This version of the Brocade Services Director makes it easier to manage large numbers of externally deployed instances of Brocade vTM, by providing an instance-level backup and restore feature.   Highlights in this release include:   Backup/restore of vTM instances - This latest version of Brocade Services Director can perform centralized backup and restore of individual instances of Brocade vTM, either on request, or scheduled automatically. This makes it easier to manage large numbers of ADC instances and clusters. Backups are encrypted for additional security, with additional controls for backup rotation and/or long-term archival. Note that this requires Brocade vTM 11.0 or greater. REST API updates - The REST API version has been revised to v2.3 to support a number of API enhancements. Backward compatibility is retained, so that existing scripts written to earlier REST API 2.x versions will not be invalidated. Security updates - This release also benefits from a number of security-related updates, including updates to OpenSSL, httpd and OS updates for the virtual appliance edition of Services Director. See the release notes for more information on the updated components.   For more information: For more information, please refer to the release notes, available on the download site. A complete set of user documentation is also available on Brocade.com, including getting started guides, installation, configuration and API reference documentation.   ... View more

    Nearly three-quarters of businesses agree that poor application performance can prevent an organization from being a market leader, with sales hit by customers experiencing poor service and slow speeds at peak times, according to research we recently undertook.   Given this state of the industry, perhaps it’s hard to understand why businesses still aren’t maximizing application performance, especially since they recognise that by optimising their applications they will improve revenue and productivity by over 10% and, if speeds could be doubled, customer loyalty by nearly 50%!     Businesses are using more applications than ever – the average number now is well over 300 – and are also constantly upgrading them in addition to deploying increasingly important mobile versions. Unsurprisingly, this is an issue that is not going to go away without a new approach.   It is clear that organizations have some serious issues to address, particularly at peak usage times, which is when the impact on the bottom line is very clear. No business, especially those which rely on creating an amazing online experience, can expect customers to tolerate anything but a smooth, fast, and reliable performance at any time, let alone when every second counts!   At key sales periods like Black Friday or the winter holiday season, a smooth online purchasing experience is crucial. A missed minute is a missed bargain, and the difference between a satisfied customer, and a disappointed, and disaffected former customer can be a matter of seconds. Our research shows that organizations see unacceptably low satisfaction, delays and perhaps most importantly, fewer repeat orders at these times.   With so much competition, and ever more impatient consumers willing to switch brand allegiances after a poor experience, improving this is clearly vital to a business’ continued growth. In fact, some businesses seem to be more concerned about performance during very busy periods than they are about security!   So why are organisations not making this issue a top priority?   Confidence in current performance appears to be an issue with many organizations still not assured that they meet performance service level agreements during the peak periods that are the most critical to sales.   In fact, only a minority of respondents are completely confident about their applications’ current performance. Additionally, almost two-thirds of respondents said that their department has either deployed, or considered initiating, application projects without the knowledge of the IT department.   And, while most businesses recognize the cost benefits of deploying applications on the cloud, this does not automatically translate to better performance for the consumer.   All of these issues call for a new approach to application delivery services.    Adopting virtual rather than traditional physical Application Delivery Controllers (ADCs) enable businesses to improve application performance significantly, deal with surges (predictable or not) seamlessly, migrate applications easily and accelerate application deployment through the automation of ADC services.   Brocade vADC solutions integrate smoothly into any network environment to deliver improved reliability and scalability, increased security, better application performance, and enhanced integration and control.   This kind of a solution makes it easier to roll out new applications, get maximum value from virtualised servers, and keep your customers happy. So every second can count, every customer can be converted, and confidence can be restored for both consumers and the business.   The research was conducted with independent research house Vanson Bourne and the full report, “Why Smart Organizations Maximise Application Performance 2016”, is available for download please click here.     The study was commissioned by Brocade to identify and understand the challenges that businesses face in application use; from the IT department through to end-users. It consisted of 440 interviews with IT and line-of-business (LOB) decision-makers, from organizations with more than 500 employees, the sample included respondents from the U.S., UK, France, Germany, China, and Russia. ... View more

