Configuring HTTP Keep-Alive

The Configure HTTP Client page is used to enable keep-alives on your proxy server.

The proxy supports HTTP keep-alive packets. The proxy, by default, does not use keep-alive connections, but for some systems, using the keep-alive feature can improve the proxy’s performance. Keep-alives are a TCP/IP feature that keeps a connection open after the request is complete, so that the client can quickly reuse the open connection.

In normal client-server transactions on the web, the client can make several connections to the server that requests multiple documents. For example, if the client requests a web page that has several graphic images, the client needs to make separate requests for each graphic file. Reestablishing connections is time consuming.

To configure HTTP Keep-Alive

Steps

1. Access the Server Manager and click the Preferences tab.

2. Click the Configure HTTP Client link.

   The Configure HTTP Client page displays.

3. Select a resource from the drop-down list.

   Select a HTTP or HTTPS resource to configure keep-alives on your Proxy Server or specify a regular expression.

4. Specify whether the HTTP client should use persistent connections by clicking the appropriate Keep Alive option.

5. Specify the maximum number of seconds in the Keep Alive Timeout field to keep a persistent connection open.

   The default value is 29.

6. You can specify whether the HTTP client can reuse existing persistent connections for all types of requests by selecting the appropriate Persistent Connection Reuse option.

   The default value is off and does not allow persistent connections to be reused for non-GET requests nor for requests with a body.

7. Specify the HTTP protocol version string in the HTTP Version String field.

   You should not specify this parameter unless you encounter specific protocol interoperability problems.

8. Specify the Proxy Server product name and version in the Proxy Agent Header field.

9. Specify the nickname of the client certificate in the SSL Client Certificate Nickname field to present to the remote server.

10. Select the appropriate SSL Server Certificate Validation option to indicate whether the Proxy Server must validate the certificate presented by the remote server.

11. Click OK.

12. Click Restart Required.

    The Apply Changes page displays.

13. Click the Restart Proxy Server button to apply the changes.