policy list, select an acceleration policy for the remote WebAccelerator system. We recommend that you select the Symmetric Deployment pre-defined acceleration policy. If you do not have a symmetric deployment, do not select a remote policy. 7. In the Hosts section at the bottom of the screen, in the Requested Host box, type a valid host name 8. To add additional client hosts that you want to allow access to the application, in the Hosts section at the bottom of the screen, click the Add Host button. The screen refreshes and displays another Requested Host box, where you can type the name of an additional client host. 9. When you finish adding client hosts, click the Save button.
Verifying the application profile

After you create an application profile, you must verify that the WebAccelerator system is able to properly send data to and receive data from the origin web servers.
To verify the application profile

1. On a machine separate from the WebAccelerator system, and from which you can run a web browser, open the hosts file and add the host name that you used to access the web site application. The host name must point to the IP address for the virtual server that you configured. Note: On Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP machines, the path name for the hosts file is: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. For example, if you can access the web site at the www.siterequest.com domain and the virtual server is at IP address 11.1.11.3, add the following line to the hosts file on the machine running the browser:
11.1.11.3 www.siterequest.com
All network traffic from the web browser machine for www.siterequest.com subsequently goes to the virtual server.
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2. From the web browser machine, request a page from www.siterequest.com. You should see the page that you would have received if your browser had accessed the origin web servers directly. If the browser times out the request, it means that either the WebAccelerator system is not running, or the firewall is blocking access to port 80 on the WebAccelerator system. 3. If you receive an Access denied by intermediary error, perform the following tasks: Verify that the hosts file is correct. Verify that the host map for the application profile is correct. Verify that you used a domain in the request that matches a requested host in the host map. 4. After you confirm the host mapping, remove any entries that you changed or added.
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Creating an HTTP security profile in the Protocol Security Module configuration

In the Protocol Security Module, the HTTP security profile specifies the HTTP security checks that are enforced by the Security Enforcer. You also associate the WebAccelerator application profile with the security profile. For detailed information about configuring protocol security profiles, refer to the Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Protocol Security Module, which is available at https://support.f5.com.
Important
The following task assumes that you have already set up a remote logging configuration for security profile log files. For more information on remote logging and Protocol Security Module, refer to the Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Protocol Security Module.
To create a security profile for HTTP traffic