The Brocade Services Director makes it easier to manage large numbers of externally deployed instances of Brocade vTM, allowing self-registration of instances, which simplifies the creation and upgrade of large-scale ADC deployments. In addition, this version provides support to define authentication profiles using external sources such as LDAP, Active Directory, RADIUS and TACACS+.   Highlights in this release include:   Self Registration of vTM instances - The Brocade Services Director 2.4 supports the "Self Registration" feature available with Brocade vTM 10.4+ Instances of Brocade vTM indicate that they would like to be registered with the Services Director, and the administrator can then accept, decline, or blacklist the request. Accepting the request will add the Instance to the Services Director's inventory, and install a universal FLA license on the Traffic Manager. This allows registrations to be performed from the vTM's side, rather than the Services Director administrator having to manually enter the details of Instances. Instance Level Authentication Support - Brocade Services Director 2.4 offers the ability to define Administration Authentication parameters for each vTM instance. This means that a new instance will automatically restrict access to predefined profiles, drawn from an external sources such as LDAP/LDAPS, Microsoft Active Directory, RADIUS or TACACS+. Virtual Appliance and Platform Support - Brocade Services Director is now available as a Virtual Appliance for KVM hypervisors, in addition to VMware. Long-Term Support release - For customers who prefer longer support cycles to support their operational model, Brocade is identifying Brocade Services Director 2.4 as an LTS (Long Term Support) release. This means that support for Brocade Services Director will be available for three years after the release date.   For more information: For more information, please refer to the release notes, available on the download site. A complete set of user documentation is also available on Brocade.com, including getting started guides, installation, configuration and API reference documentation.   ... View more

The Brocade Virtual Traffic Manager 10.4 (Brocade vTM) offers support for ECDSA ciphers, providing significant performance and throughput advantages over earlier versions. In addition, this version also includes support for self-registration when used with Brocade Services Director, which simplifies the creation and upgrade of large-scale ADC deployments.    Highlights in this release include: Support for ECDSA ciphers - Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) ciphers provide an alternative to the popular RSA methods to create, share and verify signatures using Elliptic Curve (ECC) key pairs. These can be used with both TLS and DNS transactions to provide enhanced performance for key exchange and authentication. In addition the cipher selection can be set for specific virtual servers, by restricting them to the more secure cipher suites, while still allowing other virtual servers to use a broader range of cipher suites for compatibility with older browsers. Certificate Agility - Brocade vTM can now support alternate certificates, which makes it easier to take advantage of improved SSL offloading performance offered by ECDSA certificates, while maintaining interoperability with RSA-only client devices. To support this, Virtual Servers using SSL/TLS decryption (ssl_decrypt) can be configured with up to two X.509 certificate chains, and each additional SSL Site for a Server Name Indication (SNI) name or destination IP address can also be configured with up to two X.509 certificate chains. The end-entity certificates making up each pair should have different types of key (for example, RSA and ECDSA).  SSL v2 deprecated - From this version, Brocade vTM 10.4, SSL v2 will be available to applications, but will be deprecated: future releases of Brocade vTM will not include SSL v2 as an option. SSL v2 will be supported within the 10.4 LTS (Long Term Support) program for customers that need to continue to use SSL v2. For more information about how Brocade vTM negotiates the most secure protocols for each session, see the community article Configuring SSL/TLS protocols with Brocade Virtual Traffic Manager. Long-Term Support release - For customers who prefer longer support cycles to support their operational model, Brocade is identifying Brocade vTM 10.4 as an LTS (Long Term Support) release. This means that support for Brocade vTM 10.4 will be available for three years after the release date.   For more information: For more information, please refer to the release notes, available on the download site. A complete set of user documentation is also available on Brocade.com, including getting started guides, installation, configuration and API reference documentation.   ... View more

