AskF5 Knowledge Base
- Home
- Supported Products
- BIG-IP WebAccelerator / VE
- BIG-IP WebAccelerator 11.3.0
Applies To:
Show Versions
Release Note: BIG-IP WebAccelerator 11.3.0
Original Publication Date: 12/17/2012
Summary:
This release note documents the version 11.3.0 release of the BIG-IP WebAccelerator system.
Contents:
- Supported hardware
- Configuration utility browser support
- User documentation for this release
- New in 11.3.0
- New in 11.2.1
- New in 11.2.0
- New in 11.1.0
- New in 11.0.0
- Installation overview
- Installation checklist
- Installing the software
- Post-installation tasks
- Installation tips
- Upgrading from earlier versions
- Fixes in 11.3.0
- Fixes in 11.2.1
- Fixes in 11.2.0
- Fixes in 11.1.0
- Fixes in 11.0.0
- Behavior changes in 11.3.0
- Behavior changes in 11.2.1
- Behavior changes in 11.2.0
- Behavior changes in 11.1.0
- Behavior changes in 11.0.0
- Known issues
- Contacting F5 Networks
- Legal notices
- Configuration utility browser support
- User documentation for this release
- New in 11.3.0
- New in 11.2.1
- New in 11.2.0
- New in 11.1.0
- New in 11.0.0
- Installation overview
- Installation checklist
- Installing the software
- Post-installation tasks
- Installation tips
- Upgrading from earlier versions
- Fixes in 11.3.0
- Fixes in 11.2.1
- Fixes in 11.2.0
- Fixes in 11.1.0
- Fixes in 11.0.0
- Behavior changes in 11.3.0
- Behavior changes in 11.2.1
- Behavior changes in 11.2.0
- Behavior changes in 11.1.0
- Behavior changes in 11.0.0
- Known issues
- Contacting F5 Networks
- Legal notices
Supported hardware
You can apply the software upgrade to systems running software versions 10.x or 11.x. For a list of supported platforms, see SOL9412: The BIG-IP release matrix. For information about which platforms support which module combinations, see SOL10288: BIG-IP software and platform support matrix.
Configuration utility browser support
The BIG-IP Configuration Utility supports these browsers and versions:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.x and 9.x
- Mozilla Firefox 15.0.x and 9.0.x
- Google Chrome 21.x
User documentation for this release
For a comprehensive list of documentation that is relevant to this release, refer to the BIG-IP WebAccelerator / VE 11.3.0 Documentation page.
New in 11.3.0
Parking Lot – Web Object Request Queuing
In this release, you can queue simultaneous requests for the same new or expired cached object, and send only one request to origin web server. When object is retrieved, WebAccelerator responds to all the requests, thereby reducing the load on the servers if a flood of requests come in at once.
Support for VIPRION platforms
WebAccelerator is now supported on the F5 VIPRION chassis and blades providing the highest levels of throughput and scalability for web performance optimization.
New in 11.2.0
Accelerating Images with Image Optimization
In this release, you can configure image optimization in a WebAccelerator policy to reduce the size of image files (for example, by removing unnecessary metadata, by changing the format, or by increasing compression) and, consequently, accelerate the transfer of image objects across a network.
Accelerating Requests and Responses with Intelligent Browser Referencing
In this release, Intelligent Browser Referencing (IBR) functionality is expanded, enabling you to manage responses for URLs to images and for URLs to CSS files that are externally linked or imported by a CSS file.
Establishing Additional TCP Connections with MultiConnect
In this release, you can apply MultiConnect functionality to open more persistent TCP connections, up to five per HTTP subdomain and five per HTTPS subdomain generated by the WebAccelerator system. Additionally, you can apply MultiConnect functionality to image or script objects that match a node, and apply MultiConnect functionality to image or script objects that are linked within HTML or CSS files for a node.
Accelerating Cascading Style Sheet and JavaScript files
You can reorder Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) and JavaScript (JS) links within an HTML document and accelerate the perceived time in which a browser renders a web page. Although the actual time required to download the page remains approximately the same, the perceived time to display the page is faster.
New in 11.1.0
WebAccelerator Virtual Edition
This release provides WebAccelerator™ Virtual Edition (VE). WebAccelerator VE, which runs as a virtual machine in specifically supported hypervisor environments, emulates a hardware-based WebAccelerator system running a VE-compatible version of software.
WebAccelerator Predefined Generic Policies
This release includes a new WebAccelerator predefined generic policy, and enhancements to predefined generic policies, as described in the following table.
| Version 11.x Predefined Generic Policy | Description |
|---|---|
| Generic Policy - Complete. New policy. | This predefined acceleration policy is ideal for Apache HTTP servers, Internet Information Services (IIS) web servers, WebLogic application servers, and IBM Websphere Application Servers. HTML pages are cached and Intelligent Browser Referencing is enabled. |
| Generic Policy - Enhanced. (Formerly called Level 2 Delivery.) | This predefined acceleration policy is ideal for Apache HTTP servers, Internet Information Services (IIS) web servers, WebLogic application servers, and IBM Websphere Application Servers. HTML pages are cached and Intelligent Browser Referencing is enabled for includes. |
| Generic Policy - Extension Based. (Formerly called Ecommerce.) | This predefined acceleration policy is ideal for High Performance policy for Ecommerce applications that uses File Extensions instead of mime-types. This application policy is ideal if response-based matching is not required. |
| Generic Policy - Fundamental. (Formerly called Level 1 Delivery.) | This predefined acceleration policy is ideal for Apache HTTP servers, Internet Information Services (IIS) web servers, WebLogic application servers, and IBM Websphere Application Servers. HTML pages are always proxied and Intelligent Browser Referencing is disabled. |
Acceleration Policy Editor Role
This release provides a Acceleration Policy Editor role to manage and customize acceleration policies for the BIG-IP® WebAccelerator™ system. This role provides full access to WebAccelerator system features and functionality, and read-only access to all other BIG-IP features and functionality.
