Applies To:
Show Versions
BIG-IP AAM
- 14.0.1, 14.0.0, 13.1.5, 13.1.4, 13.1.3, 13.1.1, 13.1.0, 13.0.1, 13.0.0, 12.1.5, 12.1.3, 12.1.2, 12.1.1, 12.1.0, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
BIG-IP APM
- 14.0.1, 14.0.0, 13.1.5, 13.1.4, 13.1.3, 13.1.1, 13.1.0, 13.0.1, 13.0.0, 12.1.6, 12.1.5, 12.1.3, 12.1.2, 12.1.1, 12.1.0, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
BIG-IP GTM
- 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
BIG-IP Link Controller
- 14.0.1, 14.0.0, 13.1.5, 13.1.4, 13.1.3, 13.1.1, 13.1.0, 13.0.1, 13.0.0, 12.1.6, 12.1.5, 12.1.3, 12.1.2, 12.1.1, 12.1.0, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
BIG-IP Analytics
- 14.0.1, 14.0.0, 13.1.5, 13.1.4, 13.1.3, 13.1.1, 13.1.0, 13.0.1, 13.0.0, 12.1.6, 12.1.5, 12.1.3, 12.1.2, 12.1.1, 12.1.0, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
BIG-IP LTM
- 14.0.1, 14.0.0, 13.1.5, 13.1.4, 13.1.3, 13.1.1, 13.1.0, 13.0.1, 13.0.0, 12.1.6, 12.1.5, 12.1.3, 12.1.2, 12.1.1, 12.1.0, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
BIG-IP PEM
- 14.0.1, 14.0.0, 13.1.5, 13.1.4, 13.1.3, 13.1.1, 13.1.0, 13.0.1, 13.0.0, 12.1.6, 12.1.5, 12.1.3, 12.1.2, 12.1.1, 12.1.0, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
BIG-IP AFM
- 14.0.1, 14.0.0, 13.1.5, 13.1.4, 13.1.3, 13.1.1, 13.1.0, 13.0.1, 13.0.0, 12.1.6, 12.1.5, 12.1.3, 12.1.2, 12.1.1, 12.1.0, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
BIG-IP DNS
- 14.0.1, 14.0.0, 13.1.5, 13.1.4, 13.1.3, 13.1.1, 13.1.0, 13.0.1, 13.0.0, 12.1.6, 12.1.5, 12.1.3, 12.1.2, 12.1.1, 12.1.0
BIG-IP ASM
- 14.0.1, 14.0.0, 13.1.5, 13.1.4, 13.1.3, 13.1.1, 13.1.0, 13.0.1, 13.0.0, 12.1.6, 12.1.5, 12.1.3, 12.1.2, 12.1.1, 12.1.0, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
About data groups
Data groups are useful when writing iRules. A data group is simply a group of related elements, such as a set of IP addresses for AOL clients. When you specify a data group along with the class match command or the contains operator, you eliminate the need to list multiple values as arguments in an iRule expression.
You can define three types of data groups: address, integer, and string.
The BIG-IP system includes three pre-configured data groups: private_net, images, and aol.
To understand the usefulness of data groups, it is helpful to first understand the class match command and the contains operator.
About the class match command
The BIG-IP system includes an iRule command called class, with a match option, which you can use to select a pool based on whether the command being used in the iRule represents a member of a specific data group. When you use the class command, the BIG-IP system knows that the string following the identifier is the name of a data group.
For example, using the class command, you can cause the BIG-IP system to load balance all incoming AOL connections to the pool aol_pool, if the value of the IP::remote_addr command is a member of the data group AOL. In this case, the class match command simply indicates that the object named aol is a collection of values (that is, a data group).
when CLIENT_ACCEPTED { if { [class match [IP::remote_addr] equals aol] } { pool aol_pool } else { pool all_pool } }Storage options
With Local Traffic Manager, you can store data groups in two ways, either in-line or externally.
In-line storage
When you create data groups, Local Traffic Manager automatically saves them in their entirety in the bigip.conf file. This type of storage is known as in-line storage.
In general, in-line storage uses additional system resources due to extensive searching requirements on large data groups. For this reason, Local Traffic Manager offers you the ability to store your data groups externally, that is, outside of the bigip.conf file file.
External storage
You have the option to store data groups in another location on the BIG-IP system, that is, outside of the bigip.conf file. Such data groups are called external data groups. Because the data group is stored externally in another location, the bigip.conf file itself contains only the filename and meta-data for the data group. The data in an externally-stored data group file is stored as a comma-separated list of values (CSV format).
To create an external data group, you first import a file from another location, using the System options of the BIG-IP Configuration utility. You then use the Local Traffic iRules screens to create an external data group that is based on the imported file.
External data groups can scale to greater than 10,000,000 entries, depending on platform hardware and available memory (8 GB, or more, memory is recommended). Data groups with larger data items can be supported with fewer entries. Additionally, updates to external data groups are completely atomic: for example, the system updates a data group only after the new data successfully completes loading. You can use the command [class exists xyz] to check whether a data group has finished loading.
About file import for data groups
Using the BIG-IP Configuration utility, you can import an external file that contains content that you want to use in a data group. When you import an existing file to the BIG-IP system, the BIG-IP system then creates a data group that contains the specified type of file content (address, string, or integer).
