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RobL216_235020's avatar
RobL216_235020
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Nov 30, 2015

How to test if working correctly

Hi all, So I am completely new to using load balancers and we have got a couple of F5 BIG-IP's for our exchange environment.

 

We are on version 11.5.3 and I have used the iApp template to setup on of these in our LAB for testing.

 

From what I can see it is all setup as it should be and the iApp service is there with the nodes showing green.

 

If I run the connectivity test from Outlook for Autodiscover I can see that that the files are pointing to the load balancer.

 

However if I look at the connection status for Outlook it shows me connected to the node names not the load balancer name. Is this correct? Also I cannot browse to OWA using the load balancer name.

 

I guess I have something wrong somewhere but how do I see the mail flow path from client to server through the load balancer?

 

I can raise a call and get some help that way but I would like to be able to sort this out myself so I can learn more about it.

 

application delivery
iApps
LTM

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  • mikeshimkus_111's avatar
    mikeshimkus_111
    Historic F5 Account
    Nov 30, 2015

    Hi, for OWA, do you have DNS record pointing to the virtual server IP? For Outlook, is Autodiscover returning the correct URL for clients to connect to, and is the DNS for that hostname correct as well?

     

    Since you are in a lab, you should be able to easily see if any traffic is hitting the virtual server(s) you have configured for the Exchange services by looking at the virtual server statistics tab.

     

    • RobL216_235020's avatar
      RobL216_235020
      Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
      Nov 30, 2015
      Thanks for your reply. I have a CAS array with a DNS entry and IP address. The IP address of the CAS array points to the IP address I have given the virtual server. OWA on my CAS servers now points to the CAS Array address instead of the individual CAS servers. So for example I have autodiscover.domain.com and mail.domain.com in DNS. Both point to the IP of the virtual server. Autodiscover returns mail.domain.com as the url for Internal OWA, Exchange server for RPC protocol, EWS, OOF and OAB. (Including ecp) It all seems correct but I don't seem to be getting connection to the BIG-IP. All of this is on the same subnet so I am wondering if there is additional configuration required other then the iApp template and DNS changes.
  • mikeshimkus_111's avatar
    mikeshimkus_111
    Historic F5 Account
    Nov 30, 2015

    So, you see no connections on BIG-IP at all when requesting OWA? That does point to either a DNS or routing issue. You do have VLANs configured on your lab BIG-IP, correct?

     

    • RobL216_235020's avatar
      RobL216_235020
      Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
      Dec 01, 2015
      Possibly not! I take it the iApp template does not do all that then? I will do some more digging and read the manual again. Thanks for the help.
    • mikeshimkus_111's avatar
      mikeshimkus_111
      Historic F5 Account
      Dec 01, 2015
      Since VLANs and other "global" networking objects can be shared by other deployments, the iApp assumes you have already created them. Some iApps let you choose which VLANs to accept traffic on, but the Exchange iApp deploys its virtual servers on all of them by default.