New in 11.0.0
HTTP Compression profile
The HTTP Compression profile reduces the amount of data to be transmitted, thereby significantly reducing bandwidth usage. All of the tasks needed to configure HTTP compression on the BIG-IP system, as well as the compression software itself, are centralized on the BIG-IP system. The tasks needed to configure HTTP compression for objects in a WebAccelerator policy node are available in the WebAccelerator system, but an HTTP compression profile must be enabled for them to function.
Web Acceleration profile
When used with the WebAccelerator system, the Web Acceleration profile includes an ordered list of associated WebAccelerator applications, each of which defines the host names, IP addresses, and policy that is applied to a request that matches the specified host name or IP address.
Request Logging profile
With the Request Logging profile you can specify the data and the format for HTTP requests and responses that you want to include in a log file. If you prefer, you can tailor the information that appears in the logs so that the logs work seamlessly with whatever analysis tools you use for your origin web server's HTTP log files.
Lifetime rules
This release of the WebAccelerator system introduces design simplifications and improvements to Lifetime rules.
Interoperability for Local Traffic Manager, Global Traffic Manager, and WebAccelerator systems
This release provides the ability to provision Local Traffic Manager, Global Traffic Manager, and WebAccelerator systems concurrently.
PDF linearization
Through the Configuration utility, the WebAccelerator system provides the ability to display a requested page more quickly by using PDF linearization (optimization). PDF linearization prepares the PDF file for byte serving, which enables the WebAccelerator system to provide individual pages to a client when it receives byte-range requests.
Metadata cache responses
Because not all web applications generate ETags consistently, the WebAccelerator system creates its own ETag for each cached document that is based on a signature, or checksum, of the document's content. The WebAccelerator system stores content signatures in the Metadata cache for other optimizations, including Intelligent Browser Referencing. WebAccelerator system applications provide options to always or never send metadata.
Via headers
The Via header, configured in an HTTP profile, provides information about each intermediate router that forwards a message. Intermediate routers between a client and an origin web server use the Via header to indicate intermediate protocols and recipients.
Debug options
This setting is used for troubleshooting purposes, enabling the WebAccelerator system to optionally insert an X-WA-Info response header that includes specific codes, which describe the properties and history of the object.
WebAccelerator application performance monitoring
This release provides the ability to enable performance monitoring per WebAccelerator application. The WebAccelerator system's performance reports provide information about page requests, the frequency of those requests, and how well the WebAccelerator system serviced those requests from cache. Additionally, performance reports provide information about the application, policy, policy node, HTTP response status, S-code, size range of the response, response object type, and ID of the WebAccelerator system or browser making the request.
WebAccelerator statistics in Dashboard
The BIG-IP Dashboard provides WebAccelerator statistics with this release, including data specific to memory usage, performance metrics, throughput metrics, and cache metrics.
SNMP access
This release of the WebAccelerator system provides SNMP access. The following table includes all WebAccelerator object identifiers, object types, and a description of each. All object identifiers and object types can be found in the /usr/share/snmp/mibs/F5-BIGIP-WAM-MIB.txt file.
| Object Identifier | Object Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | wamAppStatName | The name of the WebAccelerator application. |
| 2 | wamAppStatVsName | The name of the virtual server. |
| 3 | wamAppStatRqstTotal | The total number of requests made to this WebAccelerator application. |
| 4 | wamAppStatProxied | The total number of requests proxied by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 5 | wamAppStatProxiedBytes | The total number of requests proxied by this WebAccelerator application measured in bytes. |
| 6 | wamAppStatProxied1500 | The total number of requests between 0 and 1500 bytes proxied by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 7 | wamAppStatProxied10k | The total number of requests between 1500 and 10K bytes proxied by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 8 | wamAppStatProxied50k | The total number of requests between 10K and 50K bytes proxied by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 9 | wamAppStatProxied100k | The total number of requests between 50K and 100K bytes proxied by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 10 | wamAppStatProxied500k | The total number of requests between 100K and 500K bytes proxied by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 11 | wamAppStatProxied1m | The total number of requests between 500K and 1M bytes proxied by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 12 | wamAppStatProxied5m | The total number of requests between 1M and 5M bytes proxied by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 13 | wamAppStatProxiedLarge | The total number of requests larger than 5M bytes proxied by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 14 | wamAppStatProxiedNew | The total number of new requests proxied by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 15 | wamAppStatProxiedExpired | The total number of expired requests proxied by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 16 | wamAppStatProxiedPerPolicy | The total number of requests proxied per policy by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 17 | wamAppStatProxiedPerIRule | The total number of requests proxied per iRule by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 18 | wamAppStatProxiedPerInvalidation | The total number of requests proxied per invalidation rules by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 19 | wamAppStatProxiedPerClientRequest | The total number of requests proxied per headers from client request by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 20 | wamAppStatProxiedBypass | The total number of proxy requests bypassed by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 21 | wamAppStatFromCache | The total number of requests served from cache by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 22 | wamAppStatFromCacheBytes | The total number of request bytes served from cache by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 23 | wamAppStatFromCache1500 | The total number of requests between 0 and 1500 bytes served from cache by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 24 | wamAppStatFromCache10k | The total number of requests between 1500 and 10K bytes served from cache by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 25 | wamAppStatFromCache50k | The total number of requests between 10K and 50K bytes served from cache by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 26 | wamAppStatFromCache100k | The total number of requests between 50K and 100K bytes served from cache by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 27 | wamAppStatFromCache500k | The total number of requests between 100K and 500K bytes served from cache by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 28 | wamAppStatFromCache1m | The total number of requests between 500K and 1M bytes served from cache by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 29 | wamAppStatFromCache5m | The total number of requests between 1M and 5M bytes served from cache by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 30 | wamAppStatFromCacheLarge | The total number of requests larger than 5M bytes served from cache by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 31 | wamAppStatOws2xx | The number of origin web server responses in the range of 200 to 206 (successful responses). |
