HTTPS acceleration rules

SSL context association

When using HTTPS in a reverse proxy configuration, each SSL connection to the appliance must be associated with a particular SSL context. These rules instruct the appliance on how to direct traffic in association with SSL context settings. You can create context rules using options on the New Web Server HTTPS Acceleration Rule page (Setup tab > Web Accelerator > New Web Server HTTPS Acceleration Rule).

Parameters include the following:

Web accelerator IP address

Port number

Host name

Path name

Web server IP address

Port number

Host name

Path name

You must enter the acceleration rules using the preceding eight parameters to form the following syntax:

132.10.10.10 80 front.org /fpath 132.10.10.15 81 back.org /bpath

The asterisk (*) wildcard can be used for any parameter. If you substitute an asterisk, the value you specify is "any".

Note
You must associate an SSL context with each inbound connection. To do this, ensure that each connection that matches an acceleration rule, also matches an HTTPS inbound context rule.

In an accelerated environment, cache misses are forwarded to the accelerated server identified in the rule. If an outbound context rule matches the Web server parameter settings in the acceleration rule, the cache communicates with the server using HTTPS. Otherwise, plain HTTP is used.

Explicit rules for cacheable objects

You can specify what the appliance does and does not cache by creating and editing explicit caching rules. Rules set for HTTP function in the same way as their HTTPS counterparts; however, connections accepted on an HTTPS port are governed only by the HTTPS configuration options. In the absence of rules for controlling HTTPS traffic, rules set to control HTTP govern HTTPS objects.

Explicit caching rules determine which objects the appliance will or will not cache. You can create and edit explicit caching rules and configure additional options using the Explicit Caching Rules tab on the HTTP - Header and Caching Behavior page.

Creating rules for HTTP object handling enable you to

Specify types of content to be proxied and cached
Configure the appliance to drop or maintain specified client connections
Specify how the appliance will respond to canceled requests and reload requests
Specify object refresh rates
Control user access to HTTP services
Configure the appliance to not provide the client IP address to the Web server
Suppress error messages that refer to the presence of a proxy-cache server to clients

For parameter descriptions, instructions for forming rules, and examples, see the Appliance Manager online Help.