08-24-2024 07:51 AM
This was previously discussed in 2018, but I'm asking again since we now have the latest firmware installed.
Does the RV340 support sticky/persistent sessions while load balancing across multiple WANs? Specifically, can it ensure that once a session is initiated on a website, the connection remains on the same WAN that handled the initial request?
Currently, the WAN changes with each request.
Expert advice would be greatly appreciated.
RV340 with multi-wan+load balancing enabled (2 ISPs/WANs, precedence = 1,1).
08-24-2024 08:41 AM
You're only asking about selection of your outbound WAN interface on a RV340, correct? Your only using static default routes, correct?
Unfortunately, I'm unfamiliar with what a RV340 does, but it's usually one of three methods for ECMP.
First, each packet is round robined.
Second, a flow's packets use the same path. Flows are distributed across paths.
How flows are distributed is generally done one of two ways. The most common way, a flow's attributes are used to always pick the same path. Or, a new flow path is chosen via round robin, but a watch dog timer is reset with each flow's packet. This usually insures an active flow's packets use the same path, but an aged out flow will be treated like a new flow, i.e. different path might be used.
When working with Internet web servers, thete can be many IPs servicing the DNS name, and dynamic web server LB might be in use too.
I recall (???), each HTTP transaction is stateless. Possibly (commonly) multiple packets may be needed, but there is no implied session (logical "sessions" are provided by cookies, which is what allows even another physical web server to continue a "session", but network routers don't "see" such "sessions").
What behavior are you observing?
08-24-2024 09:35 AM - edited 08-24-2024 09:36 AM
Nope it wasn't me. Here is prev thread .
it's still same behaviour with latest firmware. If you check TPLINK ER605/ER7206 they do everything but do Sticky session (They call - Enable Application Optimized Routing)
we want similar function over-here.
08-24-2024 11:07 AM
Ah, that previous thread does provide context, especially the description of "sticky" using a session timeout value (the technique I was describing as the second option of flow based multi path).
What was also interesting was the issue of "sessions" being a problem with HTTPS/TLS. Again, my understand of HTTP is it's stateless, and regarding session with HTTPS/TLS, my browser's AI returns:
Based on the provided search results, I will outline the key aspects of HTTPS sessions and their lifetimes.
Establishment of an HTTPS Session
HTTPS sessions are built on top of the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol. When a client (typically a web browser) initiates an HTTPS connection to a server, a TLS handshake occurs. During this process:
Lifetime of an HTTPS Session
The lifetime of an HTTPS session depends on various factors:
Key Takeaways
In code, you can observe this behavior through network inspection tools or by implementing your own HTTPS client or server. For example, in a Python HTTPS client using the requests
library, each request establishes a new TLS connection:
import
requests
response = requests.get('https://example.com')
print(response.request.headers['Connection']) # "close"
In this example, the client initiates a new TLS connection for each request and closes it afterward. If session resumption were enabled, the Connection
header would likely be set to “keep-alive” or “persist” to maintain the existing session.
The normal/common expectation, appears to be, security session is per HTTP request, so for such, as flow's L3(/L4) attributes should not be changing, and for that "session", different WAN interface shouldn't be used. However, even for outbound per packet round robin, source/destination should logically remain the same. I.e. possibly such packet round robin would cause out-of-sequence packet delivery, but client<>server should remain the same (excluding LB "stuff" on server side).
Notwithstanding the forgoing, your question really appears to be whether mwan3 sticky option is in the latest RV340 IOS.
Looking at configuration information for enabling MWAN, it only notes
Outgoing network load balancing is performed on a per IP connection basis; it is not channel-bonding, where a single connection uses multiple WAN connections simultaneously.
Further, unfortunately, end of RV340 support is noted for 9/30/24, so if software doesn't behave as desired, not much chance Cisco will revise it within the next 30+ days.
Basically, with the end-of-support date, that's Cisco's way of saying time to replace the RV340. If you do, of course, try to ascertain if replacement will perform as you need.
Lastly, and again, my bailiwick isn't with the SMB devices, so perhaps someone else might yet respond. Is your RV340's actual behavior cause issues?
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