Bug ID 671234: HTTP Authentication agent will hang waiting on unresponsive authentication server.

Last Modified: Nov 07, 2022

Affected Product(s):
BIG-IP APM(all modules)

Known Affected Versions:
13.0.0, 13.0.0 HF1, 13.0.0 HF2, 13.0.0 HF3, 13.0.1

Fixed In:
13.1.0

Opened: Jun 27, 2017

Severity: 3-Major

Symptoms

Some authentication requests never completes. APMD responsiveness degrade over time and eventually restart.

Impact

APMD responsiveness degrades over time, usually weeks, before eventually restarting.

Conditions

The HTTP Authentication server must be alive enough to accept HTTP connections but busy enough to drop requests without closing connections.

Workaround

Restarting the HTTP Authentication server usually releases the waiting threads and restores APMD responsiveness. Using a BIG-IP monitor for the HTTP backend can detect the issue and allow recovery before the need for APMD to restart.

Fix Information

HTTP agent now times out and returns an error when the HTTP server becomes unresponsive. This allows recovery without restarts.

Behavior Change

The HTTP Authentication agent will time out and return an error instead of waiting forever. If enough threads were waiting, APMD performance degraded and eventually restarted.

Guides & references

K10134038: F5 Bug Tracker Filter Names and Tips