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How To Check Session Persistence On BigIP F5, Cisco Ace, Citrix Netscaler or Radware
AppDirector Load Balancer Appliances (Doc ID 601694.1)
In this Document
Goal
Solution
Section 1: F5 BigIp
Section 2: Cisco Application Control Engine Module (ACE)
Section 3: Radware AppDirector
Section 4: Citrix Netscaler
References
APPLIES TO:
Oracle Applications Technology Stack - Version 11.5.10.0 to 12.1.3 [Release 11.5 to 12.1]
Oracle Applications Framework - Version 12.1.3 to 12.1.3 [Release 12.1]
Information in this document applies to any platform.
GOAL
***Checked for relevance 20-MAY-2013***
This document aims to help the customer verify their persistence settings on F5 BigIP and Cisco ACE load balancer
appliances. It provides instructions on checking specific persistence settings on the hardware device to ensure
correct eBusiness suite functioning.
Maintaining session persistence is essential to ensuring a users session remains on the same middle tier throughout
the duration of their session. When the session is not maintained on the one middle tier users may experience the
'Transaction context is lost' message See Note 456906.1.
Session Persistence is the act of keeping a specific user's traffic going to the same server that was initially hit when the
site was contacted for the first HTTP transaction. This is especially important for E-Business Suite as various modules
bundled with the suite need to maintain session state. Session persistence is sometimes referred to as "server
stickiness."
Section 1: F5 BigIp
Section 2: Cisco Application Control Engine Module (ACE)
SOLUTION
Section 1: F5 BigIp
Step 1: Check the load balancing method being used. This controls how requests are balanced by BigIp
between your web nodes
From the BigIp home screen select Local Traffic - Pools
Choose the Oracle pool you created for the eBusiness Suite configuration. Now select the members tab. You will see
something similar to the following.
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It is important here to make sure the 'Load Balancing Method' is set to Predictive (member)

Step 2: Check which persistence profile is being used by your Virtual Server handling the eBusiness Suite
requests
From the BigIp home screen select Local Traffic - Virtual Servers. Choose the Oracle virtual server being used by
selecting 'edit'. Make a note of the 'default persistence profile' used by the virtual server. e.g see below


Step 3: Confirm persistence settings are correct
From the BigIp home screen select Local Traffic - Virtual Servers - Profiles. Now select the Persistence tab. You will
then see a screen similar to below.
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Select the default persistence profile that you made note of in step 2. In this case we choose 'cookie'
You will now see a screen 'similar' to the following:
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The cookie method setting must be 'HTTP Cookie Insert'.
Depending on your version of the BigIp appliance you will have either an option to select an expiration of session cookie
(earlier BigIp models) or you have the option to select an expire duration (newer models)
On earlier models please tick the session cookie expiration box as per the above picture. If you have a newer appliance
which offers a time based expiration choose 12 hours as per the picture below
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If you are implementing BigIp for the 1st time please see the referenced deployment guides for step by step
instructions for the setup of BigIp. Use the correct deployment guide along with the referenced 11i or R12 official
Oracle notes for guidance. For more information see Note 727171.1

Section 2: Cisco Application Control Engine Module (ACE)
Session persistence sometimes referred as stickiness is an ACE feature that allows the same client to maintain multiple
simultaneous or subsequent TCP or IP connections with the same server for the duration of a session. A session is
defined as a series of transactions between a client and a server over some finite period of time (from several minutes
to several hours). This is especially important for EBS to maintain session state.
Depending on the configured SLB policy, the ACE "sticks" a client to an appropriate server after the ACE has
determined which load-balancing method to use. If the ACE determines that a client is already stuck to a particular
server, then the ACE sends that client request to that server, regardless of the load-balancing criteria specified by the
matched policy. If the ACE determines that the client is not stuck to a particular server, it applies the normal load
balancing rules to the content request.
Step 1: Validate the load balancing method being used.
This controls how the client requests are balanced by ACE between Application nodes
From Cisco ANM (Application Networking Manager) screen,
select Config-> Devices ->Load Balancing ->Server Farms
Select Server Farm defined for Oracle Application hosts. In this example: Select ORACLE_APPHOSTS
Select Predictor Tab and ensure proper SLB Type is selected. In this example SLB is set to Round Robin, however you
may also choose Predictive Node Address as the method. Neither will affect persistence. The preferred setting as per
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Note 380489.1 is Predictive Node Address
Step 2: Confirm persistence/Stickiness settings are correct
From Cisco ANM (Application Networking Manager) screen, select Config-> Devices ->Load Balancing ->Stickiness
Select cookie method type Http_cookie and check Enable Insert and Browser Expire. Custom name is provided
for Cookie name. In this example it was defined ACE_COOKIE.
Select Sticky Server Farm that you want stickiness to be enabled. In this example : ORACLE_APPSHOSTS has been
chosen.
Make sure the expiration time is set to 12 hours.
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Section 3: Radware AppDirector
See Radware's AppDirector and Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1 Integration Guide
Specifically, see section "Configure L7 Persistency for the web farm"
Section 4: Citrix Netscaler
REFERENCES
NOTE:380489.1 - Using Load-Balancers with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12
NOTE:217368.1 - Advanced Configurations and Topologies for Enterprise Deployments of E-Business Suite 11i
NOTE:456906.1 - 11i/R12 How to Debug "Transaction Context Is Lost" or "You are trying to access a page that is no
longer active"
NOTE:727171.1 - Implementing Load Balancing On Oracle E-Business Suite - Documentation For Specific Load Balancer
Hardware