| 32 | wamAppStatOws3xx | The number of origin web server responses in the range of 300 to 307 (redirection responses). |
| 33 | wamAppStatOws4xx | The number of origin web server responses in the range of 400 to 417 (client errors). |
| 34 | wamAppStatOws5xx | The number of origin web server responses in the range of 500 to 505 (server errors). |
| 35 | wamAppStatOwsDropped | The number of requests dropped by origin web server. |
| 36 | wamAppStatOwsRejected | The number of requests rejected by origin web server. |
| 37 | wamAppStatWam2xx | The number of responses in the range of 200 to 206 (successful responses) served by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 38 | wamAppStatWam3xx | The number of responses in the range of 300 to 307 (redirection responses) served by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 39 | wamAppStatWam4xx | The number of responses in the range of 400 to 417 (client errors) served by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 40 | wamAppStatWam5xx | The number of responses in the range of 500 to 505 (server errors) served by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 41 | wamAppStatWam503 | The number of 503 response served by this WebAccelerator application. |
| 42 | wamAppStatWamDropped | The number of requests dropped by this WebAccelerator application. |
Installation overview
This document covers very basic steps for installing the software. You can find complete, step-by-step installation and upgrade instructions in BIG-IP System: Upgrading Active/Standby Systems and BIG-IP System: Upgrading Active-Active Systems, and we strongly recommend that you reference these documents to ensure successful completion of the installation process.
Installation checklist
Before you begin:
- Update/reactivate your system license, if needed, to ensure that you have a valid service check date.
- Ensure that your system is running version 10.0.0 or later and is using the volumes formatting scheme.
- Download the .iso file (if needed) from F5 Downloads to /shared/images on the source for the operation. (If you need to create this directory, use the exact name /shared/images.)
- Configure a management port.
- Set the console and system baud rate to 19200, if it is not already.
- Log on as an administrator using the management port of the system you want to upgrade.
- Boot into an installation location other than the target for the installation.
- Save the user configuration set (UCS) in the /var/local/ucs directory on the source installation location, and copy the UCS file to a safe place on another device.
- Log on to the standby unit, and only upgrade the active unit after the standby upgrade is satisfactory.
- Turn off mirroring.
- If you are running WAN Optimization Manager, set provisioning to Minimum.
- If you are running Policy Enforcement Manager, set provisioning to Nominal.
- If you are running Advanced Firewall Manager, set provisioning to Nominal.
Installing the software
You can install the software at the command line using the Traffic Management shell, tmsh, or in the browser-based Configuration utility using the Software Management screens, available in the System menu. Choose the installation method that best suits your environment.
| Installation method | Command |
|---|---|
| Install to existing volume, migrate source configuration to destination | tmsh install sys software image [image name] volume [volume name] |
| Install from the browser-based Configuration utility | Use the Software Management screens in a web browser. |
Sample installation command
The following command installs version 11.2.0 to volume 3 of the main hard drive.
tmsh install sys software image BIGIP-11.2.0.2446.0.iso volume HD1.3
Post-installation tasks
This document covers very basic steps for installing the software. You can find complete, step-by-step installation and upgrade instructions in BIG-IP System: Upgrading Active/Standby Systems and BIG-IP System: Upgrading Active-Active Systems, and we strongly recommend that you reference these documents to ensure successful completion of the installation process.
After the installation finishes, you must complete the following steps before the system can pass traffic.
- Ensure the system rebooted to the new installation location.
- Log on to the browser-based Configuration utility.
- Run the Setup utility.
- Provision the modules.
- Convert any bigpipe scripts to tmsh. (Version 11.x does not support the bigpipe utility.)
Note: You can find information about running the Setup utility and provisioning the modules in the BIG-IP TMOS implementations Creating an Active/Standby Configuration Using the Setup Utility and Creating an Active-Active Configuration Using the Setup Utility.
Installation tips
- The upgrade process installs the software on the inactive installation location that you specify. This process usually takes between three minutes and seven minutes. During the upgrade process, you see messages posted on the screen. For example, you might see a prompt asking whether to upgrade the End User Diagnostics (EUD), depending on the version you have installed. To upgrade the EUD, type yes, otherwise, type no.
- You can check the status of an active installation operation by running the command watch tmsh show sys software, which runs the show sys software command every two seconds. Pressing Ctrl + C stops the watch feature.
- If installation fails, you can view the log file. The system stores the installation log file as /var/log/liveinstall.log.
Upgrading from earlier versions
Your upgrade process differs depending on the version of software you are currently running. Software version 10.x introduced the ability to run multiple modules based on platform. The number and type of modules that can be run simultaneously is strictly enforced through licensing. For more information, see SOL10288: BIG-IP software and platform support matrix.
Warning: Do not use the 10.x installation methods (the Software Management screens, the b software or tmsh sys software commands, or the image2disk utility) to install/downgrade to 9.x software or operate on partitions. Depending on the operations you perform, doing so might render the system unusable. If you need to downgrade from version 10.x to version 9.x, use the image2disk utility to format the system for partitions, and then use a version 9.x installation method described in the version 9.x release notes to install the version 9.x software.
Upgrading from version 10.x or 11.x
When you upgrade from version 10.x or 11.x software, you use the Software Management screens in the Configuration utility to complete these steps. To open the Software Management screens, in the navigation pane of the Configuration utility, expand System, and click Software Management. For information about using the Software Management screens, see the online help.
