Contents

Add rule

Fill in the fields and click OK.

Rule Name

The rule name is the name you choose for the rule. This name can contain any alphanumeric character, underscore, hyphen, or period. It may be from 1 to 20 characters and cannot contain any blanks.

Type

The following describes all the rule types:

IP Address
Based on the client's IP address.
Time of day
Based on the time of day.
Total Connections
Based on the number of connections per second for the port.
Active Connections
Based on the total number of active connections for the port.
Alway True
The rule will always be true.
Content
A regular expression which will be compared to the client requested URLs.

Affinity type

Refers to how sticky time will be applied. CBR provides cookie affinity, which allows multiple requests with the same cookie to be sent to a single server, bypassing the load balancing algorithm. (Dispatcher uses the default type of affinity that is based on the client IP address, meaning that successive requests from the same client IP address will go to the same server rather than being load balanced each time.)

Priority

The order in which the rules will be reviewed. If you do not set the priority of the first rule you add, the Dispatcher will set the priority of the rule to 1. Subsequent rules, for which no priority is specified, will be added by default with the priority of the current highest priority value + 10. This is an optional field.

Begin Range

Optionally, the lower value in the range used to determine whether or not the rule is true. If you are adding a rule based on:

  • IP Address, then the begin range is the address of the client as either a symbolic name or in dotted-decimal format. The default is 0.0.0.0.
  • Time, then the begin range is an integer. The default is 0, representing midnight.
  • Connections, then the begin range is an integer. The default is 0.
  • Active Connections, then the begin range is an integer. The default is 0.
You do not have to specify a beginning range for an always true rule.

End Range

Optionally, the upper value in the range used to determine whether or not the rule is true. If you are adding a rule based on:

  • IP Address, then the end range is the address of the client as either a symbolic name or in dotted-decimal format. The default is 255.255.255.255.
  • Time of day, then the end range is an integer. The default is 24, representing midnight.
  • Total Connections, then the end range is an integer. The default is 2 to the 32nd power minus 1.
  • Active Connections, then the end range is an integer. The default is 2 to the 32nd power minus 1.
You do not have to specify an end range for an always true rule.

Pattern

Only applicable if you selected Content for the rule Type. Enter the pattern syntax you want to use, using the following restrictions:

  • no spaces
  • special characters:
    '*' : wildcard (matches 0 to x of any character)
    '(' : used for logic grouping
    ')' : used for logic grouping
    '&' : logical AND
    '|' : logical OR
    '!' : logical NOT
    
  • reserved keywords (always followed by '='):
    client   : Client IP Address
    url      : URL in request
    protocol : Protocol section of URL
    path     : Path section of URL
    refer    : Refered URL (quality of service)
    

Examples:

 
   url=http://*/*.gif
   client=9.32.*
   (path=index/*.gif&protocol=http)|(client=9.1.2.3)
   !(path=*.jpeg)

Sticky time

Refers to how much time there is (after a client connection) before the client (or cookie) loses it's affinity with a server.

One or more server addresses: (optional)

The list of server(s) you have running. You can optionally select one or more from the list to be included with the rule.