Hi guys. I have a weird behavior here. Using LTM with SharePoint 2013 and a VS with cookie persistence. when I load the webpage I see resources (images) being loaded from 2 web servers. I expect the session to be persisted to one server for the same url. Any insight on this. I know cookie persistence is not required for SharePoint 2013 since the introduction of the distributed cache service but we need this persistence for our custom dev.

Hi Joe, did you use the latest iApp template to deploy SharePoint? If you run the template in advanced mode, you should get the option to select cookie persistence (it defaults to no persistence in basic mode). thanks Mike

I'm not using the iapp template. just a standard VS with cookie persistence. when loading the webpage I have one image file coming from a web server and the second image file coming from another web server ! the bigipserver is somehow being lost or deleted.

Do you have both HTTP and OneConnect profiles attach to the VS as well? Those are required for per-request persistence (as opposed to per-TCP connection persistence). I also found some info about time issues here: https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/5000/700/sol5714.html

Good to always check the simple things first; is cookie disabled on browser you are using(maybe browser is not allowing creation of cookie)? If using HTTPS did you configure SSL offload on VS (cookies can't be seen without this). As Mike mentioned, using the iApp ensures everything is configured correctly and might save you some time.

mike, I'm using an http profile. no oneconnect. I will check your link. M, I'm not using iapp because it is not supported on 11.2 I according to what I have read. It's an HTTP VS.

F5 BigIP LTM Cookie persistence not working !

13 Replies

mikeshimkus_111
Historic F5 Account
Nov 17, 2014
Hi Joe, did you use the latest iApp template to deploy SharePoint? If you run the template in advanced mode, you should get the option to select cookie persistence (it defaults to no persistence in basic mode).

thanks

Mike
JoeTheFifth
Altostratus
Nov 17, 2014
I'm not using the iapp template. just a standard VS with cookie persistence. when loading the webpage I have one image file coming from a web server and the second image file coming from another web server ! the bigipserver is somehow being lost or deleted.
mikeshimkus_111
Historic F5 Account
Nov 17, 2014
Do you have both HTTP and OneConnect profiles attach to the VS as well? Those are required for per-request persistence (as opposed to per-TCP connection persistence). I also found some info about time issues here: https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/5000/700/sol5714.html
M_Harris_168896
Historic F5 Account
Nov 17, 2014
Good to always check the simple things first; is cookie disabled on browser you are using(maybe browser is not allowing creation of cookie)? If using HTTPS did you configure SSL offload on VS (cookies can't be seen without this). As Mike mentioned, using the iApp ensures everything is configured correctly and might save you some time.
JoeTheFifth
Altostratus
Nov 17, 2014
mike, I'm using an http profile. no oneconnect. I will check your link. M, I'm not using iapp because it is not supported on 11.2 I according to what I have read. It's an HTTP VS.
nitass
Employee
Nov 17, 2014
have you tried tcpdump or http analyzer tool (e.g. httpfox)? did browser send the same cookie when requesting images?
JoeTheFifth
Altostratus
Nov 18, 2014
yes. fiddler and tcpdump both show consecutive the two requests going to two servers. we adjusted time on the bigip boxes and same issue. i'm still looking into this...
JoeTheFifth
Altostratus
Nov 18, 2014
any hints on what to look for in the tcpdump to see why the initial bigip cookie is not reused or deleted?
- mikeshimkus_111
  Historic F5 Account
  Nov 18, 2014
  The forum ate my last reply when I tried to edit it...the pool member IP is encoded in the cookie so the request should bypass the persistence and load balancing functions. If requests with the same cookie value are being sent to different servers, and you tried enabling OneConnect, you may want to open a support case on this problem.
JoeTheFifth
Altostratus
Nov 18, 2014
I'm not using oneconnect. to my understanding the bigip inserts the session cookie encoded with the server ip and the port number. this cookie is then used by the client as long as the browser is not closed. so in my case this cookie is somehow being deleted and the bigip is inserting a new cookie redirecting the request to the second server. tcpdump is showing the server ips and the two bigip cookies. I'm using the out of the box cookie persistence. what is bothering me is the cookie is the fact that the cookie is being changed randomly and several times in the same request !!! it just bounces from server one to server two and then back several times !!
- mikeshimkus_111
  Historic F5 Account
  Nov 18, 2014
  I searched a bit and found some references to similar behavior that point to this SOL: https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/7000/900/sol7964.html Can you try the iRule to detach the server-side connection for each request?
JoeTheFifth
Altostratus
Nov 18, 2014
thanks mike. we are getting somewhere :-) in fact the issue is happening during a stress test using visual studio. the test is being done from one computer using multiple users, deleting cookies and closing IE of course after each connection. this is probably causing the issue... to be continued. The issue is not happening when I do a manual test.