Upgrading from versions earlier than 10.x
You cannot roll forward a configuration directly to this version from BIG-IP version 4.x, or from BIG-IP versions 9.0.x through 9.6.x. You must be running version 10.x software. For details about upgrading to those versions, see the release notes for the associated release.
Automatic firmware upgrades
If this version includes new firmware for your specific hardware platform, after you install and activate this version, the system might reboot additional times to perform all necessary firmware upgrades.
Fixes in 11.3.0
| ID Number | Description |
|---|---|
| ID 382841 | WebAccelerator Performance Reports no longer report an error with a wrong node name. |
| ID 394065 | Invalidation of cached contents on a cluster no longer causes one re-validation per blade. |
| ID 394536 | Fixed a defect which could cause TMM to core and restart when Access Policy Manager or WebAccelerator handles certain poorly formatted HTML href attributes. |
| ID 395915 | WA now handles the extremely rare out of memory conditions and successfully aborts the client. |
| ID 397761 | Fixed a potential memory leak in mcpd when running WebAccelerator. |
| ID 398482 | Fixed a TMM core caused by usage of Web Accelerator and RAMCache. |
| ID 399507 | WAM now serves the requested URL, there is a URL in a query string, and this URL has been cached in WAM. |
| ID 399967 | Client connections are no longer incorrectly reset for virtual servers with Application Security Manager and WebAccelerator configured after a change is done in the associated Web Acceleration profile. |
| ID 403954 | Range requests and linearized PDFs now return correct content when requesting any content in up to the last 256K of the file's content. |
Fixes in 11.2.0
This BIG-IP WebAccelerator release includes all previously released hot fixes.
| ID 357736 | The WebAccelerator system now scans for cookie keyName matches by starting from the end of the request, to ensure that the latest cookie is used. |
| ID 357906 | You can include whitespaces in a policy matching string. |
| ID 358833 | For parameter value substitution, the Request URL setting for the source definition type applies a specified absolute or relative URL. |
| ID 361671 | Cache-Control field names are truncated to 16 characters in length, and log messages are written out when field names for Cache-Control headers are truncated. |
| ID 362862 | If a valid WebAccelerator cache is invalidated by Cache-Control directive values in a request, like min-fresh or max-age (specified in the WebAccelerator policy Lifetime page), and an origin web server error occurs while proxying the request, the WebAccelerator system serves the stale cached content if the error response code is selected in the Lifetime page Stand-in Codes. |
| ID 364743 | Now tmsh correctly clears Web Acceleration profile statistics. |
| ID 365374 | Handler code was modified to insure that the policy list model is populated before handling the exception. |
| ID 371355 | The wainfodecode script was enhanced to correctly decode S10233 code in the X-WA-INFO header. |
| ID 371575 | Import routine has been modified to allow spaces in policy names during import. |
| ID 371670 | The WebAccelerator import utility now sets the lifetime-cache-max-age value to 0, and the lifetime-honor-ows value to no, when the always-proxy value is yes. |
| ID 371863 | A change in the cache miss statistics calculation method has been made to correctly increment and decrement cache misses. |
| ID 371877 | Compressed PDFs are cached. If the uncompressed version is cached, then the compressed PDF is a compressed version of the same content that was previously cached. |
| ID 371957 | Range requests for uncached content no longer create negative cache entries, and are served from cache when the base content is not expired. |
| ID 372191 | TMM no longer cores and restarts under significant load for content eligible for assembly. |
| ID 372229 | The WebAccelerator application statistics from_cache counter now increments correctly when serving compressed content. |
| ID 372239 | From the Proxying screen, you can now revert an overridden inheritance by clicking the WebAccelerator Cache Mode icon, and then clicking Revert Values. |
| ID 372287 | In the BIG-IP Dashboard, in the Web Acceleration view, on the Performance pane, with the Combined View tab in focus, values for the From Cache field now display correctly. |
| ID 372582 | A memory leak that was occurring while continuously clearing the WebAccelerator system's cache while traffic was running has been corrected. |
| ID 372623 | During an upgrade, if a user-defined policy name and a new default policy name are identical, the user-defined policy is renamed by appending a suffix (R#). Applications associated with the renamed policy are modified to reference the renamed policy. |
| ID 373368 | This release corrects a condition in which invalidation rules could be erroneously reapplied when PVAC receives a HUP signal. |
| ID 374173 | WebAccelerator default image object-types have been restructured. The former type images.images is now divided into images.gif, images.jpg, images.png, images.tiff, and images.other. The type images.images is no longer provided. |
| ID 375844 | The WebAccelerator system uses the IBR Default Lifetime value for CSS requests that have Intelligent Browser Referencing applied, if the Enable Intelligent Browser Referencing Within setting in the Assembly screen is disabled for the matching policy node. |
| ID 376218 | WebAccelerator application names containing spaces are now properly quoted in all cases. This resolves a previous issue where upgrading to version 11.x could result in an error message, such as: Configuration error: webacceleration profile error (/Common/webacceleration-wam-enabled), WAM application (test) not found where the application was named "test app". |
| ID 376267 | Conditional HEAD requests against negative cache entries no longer generate a core file in the WebAccelerator system. |
| ID 377792 | A configuration upgrade will no longer fail when a virtual server with the WebAccelerator system enabled has the http-wan-optimized-compression profile applied. |
| ID 379667 | The WebAccelerator system now correctly aborts client transfers for all objects when errors are encountered in processing. |
| ID 383378 | The WebAccelerator system detects and prevents duplicate entities. |
| ID 384257 | The WebAccelerator system now detects and handles more storage-level errors. If these storage-level errors occur, corresponding datastor patches are also required. |
Fixes in 11.1.0
