Do css header field rules affect performance?

[bjelf]

We have an app seeing "phantom slowness" and the developers are pointing fingers at the fact that we have two content rules, one of which uses header field inspection.

We use header field rules on other content rules with no problem. Is it possible that header field rules can slow things down with a high number of connections/hits? No issues with high cpu or throughput and like I said, other sites are working fine.

My content rules look like this:

content site-80

vip address 10.0.0.1

protocol tcp

port 80

url "/*"

primarySorryServer down-page

add service server1-80

add service server2-80

add service server3-80

add service server4-80

advanced-balance arrowpoint-cookie

redundant-index 1000

active

content site-url-80

vip address 10.0.0.1

protocol tcp

port 80

url "/*"

add service server5-80

redundant-index 1001

header-field-rule url

active

I have css-11506's and am running 7.50.2.05.

Thanks

-Dan

[Gilles Dufour]

Dan,

there will be a performance hit if you compare a header-field content rule and a basic Layer 3 rule.

This is normal since the CSS needs to do much more for the L7 rule.

However, before blaming this content rule, maybe you should try to define exactly "phantom Slowness".

Try to catch a sniffer trace showing the problem or get a serie of stats when the problem occurs and compare them with stats taken when everything is ok.

Gilles.

[bjelf]

Thanks Gilles. Yes I am doing sniffer traces to help figure this out.

For the performance hit, wouldn't it be overall on the css or would it be for the one particular vip? Seems like the processing wou;d affect overall performance of the css.

-Dan