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and the more recent Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols are the cornerstones of Internet security, providing a standard for authenticated transactions using secure key exchange and encryption. With support for TLS 1.2, Traffic Manager provides a wider range of protocol support, including the use of stronger ciphers for authentication, allowing clients to specify which hash and signature algorithms they will accept. Traffic Manager also permits full control over the selection of security settings per virtual server, per pool, or as a global setting, to suit a range of enterprise deployment options.   However, from time to time we update the list of protocols which are supported and enabled, to reflect recommendations from NIST and other agencies about which protocols are preferred for securing web applications. For example, in Traffic Manager 9.8, we changed the default settings so that SSL v2 and v3 needed to be explicitly enabled in order to be used, and in future versions, we will remove support for these older protocols completely.   NIST publish a very useful guide to selection of TLS implementations: http://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.800-52r1.pdf    IETF have also publish guidelines on recommendations for use of TLS: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7525   SSL v2 deprecated from vTM 10.4 From Traffic Manager 10.4, SSL v2 will be available to applications, but will be deprecated: future releases of vTM will not include SSL v2 as an option. SSL v2 will be supported within the 10.4 LTS (Long Term Support) program for customers that need to continue to use SSL v2.   SSL/TLS protocol configuration Traffic Manager allows security settings to be configured per virtual server, per pool, or even with a single global setting, depending on how you need to configure your applications. As shown in the table below, SSL v2 and v3 are disabled by default, but each of the security protocols can be enabled to suit the security profile that you need. When a client creates a connection with your application, vTM negotiates the most secure protocol which is supported by both the client, and enabled in vTM on that connection.     Security Protocol Enabled by Default Configurable In vTM 10.4 SSL v2 No Yes, Deprecated SSL v3 No Yes TLS 1.0 Yes Yes TLS 1.1 Yes Yes TLS 1.2 Yes Yes   TLS 1.2 advantages At the time of writing (March 2016) TLS 1.2 is the recommended security protocol for web applications, and the TLS 1.3 specification is being finalised. TLS 1.2 includes a range of improvements over the previous version, including performance enhancements using the latest AES-GCM ciphers. Be sure to check with your own local security teams as to the recommended security protocols and ciphers for your applications.   For more information:  RFC 7525 - Recommendations for Secure Use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) NIST guidelines for TLS implementation    ... View more

What exactly is it that’s slowing you down?   Too much data? Applications can’t cope? Don’t turn off the fire hose of data pointing at your applications. Turn up your applications to manage the data!   Who could have predicted the uptake of Mobile Commerce? Who knew customers would be using smartphones and tablets, increasing network traffic and the sheer amount of data?   And who could have forecast the ever-growing number of cloud applications, and the resulting strain on the network?     You’re under pressure to make the business more competitive.   You want to reduce application latency and response time, make more efficient use of network bandwidth, or resolve performance bottlenecks.   However, it’s not just the fire hose of data or the applications that are slowing you down, it is a combination of factors, including the way in which transactions are steered through the network to the applications servers.   Let your Application Delivery Controllers (ADCs) manage the workload   At peak demand, ADCs assign more bandwidth to the apps and Web pages that need it.   But higher traffic volumes and changing traffic patterns make it difficult to predict peak times or manage the workload. Load balancing appliances meet workload requirements less than half the time, and often add to your performance headaches.     Need to add applications? Why not just add more load balancers?    Traditional ADCs are expensive, and difficult to configure. And as they’re only deployed to deal with high peaks and workloads, they’re often under-utilized.   But surely your new cloud initiative will reduce costs and make it easier to deploy new applications? Well, it would if apps could ramp up to meet the fire hose of data coming your way.   But traditional ADCs are unable to leverage your virtual environment, because they are linked by static connections to your virtual application servers.   So what’s the answer?   The clue’s in “virtual.” A software-based ADC makes it easier to add extra capacity, and to auto-scale applications to match the transaction load, releasing resources that are no longer required.   It’s way more cost-effective than a hardware-based appliance, lowering both CapEx and OpEx. But the real benefits are the agility and flexibility offered by a virtual ADC (vADC).   Instead of just managing the workload peaks and troughs, vADCs continually monitor applications and Web-based services, adjusting bandwidth and performance automatically, in real time.       Not all vADCs are created equal.   Brocade Virtual Traffic Manager (vTM) is the industry’s only complete software-based Layer 7 ADC with integrated Web Content Optimization (WCO) capability.   Designed for virtualization and cloud portability, it frees applications from the constraints of hardware-based load balancers. So you can deploy ADC resources across all data center environments, with no need for “just in case” provisioning.   Become an IT hero to your colleagues.   Brocade vADC solutions deliver improved reliability and scalability, increased security, better application performance, and enhanced integration and control. So it’s easier to roll out new applications, get maximum value from virtualized servers, and keep your customers happy.   It’s just another example of how Brocade paves the way for the New IP––with open, flexible, and software-enabled technologies that transform the way the world does business.   Learn more and view this vADC infographic or to download the free trial       ... View more