1. On the Main tab of the navigation pane, expand the Protocol Security section and click Security Profiles. The HTTP Security Profiles screen opens in a new browser session. 2. Above the HTTP Security Profiles area, click the Create button. The New Security Profile screen opens. 3. In the Profile Properties area, in the Profile Name box, type a unique name for the profile. 4. For the Remote Logging setting, check the box to enable remote logging for this security profile. 5. In the Defense Configuration area, you can update the blocking policy settings for the security profile by clicking a tab and modifying the settings as needed. If you do not check either Alarm or Block for a violation, the system does not perform the corresponding security check. Check Alarm if you want the system to log any requests that trigger the security profile violation. Check Block if you want the system to block requests that trigger the security profile violation. Check both Alarm and Block if you want the system to perform both actions. 6. Click the Blocking Page tab to configure the blocking response page. If you have enabled the Block flag for any violations, the system sends the blocking response page to the offending client, instead of connecting them to the application. 7. Click theWebAccelerator tab. On this tab, you associate the WebAccelerator application profile with the HTTP security profile.
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8. For WebAccelerator Cache Clear Settings option, from the Available WA Applications list, select the WebAccelerator profile and click the Move button (<<) to add it to the Assigned WA Applications list. 9. Click Create. The screen refreshes, and you see the new security profile in the list.
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Glossary
Glossary
active unit In a redundant system, the active unit is the system that currently load balances connections. If the active unit in the redundant system fails, the standby unit assumes control and begins to load balance connections. See also redundant system. ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) ARP is an industry-standard protocol that determines a hosts Media Access Control (MAC) address based on its IP address. authentication Authentication is the process of verifying a users identity when the user is attempting to log on to a system. authentication iRule An authentication iRule is a system-supplied or user-created iRule that is necessary for implementing a PAM authentication module on the BIG-IP system. See also iRule, PAM (Pluggable Authentication Module). authentication module An authentication module is a PAM module that you create to perform authentication or authorization of client traffic. See also PAM (Pluggable Authentication Module). authentication profile An authentication profile is a configuration tool that you use to implement a PAM authentication module. Types of authentication modules that you can implement with an authentication profile are: LDAP, RADIUS, TACACS+, SSL Client Certificate LDAP, and OCSP. See also PAM (Pluggable Authentication Module). authorization Authorization is the process of identifying the level of access that a logged-on user has been granted to system resources. BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain) BIND is the most common implementation of the Domain Name System (DNS). BIND provides a system for matching domain names to IP addresses. For more information, refer to http://www.isc.org/products/BIND. certificate A certificate is an online credential signed by a trusted certificate authority and used for SSL network traffic as a method of authentication.
Glossary - 1
Glossary
certificate authority (CA) A certificate authority is an external, trusted organization that issues a signed digital certificate to a requesting computer system for use as a credential to obtain authentication for SSL network traffic. certificate revocation list (CRL) See CRL (certificate revocation list). Certificate Revocation List Distribution Point (CRLDP) See CRLDP (Certificate Revocation List Distribution Point). chain A chain is a series of filtering criteria used to restrict access to an IP address. The order of the criteria in the chain determines how the filter is applied, from the general criteria first, to the more detailed criteria at the end of the chain. configuration object A configuration object is a user-created object that the BIG-IP system uses to implement a PAM authentication module. There is one type of configuration object for each type of authentication module that you create. See also PAM (Pluggable Authentication Module). Configuration utility The Configuration utility is the browser-based application that you use to configure the BIG-IP system. connection persistence Connection persistence is an optimizing technique whereby a network connection is intentionally kept open for the purpose of reducing handshaking. cookie persistence Cookie persistence is a mode of persistence where the BIG-IP system stores persistent connection information in a cookie. CRL (certificate revocation list) A CRL is a list that an authenticating system checks to see if the SSL certificate that the requesting system presents for authentication has been revoked. CRLDP (Certificate Revocation List Distribution Point) CRLDP is an industry-standard protocol that manages SSL certificate revocation for devices on a network.
Glossary - 2
Glossary
CRLDP authentication module A CRLDP authentication module is a user-created module that you implement on a BIG-IP system to authenticate client traffic using the CRLDP protocol. The purpose of a CRLDP authentication module is to manage the revocation of client SSL certificates on a network. custom profile A custom profile is a profile that you create. A custom profile can inherit its default settings from a parent profile that you specify. See also parent profile and profile. default profile A default profile is a profile that the BIG-IP system supplies with default setting values. You can use a default profile as is, or you can modify it. You can also specify it as a parent profile when you create a custom profile. You cannot create or delete a default profile. See also profile, custom profile. default route A default route is the route that the system uses when no other route specified in the routing table matches the destination address or network of the packet to be routed. default VLAN The BIG-IP system is configured with two default VLANs, one for each interface. One default VLAN is named internal and one is named external. See also VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network). default wildcard virtual server A default wildcard virtual server has an IP address and port number of 0.0.0.0:0. or *:* or "any":"any". This virtual server accepts all traffic that does not match any other virtual server defined in the configuration. domain name A domain name is a unique name that is associated with one or more IP addresses. Domain names are used in URLs to identify particular Web pages. For example, in the URL http://www.siterequest.com/index.html, the domain name is siterequest.com. external VLAN The external VLAN is a default VLAN on the BIG-IP system. In a basic configuration, this VLAN has the administration ports locked down. In a normal configuration, this is typically a VLAN on which external clients request connections to internal servers.
Glossary - 3
Glossary
