Manual Chapter : Monitors Tasks

Applies To:

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BIG-IP GTM

  • 11.6.5, 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
Manual Chapter

Monitors Tasks

Creating an SNMP monitor

Create an SNMP monitor that GTM™ can use to monitor a third-party server running SNMP.
  1. On the Main tab, click DNS > GSLB > Monitors .
    The Monitor List screen opens.
  2. Click Create.
    The New Monitor screen opens.
  3. Type a name for the monitor.
    Important: Monitor names are limited to 63 characters.
  4. From the Type list, select SNMP.
  5. Click Finished.

Creating a custom monitor

Before creating a custom monitor, you must decide on a monitor type.
You can create a custom monitor when the values defined in a pre-configured monitor do not meet your needs, or no pre-configured monitor exists for the type of monitor you are creating.
Important: When defining values for custom monitors, make sure you avoid using any values that are on the list of reserved keywords. For more information, see solution number 3653 (for version 9.0 systems and later) on the AskF5™ technical support web site.
  1. On the Main tab, click DNS > GSLB > Monitors .
    The Monitor List screen opens.
  2. Click Create.
    The New Monitor screen opens.
  3. Type a name for the monitor in the Name field.
  4. From the Type list, select the type of monitor.
    The screen refreshes, and displays the configuration options for the monitor type.
  5. From the Import Monitor list, select an existing monitor.
    The new monitor inherits initial configuration values from the existing monitor.
  6. From the Configuration list, select Advanced.
    This selection makes it possible for you to modify additional default settings.
  7. Configure all settings shown.
  8. Click Finished.

Deleting a monitor

Prior to deleting a monitor, you must remove all existing monitor associations.
You can delete obsolete or unused monitors.
Note: You can manage only those monitors that you have permission to manage, based on your user role and partition access assignment.
  1. On the Main tab, click DNS > GSLB > Monitors .
    The Monitor List screen opens.
  2. Select the Select check box for the monitor that you want to delete.
  3. Click Delete.
    A confirmation message appears.
  4. Click Delete.
The monitor is deleted.

Disabling a monitor

You can disable a monitor to discontinue monitoring a server.
Note: Because instances of monitors are not partitioned objects, a user can enable or disable an instance of a monitor without having permission to manage the associated pool or pool member. For example, a user with the Manager role, who can access partition AppA only, can enable or disable monitor instances for a pool that resides in partition Common. However, that user cannot perform operations on the pool or pool members that are associated with the monitor. Although this is correct functionality, the user might not expect this behavior. You can prevent this unexpected behavior by ensuring that all pools and pool members associated with monitor instances reside in the same partition.
  1. On the Main tab, click DNS > GSLB > Monitors .
    The Monitor List screen opens.
  2. Click a monitor name in the list.
    The monitor settings and values appear.
  3. Click Instances on the menu bar.
    Any existing monitor instances appear.
  4. Select the Select check box for the instance you want to manage.
  5. Click Disable.
  6. Click Update.
The monitor is disabled and no longer monitoring the server.

Displaying a monitor

You can display a monitor and view the settings and values.
Note: You can manage only those monitors that you have permission to manage, based on your user role and partition access assignment.
  1. On the Main tab, click DNS > GSLB > Monitors .
    The Monitor List screen opens.
  2. Click a monitor name in the list.
    The monitor settings and values appear.
You can view the settings and values for the monitor.

Enabling a monitor

You can enable a monitor to begin or resume monitoring a server.
Note: Because instances of monitors are not partitioned objects, a user can enable or disable an instance of a monitor without having permission to manage the associated pool or pool member. For example, a user with the Manager role, who can access partition AppA only, can enable or disable monitor instances for a pool that resides in partition Common. However, that user cannot perform operations on the pool or pool members that are associated with the monitor. Although this is correct functionality, the user might not expect this behavior. You can prevent this unexpected behavior by ensuring that all pools and pool members associated with monitor instances reside in the same partition.
  1. On the Main tab, click DNS > GSLB > Monitors .
    The Monitor List screen opens.
  2. Click a monitor name in the list.
    The monitor settings and values appear.
  3. Click Instances on the menu bar.
    Any existing monitor instances appear.
  4. Select the Select check box for the instance you want to manage.
  5. Click Enable.
  6. Click Update.
The monitor is enabled to begin or resume monitoring a server.

