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testimony_17780's avatar
testimony_17780
Aug 14, 2018

BITS, PACKET, CONNECTION AND REQUEST

Hi Team,

 

Please am trying to figure out the statistic on my virtual server, and i will like to ask some questions. 1). what is the difference between bits and packets in the contest of this 2). what is the difference between connection and request in the contest of this 3). which of these should be higher than the other in traffic under normal situation 4). why are the traffic within these entity vary?

 

Thanks

 

application delivery
BIG-IP
LTM

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  • Andy_McGrath's avatar
    Andy_McGrath
    Icon for Cumulonimbus rankCumulonimbus
    Aug 14, 2018
    Bits
    • Represents the cumulative number of bits (including all headers) that have been received by (In) or sent by (Out) the virtual server.
    Packets
    • Represents the cumulative number of Ethernet packets that have been received from (In) or sent to (Out) the virtual server.
    Connections

    • Represents information about connections using this virtual server.

       

      • Current: Represents the number of currently open connections to the virtual server.

         

      • Maximum: Represents the maximum number of concurrent connections to the virtual server.

         

      • Total: Represents the cumulative number of connections to the virtual server.

         

    Requests
    • Displays the cumulative number of requests (Total) that have been made to the node.

    Bits make up Packets.

     

    Multiple Packets will be sent/received per Connection.

     

    If you have a service with an associated profile that allows the F5 to count the Requests (like HTTP) you may see multiple Requests per connection.

     

    Bits will be larger than Packets

     

    Packets will be larger than Connections (Total)

     

    Requests will (mostly) be larger than Connections (if captured in the stats)

     

    As an example a client browser makes a HTTP request to the F5 Virtual Server.

     

    1. The browser establishes a TCP connection
      • Client Sends SYN packet, Bits IN increases by ~160 bits, Packets IN increases by 1
      • F5 returns SYN-ACK packet, Bits OUT increases by ~160 bits, Packets OUT increases by 1
      • Client Sends ACK packet, Bits IN increases by ~160 bits, Packets IN increases by 1, Connections Current and Total increase by 1.
    2. Client Sends HTTP GET request, Bits IN increases by size of packet, Packets IN increases by 1 and Requests increase by 1
    3. F5 returns HTTP response to client, Bits OUT increases by size of packet, Packets OUT increase by 1