failover Failover is the process whereby a standby unit in a redundant system takes over when a software failure or a hardware failure is detected on the active unit. floating self IP address A floating self IP address is an additional self IP address for a VLAN that serves as a shared address by both units of a BIG-IP redundant system. forwarding virtual server A forwarding virtual server is a virtual server that has no pool members to load balance. The virtual server simply forwards the packet directly to the destination IP address specified in the client request. See also virtual server. gateway pool A gateway pool is a pool of routers that you can create to forward traffic. After creating a gateway pool, you can specify the pool as a gateway, within a TMM routing table entry. health monitor A health monitor checks a node to see if it is up and functioning for a given service. If the node fails the check, it is marked down. Different monitors exist for checking different services. ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) ICMP is an Internet communications protocol used to determine information about routes to destination addresses. interface The physical port on a BIG-IP system is called an interface. internal VLAN The internal VLAN is a default VLAN on the BIG-IP system. In a basic configuration, this VLAN has the administration ports open. In a normal configuration, this is a network interface that handles connections from internal servers. iRule An iRule is a user-written script that controls the behavior of a connection passing through the BIG-IP system. iRules are an F5 Networks feature and are frequently used to direct certain connections to a non-default load balancing pool. However, iRules can perform other tasks, such as implementing secure network address translation and enabling session persistence.
Glossary - 4
Glossary
Kerberos protocol The Kerberos protocol is a network authentication protocol that allows individuals communicating over a non-secure network to prove their identity to one another in a secure manner. Kerberos is aimed primarily at a client-server model, providing mutual authentication; both the user and the server verify each other's identity. LACP (Link Aggregation Control Protocol) LACP is an industry-standard protocol that aggregates links in a trunk, to increase bandwidth and provide for link failover. Layer 1 through Layer 7 Layers 1 through 7 refer to the seven layers of the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model. Thus, Layer 2 represents the data-link layer, Layer 3 represents the IP layer, and Layer 4 represents the transport layer (TCP and UDP). Layer 7 represents the application layer, handling traffic such as HTTP and SSL. LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) LDAP is an Internet protocol that email programs use to look up contact information from a server. LDAP authentication module An LDAP authentication module is a user-created module that you implement on a BIG-IP system to authenticate client traffic using a remote LDAP server. LDAP client certificate SSL authentication module An LDAP client certificate SSL authentication module is a user-created module that you implement on a BIG-IP system to authorize client traffic using SSL client credentials and a remote LDAP server. link aggregation Link aggregation is the process of combining multiple links in order to function as though it were a single link with higher bandwidth. Link aggregation occurs when you create a trunk. See also trunk and LACP (Link Aggregation Control Protocol). Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) See LACP (Link Aggregation Control Protocol). load balancing method A load balancing method is an algorithm that determines how to distribute connections across a load balancing pool.
Glossary - 5
Glossary
load balancing pool See pool. load balancing virtual server A load balancing virtual server is a virtual server that directs client traffic to a load balancing pool. This is the most basic type of virtual server. See also virtual server. local traffic management Local traffic management is the process of managing network traffic that comes into or goes out of a local area network (LAN), including an intranet. You can manage local traffic using BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager. MAC (Media Access Control) MAC is a protocol that defines the way workstations gain access to transmission media, and is most widely used in reference to LANs. For IEEE LANs, the MAC layer is the lower sublayer of the data link layer protocol. management interface The management interface is a special port on the BIG-IP system, used for managing administrative traffic. Named MGMT, the management interface does not forward user application traffic, such as traffic slated for load balancing. monitor The BIG-IP system uses monitors to determine whether nodes are up or down. There are several different types of monitors and they use various methods to determine the status of a server or service. You can associate monitors with nodes, pools, and individual pool members. See also node, pool, and pool member. monitor instance You create a monitor instance when a health monitor is associated with a pool member or node. It is the monitor instance that actually performs the health check, not the monitor. NAT (Network Address Translation) A NAT is an alias IP address that identifies a specific node managed by the BIG-IP system to the external network. node A node is a logical object on the BIG-IP system that identifies the IP address of a physical resource on the network. Nodes are directly associated with pool members and monitors. See also pool member and monitor.
Glossary - 6
Glossary
OCSP (Online Certificate Status Protocol) OCSP is a protocol that authenticating systems can use to check on the revocation status of digitally-signed SSL certificates. The use of OCSP is an alternative to the use of a certificate revocation list (CRL). See also CRL (certificate revocation list). OCSP authentication module An OCSP authentication module is a user-created module that you implement on a BIG-IP system to authenticate client traffic using a remote OCSP responder. The purpose of an OCSP authentication module is to check on the revocation status of a client SSL certificate. OCSP responder An OCSP responder is an external server used for communicating SSL certificate revocation status to an authentication server such as the BIG-IP system. OCSP responder object A responder object is a software application on the BIG-IP system that communicates with an OCSP responder, for the purpose of checking revocation status of a client or server SSL certificate. PAM (Pluggable Authentication Module) A PAM module is a software module that a server application uses to authenticate client traffic. The modular design of a PAM module allows an organization to add, replace, or remove that authentication mechanism from a server application with minimal impact to that application. An example of a PAM module is an application that uses a remote Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server to authenticate client traffic. See also LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol). parent profile A parent profile is a profile that can propagate its values to another profile. A parent profile can be either a default profile or a custom profile. See also profile. partition A partition is a logical container that you create, containing a defined set of BIG-IP system objects. You use partitions to control user access to the BIG-IP system. See also user role. performance monitor A performance monitor gathers statistics and checks the state of a target device.
Glossary - 7
Glossary
