F5 Networks, Inc.

Fs Networks, Inc.

Richard Roderick Masters

David Dean Schmitt

Paul Imre Szabo

John Robert Hughes

Robert George Gilde

David Alan Hansen

Carlton Gene Amdahl

Greg W Davis

Benn Sapin Bollay

Alan B Mimms

Brent Wayne Blood

Saxon Carl Amdahl

Ravi Natarajan

Allen B Mimms

William Charles Whitson, Jr

Embodiments are directed towards employing a traffic management system (TMS) that is enabled to deploy component virtual machines (CVM) to the cloud to perform tasks of the TMS. In some embodiments, a TMS may be employed with one or more CVMs. In at least one embodiment, the TMS may maintain an image of each CVM. Each CVM may be configured to perform one or more tasks, to operate in specific cloud infrastructures, or the like. The TMS may deploy one or more CVMs locally and/or to one or more public and/or private clouds. In some embodiments, deployment of the CVMs may be based on a type of task to be performed, anticipated resource utilization, customer policies, or the like. The deployment of the CVMs may be dynamically updated based on monitored usage patterns, task completions, customer policies, or the like.

Elastic offload of prebuilt traffic management system component virtual machines

Embodiments are directed towards managing network traffic that includes SSL secured NTLM acceleration. A Packet Traffic Management Computer (PTMC) may receive a challenge sent by a server computer before the challenge is provided to a client computer. After receiving the challenge from the server computer, the PTMC may generate a cookie that at least includes a session-ID that corresponds to the client computer. The PTMC may add the cookie to the challenge before the modified challenge is forwarded to the client computer. If response is received from the client computer and it includes the same cookie that was sent with the challenge. The session-ID may be extracted from the cookie and employed to determine which server computer should receive the message. If a server computer may be determined, the PTMC may forward the message to the determined server computer.

SSL secured NTLM acceleration

A system and method for providing persistence in a secure network access by using a client certificate sent by a client device to maintain the identity of a target. A security handshake is performed with a client device to establish a secure session. A target is determined. A client certificate is associated with the target. During subsequent secure sessions, the client certificate is used to maintain persistent communications between the client and a target. A session ID can be used in combination with the client certificate, by identifying the target based on the session ID or the client certificate, depending on which one is available in a client message.

Method and system for providing persistence in a secure network access

A method and system is directed to distributing a flow of packets over a network to multiple traffic management devices. An apparatus receives each packet from a network and may act as a layer 2 switch, or router, to distribute the packet to one of a group of traffic management devices. The apparatus also may receive packets from servers for which the traffic management devices are managing communications. When distributing packets, a target traffic management device is selected from the group of traffic management devices. A connection key associated with the received packet and an identifier associated with the selected traffic management device are saved such that subsequent received packets in the flow of packets are delivered to the same traffic management device.

Method and system for scaling network traffic managers using connection keys

A method and system for forwarding messages received at a traffic manager. A traffic manager receives a message from a first connection to a client computer. At least a part of the message is to be forwarded to a server. If a connection exists to the server that matches the first connection, at least a part of the message is forwarded to the server by employing the existing connection. Otherwise, a source address is selected with which to communicate with the server. A new connection that includes the source address and a destination address associated with the server is opened. In addition, information associating the source address and the destination address with the first connection is stored. This information may then be used to map a response received from the server to the first connection.

Method and system for forwarding messages received at a traffic manager

A method, system, and apparatus for integrating a rate shaping class analysis with a load balancing decision across multiple network links to improve traffic management decisions. For each of the available multiple network links, a determination is made as to how much bandwidth is available to each class associated with that network link. When a request for a connection is received, the request's class is determined. A load balancing decision is based on the available bandwidths for the determined class for the request. The invention may also integrate other Quality of Service metrics into the load balancing decision, including link type, failure rates, or the like.

Employing rate shaping class capacities and metrics to balance connections

A system and method for directing network connections. The invention enables a network device to direct subsequent connections from a client to a server for accessing resources. A process extracts a persistence key from a received message, and employs the persistence key to identify the appropriate server. An interface is provided, enabling a user program to direct the process of extracting the persistence key. The invention also provides a way for multiple clients to persist to a common server.

Method and system for managing network traffic

A method and system for reducing memory required to maintain connection states in a traffic manager. A network device receives a message from a client in which at least a portion of the message is to be forward to a first server. If the network device is maintaining information for facilitating a first connection with a second server, the network device maintains a subset of the information for use in restoring the first connection and frees memory associated with information that is not needed for restoring the first connection. The network device then employs other previously stored information to restore the state of a second connection to the first server. The network device then sends at least a portion of the message to the first server using the second connection.

Method and system for reducing memory used for idle connections

A system and method is directed to routing a packet over a network to a probe. The system includes a replicator and a distributor. The replicator receives a packet from a client and replicates the packet. The distributor is either out-of-band or in-band to a flow of traffic between the client and a server. In the out-of-band configuration, the distributor forwards the replicate packet to at least one probe in a plurality of probes. The distributor receives a response to the replicate packet and transforms a source MAC address in the response to a MAC address of the distributor. The distributor forwards the transformed packet. The replicator forwards the original packet. In the in-band configuration, the distributor selects and forwards the original packet to a server using a first forwarding mechanism, and selects and forwards the replicate packet to a probe using a second forwarding mechanism.

System and method for managing traffic to a probe

A system and method is directed to replicating packet transactions over a network. The system includes a replication component and a plurality of servers enabled to include substantially the same content. The replication component receives a packet from a client and forwards it to a first server. If the packet is to be replicated, a replicate of the packet is forwarded to the other servers in the plurality of servers so that at least a portion of the content on the first server and the other servers are synchronized. Forwarding of the replicate packet may be delayed for some period of time, and need not be concurrent. If responses received from each server are substantially the same, a message is sent to the client. Moreover, transaction replication can occur across servers arranged in different configurations, including disparate databases.

Method and system for replicating content over a network

Distributing network traffic to multiple traffic management devices. A distributor receives packets from a network and may act as a layer 2 switch or router, to distribute the packet to one of a group of traffic management devices. The distributor may receive packets from servers that the traffic management devices are managing communications to. When distributing packets to traffic management devices, information may be used to determine which traffic management device each packet should be sent to. The distributor causes packets in a flow to be delivered to the same traffic management device. Many configurations are possible for connecting the distributor to the traffic management devices, including connecting each traffic management device to a physical or virtual port on the distributor, connecting the traffic management devices to the distributor using a virtual local area network, and connecting the traffic management devices to a layer 2 switch.

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

Richard Roderick Masters