| ID 341520 | The WebAccelerator system does not cache content until the second time that the object is seen. If the object is evicted prior to the second time it is seen (due to exceeding the Maximum Entries setting in the profile), then the object will not be cached. If the object is not evicted, then the second time that the entity is encountered it will be cached normally. To disable this functionality on a node and maintain the behavior of earlier versions, use tmsh to set the cache-first-hit option to yes (if not present, the default is no). |
| ID 357250 | An object is now created to indicate that content is uncachable. This reduces resource contention for uncachable content. If the object at the URI becomes cachable again, the object will cache normally. |
| ID 364611 | In the BIG-IP Dashboard under the Web Acceleration View for the Throughput pane, the units for the graphs in the From Cache and Proxied tabs now correctly show the units as Bps (bytes per second) instead of bps (bits per second). |
| ID 369382 | datastor diagnostics are dumped when tmm is halted. When datastor is terminating, it writes a /shared/datastor_terminate.txt file. When wamd is terminating, or when a qkview is taken, the diagnostic is written to /shared/datastor_diag.txt.gz. |
| ID 371674 | In this version, a response will be cached even when the matching node (for the response) has the Always proxy requests setting selected (enabled). To maintain the behavior of previous releases, the migration script maps the Always proxy requests setting to a Maximum Age of zero and the Honor Headers from Origin Web Server setting to disabled. |
Fixes in 11.0.0
| Bug | Description |
|---|---|
| ID 224993 | On a partitioned system, a virtual server could not be deleted that had an http class with WebAccelerator set to Accelerate at creation time. This issue has been resolved. |
| ID 344515 | When the WebAccelerator module and Application Security Manager are enabled on the same HTTP class, the blocking page is sent to the client and no longer times out. |
| ID 345983 | Requests for expired cached items are not recorded as expired in WebAccelerator Performance Reports if the origin web server response is 304 (Not Modified). Instead, the response is recorded in the Performance Reports as a cache hit. However, if the response from the origin web server is 200 (OK), the response is recorded in the performance reports as expired, and all subsequent re-validations, where the origin web server responds with 304 (Not Modified), are recorded as expired. |
| ID 351218 | Signal handling enhancements simplify WebAccelerator system troubleshooting. |
| ID 352257 | This version does not allow branch nodes to contain an Invalidation Rule. You can only configure Invalidation Rules on child nodes. |
| ID 352275 | The pvac process no longer leaks memory when WebAccelerator policies are reloaded and document invalidations exist. |
| ID 362941 | Users can use all disk space allocated to the WebAccelerator module on systems with RAID drives. |
| ID 363079 | After upgrading from 10.x.x to 11.0.0, you might need to ensure that the origin web server Cache-Control header directives that are selected to be honored are what you expect. For example, IBR on documents with an origin web server Cache-Control Private directive will not work if this origin web server directive is honored in a WebAccelerator policy. |
| ID 364439 | The first request for a PDF file after clearing the cache will no longer bypass the WebAccelerator module. |
| ID 364997 | Datastor now gets more memory for the page cache when the WebAccelerator module is provisioned. |
| ID 365163 | Double quotation marks enclose entity tag (ETag) strings that are created by the WebAccelerator module. |
Behavior changes in 11.0.0
| ID Number | Description |
|---|---|
| ID 399785 | Edge Side Include (ESI) functionality in the WebAccelerator module is no longer supported, with the exception of ESI invalidations. |
Known issues
| ID Number | Description |
|---|---|
| ID 403592 | Platforms with less than 6.5G memory cannot be upgraded to 11.3 if three or more modules are provisioned. Note that upgrades from 10.0.x display only an "upgrade failed" message as a software status. All other versions show a clear error message, guiding the users to SOL13988. Before upgrading, make sure you have only one or two modules provisioned if the BIG-IP system has less than 6.5G of memory. |
| ID 222201 | If you change the compression or deduplication options for the iSession profile on a BIG-IP system that is running both the WAN Optimization Module and the WebAccelerator system, you must also clear the RAM cache from the command line. To clear the RAM cache, use the command b profile http <http profilename> ramcache entry all delete. If you do not clear the RAM cache after changing these options, the WebAccelerator system may not accelerate the HTTP traffic as expected. |
| ID 346536 | If resources for PDF linearization become unavailable while accepting a PDF file, the linearization and connection to client will abort. No workaround is available; however, if the origin web server supplies Content-Length headers for PDF content, this condition becomes less likely. |
| ID 348816 | When rolling forward a WebAccelerator 10.x configuration to version 11.0.0, access logging configuration on the acceleration policy is not rolled forward. To enable access logging for BIG-IP WebAccelerator version 11.0.0, please see Using the Request Logging Profile (chapter 18) in the WebAccelerator Implementations guide. |
| ID 354983 | Requests for expired cached items are not recorded as expired in WebAccelerator Performance Reports if the origin web server response is 304 (Not Modified). Instead, the response is recorded in the Performance Reports as a cache hit. However, if the response from the origin web server is 200 (OK), the response is recorded in the performance reports as expired, and all subsequent re-validations, where the origin web server responds with 304 (Not Modified), are recorded as expired. |
| ID 356245 | A COMPRESS::enable or COMPRESS:disable iRule does not take effect on cached items. |
| ID 356867 | Earlier versions of the BIG-IP WebAccelerator module allowed importing of identically named acceleration policies without selecting the Overwrite existing policy of the same name check box, resulting in a number appended to the imported acceleration policy name. In this version, you must select the Overwrite existing policy of the same name check box to import identically named acceleration policies. Or you can ensure the policy you are importing has a unique name. |
| ID 356875 | During configuration migrations, BIGIP version 11.0 does not issue a warning to report that it is converting a WebAccelerator system configuration that had the Unmapped Hosts (forward proxy) options enabled (the Unmapped Hosts elements of the configuration will be lost). |