What happens when you start up your laptop and open your e-mail? There's a spinning wheel while everything creeps into place.   Now extend that spinning wheel across your whole organization, and to business-critical applications such as Oracle or SAP. That adds up to a lot of time lost—as well as frustration.   Customer-facing applications, such as online commerce sites or order tracking systems, face similar problems. If pages are slow to load, or the site fails at a critical moment, your customers will simply click away to a competitor’s site.   That means losing money, productivity, and customers.     A VIRTUAL APPLIANCE BEATS LIMITATIONS   Until now, IT teams have used Application Delivery Controllers (ADCs) to boost application performance. These are typically physical appliances that manage how bandwidth is allocated across the network in a process known as load balancing.   At times of peak demand, ADCs assign more bandwidth to the right applications and Web pages. The trouble is, the business landscape is very different to how it was just a few years ago.   Virtualization has transformed the way data centers and applications are managed, and it’s now having the same impact on networks, by providing more flexibility over how application resources can be used to support the rapid growth in customer transactions.   The cloud, mobile workers, Big Data, and the rise of video conferencing mean that networks must accommodate much higher volumes of traffic—and complex usage patterns that are harder to manage.   Conventional ADCs don’t offer the flexibility needed to cope with this kind of traffic. However, virtualized ADCs give you the versatility and automation you need.   A NEW APPROACH TO NETWORKING   Virtualization is one of the key factors driving the evolution of the New IP. This new approach to networking is all about becoming more open, secure, agile, and reliable—in line with the needs of businesses that are increasingly technology-driven.   Virtualization is already widely used in data centers, because it saves on hardware costs, reduces device footprint, and increases flexibility. It makes the whole business infrastructure more agile and adaptable.   Virtualized ADCs, such as the Brocade Virtual Traffic Manager, offer the same benefits of lower CapEx and OpEx—along with agility and flexibility.   Instead of dealing mainly with data traffic peaks and troughs, vADCs can continually monitor how applications and Web-based services are being used—adjusting bandwidth and performance automatically. It means everything can perform at the best possible level, including customer-facing applications and Web sites.     TODAY, ALMOST EVERYTHING RUNS ON APPLICATIONS   For users—and your customers—it’s really about the speed at which an application responds when you ask it to do something.   For the IT department, there is a wealth of additional benefits. vADCs make it easier and less costly to deploy new applications, and they help maximize the value of virtualized servers.   But ultimately, vADCs matter because almost everything today runs on applications. Production, project management, sales management, financial control, customer service—they all benefit from the acceleration delivered by vADCs. And that gives you faster innovation, faster service delivery, and faster time-to-value.   Follow this link to a Brocade infographic that will tell you more about the business case for vADCs. Download the infographic ... View more

We have recently published a Technical Support Bulletin (TSB-2016-230-A) encouraging all customers to upgrade to version 2.1 or newer: you can find the details of this TSB on http://my.brocade.com.   Upgrade to most recent version If you are running an older version of Brocade Services Director prior to version 2.1, you will need to upgrade to a more recent version to ensure continuity of support and operations.   Brocade wants to ensure that customers with the Brocade Services Director (formerly Riverbed SteelApp Services Controller) are able to utilize and validate new license keys created by Brocade to add additional bandwidth or add-on feature packs. If you have one of these earlier versions, you will need to upgrade before the software will validate these new license keys.   Actions to take Verify that you are running Brocade Services Director version 2.1 or newer If you are running an earlier version, please contact us to plan an upgrade of your software for continuity of support and operations. If necessary, you can arrange to return any unredeemed license keys issued by Riverbed, and replace it with license keys from Brocade.   For more information, please refer to the following links: Brocade Technical Support Bulletins on http://my.brocade.com Brocade Community Announcement Product Release Notes on http://my.brocade.com   Questions?  For inquiries regarding this field alert, please contact your Brocade Sales Partner   ... View more