persistence profile A persistence profile is a configuration tool for implementing a specific type of session persistence. An example of a persistence profile type is a cookie persistence profile. pool A pool is a logical group of pool members. The BIG-IP system load balances requests to the pool members within a pool, based on the load balancing method and persistence method you choose when you configure the pool. See also node and pool member. pool member A pool member is one of the members of a load balancing pool. A pool member name indicates a node IP address and a service number. See also node. port A port can be represented by a number that is associated with a specific service supported by a host. Refer to the Services and Port Index for a list of port numbers and corresponding services. port-specific wildcard virtual server A port-specific wildcard virtual server is a wildcard virtual server that uses a port number other than 0. See also wildcard virtual server. pre-configured monitor A pre-configured monitor is a system-supplied health or performance monitor. You can use a pre-configured monitor as is, but you cannot modify or delete one. See also monitor. profile A profile is a configuration tool containing settings for defining the behavior of network traffic. The BIG-IP system contains profiles for managing FastL4, HTTP, TCP, FTP, SSL traffic, as well as for implementing persistence and application authentication. profile setting A profile setting is a configuration attribute within a profile that has a value associated with it. You can configure a profile setting to customize the way that the BIG-IP system manages a type of traffic. profile type A profile type is a category of profile that you use for a specific purpose. An example of a profile type is an HTTP profile, which you configure to manage HTTP network traffic.
Glossary - 8
Glossary
protocol profile A protocol profile is a profile that you create for controlling the behavior of FastL4, TCP, UDP traffic. RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-in User Service) RADIUS is a service that performs remote user authentication and accounting. Its primary use is for Internet Service Providers, though it can also be used on any network that needs a centralized authentication and/or accounting service for its workstations. RADIUS authentication module A RADIUS authentication module is a user-created module that you implement on a BIG-IP system to authenticate client traffic using a remote RADIUS server. RAM cache A RAM cache is a cache of HTTP objects stored in the BIG-IP systems RAM that subsequent connections reuse to reduce the amount of load on the back-end servers. rate class You create a rate filter from the Configuration utility or command line utility. When you assign a rate class to a rate filter, a rate class determines the volume of traffic allowed through a rate filter. See also rate shaping. rate shaping Rate shaping is a type of extended IP filter. Rate shaping uses the same IP filter method but applies a rate class, which determines the volume of network traffic allowed. See also rate class. redundant system Redundant system refers to a pair of units that are configured for fail-over. In a redundant system, there are two units, one running as the active unit and one running as the standby unit. If the active unit fails, the standby unit takes over and manages connection requests. responder object See OCSP responder object. router A router is a Layer 3 networking device. If no VLANs are defined on the network, a router defines a broadcast domain. secure network address translation (SNAT) See SNAT (secure network address translation).
Glossary - 9
Glossary
self IP address Self IP addresses are the IP addresses owned by the BIG-IP system that you use to access the internal and external VLANs. service Service refers to services such as TCP, UDP, HTTP, and FTP. session persistence A series of related connections received from the same client, having the same session ID. When persistence is enabled, a BIG-IP system sends all connections having the same session ID to the same node, instead of load balancing the connections. Session persistence is not to be confused with connection persistence. Setup utility The Setup utility guides you through the initial system configuration process. You can run the Setup utility from the Configuration utility start page. simple persistence See source address affinity persistence. SNAT (Secure Network Address Translation) A SNAT is a feature you can configure on the BIG-IP system. A SNAT defines a routable alias IP address that one or more nodes can use as a source IP address when making connections to hosts ona network. SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) SNMP is the Internet standard protocol, defined in STD 15, RFC 1157, developed to manage nodes on an IP network. source address affinity persistence Also known as simple persistence, source address affinity persistence supports TCP and UDP protocols, and directs session requests to the same server based solely on the source IP address of a packet. spanning tree A spanning tree is a logical tree structure of Layer 2 devices on a network, created by a spanning tree protocol algorithm and used for resolving network loops. SSH SSH is a protocol for secure remote login and other secure network services over a non-secure network.
Glossary - 10
Glossary
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) SSL is a network communications protocol that uses public-key technology as a way to transmit data in a secure manner. SSL profile An SSL profile is a configuration tool that you use to terminate and initiate SSL connections from clients and servers. standby unit A standby unit in a redundant system is a unit that is always prepared to become the active unit if the active unit fails. TACACS (Terminal Access Controller Access Control System) TACACS is an older authentication protocol common to UNIX systems. TACACS allows a remote access server to forward a users login password to an authentication server. TACACS+ TACACS+ is an authentication mechanism designed as a replacement for the older TACACS protocol. There is little similarity between the two protocols, however, and they are therefore not compatible. TACACS+ authentication module A TACACS+ authentication module is a user-created module that you implement on a BIG-IP system to authenticate client traffic using a remote TACACS+ server. tagged interface A tagged interface is an interface that you assign to a VLAN in a way that causes the system to add a VLAN tag into the header of any frame passing through that interface. Tagged interfaces are used when you want to assign a single interface to multiple VLANs. See also VLAN (virtual local area network). TMM (Traffic Management Microkernel) service The TMM service is the process running on the BIG-IP system that performs most traffic management for the product. transparent node A transparent node appears as a router to other network devices, including the BIG-IP system. trunk A trunk is a combination of two or more interfaces and cables configured as one link.
Glossary - 11
Glossary
