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    Sticky connections not working with dual WAN

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Routing and Multi WAN
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    • johnpozJ
      johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
      last edited by johnpoz

      @Daskew78 said in Sticky connections not working with dual WAN:

      t took me a few minutes to find those details

      You can filter states.. My point was that those states are closed..

      This statement "Once the states for that source expire" means what exactly... If any state, even closed states that are just waiting to time out.. Or does that state have to actually be active?

      This where I thought maybe @Derelict could help..

      Lets look at this scenario... You create a connection to IP X, now that state has been set to be closed.. fin.. and you enter a time_wait state.. Is that state considered expired - so a new session which is what you show there from a different source port would that go out the same wan, or would it round robin to the other wan?

      You could look at it both ways.. Since the the state is just waiting to close, and you have this new session coming fro a different source port maybe I should round robin that connection.. Or you could look at it as hey there is ANY state from IP your rfc1918 address to this public IP 62.3 - so always use that wan? I am not exactly sure how it is looked at?

      I could see both ways being valid ways of looking at.. Hey this client has an active session to x, any new sessions it creates will go out the same wan.. Or hey this session is closed or closing... Since this is a new session "different source port.. Maybe it should go out the other wan to load balance.

      An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
      If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
      Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
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      • TheCableGuy96T
        TheCableGuy96
        last edited by

        @johnpoz said in Sticky connections not working with dual WAN:

        w that state has been set to be closed.. fin.. and you enter a time_wait state.. Is that state considered expired - so a new session which is what you show there from a different source port would that go out the same wan, or would it round robin to the other wan?

        Would you be willing to do a remote session with me and I can show you all the evidence? I really think there's a bug here.

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        • johnpozJ
          johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
          last edited by johnpoz

          I am not saying its not a bug or that there isn't a problem - I just don't know which specifics pfsense is using to know keep a connection sticky.. I made a bit of edit addition - on my previous post.

          You can look at it both ways, I don't know exactly what "Once the states for that source expire" means.. Maybe once there has been a fin, that state is no longer looked at - I am not sure..

          An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
          If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
          Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
          SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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          • TheCableGuy96T
            TheCableGuy96
            last edited by

            Well I'm at a loss as to what to do next.

            I think it comes down to @Derelict needs to advise what further testing I can do or accept it may be a possible bug?

            I hope he replies!

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            • johnpozJ
              johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
              last edited by johnpoz

              I still think is out for a bit, my understand is he wouldn't be back for a few more days... So his check into the thread was a bit unexpected to me..

              We can see if @jimp has any advice as well.. This is just a bit out of my comfort level, since I do not use multiple wans in a load balancing setup.. I don't really see the point to it to be honest ;) If you need to load balance tells me your connections are undersized ;) hehehe

              I have more experience with this sort of thing on fortinet load balancing to servers behind them, and how their sticky connections work.. And even then its not a day to day sort of thing, only get called into consult on issues - normally they give me sniffs to work with and help them figure out what is going wrong ;)

              If you could show state that is clearly active, and then another state being opened - then I would agree that is not how I would understand sticky to work.

              You know who might be good as well would be @stephenw10

              An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
              If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
              Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
              SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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              • TheCableGuy96T
                TheCableGuy96 @johnpoz
                last edited by

                @johnpoz I don't deny my upload is undersized of for my needs... it's the best i can get at the moment though until they upgrade the infrastructure around here. It has many other advantages though such as redundancy.

                Hopefully one of the people you tagged can chip in :)

                I do appreciate all the help so far... thanks pal!

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                • johnpozJ
                  johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                  last edited by johnpoz

                  Sure failover I get. but that wouldn't need to be a in load balancing setup to do that ;) heheh

                  What I would suggest is try and validate if this other connection is being created after original state is closed.. You could just sniff on your client.. Do you see or send a fin at any time?

                  And that is when the wan changes.

                  An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                  If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                  Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                  SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

                  TheCableGuy96T 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • TheCableGuy96T
                    TheCableGuy96 @johnpoz
                    last edited by

                    It's getting a bit above me this now which is why I was hoping I could let you teamviewer in and maybe take a look?

                    You'd have all the answers in 5 minutes rather than going back and forth through this monkey ;)

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                    • N
                      netblues @TheCableGuy96
                      last edited by

                      @Daskew78 You shouldnt really care about states being closed when you have a stickiness of 1200.

                      As documentation says, if you have stickiness 0, then load balancing path is re evaluated when connectios are closed. (and we could discuss if this means fin wait etc)
                      But stickiness of 1200 Means 1200 seconds AFTER connections is closed, if a new request comes from the same ip to the same host it will leave from the same gateway.

                      I insist. stickiness works fine on multiwan ssl load balancing scenario.
                      And consider this workaround too
                      https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/6025

                      quoting
                      Also of note, when the weights differ, even though the gateways have a specific order with repetition in the rule, pf seems to still flip back and forth, though the general ratio of the weights is respected. For example with WAN1=3, WAN2=2:

                      I had the same issues as you do until I made 2 the default weight on both load balancing connections.

                      Deeper issues are suspected, as redmine says.
                      Please consider testing the workaround.

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                      • johnpozJ
                        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                        last edited by

                        Yeah sure seems that issue is exactly what your seeing... I would do what @netblues says and that should fix up your issue I would hope.

                        An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                        If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                        Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                        SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                        • TheCableGuy96T
                          TheCableGuy96
                          last edited by

                          @netblues @johnpoz

                          Thanks guys... I've had a read through but it's all a little confusing to me.

                          Can you just clarify you are suggesting setting both connections to "Tier 2" instead of "Tier 1" on the LoadBalancing profile?

                          Cheers.

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                          • johnpozJ
                            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                            last edited by

                            Yup..

                            An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                            If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                            Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                            SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                            • TheCableGuy96T
                              TheCableGuy96
                              last edited by

                              Well if that's the case it is a bug then. But at least there appears to be a workaround.

                              I'll test it now, cheers again :)

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                              • N
                                netblues @TheCableGuy96
                                last edited by

                                @Daskew78 nope
                                We suggest to put a weight of 2 on both gateways and load balance them as both tier 1.
                                with a stickiness of 2500

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                                • johnpozJ
                                  johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                                  last edited by johnpoz

                                  As you see yes there is a redmine on it ;)

                                  Currently targeted at 2.5 - but its been pushed many times already.. So wouldn't expect... This thread could get added to that redmine I would think.. Might put a bit more weight on looking into it.

                                  An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                                  If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                                  Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                                  SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                                  • TheCableGuy96T
                                    TheCableGuy96
                                    last edited by

                                    Sorry I spoke a little too soon.... should I also set the sticky connections back to "0"?

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                                    • N
                                      netblues @TheCableGuy96
                                      last edited by netblues

                                      @Daskew78 NO, it won't work on web banking sites

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                                      • TheCableGuy96T
                                        TheCableGuy96
                                        last edited by

                                        Sorry I was replying too fast and missed your update about setting the states to 2500.

                                        I have set it to 2500 and set each gateway to Tier 1 but I can't see where I set a weight of 2? Where is the weight setting?

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                                        • RicoR
                                          Rico LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance
                                          last edited by

                                          System > Routing > Edit Gateway > Display Advanced > Weight

                                          -Rico

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                                          • TheCableGuy96T
                                            TheCableGuy96
                                            last edited by

                                            ahhh thank you.... i'm testing now... will update shortly :)

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