Common Elements for Diameter message routing Tasks

On the Main tab, click

Local Traffic

Profiles

Message Routing

Diameter

.

The Diameter session profiles list screen opens.

On the Main tab, click

iApps

Application Services

Applications LX

.

The Application Service List screen opens.

On the Main tab, click

iApps

Package Management LX

.

The Package Management LX screen appears.

Click

Import

.

For the

File Name

setting, click

Browse

to navigate to the Diameter Configuration Wizard RPM package, and then click

Open

to upload the package.

The Diameter Configuration Wizard RPM package is named

diameterConfigurationWizard-xx.x.x-x.xx.x.xxx.noarch.rpm

.

Click

Upload

.

The Diameter Configuration Wizard RPM package uploads to the Applications Service List screen.

Click

Create

.

The New Diameter Session Profile screen opens.

Click the name of a Diameter application.

The default iApps LX Diameter application is

Diameter Configuration Wizard

.

In the

Name

field, type a unique name for the diameter session profile.

From the

Parent Profile

list, select a profile from which the new profile inherits properties.

Add a description.

In the General Properties area, for the

Description

field, select the check box.

In the

Description

field, type a description.

For the Settings area, select the

Custom

check box to enable editing, and specify the following parameters.

In the

Dynamic Route Insertion

field, select the check box to create a dynamic route for the connection.

In the

Dynamic Route Lookup

field, select the check box to have a previously created dynamic route consulted when routing a message.

In the

Loop Detection

field, select the

Enabled

check box for insertion of route-record AVP and also rejection of looped messages.

In the

Handshake Timeout

field, type the number of seconds before the handshake to a peer times out.

In the

Maximum Watchdog Failures

field, type the maximum number of device watchdog failures that the traffic management system can receive before it tears down the connection.

If the number of device watchdog failures exceeds the specified value, and the

Reset on Timeout

check box is selected, then the connection will be reset. If the number of device watchdog failures is greater than 3 times the specified value, the connection will be reset, even if the

Reset on Timeout

check box is cleared.

Select the

Reset on Timeout

check box to reset the connection when watchdog failures exceed the specified number of maximum watchdog failures.

In the

Watchdog Timeout

field, type the number of seconds that a client-side or server-side connection can be idle before a device watchdog request (DWR) is sent.

The default value of

0

prevents sending a DWR.

In the

Maximum Message Size

field, type the maximum number of bytes allowed for a message.

For the Persistence area, select the

Custom

check box and specify the following parameters.

From the

Persist Type

list, select a type of persistence.

Setting	Description
None	Disables persistence.
AVP	Enables persistence as determined by the AVP within the message.
Custom	Enables persistence as determined by a custom key specified within an iRule.

In the

Persist AVP

field, type an expression for the session-key that identifies the Diameter AVP.

In the

Persist Timeout

field, type a timeout value for persistence entries in seconds.

For the Rewrite area, select the

Custom

check box and specify the following parameters.

In the

Origin Host Rewrite

field, type a value to use in rewriting the Origin-Host AVP on egress.

This value applies to all Diameter messages and can override specified Capabilities Handshake AVP values.

In the

Origin Realm Rewrite

field, type a value to use in rewriting the Origin-Realm AVP on egress.

This value applies to all Diameter messages and can override specified Capabilities Handshake AVP values.

In the

Destination Host Rewrite

field, type a value to use in rewriting the Destination-Host AVP on egress.

In the

Destination Realm Rewrite

field, type a value to use in rewriting the Destination-Realm AVP on egress.

For the Capabilities Handshake area, select the

Custom

check box and specify the following parameters.

You must configure these settings to initiate Capabilities-Exchange-Request (CER) handshake requests to downstream peers, as well as to provide Capabilities-Exchange-Answer (CEA) responses to upstream peers within Device-Watchdog-Request (DWR), Device-Watchdog-Answer (DWA), Disconnect-Peer-Request (DPR), and Disconnect-Peer-Answer (DPA) messages.

In the

Origin Host

field, type an identifier for the originating server, for example,

siteserver.f5.com

.

If the

Origin Host

setting is not specified, the BIG-IP system host is used.

In the

Origin Realm

field, type an identifier for the originating realm, for example,

f5

.

If the

Origin Realm

setting is not specified, the BIG-IP system realm is used.

In the

Vendor ID

field, type the vendor identification number assigned to the diameter server by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).