The Brocade Services Director (formerly known as SteelApp Services Controller) lets you automatically provision, deploy, license and manage the inventory of thousands of ADCs in an “as-a-service” model, using the Brocade Virtual Traffic Manager as the core application delivery platform. The solution also enables a new consumption model for customers deploying ADC services. This allows ADC services to be scaled elastically and be right-sized on demand to suit each application in your data center, offering high density, full isolation, and multi-tenancy capabilities.   Highlights in this release include Cluster Traffic Light Status: the Services Director dashboard will display the status of clusters using a traffic light indicator (red/amber/green) as well as the detailed status of up to ten Virtual Servers managed within each cluster.   For more information: For more information, please refer to the release notes, available on the download site. A complete set of user documentation is also available on Brocade.com, including getting started guides, installation, configuration and API reference documentation.   ... View more

The Brocade Virtual Traffic Manager 10.3 (Brocade vTM) offers a new bare-metal deployment option for customers wishing to install on their own Intel x86 servers. This is in addition to the usual options of software, virtual appliance or cloud: this new Appliance platform brings the same comprehensive virtual ADC capability for enterprises wishing to deploy a high performance stand-alone appliance in the data center or DMZ.   This new version of Brocade vTM will also be made available on the Google Cloud Platform, available for customers needing advanced application management capability which complements the load-balancing features already available on the Google Cloud Platform.   Highlights in this release include:   Bare-Metal Appliance Image - Brocade vTM is now available as a bare-metal appliance image which can be installed on certified bare-metal server platforms. The Brocade vTM appliance image, available as either an ISO image or for PXE installation, is the ideal solution for enterprises looking to deploy ADC and load balancer services on high-performance Intel x86 servers. For more information on qualified server configurations, see the article Brocade vTM Hardware Compatibility List.   Google Cloud Support - This latest release will be available on Google Cloud Platform, with hourly billing options for applications which need to scale on-demand to match varying workloads. A range of vTM editions will be available, including options for the Brocade vTM Developer Edition and Brocade vWAF, available as both a virtual appliance and as a software installation on a Linux VM.   For more information: For more information, please refer to the release notes, available on the download site. A complete set of user documentation is also available on Brocade.com, including getting started guides, installation, configuration and API reference documentation.   ... View more

(Updated July 2019) The Pulse Secure vTM bare-metal appliance image, available as either an ISO image or for PXE installation, is intended for customers looking to deploy ADC and load balancer services on high-performance Intel x86 servers. Customers can download the bare-metal appliance image from https://my.pulsesecure.net   The bare-metal appliance image will be supported on selected server platforms - the system configuration parameters shown below reflect a configuration that was qualified by Pulse Secure. Customers can choose minor variations to CPU, Memory and HDD based on their business needs. Please contact your Pulse Secure technical specialist for guidance on qualified systems. Qualified Configuration Supported from v18.2 SuperMicro - Small Configuration Supermicro X10SLH-F CPUs   1 * Intel Xeon E3-1275 v3 @ 3.5 GHz (4 cores) Memory   32 GB 2133MT/s memory IPMI/iDRAC   Integrated IPMI 2.0 and KVM with Dedicated LAN Supported network daughter cards   4-port 10GbE SFP+, based on Intel X710 Supported network data cards   Intel Ethernet SFP+ LR Optics 10GBASE-LR Hard Drive   Minimum: 100GB (for logging) Recommended: 2x Hot-swap Intel DC S3500 Series 480GB, SATA 6Gb/s, MLC 2.5"  Power supply   Dual power supplies for redundancy and monitoring Qualified Configuration Supported from v11.1 Hitachi Vantara server D51B-2U CPUs   2 * Intel Xeon E5-2680 v3, 12 cores/CPU (48 threads total), 2.50GHz Memory   256GB RAM IPMI/iDRAC   AST2400 based BMC Supported network cards   Intel 10-Gigabit X540-AT2 2 ports Intel I350 Gigabit Network 2 ports Intel I350 Gigabit Network 4 ports Intel X710 for 10GbE SFP+ 4 ports Hard Drive   Minimum: 100GB (for logging) - Recommended: Dual 800GB Solid State Drive Power supply   Dual power supplies for redundancy and monitoring     Qualified Configuration Supported from v19.1 Hitachi Vantara advanced server DS120 CPUs   2 * Intel Xeon Gold 6140, 18 cores/CPU (72 threads total), 2.3GHz Memory   256GB RAM IPMI/iDRAC   IPMI v2.0 compliant BMC Supported network  cards   Intel XXV710 for 25GbE SFP28 Mellanox MT27710 - CX4121A-XCAT 25Gbps Hard Drive   Minimum: 100GB (for logging) - Recommended: Dual 800GB Solid State Drive Power supply   Dual power supplies for redundancy and monitoring     ... View more