tunnel A tunnel is a network configuration in which two local traffic management systems can pass optimized traffic over a wide-area network. user role A user role is a type and level of access that you assign to a BIG-IP system user account. By assigning user roles, you can control the extent to which BIG-IP system administrators can view or modify the BIG-IP system configuration. virtual address A virtual address is an IP address associated with one or more virtual servers managed by the BIG-IP system. See also virtual server. virtual port A virtual port is the port number or service name associated with one or more virtual servers managed by the BIG-IP system. A virtual port number should be the same TCP or UDP port number to which client programs expect to connect. virtual server Virtual servers are a specific combination of virtual address and virtual port, associated with a content site that is managed by a BIG-IP system or other type of host server. VLAN (virtual local area network) A VLAN is a logical grouping of interfaces connected to network devices. You can use a VLAN to logically group devices that are on different network segments. Devices within a VLAN use Layer 2 networking to communicate and define a broadcast domain. VLAN group A VLAN group is two or more VLANs that you put together into a VLAN group. A primary use of a VLAN group is to successfully route traffic when both the source and the destination hosts reside on the same network. VLAN name A VLAN name is the symbolic name used to identify a VLAN. For example, you might configure a VLAN named marketing, or a VLAN named development. See also VLAN (virtual local area network). VLAN tag An IEEE standard, a VLAN tag is an identification number inserted into the header of a frame that indicates the VLAN to which the destination device belongs. VLAN tags are used when a single interface forwards traffic for multiple VLANs.
Glossary - 12
Glossary
wildcard virtual server A wildcard virtual server is a virtual server that uses an IP address of 0.0.0.0, * or "any". A wildcard virtual server accepts connection requests for destinations outside of the local network. Wildcard virtual servers are included only in Transparent Node Mode configurations.
Glossary - 13
Glossary
Glossary - 14
Index
Index
/config/bigip.conf file 27-3 /etc/radvd.conf file 20-1
A
acceleration and application to traffic 29-3 enabling 29-4 acceleration policies and Level 1 Delivery 29-7, 30-7 and Level 2 Delivery 29-7, 30-7 and signed acceleration policies 29-8, 30-8 and Symmetric Deployment 29-8, 30-7 and user-defined acceleration policies 29-8, 30-8 customizing 29-8 for WebAccelerator 30-10 access for client hosts 29-10 to partitions 23-5 access control configuring 24-7 tailoring 23-1 access control combinations 24-8 access control groups See partitions. access control process See authorization steps. access levels for partition Common 23-2 See also user access. access-control properties configuring 24-6 Access-Request packets 25-8 ACK packets 2-2, 2-6 Active Directory remote authentication 24-2 adaptive connection reaping 22-2, 22-3 adaptive method 28-2 adaptive reaper 22-9 additional information for Bigpipe Utility Reference Guide 1-2 for Configuration Guide for BIG-IP Local Traffic Management 1-2 for Configuration Worksheet 1-2 for Installation, Licensing, and Upgrades for BIG-IP Systems 1-2 for Platform Guide 1-2 for TMOS Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems 1-2 address translation 2-1, 2-2, 7-5 admin account 23-2 administrative domains defined 23-1 administrative partitions and tunneling 28-3
Administrator role and object management 23-4 Administrator role access 23-2 aggregation, of links 17-1 application profile verification 30-10 application profiles and host maps 29-8, 30-8 assigning to security policies 29-12 configuring 29-9, 30-9 creating 30-1 defined 29-7, 30-7 for WebAccelerator 29-7 application security enabling 29-4 Application Security Manager and HTTP class profiles 29-3 applications and acceleration policies 29-7 ARP protocol 2-5 authentication for remote user accounts 24-1 authentication attributes 24-9, 24-10 authentication module types 25-7 authentication server types 24-2 authentication servers as pool members 27-1 authorization data propagating 24-1 authorization failure 24-9 authorization levels determining 23-3 authorization properties configuring 24-6 authorization steps 23-2
B
Back Orifice attacks 22-12 BIG-IP system adding to network 4-1 configuring for same network 4-3 to replace switches 4-2 BIG-IP system bypass 2-1 BIG-IP system objects 23-1 bigpipe -? command 24-8 bigpipe shell and user roles 23-2 broadcast addresses 2-4 built-in switching for multiple customer hosting 5-5
Index - 1
Index
C
cache directives 29-7 cache servers 6-1 certificate installation 12-1 Certificate Revocation List Distribution Point protocol See CRLDP authentication module. client authentication and Kerberos delegation 26-10 client credentials 25-7 client hosts and application access 30-10 client principal names 26-6 client requests and BIG-IP system 2-6 decrypting 11-6 Client SSL profiles and Kerberos delegation 26-5 assigning 11-6, 12-7 creating 11-3, 12-3 defined 11-1, 12-1 for tunneling 28-9 clock synchronization 29-6 command line interface See bigpipe shell. common configuration 6-1 compression and iRules 10-1 and RAM Cache 13-1 configuring 12-4 for dynamically-generated data 28-2 over a WAN 28-1 turning off 28-2 compression methods defined 28-2 compression statistics for tunneling 28-12 compression tasks 10-1 configuration data importing and exporting 24-11 configuration examples, Internet 3-1 Configuration utility and online help 1-5 and Welcome screen 1-5 Configuration Worksheet 1-2 connection flooding 22-9 connection request types 6-1 connection timeout 2-6, 22-8 connections adding 7-1 authenticating 25-7 reaping 22-2 See also Internet connections. content demand for 13-1 static 13-1
content compression and RAM Cache 13-1 content requests 29-7 cookie encryption and decryption 26-6 cookie persistence 9-1 cookie persistence profiles 9-2 cookies 22-8 corporate intranet 6-1 credential fetching 26-10 credential passing 26-10 credential verification 26-10 CRLDP authentication module defined 25-20 CRLDP configuration objects defined 25-21 CRLDP profile type defined 25-22 CRLDP responder objects defined 25-20 CRLDP server objects defined 25-20 cross-domain authentication 26-3 cross-realm authentication setting 26-1 custom HTTP profiles described 9-1 using 8-1 custom monitors 19-1 custom persistence profiles described 9-1 using 8-1 custom RADIUS profiles assigning 25-9 customers hosting for 5-1
D
data attacks 22-11 data center topology 4-1 data compression and RAM Cache 13-1 over a WAN 28-1 data compression statistics for tunneling 28-12 data encryption and tunneling 28-1 data optimization through tunneling 28-1 data propagation 24-7, 24-11 data types and tunneling 28-2 data verification and WebAccelerator 29-10, 30-10
Index - 2
Index
default HTTP profiles described 9-1 using 8-1 default persistence profiles described 9-1 using 8-1 default routes for nPath routing 2-2 setting 2-2, 16-4 default wildcard servers 6-2 deflate method 28-2 Denial-of-Service attacks 22-1, 22-8 Denial-of-Service prevention 22-4 deployment scenarios defined 29-13 Deployment Wizard about 29-13 and deployment scenarios 29-13 starting 29-13 destination address translation 2-1 DNS name resolution configuring 26-3 DNS servers adding and testing 26-2 as primary domain controllers 26-1 configuring 30-2 domain authentication 26-3 domain controllers 26-1 domain verification and mapping 29-11 domains adding BIG-IP systems to 26-3 creating service principals in 26-3 identifying 29-8 domaintool command 26-3 duplicate IP addresses assigning 21-1
F
Fast L4 profiles assigning 2-4 creating 2-2, 2-3 for nPath routing 2-2 files including and excluding 10-1 FIN packets 2-2 flooding 22-9 formatting conventions 1-3 forwarding virtual server for tunneling 28-9 FTP monitors 14-2, 15-2 FTP pools assigning 14-4 creating 14-3, 15-3 FTP profiles assigning 14-4 defined 14-1 FTP traffic 14-1 FTP virtual servers creating 14-4, 15-5
