2. How DX activen unique technology works

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1 1. - Topic DX can work in active/passive mode as any other load balancer. However, unlike any other device, the DX can work in active/active or activen mode for all its Cluster / Forwarder / Redirector VIPs even with one single VIP. Note: SLB VIP can't run in active/active or ActiveN, but only active/passive mode. In activen configuration, client traffic will be split across the DX farm (called DX-Blades). This provides load share between all DX and thus "infinite" scalability to infrastructures. This describes: How DX unique activen technology works How to move from active/passive to activen configuration 2. How DX activen unique technology works On Cluster/Forwarder/Redirector VIPs, DX terminates client TCP session first and does its different tasks (on Cluster: load balancing, compression, server off load, etc; on Forwarder: load balancing, etc; on Redirector: redirection). The concept of activen is to load balance clients TCP sessions to multiple DX. Then each DX will terminate the TCP sessions and do their different tasks as usual. But each DX will now manage only a portion of the full clients load, providing "infinite" scalability by increasing the number of DX. The strengths of activen are: ActiveN task (TCP load balancing) doesn't need to be done on a dedicated unit. This can be done (and usually done) by a DX doing also Cluster / Forwarder / Redirector tasks. ActiveN task has a light impact on DX device load. Only incoming traffic go through DX-ActiveN. Outgoing traffic is directly sent from DX-Blade to clients without going back to DX-ActiveN. Works with applications that may or may or not require stickiness, Connection Binding, Apprules, etc The only feature not supported with ActiveN is ClientIP transparency in Cluster VIP. Supports up to 64 DX-Blades per ActiveN group (VIP) Page DX ActiveN October 2006

2 In Active/Passive configuration: In Active/Active configuration: Page DX ActiveN October 2006

3 In ActiveN configuration: Page DX ActiveN October 2006

4 3. How to move from active/passive to activen configuration Note: This document assumes the DX appliances are using 5.1 release with Unified Failover. If the DX are running on an older release, upgrade to 5.1 release (cf AppNote-upgrade-v1.1.pdf). If the DX are not using Unified Failover, "Installation and Administration Guide" provides steps to migrate a DX configuration to UFO in section "Migrating from Existing Failover to Unified Failover". This migration can be done transparently on live traffic only if: DX-VIPs (Clusters and Forwarders) don't use clientip sticky (no sticky or cookie sticky is OK) In case of client IP sticky on any Cluster / Forwarder VIP, migration has to be done when there is no traffic on DX. Note: These steps may be done via WebUI or CLI. This AppNote covers only WebUI. Note: Depending the release you use on DX (5.1 or above), the WebUI screenshots may vary slightly. Step1: Both DX are in active/passive configuration DX1 is failover master (DX1-master) and DX2 is failover passive (DX2-passive). DX1 - Dashboard (from release 5.2): DX1 - CLI (from release 5.1): DX2 - Dashboard (from release 5.2): DX2 - CLI (from release 5.1): show failover status show failover status Step2: Disable "Server" on DX2 (to disable Cluster / Forwarder / Redirector VIPs) In WebUI, Admin DX Server Note: At this point, there is no more failover, but it has no impact on client production flow. Step3: On DX2, create the ActiveN blade In WebUI, Services ActiveN ActiveN Blades; enters both DX1 and DX2 ether0 IP@ Note: This step has no impact on client production flow and traffic is still processed only by DX1. Step4: On DX2, enable DSR on all Clusters / Forwarders / Redirectors VIP In WebUI, Services Clusters ClusterName Note: This step has no impact on client production flow and traffic is still processed only by DX1. Page DX ActiveN October 2006

5 Step5: On DX2, create the ActiveN groups In WebUI, Services ActiveN ActiveN groups; define one ActiveN Group for each Cluster / Forwarder / Redirector VIP and selects both DX Blades. Note: This step has no impact on client production flow and traffic is still processed only by DX1. Step5b [optional]: If Cluster / Forwarder VIP uses client IP stickiness, enable ActiveN sticky on that ActiveN group Note: This step is only in case Cluster / Forwarder VIP uses client IP stickiness. This step has no impact on client production flow and traffic is still processed only by DX1. Step6: On DX2, enable ActiveN Note: This step has no impact on client production flow and traffic is still processed only by DX1 (DX1 is still master and DX2 still passive) Page DX ActiveN October 2006

6 Step7: On DX2, enable "Server" (to disable Cluster / Forwarder / Redirector VIPs) In WebUI, Admin DX Server Note: This step has no impact on client production flow and traffic is still processed only by DX1 (DX1 is still master and DX2 still passive) Step8: On DX2, initiate failover to move traffic to DX2 In WebUI, Admin Failover Force Master enabled Note: Forcemaster has to be disabled on DX1 to failover on DX2. Note: This step has impact on traffic if you have Clusters/Forwarders with clientip sticky. This step has to be done with no traffic in such case. Note: DX2 is now master (with "ActiveN" and "DX server" running) and DX1 is passive (with "ActiveN" and "DX server stopped"). Traffic is now processed by DX2 with ActiveN using only DX2-Blade (DX1 has "Server" stopped). Step9: Apply same configuration on DX1 We suggest using Conf sync (cf AppNote-ConfSync-v1.1.pdf) to synchronize both DX in a simple manner. Otherwise, do on DX1:. From Step2 to Step7. Note: Now, traffic is received by DX2-ActiveN and share between both DX. If you want to have DX1 master, start a new failover, as explained in Step8. Page DX ActiveN October 2006

7 4. How to check ActiveN status and statistics DX doesn't currently provide all ActiveN status/statistics in WebUI, so the CLI is required. These statistics will be included in the WebUI in a future release DX activen service status This information is available in WebUI and CLI. WebUI: In 5.2 release dashboard On the master unit, "ActiveN" and "DX Server" are both running. On the DX-ActiveN passive On the standby unit(s), "ActiveN" is stopped, but "DX Server" is running (because ActiveN is enabled on passive unit(s)). dx-107-7% show activen status ActiveN: up (failover: Master) On the DX-ActiveN passive dx-107-3% show activen status ActiveN: up (failover: Standby) Page DX ActiveN October 2006

8 4.2. DX activen blades status This is available only in CLI on the DX-activeN master. show activen blade [all bladeip] blade 1 Real IP: Blade MAC: 0:4:23:ad:d2:f State: UP Pause: NONE 4.3. DX activen group status This is available only in CLI on the DX-activeN master. show activen group [all Group] Group 1 VIP: Port: 80 Blades: Index Status Pause Local Real IP MAC 1 UP NONE NO :04:23:ad:d2:0f 2 UP HARD NO :04:23:ab:9f:65 3 UP NONE YES :e0:ed:04:87:e DX activen blades stats This is available only in CLI on the DX-activeN master. show activen blade [all bladeip] stats blade 1 Real IP: Statistics Bytes : 0 Packets : 0 Flushed : 0 Total : 0 Current Sessions Active : 0 Fin : 0 Reset : 0 Page DX ActiveN October 2006

9 4.5. DX activen group stats This is available only in CLI on the DX-activeN master. show activen group [all Group] stats Group 1 VIP: Port: 80 Statistics Bytes : 0 Packets : 0 Flushed : 0 Total : 0 Current Sessions Established: 0 Fin : 0 Reset : 0 Page DX ActiveN October 2006