Difference between session user-disabled and state user-down

Hello David!

According to TMOS context help:

root@(bigip1)(cfg-sync In Sync)(Active)(/Common)(tmos) modify ltm pool pool_cgnat_log members modify { all { ?
Properties:
  "}"               Close the left brace
  app-service       The application service to which the object belongs.
  connection-limit  Specifies the maximum number of concurrent connections allowed for a pool member. The default value is 0 (zero).
  description       User defined description.
  dynamic-ratio     Specifies a range of numbers that you want the system to use in conjunction with the ratio load balancing method. The default value is 1.
  inherit-profile   Specifies whether the pool member inherits the encapsulation profile from the parent pool. The default value is enabled. If you disable inheritance, no encapsulation takes place, unless you specify another encapsulation profile for the pool member
                    using the profiles attribute.
  logging           Specifies whether the pool member's monitor(s) actions will be logged. Logs are stored in /var/log/monitors/
  metadata          User defined generic data for the pool member. It is a name and value pair. Specifies the encapsulation metadata to use for the pool member.
  monitor           Displays the health monitors that are configured to monitor the pool member, and the status of each monitor. The default value is default.
  priority-group    Specifies the priority group within the pool for this pool member. The priority group number specifies that traffic is directed to that member before being directed to a member of a lower priority. The default value is 0.
  profiles          Specifies the encapsulation profile to use for the pool member, when the inherit-profile attribute is disabled. The default value is none.
  rate-limit        Specifies the maximum number of connections per second allowed for a pool member. The default value is 'disabled'.
  ratio             Specifies the ratio weight that you want to assign to the pool member. The default value is 1.
  session           Enables or disables the pool member for new sessions. The default value is user-enabled.
  state             user-down forces the pool member offline, overriding monitors. user-up reverts the user-down. When user-up, this displays the monitor state.
Property Groups:
  fqdn              Specifies the node's fully qualified domain name (FQDN) attributes.

I believe that session down will prevent new connections to that pool member, so you would slowly drain the connections to a point that the pool member would have zero connections.

The state down marks de pool member as offline, so all connections would be dropped immediately.

Session disabled = marking the pool member as disabled on the GUI

State disabled = marking the pool member as "forced offline" on the GUI

Cheers! Rafael