Using a GeoIP Database
Some features of the Virtual Traffic Manager require a GeoIP database that maps IP addresses to location - longitude and latitude, city, county and country. GLB uses this GeoIP database to estimate distances between remote users and local datacenters.
You can access the database directly using the included geo.* TrafficScript and Java functions. For example, to discover the 2-letter country code that a site visitor is accessing from, use the following TrafficScript:
$ip = request.getRemoteIP();
$countryCode = geo.getCountryCode( $ip );Previous versions of the Virtual Traffic Manager have included a database derived from MaxMind's GeoLite2 City database in each release. For Virtual Traffic Manager version 20.3 onwards, this database must be obtained and downloaded separately. You can download, install, and update the GeoIP database using the update package available from the Technical Support website.
Alternatively, use your own copy of the MaxMind GeoLite2 or GeoIP2 database. For more detail on this process, see KB44887.
Installing the Virtual Traffic Manager’s GeoIP Database
Use the steps contained in this section to obtain and install the GeoIP package on your Virtual Traffic Manager cluster.
This process requires a restart of your Virtual Traffic Manager instances. Consider performing these steps at a time of least impact to your services.
To install the GeoIP database:
- Log in to https://portal.ivanti.com/customer/product-downloads and navigate to Downloads > Select Security > Ivanti vADC > Sign in > Downloads > Ivanti Secure Virtual Traffic Manager > Related Software > geoip_update_20240301.tgz.
- Select the GeoIP database download package (for example, "geoip_update_20210119.tgz"), click View Details, then click Download.
- Download the GeoIP package to your local workstation.
- Log in to the Admin UI of one of your target Virtual Traffic Manager instances and use the System > Traffic Managers > Upgrade page to upload the GeoIP package obtained in the previous steps.
- Select "Upgrade specified traffic managers".
- Select the Virtual Traffic Manager instance you are logged in to.
This method updates Virtual Traffic Managers separately to minimize downtime. At this step, if you are satisfied service interruption is not going to impact your users, consider selecting all Virtual Traffic Manager instances in the cluster.
- Click Upgrade.
The Virtual Traffic Manager applies the GeoIP package and restarts.
- Check the error log for any problems reported during the upgrade process.
Extending the Virtual Traffic Manager's GeoIP Database
The database does not include locations for private IP address ranges (see RFC1918), and other IP address ranges might be missing or inaccurate if they were recently allocated or moved. This section provides information on how you can extend the internal GeoIP database to add or override IP address ranges.
Extensions to the database are stored in the following file $ZEUSHOME/zxtm/conf/locations.cfg
Use the following format for each entry, specified as a single line:
firstIP lastIP lat lon CC RR cityThe following rules and definitions apply to each mapping:
- The elements in the line are white-space separated.
- The IP address range is inclusive, and the latitude ("lat") and longitude ("lon") are either "-" or decimal degrees.
- For each location mapping, only firstIP and lastIP are required. All other fields are optional. However, to use the Geographic or Adaptive GLB load balancing algorithms, you must also specify a latitude and longitude.
- The country code ("CC") and region code ("RR") are either "-" or two-letter codes. For example, US TX for Texas. The special files $ZEUSHOME/zxtm/etc/geo/country_codes.txt and $ZEUSHOME/zxtm/etc/geo/region_codes.txt provide a full list of the relevant codes.
- The city name can include spaces, for example "San Francisco", but does not specifically have to refer to a city (any descriptive text is acceptable).
Some example mappings:
192.168.0.1 192.168.0.128 52.1234 -0.5678 US TX New datacntr
172.16.0.1 172.16.255.255 - - - - Test VPN
99.98.97.96 99.98.97.99Testing the IP Address Mappings
You can test any changes with the following example TrafficScript request rule:
$text = "";
# Test your own IP addresses with the whereis function here.
$text .= whereis( "192.168.35.40" ); $text .= "\n";
$text .= whereis( "192.168.199.199" ); $text .= "\n";
$text .= whereis( "17.18.19.20" ); $text .= "\n";
http.sendResponse( "200", "text/plain", $text, "" );
sub whereis( $ip ) {
return $ip . " is in:\n" .
" Country: " . geo.getCountry( $ip ) . "\n" .
" CountryCode: " . geo.getCountryCode( $ip ) . "\n" .
" Region: " . geo.getRegion( $ip ) . "\n" .
" City: " . geo.getCity( $ip ) . "\n" .
" Long/Lat: " . geo.getLongitude( $ip ) .'/'. geo.getLatitude( $ip ) . "\n";
}Updating Your Virtual Traffic Manager Cluster Configuration
You can edit the locations.cfg file directly and the local Virtual Traffic Manager configuration system notices the fact that this file has changed and automatically accepts the location mappings defined within it.
However, by editing a configuration file directly in the file system, your Virtual Traffic Manager configuration is not automatically replicated out to other cluster members. To manually replicate out the updated configuration, use one of the following methods on the Virtual Traffic Manager you just updated:
- Use the replicate option on the Diagnose > Cluster Diagnosis page in the Admin UI.
- Execute the $ZEUSHOME/zxtm/bin/replicate-config script on the command line.