G
gateways and nPath routing 2-5 groups assigning privileges to 24-7 for user access control 24-1 Guest role tasks 23-3
H
health monitors for remote authentication servers 27-1 help, online 1-5 high demand objects 13-1 high-water mark See adaptive connection reaping. host map and requested hosts 29-8, 30-8 host map verification 29-11 host names specifying 29-8 hosts file verification 29-11 HTML pages caching 29-7 HTTP class profile creating for other modules 29-3 HTTP class profiles and configuration options 29-4 and important considerations 29-4 creating 29-4, 30-4 for Application Security Manager 29-3 for WebAccelerator system 29-3
E
e-commerce traffic load balancing 3-1 encryption and tunneling 28-1 encryption keys 26-6 endpoint pools creating 28-4 on server-side systems 28-10 expressions for packet filtering 18-1
Index - 3
Index
HTTP compression tasks 10-1 HTTP connections 9-3 HTTP headers 13-1 HTTP methods 13-1 HTTP pools assigning for compression 10-3 assigning for RAM Cache 13-3 assigning for source address persistence 8-3 creating for cookie persistence 9-3 creating for source address persistence 8-2 HTTP profiles creating for compression 10-2, 12-4 creating for LDAP authentication 25-15 creating for RAM Cache 13-2 defined 9-1 described 8-1 HTTP RAM Cache See RAM Cache. HTTP security profile described 30-12 HTTP service profiles creating 30-4 HTTP traffic controlling for compression 10-1 controlling for cookie persistence 9-1 controlling for source address persistence 8-1 HTTP virtual servers creating for compression 10-3 creating for cookie persistence 9-3 creating for source address persistence 8-3 HTTPS pools assigning 11-6, 12-7 creating 11-5, 12-6 HTTPS traffic 11-6 HTTPS virtual servers creating 11-6, 12-7
IP address translation 2-1 IP addresses and loopback interfaces 2-5 and nPath routing 2-5 assigning 21-1 removing from VLANs 17-7 IP aliases and nPath routing 2-5 IP network changing 4-1 IP network topology with single interface 4-1, 16-1 IP packets recognition by clients 16-5 routing incorrectly 2-5 IPV6 nodes 20-2 iRules for compression 10-1 iSession context 28-8, 28-11 iSession port 3701 28-11 iSession profiles and port transparency 28-11 creating 28-5 for tunneling 28-6, 28-9
J
J2EE and delivery acceleration policies 29-7, 30-7 Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition See J2EE.
K
KDCs 26-3 Kerberos delegation and Client SSL profiles 26-5 and virtual servers 26-9 defined 26-1 Kerberos Key Distribution Centers (KDCs) 26-3 Kerberos realms and DNS domains 26-3 Kerberos web servers load balancing 26-1 key installation 12-1
I
ICMP floods 22-9 idle timeout values 2-2, 2-3 inbound traffic 7-3 inheritance prevention for monitors 19-5 Intelligent Browser Referencing feature 29-7 interfaces and partitions 23-2 assigning as tagged 5-2 using link aggregation 17-1 Internet connections adding more 7-1 example 7-1 load balancing 7-1 intranet configuration creating 6-2 for corporate intranets 6-1
L
L2 forwarding 4-1 LACP protocol 17-3 Land attacks 22-10 LDAP configuration objects defined 25-2 LDAP profile type defined 25-5 LDAP remote authentication 24-2 Lempel-Ziv-Oberhumer method 28-2 Level 1 Delivery acceleration policy 29-7, 30-7
Index - 4
Index
Level 2 Delivery acceleration policy 29-7, 30-7 link aggregation about 17-1 and network configurations 17-6 and VLAN groups 17-7 configuring 17-2 local endpoints 28-8, 28-11 loopback interfaces 2-2, 2-5 low-water mark See adaptive connection reaping. lzo method 28-2
nodes and Operator role 23-3 in route domains 21-1 nPath routing 2-1, 2-5 nPath routing tasks 2-2 NTP configuring 29-6 defined 29-6 NTP protocol synchronizing system clocks 30-2 numeric values for user privileges 24-9
M
Manager role access 23-2 Manager role tasks 23-3 monitor inheritance 19-4 monitor settings 19-1 monitor types 19-1 monitors assigning to pools 19-4 creating 19-3 creating for FTP servers 14-2, 15-2 defined 19-1 removing 19-5 MS Loopback interface 2-5 multiple customer hosting about 5-1 configuring 5-2 creating pools for 5-3 creating VLAN tags for 5-2 using built-in switching 5-5
O
object creation and partition location 23-5 object re-use 13-1 objects and Guest role 23-3 defined 23-1 demand for 13-1 viewing and managing 23-4 OCSP authentication module See SSL OCSP authentication module. OCSP responder objects creating 25-17 one-network topology 17-6 Online Certificate Status Protocol See SSL OCSP authentication module. online help 1-5 Operator role tasks 23-3 Other External Users account 24-6 outbound throughput increasing 2-1 overlapping IP addresses 21-1
N
name resolution configuring 26-3, 30-2 name servers listing 26-2 NAS-Identifier string 25-8 netmask 2-4 network changing 4-1 network adapter list 2-5 network configurations and link aggregation 17-2, 17-6 for IP network topology 16-1 network prefixes 20-1 Network Time Protocol (NTP) protocol See NTP. network traffic and additional connections 7-1 and packet filters 18-1 managing 2-1 network traffic authentication types 25-1 node configuration and radvd service 20-1 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager: Implementations
P
packet filter rules creating 18-4 purpose of 18-1 packet filters 18-1, 18-4 packets forwarding and rejecting 18-1 receiving and copying 4-4 recognition by clients 16-5 paired tunneling described 28-1 partition access configuring 23-3 Partition Access list 23-4 partition Common described 23-2 partition contents 23-1 partition property 24-6
Index - 5
Index
partitioned objects creating 23-5 described 23-2 partitions and tunneling 28-3 and user roles 23-2 benefits of 23-2 creating 23-2 defined 23-1 selecting 23-5 password credentials 25-7 PDCs 26-1 performance monitors 19-2 permissions determining 23-1 See also user access. persistence and nPath routing 2-6 implementing 8-1 See also cookie persistence. persistence profiles assigning for compression 12-7 assigning for FTP 14-4 assigning for HTTP 9-4 assigning for HTTPS 11-6 assigning for RAM Cache 13-3 creating 9-2 Ping of Death attacks 22-10 Platform Guide 1-2 pool member exclusion 19-4, 19-5 pool members and Operator role 23-3 and route domains 21-1 as tunnel endpoints 28-10 pools and HTTP class profiles 29-4 configuring 29-5 creating for a basic configuration 6-2 creating for e-commerce 3-1, 3-2 creating for FTP servers 14-3 creating for HTTP 8-2, 9-3 creating for HTTPS 11-5, 12-6 creating for intranet configuration 6-2 creating for ISP load balancing 7-2 creating for link aggregation 17-4 creating for monitors 19-4 creating for multiple customer hosting 5-3 creating for nPath routing 2-4 creating for rate shaping 15-3 creating for routers 18-2 creating for single network 16-2 of web servers 4-5 port translation 2-2 port transparency defined 28-11
ports for e-commerce 3-1 pre-configured monitors 19-1 pre-defined acceleration policies and Level 1 Delivery 29-7, 30-7 and Level 2 delivery 29-7, 30-7 selecting 29-7, 30-7 primary domain controllers (PDCs) 26-1 privileges assigning 24-7 configuring 24-6 for individual accounts 24-6 See also access control. profile verification 30-10 profiles creating for HTTP 10-2, 25-15 protocol security and WebAccelerator application profile 30-12 protocol security checks 30-5 Protocol Security Module and application profiles 30-1 and security profiles 30-1 running with WebAccelerator system 30-3 protocol vulnerabilities scanning for 30-4 protocols for remote authentication servers 25-1 provisioning for modules 30-2
R
