Configuring TCP Connect Options for Web Servers

Connect options are specific to the group of web servers configured for a proxy service. They allow you to control how idle and unresponsive web server connections are handled and to optimize these processes for your network. For most networks, the default values provide adequate performance. If your network is congested and slow, you might want to increase some of the limits.

  1. Click Devices > Access Gateways > Edit > [Name of Reverse Proxy] > [Name of Proxy Service] > Web Servers > TCP Connect Options.

  2. Configure the IP address to use when establishing connections with web servers:

    Cluster Member: (Available only if Access Gateway is a member of a cluster.) Select the server you want to configure from the list of servers. Only the value of the Make Outbound Connection Using option applies to the selected server.

    Make Outbound Connection Using: (Access Gateway Appliance) Specifies which IP address the proxy service must use when establishing connections with the back-end web servers.

  3. Select how the web servers must be contacted when multiple web servers are available. Select one of the following for the Policy for Multiple Destination IP Addresses option:

    • Simple Failover: Allows the next available web server in the group to be contacted when the first server in the list is no longer available.

    • Round Robin: Moves in order through the list of web servers, allowing each to service requests before starting at the beginning of the list for a second group of requests.

    NOTE:The Make Outbound Connection Using and Policy for Multiple Destination IP Addresses options are available in Access Gateway Appliance and the same options are not available in Access Gateway Services.

  4. Select Enable Persistent Connections to allow Access Gateway to establish a persistent HTTP connection between Access Gateway and the web server. Usually, HTTP connections service only one request and response sequence. A persistent connection allows multiple requests to be serviced before the connection is closed.

    This option is enabled by default.

  5. Specify the following details:

    Data Read Timeout: Determines when an unresponsive connection is closed. When exchanging data, if an expected response from the connected device is not received within this amount of time, the connection is closed. This value might need to be increased for slow or congested network links. The value can be set from 1 to 3600 seconds (1 hour). The default is 120 seconds.

    NOTE:WebSocket connection implements the ping pong communication for continuous connectivity. If your application supports WebSocket, but ping pong communication is not implemented, it is recommended to set this value to 3600 seconds to avoid frequent disconnection. If a WebSocket connection is idle for more than the value specified in Data Read Timeout, it is terminated.

    Idle Timeout: Determines when an idle connection is closed. If no application data is exchanged over a connection for this amount of time, the connection is closed. This value limits how long an idle persistent connection is kept open. This setting is a compromise between freeing resources to allow additional inbound connections, and keeping connections established so that new connections from the same device do not need to be re-established. The value can be set from 1 to 1800 seconds (30 minutes). The default is 180 seconds (3 minutes).

  6. To save your changes to browser cache, click OK.

  7. To apply your changes, click the Access Gateways link, then click Update > OK.