WAAS - Akamai Acceleration

[HeribertoVV]

Hello,

I have two WAEs (Software Release 5.5.7 b10) and I'm doing some tests with Akamai Connect. 

I see in the branch WAE HTTP traffic being accelerated with peer ID field empty. For me this means that Akamai is accelerating this traffic, correct?. But I am not able to see HTTPS traffic being accelerated (attached screen 2.png)

I made another test by creating a static route in the branch router for an IP going to my core router (ip route 173.236.246.150 255.255.255.255 10.8.3.3). With this specific IP address I see HTTPS traffic being accelerated, but I see in Peer ID the core WAE. For me this means that WAAS is accelerating HTTPS traffic and not Akamai, correct? (attached screen 1.png)

Question: How to make Akamai be able to accelerate HTTPS traffic the same way it does for HTTP traffic?

I see a lot of HTTPS traffic trated as "PT in progress". I understand that this is because branch WAE doesn't find core WAE. But, why it isn't working like HTTP that is being accelerated despite of it?

[finn.poulsen · Accepted solution]

Hi,

For the time being, in order to optimize https through Akamai Connect, you'll need a dual-sided deployment (for plain http a single sides deployment will do).

Take a look here : http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/app_ntwk_services/waas/waas/v621/configuration/guide/cnfg/policy.html#96703

this is taken from waas 6.2.1, and your version is even older.

Best Regards

Finn

[HeribertoVV]

Thank you for your answer, Finn.

I made an update to my platform yesterday to 6.2.1 and configured Smart-SSL to optimize traffic on SSL encrypted applications. This worked for me in single-sided deployment.

Kind regards,

Heriberto.