The Brocade Virtual Traffic Manager 10.2 includes support for the HTTP/2 protocol to allow faster web page loading times. In addition, this updated version will enable hourly billing on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform (available soon). Brocade Virtual Traffic Manager is a software-based Layer 7 application delivery controller (ADC) designed to deliver faster, high performance user experience, with more reliable access to public websites and enterprise applications, whether they run in a public cloud, private cloud or virtualized environment, while maximizing the efficiency and capacity of web and application servers.     Highlights in this release include:   HTTP/2 support - Traffic Manager now includes support for HTTP/2, a significant enhancement to the existing HTTP standard, which is supported by all modern web browsers. This new protocol improves web page load time with techniques such as connection sharing, page request multiplexing and header compression. With HTTP/2, customers now have a range of options to accelerate web pages, from Traffic Manager native capabilities of caching, compression and SSL offload, this new support for HTTP/2, up to industry-leading web content optimization using Brocade Web Accelerator (formerly known as Aptimizer). Traffic Manager now supports HTTP/2 connections to modern web browsers, without impacting the behaviour or performance of an existing HTTP/1.1 web application. More support for public cloud platforms - This latest release includes provides functionality for additional cloud capabilities, such as hourly billing and new platform support. Watch this space for information about the availability of the latest vTM updates for Microsoft Azure and other cloud platforms. Other features include more support for IPv6 forwarding, enhanced event trapping, and Extended DNS queries for enhanced host resolution for global load balancing,  For more information: For more information, please refer to the release notes, available on the download site. A complete set of user documentation is also available on Brocade.com, including getting started guides, installation, configuration and API reference documentation.   ... View more

Brocade Services Director 2.2 (formerly known as SteelApp Services Controller) introduces a different approach for license management for application delivery controllers, and manages the complete lifecycle of Brocade vADC products. The Brocade Services Director lets you automatically provision, deploy, license, meter, and manage the inventory of thousands of ADCs in an “as-a-service” model, using the Brocade Virtual Traffic Manager as the core application delivery platform. The solution also enables a new consumption model for customers deploying ADC services. This allows ADC services to be scaled elastically and be right-sized on demand to suit each application in your data center, offering high density, full isolation, and multi-tenancy capabilities.   Highlights in this release include: Service Administration - Services Director now includes an improved workflow for set up and administration, wizards to assist in creation of new ADC services, and also supports automated discovery and registration of vTM instances. Fleet management is also easier, with graphical support for viewing, tagging, and renaming of vTM instances  Lifecycle and Availability - Services Director now has more options for high availability, backup and recovery of service data. In addition, there is more control over upgrades/downgrades of both SD and of vTM instances   For more information: For more information, please refer to the release notes, available on the download site. A complete set of user documentation is also available on Brocade.com, including getting started guides, installation, configuration and API reference documentation.   ... View more

