CSS 11500 Load balancing

Question

Hello,
We have a CSS 11503 with the following partial config
==================
service 10.10.10.221-1724
ip address 10.10.10.1
keepalive type tcp
port 1724
keepalive port 1724
active
service 10.10.10.222-1724
  ip address 10.10.10.1
  keepalive type tcp
  keepalive port 1724
  port 1724
  string string1
  active
content 10.10.10.1-80-website
    vip address 10.10.10.1
    no persistent
    advanced-balance arrowpoint-cookie
    add service 10.10.10.221-1724
    add service 10.10.10.222-1724
    port 80
    protocol tcp
    url "/*"
    active
============================
There is connectivity from CSS to both IP's, 10.10.10.221 and 10.10.10.222.  Problem we face is as following:
A client can hit web site on both servers by going to http://10.10.10.221:1724 and http://10.10.10.222:1724.
With service started on 10.10.10.221 and 10.10.10.222, a client PC can hit website by using http://10.10.10.1.
With step 2 above, connection count increasing on "service 10.10.10.221-1724" service.
There is no activty on "service 10.10.10.222-1724"
When we stop services on 10.10.10.221, client can no longer access web site using http://10.10.10.1.  In this situation, connection counter on "service 10.10.10.222-1724" increases with each attempt to access web site but the page on client machine times out.
With service stopped on 10.10.10.221, client can access web site using server IP, http://10.10.10.222:1724
Restarting service on 10.10.10.221 makes access to website usig http://10.10.10.1, load balancer IP.
When capturing packets using wireshark, we see that the client machine sends re-transmission on "HTTP Get" and evantually times out.
With behavior above, it is clear that the server at 10.10.10.222 is active.  What we cannot understand is why web site is inaccessible thru load balancer using http://10.10.10.1.
Please help.
Thanks,
Paresh.

Answer 1

Hi Paresh,
To troubleshoot this, I would recommend doing a traffic capture on the server vlan to see what is really happening with the connection.
One thing worth checking would be comparing the routing configured on both servers. If the traffic back from the server towards the client is not going through the CSS, the connection would fail, with the exact symptoms you are describing.
Regards
Daniel