You can use a vendor-specific

vendor-id

,

auth-application-id

, or

acct-application-id

.

In the

Product Name

field, type a vendor-assigned name for the product.

In the

Authentication Application ID

field, type the AAA identifier for a specific application.

In the

Accounting Application ID

field, type the accounting identifier for a specific application.

From the Retransmission area, select the

Custom

check box and specify the following parameters.

From the

Retransmission Action

list, select an action when retransmission is triggered for a request message.

Setting	Description
Disabled	Disables retransmission functionality.
Busy	Sends back a response to the client with the error DIAMETER_TOO_BUSY (3004).
Unable	Sends back a response to the client with the error DIAMETER_UNABLE_TO_DELIVER (3002).
Retransmit	Retransmits the original request message. The destination chosen depends on the message routing persistence and route lookup. By default (unless iRules are used), the message is resent to the same peer again. The Diameter error may then have to be transitory (i.e. 4*** Error Code) for retransmission to be beneficial.

In the

Retransmission Timeout

field, type the number of seconds the message routing framework (MRF) will wait before retransmitting if no response is received. The default is

5

seconds.

In the

Array of Retransmission Result Codes

field, type a number that specifies the error response RESULT-CODES, which can trigger a retransmission action like retransmission.

In the

Retransmission Queue Maximum Messages

field, type a number for the the maximum number of messages that may be held in the retransmission queue.

If a request message is received that is enabled for retransmission, and the retransmission queue has reached its configured limit, a busy answer (DIAMETER_TOO_BUSY) is returned to the originator.

In the

Retransmission Queue Maximum Bytes

field, type the maximum number of bytes that may be held in the retransmission message queue.

If a request message is received that is enabled for retransmission, and the retransmission queue has reached its configured limit, a busy answer (DIAMETER_TOO_BUSY) is returned to the originator.

In the

Retransmission Queue Low Limit

field, type a number that specifies, in percent, the low watermark for the retransmission queue.

When the queue drops below the

Retransmission Queue Low Limit

, the TCP window reopens. This happens by default at a 60% queue depth.

In the

Retransmission Queue High Limit

field, type a number that specifies in percent, the high watermark for the retransmission queue.

When the

Retransmission Queue High Limit

is exceeded, the TCP window starts closing. This happens by default at a 90% queue depth.

On the menu bar, click

Transport Config

.

The Diameter screen opens.

Click

Create

.

The New Transport Config screen opens.

In the

Name

field, type a unique name for the transport configuration.

For the

Profiles

setting, select a profile from the

Available

list, and move it to the

Selected

list.

For the

Profiles

setting, move both a transport protocol profile (TCP, UDP, or SCTP) and a Diameter session profile from the

Available

list to the

Selected

list.

You can only associate one protocol profile and one session profile with each transport configuration.

For the

iRules

setting, select an iRule from the

Available

list, and move it to the

Selected

list.

In the

Source Port

field, type the number of the port this transport configuration uses to connect to the servers on your network.

From the

Source Address Translation

list, select an option to define how this transport configuration implements selective and intelligent source address translation. The default is

Auto Map

.

Option	Description
SNAT	The system uses the specified SNAT pool for source address translation.
Auto Map	The system uses the self IP addresses of BIG-IP as the translation addresses.
None	The system does not translate source addresses.

On the menu bar, click

Peers

.

The Peers list screen opens.

Click

Create

.

The New Peer screen opens.

In the

Name

field, type a unique name for the peer.

In the

Description

field, type a description of the peer.

From the

Connection Mode

list, select an option to specify how connections are distributed to a remote host.

Option	Description
Per Blade	The number of connections are distributed and controlled per blade on a VIPRION system.
Per Peer	(Default) The number of connections to a remote host is per peer.
Per TMM	The number of connections to a remote host is per TMM on the BIG-IP system.
Per Client	The number of connections to a remote host is per client connection. Responses are delivered to the connection initiating the request. This option is typically used when implementing a firewall, because of its restrictive functionality.

The configured

Connection Mode

,

Number of Connections

, and

Ratio

settings determine how the BIG-IP system uses connections to pool members in delivering messages.

From the

Pool

list, select the pool of servers to which the system load balances Diameter messages.

If you configure only one peer on this BIG-IP system, ensure that you select a pool with only one member.

