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Disabling steering on the cluster backplane

May 2, 2023

Contributed by:

S C

Note

Supported from NetScaler 11 onwards.

The default behavior of a NetScaler cluster is to direct the traffic that it receives (flow receiver) to another node (flow processor). The flow processor must then process the traffic. This process of directing the traffic from flow receiver to flow processor occurs over the cluster backplane and is called steering.

If necessary, you can disable steering so that the process becomes local to the flow receiver and therefore makes the flow receiver as the flow processor. Such a configuration setup can come handy when you have a high latency link.

Note

This configuration is applicable only for striped virtual servers.

For partially striped virtual servers, if the flow receiver is a non-owner node, the traffic is steered to an owner node. If however, the flow receiver is an owner node, then steering is disabled.
For spotted virtual servers, the flow receiver is the flow processor, and hence there is no need for steering.

Some points to remember when disabling the steering mechanism:

Striped SNIPs are not supported as steering is disabled.
MPTCP and FTP do not work.
L2 mode must be disabled.
If USIP is enabled, traffic might not reach back to the same node as the steering is disabled.
Traffic that is directed to the cluster IP address is steered to the configuration coordinator.
When a node joins or leaves a cluster, it is possible that more than 1/N connections are affected. It is because a change in the nodes available, might cause the routes to be rehashed. As a result, the traffic is routed to another node and due to the non-availability of steering, the traffic is not processed.

Steering can be disabled at the individual virtual server level or at the global level. The global configuration takes precedence over the virtual server setting.

Disabling backplane steering for all striped virtual servers

Configured at cluster instance level. Traffic meant for any striped virtual server is not steered on the cluster backplane.

add cluster instance \<clId\> -processLocal ENABLED
Disabling backplane steering for a specific striped virtual server

Configured on a striped virtual server. Traffic meant for the virtual server is not steered on the cluster backplane.

add lb vserver <name> <serviceType> -processLocal ENABLED

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Disabling steering on the cluster backplane

May 2, 2023

Contributed by:

S C

May 2, 2023

Contributed by:

S C

Disabling steering on the cluster backplane

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