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Stateful Failover - 26.Mar.2007 9:29:06 AM

sipes

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Joined: 26.Mar.2007
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Is it possible, with ISA server 2006 implemented in a firewall sandwich (example: [2] F5 big IP LTM/[2] ISA2006/[2] F5 big IP LTM), to have a stateful failover of a SSL session? (Example: establishing a https SharePoint session using form base authentication on the ISA server, uploading a word DOC and dropping one of the ISA servers and not losing the upload?

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RE: Stateful Failover - 1.Apr.2007 12:05:31 PM

tshinder

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While waste the money on F5?

Web Farm Loading balancing will give you the same thing as a fraction of the cost and you can use your IT budget for something more useful.

HTH,
Tom

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RE: Stateful Failover - 2.Apr.2007 2:12:27 PM

sipes

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The Root question is: Is stateful Failover possible with 2 or more ISA servers. Example: user logs in using forms based authentication to SharePoint and the ISA server the user is using fails, will the other ISA server takeover the session without the user having to log back in? I have been around the block with Microsoft and the answer I receive was no.

Thank you for your response.

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RE: Stateful Failover - 2.Apr.2007 3:48:47 PM

tshinder

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Hi Sipes,

Stateful is a evil term that has no meaning without a qualifier. What you're actually interested in is transparent failover, and you don't really care of TCP state, UDP pseudo-state, or application state.

The answer is yes -- if you use Web Farm load balancing, you won't have to reauth.

HTH,
Tom

_____________________________

Thomas W Shinder, M.D.
Sr. Consultant/Technical Writer
Prowess Consulting http://www.prowessconsulting.com/
Blog: http://blogs.isaserver.org/shinder/

GET THE NEW ISA 2006 Book!: http://tinyurl.com/2gpoo8

(in reply to sipes)

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RE: Stateful Failover - 2.Apr.2007 5:20:27 PM

sipes

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Joined: 26.Mar.2007
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Thank you for your reply. Can you point me to more information? (Links, DOCs, White Papers?) I was lead to believe that Web Farm Load balancing was all at the web server end; if one web server went down, the user would not lose their session. I have not come across any documentation about an array member failure and transparent failover to another member of the array with a user not losing there session.
Sipes

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RE: Stateful Failover - 4.Apr.2007 3:02:49 PM

tshinder

Posts: 47659
Joined: 10.Jan.2001
From: Texas
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Hi Sipes,

That's different. Yes, NLB doesn't keep the application state intact (authentication state actually) so users will need to auth again. However, if a member of the Web farm goes does down, there's no need to auth again.

HTH,
Tom

_____________________________

Thomas W Shinder, M.D.
Sr. Consultant/Technical Writer
Prowess Consulting http://www.prowessconsulting.com/
Blog: http://blogs.isaserver.org/shinder/

GET THE NEW ISA 2006 Book!: http://tinyurl.com/2gpoo8

(in reply to sipes)

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RE: Stateful Failover - 9.Apr.2007 6:48:21 PM

sipes

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Joined: 26.Mar.2007
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Tom

Thank you for all your help. Do you think Microsoft will add that type of functionality in the next release?

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RE: Stateful Failover - 10.Apr.2007 11:03:30 AM

tshinder

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Joined: 10.Jan.2001
From: Texas
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Perhaps, thought you'll likely find it in the IAG product instead of the ISA product.

HTH,
Tom

_____________________________

Thomas W Shinder, M.D.
Sr. Consultant/Technical Writer
Prowess Consulting http://www.prowessconsulting.com/
Blog: http://blogs.isaserver.org/shinder/

GET THE NEW ISA 2006 Book!: http://tinyurl.com/2gpoo8

(in reply to sipes)

Post #: 8