If a peer does not specify a pool, the BIG-IP system uses the destination IP address and port of the ingress message's connection. If a peer specifies a pool without pool members, the message is unroutable.

From the

Pool

list, select the pool of servers to which the system load balances Diameter messages.

In the case where the calls should be always sent to a single SIP Server, you will still need to create a pool with a single member (the SIP Server) and add the same to the peer.

From the

Transport Config

list, select the transport configuration that defines the egress message routing peer connection.

In the

Number of Connections

field, type the number of allowed connections between the BIG-IP system and the servers in the selected pool.

In the

Ratio

field, type the ratio assigned to this peer for use within a static route.

On the menu bar, click

Static Routes

.

The static routes list screen opens.

Click

Create

.

The New Route screen opens.

In the

Name

field, type a unique name for the static route.

In the

Description

field, type a description.

In the

Application ID

field, type the identifier matching the application-id in the Diameter message. A value of

0

matches every application-id.

In the

Destination Realm

field, type the destination realm matching the Destination-Realm AVP value in the message.

A blank value routes all destination-realms.

In the

Origin Realm

field, type the origin realm matching the Origin-Realm AVP value in the message.

A blank value routes all origin-realms.

From the

Virtual Server

list, select the virtual server from which the system receives client requests for this static route.

If you do not select a virtual server, the system uses this static route to route messages originating from any client.

From the

Peer Selection Mode

list, select an option to specify how the system selects the Peer to route a message to:

Option	Description
Ratio	Peer selection is based on the ratio that is set for each peer in the Selected list.
Sequential	Peer selection is based on the order of the peers in the Selected list.

For the

Peers

setting, move, from the

Available

list to the

Selected

list, the peers that define the servers to which the system load balances or routes messages.

Entries in the

Selected

list are not prioritized; consequently, the order of items appearing in the list is not enforced.

Click

Finished

.

In the Statistics Collection Settings area, for the

Per Peer Stats Collection

setting, select the check box to enable capturing profile-specific stats per pool member.

On the menu bar, click

Router Profiles

.

The Router Profiles list screen opens.

Click

Create

.

The New Diameter Router Profile screen opens.

In the

Name

field, type a unique name for the diameter session profile.

From the

Parent Profile

list, select a profile from which the new profile inherits properties.

For the

Description

setting, select the check box at the right, and type a description in the field.

Click

Save

.

At the top of the Settings area, select the

Custom

check box.

For the

Use Per-Message iRule Scope

setting, select the check box to specify iRule events are scoped to the message executing.

The default, disabled, is when all Diameter iRule events are scoped to the connection flow; all share a single execution context per flow.

Select the

Use Local Connection

check box to specify that connections established by the ingress TMM are preferred to connections that are established by another TMM when selecting an egress connection to a destination peer.

In the

Maximum Pending Messages

field, type the maximum number of pending messages held while waiting for a connection to a peer to be created.

If the specified value is reached, any additional messages to the peer will be undeliverable, and held messages are delivered to the peer.

In the

Maximum Pending Bytes

field, type the maximum number of bytes contained within pending messages that will be held while waiting for a connection to a peer to be created.

If the specified value is reached, any additional messages to the peer will be undeliverable, and held messages are delivered to the peer.

In the

Maximum Connection Retries

field, type the maximum number of attempts to retry connecting to a peer.

If the specified value is reached, all pending messages will be undeliverable and returned to the originator.

In the

Connection Retry Interval

field, type the period in seconds to wait before attempting to retry connecting to a peer.

In the

Transaction Timeout

field, type the maximum number of seconds the system allows for a transaction, that is, the time between a request and response.

When the system receives a provisional response, the timer restarts.

For use with connection mirroring, configure the

Traffic Group

setting:

Clear the

Inherit traffic group from current partition / path

check box.

From the list, select a traffic group, such as,

traffic-group-1

Changing traffic groups with Connection Mirroring enabled drops all mirrored connections and loses all persistence data. If you change traffic groups, mirroring must restart.

Select the

Connection Mirroring

check box.

For connection mirroring to properly function, this device must be a member of a device group.

In the

HA Message Sweeper Interval

field, type a value (in milliseconds) for the frequency of the mirrored message sweeper.

For the

Static Routes

setting, select a static route from the

Available

list, and move it to the

Selected

list.

In the Diameter Configuration Wizard, click the System Configuration tab, and then click the Routing Destinations tab.

The Routing Destinations screen opens.