RADIUS authentication module implementing 25-7 RADIUS authentication profiles assigning 25-9 RADIUS configuration objects creating 25-8 specifying in profile 25-9 RADIUS configuration overview 25-7 RADIUS profiles creating 25-9 RADIUS secret 25-7 RADIUS server configuration 27-2 RADIUS server objects creating 25-7 specifying in configuration object 25-8 RADIUS servers and authentication 25-7 and traffic authentication 25-7 RADIUS user authorization configuring 24-4 RADIUS-based authentication configuring 24-4 radvd service 20-1
Index - 6
Index
RAM Cache and http-acceleration profile 29-5 and WebAccelerator 29-5 defined 13-1 RAM Cache compliancy 13-1 RAM Cache feature for tunneling 28-7 RAM Cache virtual servers 13-3 rate classes and virtual servers 15-5 creating 15-4 rate shaping and FTP traffic 15-4 as optional feature 15-1 Read access 23-2 realms and DNS domains 26-3 and trust relationships 26-1 regular expressions 10-1 remote attribute mapping 24-7 remote authentication for system user accounts 24-2 remote authentication attributes 24-9, 24-10 remote authentication issues 27-1 remote authentication requirements 27-2 remote authentication server types 24-2, 25-1 remote policies 29-10 remote user authentication configuring 24-1 remoterole command purpose of 24-1, 24-6, 24-7 remoterole command syntax 24-7 request timeout 29-11 Requested Hosts and domains 29-8, 30-8 defined 29-8, 30-8 requests encrypting and decrypting 11-1, 12-1 resource exhaustion 22-8 response types 13-1 responses compressing 10-1 encrypting and decrypting 11-1, 12-1 retransmission timeout See RTO. role property 24-6 roles and tunneling 28-3 root name servers listing 26-2 route configuration for nPath routing 2-2 route domain IDs format of 21-1
route domains and tunneling 28-3 defined 21-1 router pools 18-2 routers increasing throughput 2-1 routes for nPath routing 2-5 for packets 4-5 routing conflicts 4-5 routing tables and route domains 21-1 RTO 2-6
S
SCF and access control 24-1 purpose of 24-11 SCFs creating 24-11 secondary RADIUS servers configuring 24-4 security and application to traffic 29-3 security checks and HTTP security profile 30-12 to HTTP traffic 30-5 security policies and application profiles 29-12 See also tunneling. self IP addresses and partitions 23-2 creating 17-8 creating for VLAN groups 4-5 for external VLAN 7-5 removing 4-3, 17-7 self-signed certificates 11-2, 12-2 server hosting 3-1 server load 13-1 server pools for nPath routing 2-4 server principal names 26-6 server responses encrypting 11-6 encrypting and decrypting 11-1, 12-1 Server SSL profiles for tunneling 28-6 service port 3701 28-11 service ports for tunneling 28-11 service principals creating 26-3
Index - 7
Index
session persistence implementing 8-1 See also cookie persistence. See also source address affinity persistence. signed acceleration policies defined 29-8, 30-8 simple persistence See source address affinity persistence. Single Configuration File (SCF) See SCF. Smurf attack 22-9 SNAT Automap about 7-1 for VLANs 7-5 SNAT source translations 16-1 SNATs creating 18-2 source address affinity persistence 8-1 source address translation 2-1 source IP addresses and session persistence 8-2 SSL certificates importing 24-2 SSL Client Certificate LDAP configuration objects creating 25-14 SSL Client Certificate LDAP profiles creating 25-15 SSL handshaking for compression 12-1, 12-2 for HTTPS 11-1, 11-2, 11-6 SSL keys and certificates creating 11-2, 12-2 installing 12-1 SSL OCSP authentication module defined 25-17 SSL OCSP configuration objects creating 25-18 SSL OCSP profile type defined 25-18 SSL OCSP responder objects creating 25-17 SSL profiles See Client SSL profiles. SSL traffic authentication 24-2 standard pre-defined acceleration policies 29-7, 30-7 state keeping 22-8 static content 13-1 style conventions 1-3 Sub 7 attacks 22-11 subdomains mapping 29-8 symmetric deployment and content assembly 29-10 defined 29-8 Symmetric Deployment acceleration policy 30-7 SYN Check feature, activating 22-9
SYN cookies 22-8, 22-9 SYN floods 22-8 SYN packets 2-2, 2-6 system access controlling 23-1 system object creation and partition location 23-5 system objects viewing and managing 23-4 system resource exhaustion 22-8
T
TACACS+ configuration object defined 25-11 TACACS+ configuration overview 25-11 TACACS+ profiles creating 25-12 tagged interfaces 5-2, 17-1 TCP connections 22-8 TCP optimization profiles for tunneling 28-6, 28-9 TCP timers 2-6 TCP traffic and nPath routing 2-2, 2-6 tcpdump utility 18-1 Teardrop attacks 22-11 terminal access property 24-6 throughput increasing 2-1 throughput optimization 16-5 time synchronization and PDCs 26-1 timers 2-6 topology 4-1 traffic and same network 4-4 returning 2-1 traffic load 13-1 trunk members 17-3 trunks 17-3 trust relationships 26-1 trusted domains adding BIG-IP systems to 26-3 trusted user impersonation 26-6 tunneling for data optimization 28-1 See also endpoint pools. 28-4
Index - 8
Index
U
UDP floods 22-9 UDP fragment attacks 22-10 UDP timers 2-6 UDP traffic and nPath routing 2-6 universal access 23-5 unmapped domains 30-8 See unmapped requests. unmapped requests 30-8 URIs including and excluding 10-1 user access configuring 23-3 denial of 24-8 tailoring 23-1 to partition Common 23-2 user account duplication 24-7 user account objects and manager role 23-3 user account properties modifying 23-3 user accounts defined 23-1 user authentication configuring 24-1 user impersonation 26-6 user name credentials 25-7 user partition property 24-6 user privileges assigning 24-7 user role property 24-6 user roles and partition access 23-2 and tunneling 28-3 defined 23-1 for partition creation 23-2 user-defined acceleration policies described 29-8, 30-8
and SNATs 16-1 and web server pools 4-6 as client principal names 26-6 creating for e-commerce 3-1, 3-3 creating for HTTP 9-3 creating for inbound and outbound traffic 7-3 creating for intranet configuration 6-3 creating for multiple customer hosting 5-3 creating for single network 16-3 for a basic configuration 6-3, 18-3 for compression 10-3 for FTP 14-4 for FTP and rate shaping 15-5 for HTTP 8-3, 29-5 for HTTPS 11-6, 12-7 for IPv6 nodes 20-3 for link aggregation 17-5 for multiple customer hosting 5-3 for nPath routing 2-4 for RAM Cache 13-3 for tunneling 28-6, 28-10 mapping to IP addresses 2-4 modifying for CRLDP authentication 25-23 modifying for RADIUS authentication 25-10 modifying for SSL Client Certificate LDAP authentication 25-16 modifying for SSL OCSP authentication 25-19 modifying for TACACS+ authentication 25-13 VLAN groups creating 4-4, 17-7 VLAN tags creating 5-2, 17-3 VLANs and partitions 23-2 and tagged interfaces 5-2 removing self IP addresses from 4-3, 4-4 using link aggregation 17-1 vulnerabilities scanning for 30-4
V
variable substitution for access control 24-8 vendor-specific attributes 24-7, 24-8 virtual authentication servers and VLANs 27-2 defined 27-1 virtual server defining 30-5 virtual server addresses 2-2 virtual server modification 25-10 virtual servers and FQDNs 26-3 and HTTP class profiles 29-4 and Kerberos delegation 26-9
W
web application content hosting 29-4, 30-5 web applications and hosted content 29-4, 30-5 web server arrays 3-1 web server pools creating 4-5 web servers and Kerberos authentication 26-1 and server principal names 26-6 WebAccelerator and HTTP class profiles 29-3 WebAccelerator application profiles and protocol security 30-12
Index - 9
Index
WebAccelerator system and application profiles 30-1 and NTP protocol 30-2 and security profiles 30-1 running with Protocol Security Manager 30-3 Welcome screen 1-5 wide area networks optimizing traffic for 28-1 wildcard virtual servers defined 6-2 WIndows Integrated Authentication 26-1 WinNuke attacks 22-11
Index - 10

