Contents

Port Status - Field Help

Edit any of the following configuration settings on the Port Status panel and click Update Configuration.

Sticky time

The sticky time for this port. Sticky time is used to create an affinity relationship between a client and a specific server. After the sticky time has been exceeded, the client may be sent to a server different from the previous. The default value is 0, meaning that the port is not sticky. Sticky time can also be set at the executor and cluster levels.

Stale timeout

The number of seconds during which there can be no activity on a connection before that connection is removed. The default value for port 21 is 900; the default value for port 23 is 32,000,000. The default value for all other ports is 300 and can also be set at the executor and cluster levels.

Weight bound

The weight bound for this port. The default value is 20 and can also be set at the executor and cluster level.

Maximum number of servers

The maximum number of servers for this port. The default value is 32 and can also be set at the executor and cluster levels.

Port protocol

The port protocol. It may be overridden on a per-cluster or per-port basis. Possible values are TCP, UDP, or both protocols (TCP/UDP) and can also be set at the executor and cluster levels. The default value is TCP/UDP.

Cross port affinity

The default is the port's own port number. To enable cross port affinity, set the cross port value to a port which:

  • shares the same cluster address
  • shares the same servers
  • has the same (nonzero) sticky time value
  • has the same sticky address mask bits value

Cross port affinity is the sticky/affinity feature expanded to cover across multiple ports. When a client first makes a connection to one of the ports, the server is selected. When subsequent connections come in from the same client on the same port or a shared port (cross port), the same server will be accessed.

Sticky address mask bits

The number of high-order bits which can be defined for the client IP address mask. Possible values are 8, 16, 24 and 32. The default is 32 bits, which disables the sticky/affinity address masking feature.

Sticky address masking is an affinity feature enhancement to group clients together based upon common subnet address (that is, common high-order bits of the IP address). When sticky/affinity address masking is enabled, for all subsequent connections coming in from the same subnet, the same server will be selected.



The following current statistics are displayed on the Port Status panel:

Cluster address

The IP address of the cluster to which port is defined.

Port number

The number of the port.

Maximum server weight

The maximum server weight for servers on this port. The weight is based on internal counters in the executor, feedback from the advisors, and feedback from a system-monitoring program such as ISS or work load manager (WLM).

Total active connections

The current total number of active connections for this port.

Connections per second

The current number of connections per second for this port.

KBytes transferred per second

The number of kilobytes being transferred per second on this port.



The following lists are displayed on the Port Status panel:

List of Servers

The numerical dotted decimal address (such as 9.37.52.11) and weight (such as 10) of the currently active servers. Weights are applied to all servers on a port. Requests will be distributed between servers based on their weights relative to each other. For example, if one server is set to a weight of 10 and the other to 5, the server set to 10 should get twice as many requests as the server set to 5.

List of Rules

The list of rules shows:

  • Rule name - rules that are currently active.
  • Rule priority - the priority assigned to the rule. Lower numbered priority rules are evaluated first. (A rule with a priority of 1 will be evaluated before a rule with a priority of 2.) The first rule that is satisfied will be used. Once a rule has been satisfied, no further rules are evaluated.
  • Rule type - rules types are based on things such as: client IP address, time of day, connections per second for a port, active connections total for a port, client port, and always true.

See the IBM Network Dispatcher User's Guide for more details about rules-based load balancing.