| ID 357320 | For iRules associated with a virtual server that has an associated Web Acceleration profile, [CACHE::disable] can only be used if there is no WebAccelerator Application enabled in the Web Acceleration profile, and [WAM::disable] can only be used if there is a WebAccelerator Application enabled in the Web Acceleration profile. Edit the iRules to use the correct command, either CACHE::disable or WAM::disable, for the virtual server's Web Acceleration profile. |
| ID 357706 | In the BIG-IP Dashboard, in the Web Acceleration view, on the Performance pane, with the Errors tab in focus, Requests bypassed due to overload shows zero statistics because the WebAccelerator module does not bypass traffic due to resource constraints. |
| ID 357712 | The stat field proxied_per_iRule, in the stat table tmctl wam_application_stat, remains at zero. |
| ID 357921 | The Configuration utility should provide a specific error message when an extension or MIME type for an object type is not unique, instead of a generic error message. |
| ID 358109 | Invalidation rules on a given node are only effective in invalidating one single extension. |
| ID 358530 | Various matching parameters in WebAccelerator Configuration utility that contain a regular expression with a pipe symbol (|) are incorrectly formatted for display. |
| ID 358785 | The WebAccelerator GUI displays dormant proxy rules on a node even when it is set to Always Proxy. |
| ID 359062 | This version does not include query parameters in a POST body for any rules: matching, variation, proxy, or invalidation. |
| ID 359093 | "If you want to receive an HTTP POST request and decompress it before sending it to the origin web server, and the client software sends an Expect: 100-continue header and the HTTP request-chunking mode is set to preserve, the request will not be decompressed. Specifically, the following iRule will not decompress the request in the presence of the Expect header with request-chunking set to preserve: when HTTP_REQUEST { DECOMPRESS::enable } Instead, to receive an HTTP POST request and decompress it before sending it to the origin web server, do one of the following steps: - Ensure that the client doesn't send an Expect header. - Change the request-chunking to selective, instead of preserve." |
| ID 359498 | In TMSH, the WebAccelerator module can assemble hostnames that include IP addresses with MultiConnect prefixes, for example, wa1.10.0.0.1. In TMSH, specify zero (0) for the number of HTTP and HTTPS subdomains on any WebAccelerator hostnames that are IP addresses. |
| ID 360211 | Invalidation rules that match on components not in the UCI will not invalidate content if it is first accessed without those components matching the rule before it is accessed with those components matching the rule. |
| ID 360488 | Using the Configuration utility to make changes to the WebAccelerator configuration, such as deleting an Acceleration Policy or Object Type, might take up to 30 seconds to write to disk. This process can result in deleted objects reappearing in the configuration if it is reloaded immediately after making the change. |
| ID 361618 | When an MCPD communication failure occurs, the WebAccelerator wamd process does not automatically restart. There is no workaround for this issue. |
| ID 361810 | If two invalidation rules match the same path but have different extensions, one will match and one will not. |
| ID 361852 | Invalidation rules that specify cached content by protocol invalidate content regardless of the protocol. |
| ID 361869 | An invalidation rule that specifies Client IP as a condition for invalidation never matches. The trigger can match an IP; however, the content to invalidate cannot match. |
| ID 361875 | An invalidation rule that specifies an empty or absent Query Parameter for Cached Content to Invalidate is not functional. This invalidation rule works, however, if you specify a non-empty Query Parameter value for Cached Content to Invalidate. |
| ID 361982 | Some combinations of spaces and tabs, before and after HTTP header values, are not properly ignored and defeat invalidation that is based on those headers. The workaround is to remove the leading/trailing whitespace from the values. |
| ID 362005 | A message needs to be logged when the Cache-Control header is truncated to a maximum length of 256 characters. |
| ID 362275 | "Setting the Web Acceleration Profile to optimized-acceleration for a virtual server without enabling a WebAccelerator Application will result in an error message similar to the following: cache memory assigned to Web Acceleration profiles (6144MB) exceeds the maximum amount (697MB) defined by Ramcache.MaxMemoryPercent (50) The optimized-acceleration profile is designed for use with the WebAccelerator module. If you are not using the WebAccelerator module with your virtual server and wish to use standard cache, you should use the optimized-caching profile, or create a customized webacceleration profile that uses either the optimized-caching profile or basic webacceleration profile as the parent." |
| ID 363059 | Renaming a top-level policy node may cause an unintended re-ordering of policy nodes, resulting in a different prioritization of matching criteria. |
| ID 363171 | "Validation of Web Acceleration profiles can fail during a config sync when the sum of the cache sizes exceeds the Datastor volume size on the receiving BIG-IP system. For all BIG-IP systems in the Device Group: 1) Run each BIG-IP system with identical provisioning. 2) Ensure that each BIG-IP system has the same volume size for Datastor: # tmsh show sys disk application-volume datastor 3) Configure the Web Acceleration profiles. 4) Sync each BIG-IP system to the Device Group." |
| ID 363402 | Specifying content to invalidate as the Referer header from the invalidation trigger (which specifies request-data-type referrer) is not functional. |
| ID 363413 | Specifying content to invalidate as the User-Agent header from the invalidation trigger (which specifies request-data-type user-agent) is not functional. |
| ID 363699 | "The WebAccelerator module Configuration utility incorrectly allows creation of nodes with reserved keyword names, which results in the configuration improperly loading the next time that the unit is rebooted or the configuration is loaded. This issue also causes config sync in a High Availability pair to fail. When creating WebAccelerator policy node names in the Configuration utility, avoid using the following reserved keywords. invalidations matching order proxy substitutions variation code description" |