BIG IP Traffic

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BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager: Implementations

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BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager: Implementations

BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager: Implementations

BIG-IP Local Traffic Manger: Implementations

BIG-IP Local Traffic Manger: Implementations

BIG-IP Local Traffic Manger: Implementations

BIG-IP Local Traffic Manger: Implementations

Introducing Implementations for BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager

Introducing BIG-IP system implementations

Using the Configuration utility

BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager: Implementations

About this guide

Introducing Implementations for BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager

Using the examples

Identifying new terms

Identifying references to products

Identifying references to objects, names, and commands

Identifying references to other documents

Identifying command syntax

BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager: Implementations

Table 1.1 Command line syntax conventions

Introducing Implementations for BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager

Finding help and technical support resources

BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager: Implementations

Configuring nPath Routing

Introducing nPath routing

Figure 2.1 An example of nPath implementation

Configuring nPath routing

Configuring nPath Routing

Creating a custom Fast L4 profile

To create a custom Fast L4 profile

BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager: Implementations

Creating a server pool for nPath routing

Creating a virtual server

To create a standard virtual server

Configuring nPath Routing

Configuring the virtual server on the content server loopback interface

Setting the route for inbound traffic

Enabling the connection.autolasthop bigdb key

BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager: Implementations

Setting timers for nPath configurations

Guidelines for configuring timeouts for UDP traffic

Guidelines for configuring timeouts for TCP traffic

Basic Web Site and E-Commerce Configuration

Working with a basic web site and e-commerce configuration

Figure 3.1 A basic load balancing configuration

BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager: Implementations

Configuring a basic e-commerce site

Creating load balancing pools

To create a pool for load balancing HTTP traffic

Basic Web Site and E-Commerce Configuration

To create a pool for load balancing SSL traffic

Creating virtual servers

To define a virtual server for HTTP traffic

To define a virtual server for SSL traffic

Installing a BIG-IP System without Changing the IP Network

Installing a BIG-IP system without changing IP networks

Figure 4.1 Existing data center network structure

BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager: Implementations

Figure 4.2 New structure after adding the BIG-IP system

Installing a BIG-IP System without Changing the IP Network

Configuring the BIG-IP system for the same IP network