In the

Destination

field, type an address for the static route destination.

From the

Pool Selection Mode

list, select one of the following settings:

Setting	Description
By Precedence	Specifies a sequential selection of pools based on availability. If only one pool is specified, the virtual server directs all traffic to it. If two or more pools are specified, the virtual server sends traffic to the next pool in the specified sequence (top to bottom) when the nodes in the preceding pool are down.
By Percents	Specifies a percentage of traffic for each specified pool. If only one pool is specified, the virtual server directs all traffic to it. If two or more pools are specified, the virtual server manages traffic sent to each pool in accordance with the specified percentage. You can drag the slider bar to specify a percentage for a pool.

From the

Pools

list, select a Diameter pool.

Click

Add Pool

to specify an additional pool for the routing destination, as necessary.

Click

Add Destination

to add another routing destination, as necessary.

For each pool, do one of the following:

Pool Selection Mode	Steps
By Precedence	In the Pools area, from the Pools list, sequentially select each pool, from top to bottom.
By Percents	In the Pools area, do one of the following for each selected pool: Drag the slider bar for each selected pool to specify the applicable percentage of traffic. In the percent field, type the applicable percentage of traffic.

Click

Save

to save the routing destinations configuration.

In the Diameter Configuration Wizard, click the Routing tab.

The Routing screen opens.

From the

All Virtual Servers

list, select the virtual server to which you want to assign the routing decision.

The default is

All Virtual Servers

.

In the Default Route area, from the

Action

list, select an action.

Click

Add

to configure an additional routing decision, as necessary.

Controls to configure a protocol, its attributes, and an associated action open.

From the

Protocol

list, select a protocol.

From the

Attribute

list, select a heading.

From the

Expression

list, select an expression.

For the Value setting, do one of the following:

From the

Value

list, select a value for the expression.

In the

Value

field, type a value for the expression.

To specify an additional attribute, expression, and value for the selected protocol, click the plus (

+

) button, and then configure the applicable routing decision parameters.

From the

Action

list, select an action.

From the

Destination

list, select a destination.

Depending upon the Action that you select, the Destination list and associated paramenters might not appear.

Click

More Options

, and then, in the

Description

field, type a description for the configured routing decision.

In the

Origin Host

field, type an identifier for the originating server, for example,

siteserver.f5.com

.

If the

Origin Host

setting is not specified, the BIG-IP system host is used.

To display the

Origin Host

field, from the Action list, select

Reject

,

Redirect

, or

Terminate

.

In the

Origin Realm

field, type the origin realm matching the Origin-Realm AVP value in the message.

A blank value routes all origin-realms.

To display the

Origin Realm

field, from the Action list, select

Reject

,

Redirect

, or

Terminate

.

Click

Active

.

Click

Add VS

to configure another routing decision, and assign it to a virtual server.

Click

Save

to save the routing decisions configuration.

In the Diameter Configuration Wizard, click the System Configuration tab, and then click the List of Values tab.

In the

List Name

field, type a name for the list.

In the

Description

field, type a unique description for the list of values.

Click

Show List of Values

.

In the

List of Values

field, type a value.

To specify an additional value for the list, in the

Add Values

area, click the plus (

+

) button, and then, in the

List of Values

field, type a value..

Click

Add List

to configure an additional list, as necessary.

Click

Save

to save the configured lists of values.

In the Diameter Configuration Wizard, click the System Configuration tab, and then click the Nodes tab.

The Nodes screen opens.

In the

Node Name

field, type the name for the node.

In the

Address

field, type the address for the node.

In the

Description

field, type a description for the node.

Click

Add Node

to configure an additional node, as necessary.

Click

Save

to save the configured nodes.

In the Diameter Configuration Wizard, click the System Configuration tab, and then click the Pools tab.

The Pools screen opens.

In the

Pool Name

field, type the name of the pool.

In the

Description

field, type a description for the pool.

Add the applicable pool member destination nodes to the pool.

Click the

Show Pool Members

button.

For each pool member, click the

Add Pool Member

plus (

+

) button.

From the

Pool Members

list, select a pool member destination node.

In the

Port Number

field, type the port number.

Click

More Options

.

From the

Protocol

list, select one of the following protocols to use with Diameter servers.

TCP

SCTP

TLS/TCP

From the

Protocol

list, select

SCTP

.

From the

Protocol

list, select

TCP

.