| ID 364338 | The WebAccelerator module allows the creation of Object Types that contain a space in the identifier name on the Object Types page in the Configuration utility and by using TMSH. Including a space prevents the ability to delete the object type from the Configuration utility. When you create an identifier name for an object type from the Configuration utility or in TMSH, do not include a space in the name. If you have an object whose name contains a space, you can delete it using TMSH. |
| ID 364603 | For this version, in the BIG-IP Dashboard, in the Web Acceleration view, on the Cache pane, with the Entries tab in focus, the graph displays an incorrect value. The graph displays the number of cache transactions per second, instead of displaying the number of entries in cache. |
| ID 365600 | In the BIG-IP Dashboard, in the Web Acceleration view, reporting of statistics show spikes at irregular intervals with a magnitude of 2 to 3 times the average traffic through the WebAccelerator module. This was observed for the 5-min interval window. |
| ID 366387 | In the WAM Dashboard, the Entries graph in the Cache window incorrectly calculates a moving average for the number of entries. This is misleading because this can lead to fractional values whereas the graph label suggests the values will be in whole numbers. |
| ID 368823 | A user account restricted to a certain partition, can invalidate the cache associated with any Application, regardless of in which partition the application resides. |
| ID 369282 | On a BIG-IP provisioned LTM/WAM nominal, when WAM is de-provisioned back to none, the load average of the system spikes to 30+ making the box basically unresponsive for roughly 5 minutes. After this time, the system appears to return to normal and the prompt status returns to REBOOT REQUIRED. |
| ID 369961 | The space character in a path prefix is not evaluated correctly. To work around this, use the regular expression in a path segment match. |
| ID 370139 | WebAccelerator performance reports records some non-error cache bypass conditions as errors. |
| ID 372196 | Configuring any invalidation rule for a policy will cause content served from cache to not be compressed. |
| ID 375477 | Beginning with version 11.2.0, WAM parses and IBR/MC links inside a CSS file. Four new settings "IBR-to", "IBR-within", "MC-to", and "MC-within" are added to replace "IBR" and "MC" settings at WAM policy assembly page. For custom policies that have "IBR" and "MC" enabled, "IBR-to", "IBR-within", "MC-to", and "MC-within" will be enabled too after migration to this release. In other words, WAM will IBR/MC CSS files for these policies. If you prefer not to use this feature, you must disable the settings on corresponding policy nodes. |
| ID 381229 | When cached documents are served, the browser workarounds configuration option is ignored. |
| ID 382744 | Exporting Excel or CSV performance monitor reports will generate a file with an unexpected extension in some browsers. In most instances the saved file will have a .do extension. The workaround is to rename the file with the correct extension. |
| ID 382976 | Erroneously enabling image optimization on policy nodes matching HTML or CSS content causes that content to become uncacheable with S10206 |
| ID 383398 | Cache entries that are being constantly refreshed due to traffic cannot be cleared with wa_clear_cache if the configured lifetime is less than 4 seconds. |
| ID 383444 | If the origin web server and BIG-IP clocks are significantly different or a long network delay exists, the actual MTag and cache lifetime values will not match. |
| ID 383945 | During automation tests with AVR enabled, memory leaks can occur, and the WebAccelerator system might crash. |
| ID 384068 | When large files are served from cache, the optional X-WA-Info header may, on occasion, incorrectly contain S10205 when no invalidation/revalidation occurred. |
| ID 385722 | If a Web Acceleration profile has more than one WebAccelerator application enabled, ESI and triggered invalidations rules in version 11.0 through 11.2 incorrectly invalidate content regardless of which WebAccelerator application cached it. |
| ID 386676 | "Using iControl to import a policy might produce the following error: SOAP-ENV:Server Exception caught in WebAccelerator::urn:iControl:WebAccelerator/Policies::import_policy() Exception: Common::OperationFailed primary_error_code : 16908289 (0x01020001) secondary_error_code : 0 error_string : Failed to import policy. The workaround is as follows: 1. Locate the file: /usr/local/wa/scripts/modify_policy.pl. 2. Change the following line: - From: my $outfile = ""tmp_policy_file""; - To: my $outfile = ""/tmp/tmp_policy_file""; 3. Reimport the policy." |
| ID 390863 | When a Path matching rule is longer than 940 bytes, it is ignored and is not matched, and a less specific leaf node is used instead. To work around this issue, F5 recommends that you limit the length of the Path matching rules to fewer than 900 bytes, and use multiple nodes if you want to exceed this limit. For more information, see SOL13746: Long BIG-IP WebAccelerator Path matching rules may cause matching failure (http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/13000/700/sol13746.html). |
| ID 392479 | It has been observed, under rare conditions, that clicking save on the lifetime page without making any modifications causes inheritance settings to be overridden. |
| ID 392549 | The Performance Monitor Data Retention Period setting for WAM application is not being recognized properly. Performance Monitor data will be removed after 30 days regardless of the retention period setting. There is no workaround. |
| ID 394608 | An invalidation trigger that is defined using an extension rule to limit which documents are invalidated also invalidates documents served by requests where no extension is specified. |
| ID 395160 | Multiple simultaneous requests to optimize an image before it is cached may result in re-optimizing that image more times in 11.2.1 than 11.2.0. The 11.3.0 request-queuing feature will prevent such unnecessary re-optimizations. |
| ID 395368 | When specifying the Requested Host in a Web Accelerator Application, using a port number causes IBR to not be used. |
| ID 396155 | "After caching an uncompressed document, requesting a specific compressed range of the document results in either no compression and the specific range being asked for, or only the range of the original document compressed, depending on the length of the range being requested. The reason for this appears to be the fact that it only compresses the range being requested rather than the whole document, so if you only ask for 1000 bytes in the range, it falls under the compression profile's minimum. Also, upon content expiration from the cache, it seems that the uncompressed version of the document is evicted from the cache." |