Creating an HTTP monitor

Before creating a monitor, you must decide on a monitor type.
A custom HTTP monitor enables you to send a command to a server and examine that server's response, thus ensuring that it is serving appropriate content.
  1. On the Main tab, click DNS > GSLB > Monitors .
    The Monitor List screen opens.
  2. Type a name for the monitor in the Name field.
  3. From the Type list, select HTTP.
    The screen refreshes, and displays the configuration options for the HTTP monitor type.
  4. From the Parent Monitor list, select http.
    The new monitor inherits initial configuration values from the existing monitor.
  5. From the Configuration list, select Advanced.
    This selection makes it possible for you to modify additional default settings.
  6. Type a number in the Interval field that indicates, in seconds, how frequently the system issues the monitor check. The default is 30 seconds.
    The frequency of a monitor check must be greater than the value of the global-level Heartbeat Interval setting. Otherwise, the monitor can acquire out-of-date data.
  7. Type a number in the Timeout field that indicates, in seconds, how much time the target has to respond to the monitor check. The default is 120 seconds.
    If the target responds within the allotted time period, it is considered up. If the target does not respond within the time period, it is considered down.
  8. Type a number in the Probe Timeout field that indicates the number of seconds after which the system times out the probe request to the system. The default is 5 seconds.
  9. For the Ignore Down Response setting, do one of the following:
    • Accept the No default option.
    • Select the Yes option to specify that the monitor accepts more than one probe attempt per interval.
  10. Type a text string in the Send String field that the monitor sends to the target resource.
    The default string is GET /. This string retrieves a default file from the web site.
    Type a fully qualified path name, for example, GET /www/example/index.html, if you want to retrieve a specific web site page.
  11. Type a regular expression in the Receive String field that represents the text string that the monitor looks for in the returned resource.
    The most common receive expressions contain a text string that is included in an HTML file on your site. The text string can be regular text, HTML tags, or image names.
    Note: If you do not specify both a send string and a receive string, the monitor performs a simple service check and connect only.
  12. Type a name in the User Name field.
  13. Type a password in the Password field.
  14. For the Reverse setting, do one of the following:
    • Accept the No default option.
    • Select the Yes option to make the Receive Disable String option unavailable and mark the pool, pool member, or node Down when the test is successful.
  15. For the Transparent setting, do one of the following:
    • Accept the No default option.
    • Select the Yes option to use a path through the associated pool members or nodes to monitor the aliased destination.
  16. For the Alias Address setting, do one of the following:
    • Accept the *All Addresses default option.
    • Type an alias IP address for the monitor to verify, on behalf of the pools or pool members with which the monitor is associated.
    If the health check for the alias address is successful, the system marks all associated objects up. If the health check for the alias address is not successful, then the system marks all associated objects down.
  17. For the Alias Service Port setting, do one of the following:
    • Accept the *All Ports default option.
    • Select an alias port or service for the monitor to check, on behalf of the pools or pool members with which the monitor is associated.
    If the health check for the alias port or service is successful, the system marks all associated objects up. If the health check for the alias port or service is not successful, then the system marks all associated objects down.
The HTTP monitor is configured to monitor HTTP traffic.

Creating an HTTPS monitor

Before creating a monitor, you must decide on a monitor type.
A custom HTTPS monitor enables you to verify the Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) service by attempting to receive specific content from a web page protected by Secure Socket Layer (SSL) security.
  1. On the Main tab, click DNS > GSLB > Monitors .
    The Monitor List screen opens.
  2. From the Type list, select the type of monitor.
    The screen refreshes, and displays the configuration options for the monitor type.
  3. From the Import Monitor list, select an existing monitor.
    The new monitor inherits initial configuration values from the existing monitor.
  4. Type a number in the Interval field that indicates, in seconds, how frequently the system issues the monitor check. The default is 30 seconds.
    The frequency of a monitor check must be greater than the value of the global-level Heartbeat Interval setting. Otherwise, the monitor can acquire out-of-date data.
  5. Type a number in the Timeout field that indicates, in seconds, how much time the target has to respond to the monitor check. The default is 120 seconds.
    If the target responds within the allotted time period, it is considered up. If the target does not respond within the time period, it is considered down.
  6. Type a number in the Probe Timeout field that indicates the number of seconds after which the system times out the probe request to the system. The default is 5 seconds.
  7. For the Ignore Down Response setting, do one of the following:
    • Accept the No default option.
    • Select the Yes option to specify that the monitor accepts more than one probe attempt per interval.
  8. Type a text string in the Send String field that the monitor sends to the target resource.
    The default string is GET /. This string retrieves a default file from the web site.
    Type a fully qualified path name, for example, GET /www/example/index.html, if you want to retrieve a specific web site page.
  9. Type a regular expression in the Receive String field that represents the text string that the monitor looks for in the returned resource.
    The most common receive expressions contain a text string that is included in an HTML file on your site. The text string can be regular text, HTML tags, or image names.
    Note: If you do not specify both a send string and a receive string, the monitor performs a simple service check and connect only.
  10. Type a list of ciphers in the Cipher List field that match those of the client sending a request, or of the server sending a response.
    The default string is DEFAULT:+SHA:+3DES:+kEDH.
  11. Type a name in the User Name field.
  12. Type a password in the Password field.
  13. From the Client Certificate list, do one of the following:
    • Accept the default, None, to specify no client certificate.
    • Select ca-bundle to use the ca-bundle client certificate.
    • Select default to use a default client certificate.
  14. For the Reverse setting, do one of the following:
    • Accept the No default option.
    • Select the Yes option to make the Receive Disable String option unavailable and mark the pool, pool member, or node Down when the test is successful.
  15. For the Transparent setting, do one of the following:
    • Accept the No default option.
    • Select the Yes option to use a path through the associated pool members or nodes to monitor the aliased destination.
  16. For the Alias Address setting, do one of the following:
    • Accept the *All Addresses default option.
    • Type an alias IP address for the monitor to verify, on behalf of the pools or pool members with which the monitor is associated.
    If the health check for the alias address is successful, the system marks all associated objects up. If the health check for the alias address is not successful, then the system marks all associated objects down.
  17. For the Alias Service Port setting, do one of the following:
    • Accept the *All Ports default option.
    • Select an alias port or service for the monitor to check, on behalf of the pools or pool members with which the monitor is associated.
    If the health check for the alias port or service is successful, the system marks all associated objects up. If the health check for the alias port or service is not successful, then the system marks all associated objects down.
The HTTPS monitor is configured to monitor HTTPS traffic.
Associate the HTTPS monitor with a server, pool, pool member, or node.