On the 13th January 2010, version 2.1 of the Zeus Traffic Manager Linux modules was released. Read more...

Setting up Zeus Traffic Manager is a simple process; however, there are some configuration settings that should be set up to get the best out of the product and enhance the security and functionality of your site. Read more...

During our testing on OpenSolaris we encountered some issues when the 'tcp_fusion' option was enabled. We found that the kernel could incorrectly buffer large amounts of data, which could cause the machine in question to 'hang'. We recommend that customers using this release of OpenSolaris turn off the 'tcp_fusion' feature to avoid this issue.

To turn off this feature you can immediately turn it off with the following command,

# echo 'do_tcp_fusion/W 0' | mdb -kw

However this will not be persistent across system reboots. If you want 'tcp_fusion' to be permanently disabled you will need to add the following line to '/etc/system'

set ip:do_tcp_fusion = 0

Once you have added this line you will need to reboot the system for the change to take effect.

TrafficScript is very powerful at manipulating requests and responses, however it can also be used to analyze clients to see what functionality they support. In particular in this article we will look at the TLS Server Name Extension, using TrafficScript to see the percentage of clients that support the feature.

In ZXTM 5.1r1 and later, ZXTM reports system and platform information on a periodic basis to Zeus. This information is used by the Zeus engineering team to help prioritize future development and to understand which platforms and features are most widely used.

On the 26th January 2009 version 1.6 of the ZXTM Software IP Transparency module was released. Read more...

The Sun UltraSPARC T1 and T2 processors contain on-board cryptographic routines that speed up SSL connections. ZXTM (version 5.0 and later) can automatically use these routines. This FAQ explains how to check ZXTM is configured correctly. Read more...

Starting with ZXTM 5.0, TrafficScript^TM has gained the ability to create new subroutines to reduce code duplication inside a TrafficScript rule.

For example: Read more...

On the 1st May 2008 version 1.5 of the ZXTM Software IP Transparency module was released. Read more...

VMware ESX and Zeus Traffic Manager VA (Zeus Virtual Appliance) are a great combination and to ensure that you get the best out of the product a few tweaks need to be made once the traffic manager has been imported into ESX. Read more...

ZXTM 4.2r2 was released on 18th February 2008 via customers' download pages and is now available for evaluation. Read more...

On 6th September 2007 version 1.4 of the ZXTM Software IP Transparency module was released. Read more...

ZXTM 4.2r1 was released on 6th September 2007 via customers' download pages and is now available for evaluation. Read more...

ZXTM can be configured to send email alerts (and SNMP traps) to a system administrator when important events occur. These alerts are not currently configurable and this FAQ entry describes under what situations they are sent.

The ZXTM User Manual describes the ZXTM product in detail. It covers sample installations, configuration, a feature reference and a troubleshooting guide.

• Download the ZXTM 4.2 User Manual [pdf]

The Release Notes describe the changes between each release of the ZXTM software:

• Download the Release notes for ZXTM 4.2r3
• Download the Release notes for ZXTM 4.2r2
• Download the Release notes for ZXTM 4.2r1
• Download the Release notes for ZXTM 4.2 (errata)

The ZXTM Appliance Getting Started guide introduces ZXTM, describing how to install and configure the ZXTM Appliance for the first time. It contains easy step-by-step instructions regarding the download, installation and configuration of Zeus Extensible Traffic Manager 4.2 in a variety of network environments.

• Download the ZXTM 4.2 Getting Started Manual [pdf]

The ZXTM Getting Started guide introduces the ZXTM software, describing how to install and configure the software for the first time. It contains easy step-by-step instructions regarding the download, installation and configuration of Zeus Extensible Traffic Manager 4.2 in a variety of network environments.

• Download the ZXTM 4.2 Getting Started Manual [pdf]

The ZXTM Getting Started guide introduces the ZXTM software, describing how to install and configure the software for the first time. It contains easy step-by-step instructions regarding the download, installation and configuration of Zeus Extensible Traffic Manager 4.2 in a variety of network environments.

• Download the ZXTM 4.2 Getting Started Manual [pdf]

The ZXTM TrafficScript Manual describes the programming language that is used to create sophisticated traffic management rules in ZXTM. It includes sample rules, a language reference and a full reference for the large number of functions available in the language.

• Download the ZXTM TrafficScript Manual [pdf]

The ZXTM Control API provides a means for an application to remotely administer and configure a ZXTM cluster. The ZXTM Control API can be used by any programming language and application environment that supports SOAP services.

• Download the ZXTM Control API Manual [pdf]

ZXTM 4.2 was released on 5th July 2007 via customers' download pages and is now available for evaluation. Read more...

ZXTM 4.1r3 was released on 8th May 2007 via customers' download pages and for evaluation. Read more...

Occasionally, after contacting support, you may be asked to perform a memory test on your ZXTM Appliance. This will be requested when our engineers suspect that a fault in your Appliance's RAM is causing problems and failures.

Testing the memory is a simple operation, but it does involve down-time while the memory is tested. You will also need an engineer in your data center who can interact with the local console.

ZXTM 4.1r2 was released on 12th January 2007 via customers' download pages and for evaluation.

ZXTM 4.1r2 is a minor release containing a number of program alterations and bug fixes and customers are recommended to upgrade to the new version. Read more...

This FAQ entry only affects customers running ZXTM in the US and Canada.

Amendments made in the US Energy Policy Act of 2005 affect the start and end dates of daylight saving time. These amendments begin in 2007, with the change to summer time now on the second Sunday of March (rather than the first Sunday of April). Canada follows the US on daylight saving time, so is affected by this too.

ZXTM exports information about running services through SNMP and you can find the MIB containing details of the information in the ZXTM Administration Interface.

ZXTM Appliances also automatically export lots of standard information about the running system, such as traffic through the network cards, memory usage and CPU usage. It is not possible to obtain this information through a standard ZXTM software installation, however it is very easy to configure your system to provide the information:

ZXTM 4.1r1 was released on 31st October 2006 via customers' download pages and for evaluation.

ZXTM 4.1r1 is a minor release containing a number of program alterations and bug fixes and customers are recommended to upgrade to the new version. Read more...

zinstall is the interactive script used to install the software version of Zeus Traffic Manager. In some situations an administrator may want to automate the installation of Zeus Traffic Manager (e.g. for rebuilding machines).

zinstall can record its installation options to a replay file, and then replay the options when installing on a different machine.

ZXTM has built in support for historical activity graphs for Virtual Servers, Pools and Nodes. You can view these graphs on the Activity -> Historical Activity page in the Admin interface. However sometimes it is nice to extract these graphs and archive them. The ZXTM Admin server doesn't provide a facility to this however fortunately it is reasonably simple to write a perl script to generate the graphs. Read more...

ZXTM 4.0r2 was released on Monday 6th March 2006 via customers' download pages and for evaluation.

Version 4.0r2 is a minor revision of the ZXTM / ZXTM LB 4.0 product family. It contains a number of bug fixes and stability improvements, and customers are recommended to upgrade as soon as possible to take advantage of the improvements.

For more details of the changes, take a look at the ZXTM 4.0r2 Release Notes.