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Miron_du_Plessi's avatar
Miron_du_Plessi
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Sep 27, 2010

Hiding Web Server

Hi,

 

 

We have a current requirement that involves serving web content from two separate web servers trying to make them look like the same from the clients perspective. (this is for migration purposes) Essentially what we would like is if the new web server(A) does not have the content the user requests , the BIGIP through an irule will capture the 404 error from A then itself check if the content exists on B and serve it to the client.

 

 

This is so that the client does not have to be given a redirect to the old server and is therefore oblivious to where the content was retrieved. Currently we have only been able to have the LTM redirect the client. so the client makes a connection to www.a.com/oldcontent they will get a redirect top www.b.com/oldcontent so the client willl see the difference. do you know if it is possible to hide the webserver.

 

 

Kind Regards Miron
  • Are you currently having a monitor check for that content's existence? It sounds like you want to send all users to the new server and if it's down, send to the old server? You could have a monitor doing a content check and then use Priority Group Activation to only send traffic to the proper node...or are you trying to handle any possible 404 the server could send?
  • Chris,

     

     

    We are not using a monitor because the server (a) is not down.

     

     

    The first server is the new server with limited content. If the user tries to request content that doesnt yet exist on the first then the LB should request it from the older server.

     

    As time goes by and content is migrated from old to new, the amount of times the lb needs to check the second server will reduce until it it zero(no more content on the old)

     

     

    What we want to make sure it that it looks as transparent to the user as possible.

     

     

    Miron
  • Gotcha, so basically send everything to Server A but when Server A sends a 404, resend the request to Server B?
  • Here's some info in the other post:

     

     

    http://devcentral.f5.com/Community/GroupDetails/tabid/1082223/aff/31/afv/topic/aft/1173087/afc/1197818/Default.aspx

     

     

    Aaron