ZXTM 4.0 was released on October 20, 2005. This article describes the new features of version 4.0 - Content Caching, the ZXTM Control API, IP Transparency, and more.

Content Caching

ZXTM 4.0 includes a full HTTP Content Cache for web content. Common web responses are cached locally, and ZXTM can respond to subsequent requests directly, thus reducing the load on the server nodes and improving the performance of the hosted HTTP services.

ZXTM's Content Cache fully supports RFC 2616 Cache-Control and Vary headers as well as legacy Expires headers. Fine-grained control of the cache can be achieved using the new http.cache.* TrafficScript functions, and Differentiated Caching allows a TrafficScript rule to manage multiple variants of the same response.

Content Caching is an optional ZXTM feature. It is not available in ZXTM LB.

For more details, take a look at the Making the most of Content Caching KnowledgeHub article.

ZXTM Control API

The ZXTM Control API is a standards-conformant SOAP-based API that makes it possible for other applications to query and modify the configuration of a ZXTM cluster. For example, a network monitoring or intrusion detection system may reconfigure ZXTM's traffic management rules as a result of abnormal network traffic; a server provisioning system could reconfigure ZXTM when new servers came online.

The ZXTM Control API can be used by any programming language and application environment that supports SOAP services. The ZXTM Control API Manual describes the API in full detail.

The ZXTM Control API is available on all ZXTM software and appliances. It is not available on ZXTM LB software or appliances.

IP Transparency

IP Transparency ensures that ZXTM preserves the IP address of the remote client when forwarding requests to a back-end server. Without this capability, the request appears to originate from the ZXTM machine.

IP Transparency can be selectively controlled by TrafficScript. A TrafficScript rule can use the request.setRemoteIP() function to spoof the source IP address of a request, for example, when an upstream proxy does not preserve the source IP address.

IP Transparency is only supported on the ZXTM 2000, 5000 and 7000 Appliance series. For more details, take a look at section 2.4 of the ZXTM User Manual.

Other new features in version 4.0

RuleBuilder

The RuleBuilder has been significantly improved, and several conditions and actions have been added. The RuleBuilder is a visual interface that make it easy to construct TrafficScript rules.

Configuration Audit Log

All configuration changes, whether via the ZXTM Admin Server or via the ZXTM Control API, are recorded in an internal Audit log for later inspection.

Configuration Backup Management

Backup Management allows the ZXTM administrator to save, restore and compare various versions of the ZXTM's configuration. Configuration Backups can be exported and imported.

Dedicated Management Port

ZXTM can be configured with a dedicated management port so that all management traffic is restricted to a single, dedicated management network.

Note that Linux 2.6 kernels earlier than 2.6.12 do not correctly handle management port traffic.

Bandwidth Management

ZXTM can impose bandwidth controls on request traffic to the back-end server nodes, either on a per-pool basis, or using the new request.setBandwidthClass() TrafficScript function.

Bandwidth Management is an optional ZXTM feature, and is not available in ZXTM LB.

TrafficScript Type of Service functions

The new request.setToS() and response.setToS() TrafficScript functions can be used to set the Type-of-Service flags in the IP header of requests and responses managed by ZXTM.

Recent Connections list

The Connections report in the Activity Monitor now reports recently completed connections as well as current connections.

Session Persistence Cookies

ZXTM now encrypts all session persistence cookies.

Cluster Diagnosis

ZXTM's problem diagnosis has been extended, and ZXTM can identify and accurately report a wider range of cluster-related problems.

Other new TrafficScript functions

http.redirect() can be used in request and response rules to succinctly send a redirect response to a remote client.

http.getMultipartAttachment() makes it easier to parse incoming HTTP requests that contain Multipart body data.

http.getRawQueryString() returns the querystring from the HTTP request without applying any URL unescaping.

Traffic IP Groups

The new 'keeptogether' setting ensures that all IP addresses in a Traffic IP Group are raised on the same ZXTM traffic manager. This is useful when using IP Transparency in an Active-Standby configuration.

Owen Garrett [Zeus Dev Team] 20 October 2005