Configure automatic domain based service group scaling

A domain based service group consists of members whose IP addresses are obtained by resolving the domain names of servers that are bound to the service group. The domain names are resolved by a name server whose details you configure on the appliance. A domain based service group can also include IP-address based members.

The process of name resolution for a domain based server might return more than one IP address. The number of IP addresses in the DNS response is determined by the number of address (A) records configured for the domain name, on the name server. Even if the name resolution process returns multiple IP addresses, only one IP address is bound to the service group. To scale up or scale down a service group, you need to manually bind and unbind additional domain based servers to and from the service group, respectively.

However, you can configure a domain based service group to scale automatically on the basis of the complete set of IP addresses returned by a DNS name server for a domain based server. To configure automatic scaling, when binding a domain based server to a service group, enable the automatic scaling option. Following are the steps for configuring a domain based service group that scales automatically:

• Add a name server for resolving domain names. For more information about configuring a name server on the appliance, see Adding a Name Server.

• Add a domain based server. For information about adding a domain based server, see Adding a Server.
• Add a service group and associate the domain based server to the service group, with the autoscale option set to DNS. For information about adding a service group, see Configuring Service Groups.

When a domain based server is bound to a service group and the automatic scaling option is set on the binding, a UDP monitor and a TCP monitor are automatically created and bound to the domain based server. The two monitors function as resolvers. The TCP monitor is disabled by default, and the appliance uses the UDP monitor to send DNS queries to the name server to resolve the domain name. If the DNS response is truncated (has the TC flag set to 1), the appliance falls back to TCP and uses the TCP monitor to send the DNS queries over TCP. Thereafter, the appliance continues to use only the TCP monitor.

The DNS response from the name server might contain multiple IP addresses for the domain name. With the automatic scaling option set, the appliance polls each of the IP addresses by using the default monitor, and then includes in the service group only those IP addresses that are up and available. After the IP address records expire, as defined by their time-to-live (TTL) values, the UDP monitor (or the TCP monitor, if the appliance has fallen back to using the TCP monitor) queries the name server for domain resolution and includes any new IP addresses in the service group. If an IP address that is part of the service group is not present in the DNS response, the appliance removes that address from the service group after gracefully closing existing connections to the group member, a process during which it does not allow any new connections to be established with the member. If a domain name that resolved successfully in the past results in an NXDOMAIN response, all the service group members associated with that domain are removed.

Static (IP-address based) members and dynamically scaling domain based members can coexist in a service group. You can also bind members with different domain names to a service group with the automatic scaling option set. However, each domain name associated with a service group must be unique within the service group. You must enable the automatic scaling option for each domain based server that you want to use for automatic service group scaling. If an IP address is common to one or more domains, the IP address is added to the service group only once.

To configure a service group to scale automatically by using the command line interface

At the command prompt, type the following commands to configure the service group and verify the configuration:

add serviceGroup <serviceGroupName> <serverName> <port> -autoScale (YES | NO)

show serviceGroup <serviceGroupName>

Example

In the following example, server1 is a domain based server. The DNS response contains multiple IP addresses. Five addresses are available and are added to the service group.

> add serviceGroup servGroup server1 80 -autoScale YES
 Done
> sh servicegroup servGroup
       servGroup - HTTP
        State: ENABLED  Monitor Threshold : 0
              . . .
              . . .
        1)   192.0.2.31:80   State: UP       Server Name: server1 (Auto scale)    Server ID: None Weight: 1

                Monitor Name: tcp-default       State: UP
                Probes: 2       Failed [Total: 0 Current: 0]
                Last response: Success - TCP syn+ack received.

        2)   192.0.2.32:80   State: UP       Server Name: server1 (Auto scale)    Server ID: None Weight: 1

                Monitor Name: tcp-default       State: UP
                Probes: 2       Failed [Total: 0 Current: 0]
                Last response: Success - TCP syn+ack received.

        3)   192.0.2.36:80   State: UP       Server Name: server1 (Auto scale)    Server ID: None Weight: 1

                Monitor Name: tcp-default       State: UP
                Probes: 2       Failed [Total: 0 Current: 0]
                Last response: Success - TCP syn+ack received.

        4)   192.0.2.55:80   State: UP       Server Name: server1 (Auto scale)    Server ID: None Weight: 1

                Monitor Name: tcp-default       State: UP
                Probes: 2       Failed [Total: 0 Current: 0]
                Last response: Success - TCP syn+ack received.

        5)   192.0.2.80:80   State: UP       Server Name: server1 (Auto scale)    Server ID: None Weight: 1

                Monitor Name: tcp-default       State: UP
                Probes: 2       Failed [Total: 0 Current: 0]
                Last response: Success - TCP syn+ack received.
 Done

To configure a service group to scale automatically by using the configuration utility

1. Navigate to Traffic Management > Load Balancing > Service Groups.
2. Create a service group, and set the autoscale mode to DNS.