Getting Started with Pulse vADC Welcome to Pulse Secure Application Delivery solutions! Whether you are scaling out your secure access capabilities, or building the next-generation of high-performance online applications, Pulse vADC helps you build dynamic applications which are more resilient, more secure, and more responsive at global scale. This article gives a quick five-step guide to how you can download Pulse Virtual Traffic Manager, including how to download the Community Edition of the software, installing and configuring your first services, and then how to request a full-performance 30-day license key to experience the full power of Pulse Application Delivery solutions.   1. Download Pulse vADC The quickest way to get started with Pulse vADC is to download the Community Edition of Pulse Virtual Traffic Manager. This will give you access to all the features and full programmability of Pulse vADC software, including add-on options for web application firewall (WAF) and web content optimization (WCO). The software needs no license key, but is limited to 10 Mbps throughput, so it can be used to explore the software run applications in production.   2. Install Pulse vADC Grab either the Software or Virtual Appliance (VMware, Xen or OracleVM) installation and follow the instructions in the appropriate Getting Started guide. We have created dedicated installation and configuration guides for each type of environment, as part of the documentation set for Pulse Virtual Traffic Manager - choose the right environment, and install the software and you are ready to go.   (You can find the complete set of user documentation here)   3. Discover Pulse vADC These Pulse community pages include a wide range of resources to help you explore Pulse vADC solutions. From setting up simple services, through to remote management with REST and SOAP, and high-performance data-plane control using TrafficScript, Pulse gives you a comprehensive set of tools to differentiate and prioritise applications and services. See below for some good starting points!   4. Scale up Pulse vADC Ready to scale up your performance? When you are ready to move to the next level, contact us to request a 30-day evaluation license to test the full power of Pulse Virtual Traffic Manager. You will be sent a license key by email, which you can upload into the Community Edition - then you can run complete performance and load testing in your own data center or cloud platforms. This evaluation license key will include Pulse Virtual Traffic Manager, again with add-on options for web application firewall (WAF) and web content optimization (WCO).     5. Five Ideas to Explore on the Pulse Community Ok, so you have downloaded and installed Pulse vADC, and you want to find out how it can help you build smarter applications. You have already heard it is more than just a software load balancer, but where do you start with such a powerful platform? We have collected five of our favorite things to explore with Pulse vADC:   Smarter Load-Balancing with Pulse vADC The first thing you can do with Pulse vADC is to set up a simple Load-Balancing Service for your application. We’ve made it really easy, with a built-in Wizard to gather the key information and set up your service. This great article covers the basic load-balancing, and then shows you how to set up host redirects, embedded inks and health monitors. Getting Started with Pulse vADC and Load Balancing   Optimal Gateway Selection Do you need to improve the productivity of mobile users? Pulse vADC makes it easy to implement Optimal Gateway Selection (OGS), so that users are automatically connected to the nearest available application gateway. For example, using Pulse Connect Secure for mobile access and home workers, OGS will check the service availability each location, and then redirect new sessions to the nearest location, helping your business stay online. Using DNS-based load-balancing, OGS uses geolocation to determine the nearest available gateway, and return the CNAME of the nearest gateway to redirect new sessions to the optimal location. In the background, OGS keeps track of the service health at each location, to ensure that new sessions are routes appropriately. OGS can even be customised to implement your own business policies, and even check license headroom at each location to ensure that sessions are evenly distributed between nearby locations. Load-Balancing Remote Access Solutions How do you optimize the performance and utilization of application gateways? Do you need to balance sessions evenly across platforms of different sizes? Pulse vADC provides even distribution of sessions, even when server appliances and gateways have different sized capacity. For example, using Pulse Connect Secure Pulse vADC will check the health of each appliance, and balance license usage across each appliance in the cluster, steering traffic towards lightly-loaded appliances, increasing the utilisation of PCS appliances and licenses.   Using Smart Local Load Balancing, Pulse vADC can test the health and license usage at local PCS appliances, and route sessions in real time across the cluster, Pulse vADC applies session persistence even when used in a large cluster of appliances, and can even apply service protection methods such as shielding login screens against credential stuffing, and blocking sessions during times of high workloads. What is a Traffic Manager, Anyway? What’s the difference between a “Load Balancer” and an “ADC” - and what is a “Traffic Manager” anyway? Check out this short series of articles to look into the basics of load balancing, and how you can layer additional service control and protection for your applications.   What is a Traffic Manager, Anyway? Three ways to Use Pulse Traffic Manager How to set up Load Balancing Health Monitoring with Pulse Traffic Manager Content Caching for Dynamic Web Applications Control and Flexibility with Pulse Traffic Manager Controlling Service Levels with Pulse Traffic Manager Fixing errors on a website with Pulse Traffic Manager     Global Load Balancing with Pulse vADC When you ready, you can scale out your application to reach a global audience, with built-in Global Load Balancing. This short series of articles digs even deeper into how Global Load Balancing works, and looks at the different ways in which Pulse vADC can integrate with your DNS services to deliver global application resilience.   Global Load Balancing with Pulse vADC The Layman's Guide to Global Load Balancing Global Load Balancing and DNS How does Pulse vADC Global Load Balancing Work? An Insider's Guide to DNS and Global Load Balancing Deployment Guide Global Load Balancing with Parallel DNS   6. Even More to Explore:   The Unique Traffic Manager Architecture Traffic Manager is the core virtual application engine which makes it all possible - this Feature Brief gives a great insight into how it works. Pulse Traffic Manager Technical Architecture   Pulse vADC in Action There is so much more to discover on the Pulse Community - this page has gathered some of our favorite examples, including inserting RSS feeds into your web pages, embedding Google Maps, watermarking PDFs, optimizing application performance,  protecting your web applications from spiders and other security challenges. Enjoy! Top Pulse vADC Examples       ... View more

