Applies To:
Show Versions
BIG-IP AAM
- 11.6.5, 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
BIG-IP APM
- 11.6.5, 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
BIG-IP GTM
- 11.6.5, 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
BIG-IP Analytics
- 11.6.5, 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
BIG-IP Link Controller
- 11.6.5, 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
BIG-IP LTM
- 11.6.5, 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
BIG-IP PEM
- 11.6.5, 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
BIG-IP AFM
- 11.6.5, 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
BIG-IP ASM
- 11.6.5, 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
About Nodes
Introduction to nodes
A node is a logical object on the BIG-IP® that identifies the IP address or fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of a physical resource on the network. You can explicitly create a node, or you can instruct the BIG-IP system to automatically create one when you add a pool member to a load balancing pool.
The difference between a node and a pool member is that a node is designated by the device’s IP address or FQDN only, while a pool member is designated by an IP address or FQDN and a service (such as 10.10.10.3:80).
A primary feature of nodes is their association with health monitors. Like pool members, nodes can be associated with health monitors as a way to determine server status. However, a health monitor for a pool member reports the status of a service running on the device, whereas a health monitor for a node reports status of the device itself.
Creating a node
Local traffic pools use nodes as target resources for load balancing. A node is an IP address or a fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) that represents a server resource that hosts applications.
About the node address setting
This setting specifies the address of the node, either in the form of an IP address or a fully-qualified domain name (FQDN).
If you are using a route domain other than route domain 0, you can append a route domain ID to any node IP address. For example, if the node address applies to route domain 1, you can specify a node address of 10.10.10.10%1.
About node status
At any time, you can determine the status of a node, using the BIG-IP Configuration utility. You can find this information by displaying the list of nodes and viewing the Status column, or by viewing the Availability property of a node.
The BIG-IP Configuration utility indicates status by displaying one of several icons, distinguished by shape and color:
- The shape of the icon indicates the status that the monitor has reported for that node.
- The color of the icon indicates the actual status of the node.
About server node state
A node in a server pool must be enabled in order to accept traffic. A node is a logical object on the BIG-IP® system that identifies the IP address of a physical resource on the network.
When you disable a node, the BIG-IP® system allows existing connections to time out or end normally. In this case, by default, the only new connections that the node accepts are those that belong to an existing persistence session.
Additional configuration options
A node object has several optional configuration settings that you can configure.
About health monitor association
Using the BIG-IP® system, you can monitor the health or performance of your nodes by associating monitors with those nodes. This is similar to associating a monitor with a load balancing pool, except that in the case of nodes, you are monitoring the IP address, whereas with pools, you are monitoring the services that are active on the pool members.
The BIG-IP system contains many different pre-configured monitors that you can associate with nodes, depending on the type of traffic you want to monitor. You can also create your own custom monitors and associate them with nodes. The only pre-configured monitors that are not available for associating with nodes are monitors that are specifically designed to monitor pools or pool members rather than nodes.
There are two ways that you can associate a monitor with a node: by assigning the same monitor (that is, a default monitor) to multiple nodes at the same time, or by explicitly associating a monitor with each node as you create it.
About monitors and automatic node creation
If you create a pool member without first creating the parent node,the BIG-IP system automatically creates the parent node for you. Fortunately, you can configure the BIG-IP system to automatically associate one or more monitor types with every node that the BIG-IP system creates. This eliminates the task of having to explicitly choose monitors for each node.
Keep the following in mind when working with default monitors:
- If a user with permission to manage objects in partition Common disables a monitor that is designated as the default monitor for nodes (such as the icmp monitor), this affects all nodes on the system. Ensure that the default monitor for nodes always resides in partition Common.
- To specify default monitors, you must have the Administrator user role assigned to your user account.
- If all nodes reside in the same partition, the default monitor must reside in that partition or in partition Common. If nodes reside in separate partitions, then the default monitor must reside in partition Common.
About monitors and explicit node creation
Sometimes, you might want to explicitly create a node, rather than having Local Traffic Manager™ create the node automatically. In this case, when you create the node, you can either associate non-default monitors with the node, or associate the default monitors with the node.
About node availability
You can specify the minimum number of health monitors that must report a node as being available to receive traffic before the BIG-IP system reports that node as being in an up state.
About the ratio weight setting
When you are using the Ratio load balancing method, you can assign a ratio weight to each node in a pool. The BIG-IP system uses this ratio weight to determine the correct node for load balancing.
Note that at least one node in the pool must have a ratio value greater than 1. Otherwise, the effect equals that of the Round Robin load balancing method.
About the connection rate limit setting
The connection rate limit setting specifies the maximum rate of new connections allowed for the node. When you specify a connection rate limit, the system controls the number of allowed new connections per second, thus providing a manageable increase in connections without compromising availability. The default value of 0 specifies that there is no limit on the number of connections allowed per second.
Additional FQDN options
A node object has some optional FQDN settings that you can configure.
About FQDN address types
When you use FQDNs to identify nodes, you must specify whether the FQDN of the node resolves to an IPv4 or IPv6 address.
About the Auto Populate option
The Auto Populate option specifies whether the system automatically creates ephemeral nodes using the IP addresses returned by the resolution of a DNS query for a node defined by an FQDN. The default value is Enabled.
When set to Enabled, the system generates an ephemeral node for each IP address returned in response to a DNS query for the FQDN of the node. Additionally, when a DNS response indicates the IP address of an ephemeral node no longer exists, the system deletes the ephemeral node.
When set to Disabled, the system resolves a DNS query for the FQDN of the node with the single IP address associated with the FQDN.
About query intervals
You can specify intervals for when a query occurs. The intervals vary depending on whether the DNS server is up or down.
When the DNS server is up, the associated monitor attempts to probe three times, and marks the server down if there is no response within the span of three times the interval value, in seconds. The default value, in seconds, is 3600. Note that instead of typing an interval, you can enable the Time to Live (Use TTL) option.
When the DNS server is down, the associated monitor continues polling as long as the server is down. The default value, in seconds, is 5.
