Rule Status - Field Help

Current Statistics

Name
The name you chose for the rule. This name can contain any alphanumeric character, underscore, hyphen, or period. It may be from 1 to 20 characters and cannot contain any blanks.

Rule type
The type of the rule. Possible types are:
  • ip - based on the client IP address.
  • time - based on the time of day.
  • connections - based on the number of connections per second for the port.
  • active - based on the number of active connections total for the port.
  • port - based on the client port.
  • content - based on the client uniform resource locator (URL) request.

Configuration source
This is applicable only when the WAS configuration file is mapped to the CBR configuration. If this file has been mapped then the setting here will indicate that the configuration source is WAS, otherwise it will indicate that the configuration source is user.

Times fired
The number of times this rule has fired either since it was added or since the last time the executor was restarted.

Pattern
Only applicable if you selected Content for the rule type. Enter the pattern syntax you want to use, using the following restrictions:
  • no spaces
  • special characters: (unless you precede the character with a "\")
    '*' : wildcard (matches 0 to x of any character)
    '(' : used for logic grouping
    ')' : used for logic grouping
    '&' : logical AND
    '|' : logical OR
    '!' : logical NOT
    
  • reserved keywords (always followed by '='):
    Method   : used by the HTTP protocol, in a translation, 
               to retrieve a request. For example, GET, POST and 
               so forth.
    URI      : path of the URL request
    Version  : specific version of the request, either 
               HTTP/1.0 or HTTP/1.1
    Host     : value from the host: header
               Note:optional in HTTP/1.0 protocols
    [key]    : any valid HTTP header name that Dispatcher
               can search for.  For example, User-Agent,
               Connection, referer, and so forth.
    

Examples: A browser targeting http://www.company.com/path/webpage.htm might result in values such as the following:

 
   Method=GET
   URI=/path/webpage.htm
   Version=HTTP/1.1
   Host=www.company.com
   Connection=Keep-Alive

For more information regarding pattern syntax, as well as scenarios, please see the "Configure rules-based load balancing" and the "Content rule (pattern) syntax" sections of the Load Balancer Administration Guide.



Configuration Settings

If applicable, edit any of the following configuration settings on the Rule Status panel and click Update Configuration.

Begin range
The lower value in the range used to determine whether or not the rule is true. The kind of value and its default depends on the type of rule:
  • ip - the address of the client as either a symbolic name or in dotted-decimal format. The default value is 0.0.0.0.
  • time - an integer. The default value is 0, representing midnight.
  • connections - an integer. The default value is 0.
  • active - an integer. The default value is 0.

End range
The higher value in the range used to determine whether or not the rule is true. The kind of value and its default depends on the type of rule:
  • ip - the address of the client as either a symbolic name or in dotted-decimal format. The default value is 255.255.255.254.
  • time - an integer. The default value is 24, representing midnight.
  • connections - an integer. The default value is 2 to the 32nd power minus 1.
  • active - an integer. The default value is 2 to the 32nd power minus 1.

Priority (optional)
An integer representing the order in which rules are reviewed. If no priority is given to the first rule you set, by default it will be given a priority value of 1 and evaluated first. The next rule will then be given a priority value of 11 and evaluated second, (last priority value + 10, in this case 1 + 10), third rule = 21, fourth rule = 31, and so forth. The rules are evaluated in numerical order, lower numbers taking precedence over higher ones.

Affinity type
The default for the affinity option is none. Rules based affinity only applies to the CBR component or to the Dispatcher component's cbr forwarding method.

The stickytime option on the port command must be zero (not enabled) in order to set the affinity option on the rule command. When affinity is set on the rule, you cannot enable stickytime on the port.

Choose the type of affinity you want on this rule. Choices are:

  • No rule affinity - default option means there is no affinity for the rule.
  • Passive cookie affinity - allows you to load-balance web traffic with affinity to the same server, based on self-identifying cookies generated by the servers. This is used in conjunction with the "Cookie Name" on the rule along with the "Cookie Value" on the server.
  • URI affinity - allows you to load-balance Web traffic to same server based on the client requested URL. This is intended for scenarios where CBR is balancing caching proxies, in order to minimize the amount of necessary caching.
  • Active cookie affinity - allows you to load-balance Web traffic with affinity to the same server, based on a CBR generated cookie which identifies the chosen server. This generated cookie has an affinity of the rule's stickytime after which the cookie expires.
  • WAS affinity - applies only when a WAS configuration file is mapped to the CBR configuration. This is not a user-settable field.

Cookie name
An arbitrary name set by the administrator, that acts as an identifier to Load Balancer. The cookie name, along with the cookie value, acts as an identifier to Load Balancer allowing Load Balancer to send subsequent requests of a Web site to the same server machine. The cookie name value is only applicable to passive cookie affinity.

Sticky time
The stickytime value is only applicable to active cookie. Sticky time is used to create an affinity relationship between a client and a specific server. After the sticky time has been exceeded, the client may be sent to a server different from the previous. The default value is 0, meaning that the rule is not sticky.

By setting the affinity field to active cookie and setting the sticky time of the rule to a positive number, you can provide a new way to make clients sticky to a particular server. Once a rule has been enabled for active cookie affinity, new client requests will be load-balanced using standard CBR algorithms, and succeeding requests from the same client will be sent to the initially chosen server.

Level to Evaluate
Valid only for Total Connections,and Active Connections rules. Choose between evaluating all of the servers on the port or only the servers on the rule. The Total Connections (Per Second) rule also allows the evaluation to be based on the current servers on the rule with a positive weight.


Lists

List of Servers
Shows the addresses of servers currently associated with the rule.


List of backup servers
This only applies when a WAS configuration file is mapped to the CBR configuration. This is not an editable table and will only change when the WAS configuration file is changed and reloaded into the CBR configuration.