Configuring the GSS Health Check - Adaptive Applications - BlueCat Gateway - 24.1

Global Server Selector Administration Guide
Locale
English
Product name
BlueCat Gateway
Version
24.1

Once you have configured the answers for each region, you can configure the GSS Health Check to monitor the answers.

GSS can be integrated with your existing application monitoring platform using APIs. If the state of a server changes, the monitoring solution calls the GSS APIs to update the application state and automatically update DNS.

For basic requirements, the health check server provided with GSS can be configured to directly check the application health.

Configuring the HTTP HEAD Health Check

The HTTP HEAD Health Check sends out a HTTP (HTTPS) request at regular intervals.



To set the HTTP HEAD Health Check:
  1. On the Traffic Steering page, select the Health Check tab.
  2. Under Health Check Type, select HTTP HEAD.
  3. Set the following parameters:
    • Check Every (Seconds)—enter interval at which you would like to send requests, in seconds. The default value is 30 seconds.
      Note: By default, the minimum configurable value is 10 seconds to prevent additional load on the health check server due to misconfiguration. If required, you can override this value by changing the minimum interval value in the /bluecat_gateway/customizations/gss.ini configuration file. For more information, refer to Understanding the gss.ini settings.
    • Appended URL Path—enter the path to send the request. The default value is /.
    • Optional Header—enter any optional header to add to the request.
    • Header Value—enter any optional header values to add to the request.
    • Secure Connection—select this check box to use secure (HTTPS) requests.
  4. Click Save to save the setting.

Configuring the TCP Health Check

The TCP Health Check attempts to connect to the specified TCP port at regular intervals.



To set the TCP Health Check:
  1. On the Traffic Steering page, select the Health Check tab.
  2. Under Health Check Type, select TCP.
  3. Set the following parameters:
    • Check Every (Seconds)—enter interval at which you would like to send requests, in seconds. The default value is 30 seconds.
      Note: By default, the minimum configurable value is 10 seconds to prevent additional load on the health check server due to misconfiguration. If required, you can override this value by changing the minimum interval value in the /bluecat_gateway/customizations/gss.ini configuration file. For more information, refer to Understanding the gss.ini settings.
    • Port—enter the TCP port of which you are retrieving the status. The default value is port 22.
  4. Click Save to save the setting.

Configuring the Customize Health Check

The Customize Health Check allows you to enter parameters defined by a custom-developed health check module. For more information and assistance with specific health check module requirements, contact BlueCat Customer Care.



To set the Customize Health Check:
  1. On the Traffic Steering page, select the Health Check tab.
  2. Under Health Check Type, select Customize.
  3. Set the following parameters:
    • Check Every (Seconds)—enter interval at which you would like to send requests, in seconds. The default value is 30 seconds.
      Note: By default, the minimum configurable value is 10 seconds to prevent additional load on the health check server due to misconfiguration. If required, you can override this value by changing the minimum interval value in the /bluecat_gateway/customizations/gss.ini configuration file. For more information, refer to Understanding the gss.ini settings.
    • Label—enter the custom label for your health check module.
    • Value—enter the custom value for your health check module.
    • Click + to add the label and value.
  4. Click Save to save the setting.

Configuring No Health Check

You can also choose to have no health check in place.

To set no health check:
  1. On the Global Server Selector page, select the Health Check tab.
  2. Under Health Check Type, select No Health Check.
  3. Click Submit to save the setting.

Best practices for setting health check intervals

BlueCat recommends setting a Check Every interval that provides enough time for the health-check servers to regularly check all configured answers for all applications configured in GSS.

If a GSS health-check server detects that it is overloaded and health checks are being missed, the health check server automatically increases the interval between health checks to ensure all answers can be checked regularly.

Health check server logs and status APIs can be monitored to check if health checks have been rescheduled due to overload.