From the

Protocol

list, select

TLS/TCP

.

Configure SCTP multihoming functionality for Diameter servers.

Select the

Enable Multihoming

check box.

In the

Alternative Source IPs

field, type the address for an alternative BIG-IP destination address that a server can use.

For each additional

Alternative Source IPs

address, click the plus (

+

) button to add the source IP address, as necessary.

Click

Add Pool

to configure an additional Diameter pool, as necessary.

Click

Save

to save the configured pools.

In the Diameter Configuration Wizard, click the System Configuration tab, and then click the Virtual Servers tab.

The Virtual Servers screen opens.

In the

Virtual Server Name

field, type the name of the virtual server.

In the

Virtual Ip

field, type the IP address for the virtual server.

In the

Port Number

field, type the port number for the virtual server.

From the

Client Transport Protocol

list, select one of the following protocols to use with Diameter clients.

TCP

SCTP

TLS/TCP

Configure SCTP multihoming functionality for Diameter clients.

Select the

Enable Multihoming

check box.

In the

Alternative Destination IPs

field, type the address for an alternative BIG-IP destination that a client can use.

For each additional

Alternative Destination IPs

address, click the plus (

+

) button to add the destination IP address, as necessary.

Click

Add Virtual Server

to configure an additional Diameter virtual server, as necessary.

Click

Save

to save the configured virtual servers.

In the Diameter Configuration Wizard, click the Transformations tab.

The Transformation screen opens.

From the

All Virtual Servers

list, select the virtual server to which you want to assign the transformation.

The default is

All Virtual Servers

.

From the

Protocol

list, select a protocol for transformation.

From the

Attribute

list, select an attribute.

From the

Expression

list, select an expression.

In the

Value

field, do one of the following:

Select a transformation value from the list.

Type a value.

For each additional

Attribute

, click the plus (

+

) button to add the parameters, as necessary.

From the

Operation

list, select an operation.

From the

Attribute

list for the operation, select a protocol attribute.

In the

Value

field for the operation, do one of the following.

Select a transformation value from the list.

Type a value.

For each additional

Operation

, click the plus (

+

) button to add the parameters, as necessary.

Click

More Options

.

In the

Description

field, type a description for the transformation.

Select the check box for each transformation that you want to enable, and then click

Enable

.

Click

Active

.

Click

Save

to save the configured transformations.

In the Diameter Configuration Wizard, click the Session Management tab.

The Session Management screen opens.

Select the

Session Management

check box.

In the

Session Timeout

field, type a timeout value for the session persistence in minutes.

Select the

Session Binding

check box to configure a master-only or a master-slave persistence session.

In the Master Session area, from the

Protocol

list, select a protocol.

From the

AVP

list, select an AVP attribute to apply to the master session.

In the Slave Sessions area, from the

Protocol

list, select a protocol.

From the

AVP to use for resolving

list, select an AVP attribute.

For Master-Slave persistence, the specified AVP value for a Slave session must match the specified AVP value for a Master session, in order for the Slave messages to be routed according to a different protocol interface for a Master session.

From the

AVP to use in Master Session for persistence

list, select an AVP attribute.

The default setting is

Same as Slave session AVP

.

Click

Add Row

to add another slave session protocol configuration, as necessary.

Click

Save

to save the session management configuration.

In the Diameter Configuration Wizard, click the Dictionaries tab.

The Dictionaries screen opens.

Click the name of a dictionary XML file to download the file.

The XML file downloads to the workstation.

Open the dictionary XML file in an editor application, modify the content, as necessary, and save the file.

Click

Upload

, click

Browse

to navigate to the modified dictionary XML file, and then click

Open

to upload the modified dictionary XML file.

Click

Rename

to rename the applicable Diameter dictionary XML file.

In the

New Dictionary Name

field, type a new name for the Diameter dictionary.

Select the check box for the applicable dictionary.

Click

Delete Dictionary

to remove the applicable dictionary.

Subscriptions

Product Usage

Trials

Registration Keys

Downloads

Applies To:

BIG-IP LTM

Common Elements for Diameter message routing Tasks

Have a Question?

About F5

Education

F5 Sites

Support Tasks

Subscriptions

Product Usage

Trials

Registration Keys

Downloads

Applies To:

BIG-IP LTM

Common Elements for Diameter message routing Tasks

Have a Question?

Follow Us

About F5

Education

F5 Sites

Support Tasks