4

A Simple Intranet Configuration

• Working with a simple intranet configuration
• Additional configuration options

Working with a simple intranet configuration

The simple intranet solution described in this chapter is commonly found in a corporate intranet (Figure 4.1). In this scenario, the BIG-IP Controller performs load balancing for several different types of connection requests:

• HTTP connections to the company's intranet web site. The BIG-IP Controller load balances the two web servers that host corporate intranet web site, Corporate.main.net.
• HTTP connections to Internet content. These are handled though a pair of cache servers, also load balanced by the BIG-IP Controller.
• Non-HTTP connections the Internet.
  
  

Figure 4.1 A simple intranet configuration

As Figure 4.1 shows, the non-intranet connections are handled by wildcard virtual servers, that is, servers with the IP address 0.0.0.0 (or * or "any"). The wildcard virtual server handling traffic to the cache servers is port specific, specifying port 80 for HTTP requests. This way all HTTP requests not matching an IP address on the intranet are directed to the cache server. The wildcard virtual server handling non-HTTP requests is a default wildcard server. A default wildcard virtual server is one that uses only port 0 (or any or * or "" [blank string]). This makes it a catch-all match for outgoing traffic that does not match any standard virtual server or any port-specific wildcard virtual server.

Creating the simple intranet configuration

To create this configuration, you need to complete the following tasks in order:

• Create load balancing pools
  Create pools for the intranet servers you want to load balance and one for the cache server.
• Create virtual servers
  Create the virtual servers for each pool and for the non-HTTP requests.

Defining the pools

Define the two load balancing pools, one for the internal servers, the other for the cache servers.

To create pools using the Configuration utility

1. In the navigation pane, click Pools.
   The Pools screen opens.
2. Click the Add button.
   The Add Pool screen opens.
3. In the Add Pool screen, configure the pool attributes. For additional information about configuring a pool, click the Help button.
   
   

   Configuration notes

   · For this example, you would create two pools: http_pool and specificport_pool.

   · http_pool has members 192.168.100.10:80 and 192.168.100.11:80.

   · specificport_pool has members 192.168.100.20:80 and 192.168.100.21:80.

To create the pools from the command line

To define a pool from the command line, use the following syntax:

b pool <pool_name> { member <member_definition> ... member <member_definition>}

To create the pools http_pool and specificport_pool from the command line, you type the following commands:

b pool http_pool { member 192.168.100.10:80 member 192.168.100.11:80 }

b pool specificport_pool { member 192.168.100.20:80 member 192.168.100.20:80}

Defining the virtual servers

The next step in a basic configuration is to define the virtual servers that reference http_pool and specificport_pool, respectively, and a default forwarding virtual server.

To define the virtual servers using the Configuration utility

1. In the navigation pane, click Virtual Servers.
   The Virtual Servers screen opens.
2. Click the Add button.
   The Add Virtual Server screen opens.
3. In the Add Virtual Server screen, configure the virtual server attributes. For additional information about configuring a virtual server, click the Help button.
   
   

   Configuration notes

   For this example, create three virtual servers:

   · 192.168.200.30:80 using http_pool

   · 0.0.0.0:80 using specificport_pool

   · 0.0.0.0:0 as forwarding server (no pool)

To define the virtual servers from the command line

To define a virtual server from the command line, use the following syntax:

b virtual <virt IP>:<port> use pool <pool_name>

You can use standard service names in place of port numbers. If you have DNS configured, you can also use host names in place of IP addresses.

The following commands define virtual servers that map to the pools http_pool and specificport_pool, respectively, and a forwarding virtual server:

b virtual 192.168.200.30:80 use pool http_pool

b virtual 0.0.0.0:80 use pool specificport_pool

b virtual 0.0.0.0:0 forward

Additional configuration options

Whenever you configure a BIG-IP Controller, a number of options are available to you:

• You have the option in all configurations to configure a redundant BIG-IP Controller for fail-over. Refer to Redundant Systems in the BIG-IP Reference Guide, Chapter 1, Configuring the BIG-IP Controller.
• All configurations have health monitoring options. Refer to Health Monitors in the BIG-IP Reference Guide, Chapter 1, Configuring the BIG-IP Controller.
• When you create a pool, there is an option to set up persistence and a choice of load balancing methods. Refer to Pools in the BIG-IP Reference Guide, Chapter 1, Configuring the BIG-IP Controller.