| ID 396167 | If you cache a compressed document normally, and then switch to asking for a range beyond the end of the document, you get a 416 Requested Range Not Satisfiable response from WAM, but only while the cached content has a positive lifetime. As soon as the document expires and needs re-validation with the OWS, the response from WAM is a complete bypass, with no WAM related headers at all, resulting in partial content reflecting the full uncompressed content-range. |
| ID 397789 | Under certain low-memory situations, it is possible for WA to core for out-of-memory. |
| ID 398452 | With successive calls to wa_clear_cache and parking enabled, it is possible that a somewhat higher than usual amount of proxying occurs the content refreshes stop and server-side throughput returns to normal. |
| ID 398786 | "When a document is determined to be uncacheable, the WebAccelerator will create a Negative Cache Entry, indicating it is uncacheable and future requests should always be proxied to the OWS. Subsequent requests for the document should be served from the OWS, and the X-WA-Info Header (if configured) should indicate 10206 (not cachable, proxying by policy). Due to a known issue, a large fraction of subsequent requests for an uncacheable document will still be proxied, but will be noted in the X-WA-Info header as 10413 (proxying because WA is busy)." |
| ID 399034 | When the secondary blades in the chassis are not fully booted up, an external ESI invalidation or iControl may cause daemons to restart on the secondary blades. |
| ID 401054 | The WAM perfmonitor content-type report could potentially display duplicate application-name/node-name values if an applications policy assignment is modified after passing traffic. The report does not indentify the policy a node belongs to. If the newly assigned policy contains identical node names as its predecessor, the results will appear to be duplicates. |
| ID 401191 | Performance Monitor stats are no longer preserved during software version upgrades. |
| ID 401471 | Assembly parameter substitution option Query Parameter target does not recognize escaped XML entities. If the URL to be substituted has multiple query parameters, the parameters that follow the '&' may not work as expected. For example, if the URL to be substituted has a pattern of field1=x&field2=y, substitution works for both fields. However, if the URL is field1=x&field2=y, substitution works for the 'field1' parameter, but does not work for the 'field2' parameter. To work around this, include the escape sequence as part of the Query Parameter Name. In the example, a Query Parameter of 'field1=x&&field2' yields the expected substitution. |
| ID 402095 | The ltm profile_webacceleration_jail_stat will increment the cache_miss_bytes_all field even if the content is served from cache. |
| ID 402262 | If stats are cleared (reset-stats) while requests are parked, the parked_current stat will be incorrect until another reset-stats in a dormant state. |
| ID 402303 | WAM transaction-type perfmonitor reports will display empty text for application names or node names if an existing application or policy is deleted after passing traffic. The textual identifiers located in the policy or application no longer exist in the configuration after delete but the stats remain. |
| ID 404856 | If image or PDF optimizations are enabled and the Request Queue feature is also enabled, client browsers requesting compression may experience hung requests that will time out without getting a response. All subsequent requests for the same object may also experience the same hang. |
| ID 405750 | The DB variables wam.cache.requestqueue.maxqueuelen and wam.cache.requestqueue.maxwait do not propagate across all blades in a WAM cluster. There is no workaround for this issue. |
Contacting F5 Networks
| Phone: | (206) 272-6888 |
| Fax: | (206) 272-6802 |
| Web: | http://support.f5.com |
| Email: | support@f5.com |
For additional information, please visit http://www.f5.com.
Additional resources
You can find additional support resources and technical documentation through a variety of sources.
- The F5 Networks Technical Support web site: http://www.f5.com/support/
- The AskF5 web site: http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us.html
- The F5 DevCentral web site: http://devcentral.f5.com/
- AskF5 TechNews
F5 Networks Technical Support
Free self-service tools give you 24x7 access to a wealth of knowledge and technical support. Whether it is providing quick answers to questions, training your staff, or handling entire implementations from design to deployment, F5 services teams are ready to ensure that you get the most from your F5 technology.
AskF5
AskF5 is your storehouse for thousands of solutions to help you manage your F5 products more effectively. Whether you want to search the knowledge base periodically to research a solution, or you need the most recent news about your F5 products, AskF5 is your source.
F5 DevCentral
The F5 DevCentral community helps you get more from F5 products and technologies. You can connect with user groups, learn about the latest F5 tools, and discuss F5 products and technology.
AskF5 TechNews
- Weekly HTML TechNews
- The weekly TechNews HTML email includes timely information about known issues, product releases, hotfix releases, updated and new solutions, and new feature notices. To subscribe, click TechNews Subscription, fill out the required fields, and click the Subscribe button. You will receive a confirmation. Unsubscribe at any time by clicking the Unsubscribe link at the bottom of the TechNews email.
- Periodic plain text TechNews
- F5 Networks sends a timely TechNews email any time a product or hotfix is released. (This information is always included in the next weekly HTML TechNews email). To subscribe, send a blank email to technews-subscribe@lists.f5.com from the email address you would like to subscribe with. Unsubscribe by sending a blank email to technews-unsubscribe@lists.f5.com.
Search AskF5
- Supported Products
- BIG-IP LTM / VE
- BIG-IP AFM / VE
- BIG-IP Analytics / VE
- BIG-IP APM / VE
- BIG-IP ASM / VE
- BIG-IP Edge Gateway / VE
- BIG-IP GTM / VE
- BIG-IP Link Controller
- BIG-IP PEM / VE
- BIG-IP PSM / VE
- BIG-IP WebAccelerator / VE
- BIG-IP WOM / VE
- ARX / VE
- ARX Cloud Extender
- Data Manager
- Enterprise Manager / VE
- F5 Monitoring Pack
- FirePass / VE
- BIG-IQ Cloud
- BIG-IQ Security
- BIG-IP Edge Apps
- End-of-Life Products
- Recent Additions
- About AskF5