Installing and Upgrading Pulse vTM If you are looking to Install Pulse vTM, or to upgrade Pulse vTM or to the latest version, then we have created dedicated installation and configuration guides for each type of deployment option, as part of the complete documentation set for Pulse Secure Virtual Traffic Manager (vTM).   You can choose from a number of different deployment options, depending on whether you want to install vTM in a Docker container, as a virtual appliance, as a cloud service, on a bare-metal hardware appliance, or on a private server using a software installation.   Whether you are looking to install or upgrade your Pulse vTM instance, choose your target platform from the list here, and follow the link to the dedicated "Getting Started" guide: Upgrading your Pulse vTM instances? Each of the Getting Started Guides below includes a section on upgrading your instances to the latest version - refer to the guide in the sections below, depending on the platform type.   Pulse vTM in a Docker Container? Install Pulse vTM from Docker Hub - no need to register, giving quick, easy access for container and microservices deployment. For a detailed guide, see Pulse Virtual Traffic Manager: Docker Deployment Guide Pulse vTM as a Virtual Appliance? Looking to run a trial on Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware, Xen, QVM/KEMU, or Oracle VM? See Pulse Secure Virtual Traffic Manager 20.2: Virtual Appliance Installation and Getting Started Guide Pulse vTM in a Cloud? For information on installing in Google Cloud Platform, Amazon EC2, or Microsoft Azure, see Pulse Secure Virtual Traffic Manager 20.2: Cloud Services Installation and Getting Started Guide Pulse vTM on a Bare-Metal Hardware Appliance? To deploy the Pulse vTM appliance image on an approved server hardware platform, see Pulse Secure Virtual Traffic Manager 20.2: Appliance Image Installation and Getting Started Guide For hardware compatibility information, see the Pulse vTM Hardware Compatibility List. Pulse vTM installed as Software? If you are installing onto a private server, or inside a VM running Linux, see Pulse Secure Virtual Traffic Manager 20.2: Software Installation and Getting Started Guide   Note that these links are valid for the Pulse Secure vTM 20.1 software release. The most recent set of user documentation can always be found on https://www.pulsesecure.net/techpubs/ under the "Pulse vADC Solutions" section. This includes detailed configuration, REST API and TrafficScript programming guides.   (Copies of the "Getting Started" guides are attached to this article)   ... View more

Brocade Virtual Traffic Manager 10.1 (formerly known as SteelApp Traffic Manager) offers enhanced control of IP traffic, including support for WebSockets for high performance applications, and closer control of network routing using both OSPF and BGP protocols. Highlights in this release include: Bypass Protocol Handling - Traffic Manager now includes basic WebSockets support, for applications which need to support high-speed duplex connections between servers and clients. Traffic Manager can detect requests and automatically bypass the traffic direct to the application for maximum performance. Route Health Injection - Advanced network routing control with Route Health Injection (RHI). In this latest release, Traffic Manager now supports BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) to advertise TIP Address route metrics. Routing protocol can be chosen on a per-TIP group basis: OSPF, BGP or both. Web Application Firewall module certified by ICSA Labs - In this latest release, the optional WAF modules includes the latest support for XML Content Parsing, Masking sensitive data in log files, and customizable reports. This version also benefits from certification by ICSA Labs, for customers wishing looking for third-party validation. Other features include more support for IP Transparency and IPtables configuration, improved VMware guest support, and a number of other security enhancements.   For more information: For more information, please refer to the release notes, available on the download site. A complete set of user documentation is also available on Brocade.com, including getting started guides, installation, configuration and API reference documentation.   ... View more