Forwarding Rule

Introduction

You can configure forwarding policies to forward requests to different backend server groups based on a wide range of forwarding rules and actions.

Forwarding Rule Types

Advanced forwarding policies support the following types of forwarding rules: domain name, path, HTTP request method, HTTP header, query string, cookie, and CIDR block.

**Table 1** Forwarding rules
Forwarding Rule	Description
Domain name	Description Route requests based on the domain name. You can configure multiple domain names with each consist of at least two labels separated by periods (.). Max total: 100 characters. Max label: 63 characters. Matching rules Exact match and wildcard match: The domain name can contain only letters, digits, and special characters .-?=~_+\^!$&\|()[]. Asterisks () and question marks (?) can be used as wildcards. The domain name cannot start or end with a period (.) or contain two consecutive periods (..). Regular expression match: The domain name can contain only letters, digits, and special characters .-?=~_+\^!$&\|()[]. Example Request URL: https://www.example.com/login.php?locale=en-us=#videos Domain name in the forwarding rule: www.example.com*
Path	Description Route requests based on paths. You can configure multiple paths in a forwarding policy. A path can contain letters, digits, and special characters: _~';@^-%#$.+?,=!:\|\/()[]{} Matching rules Exact match: The request path is the same as the specified path and must start with a slash (/). Prefix match: The request path starts with the specified path and must start with a slash (/). Regular expression match: The paths are matched using a regular expression. For more information, see Path Matching Based on Regular Expressions. Example path: Request URL: https://www.example.com/login.php?locale=en-us#videos Path in the forwarding rule: /login.php*
Query string	Route requests based on the query string. A query string consists of a key and one or more values. You need to set the key and values separately. The key can contain only letters, digits, and special characters: !$'()+,./:;=?@^-_' Multiple values can be configured for a key. The value can contain letters, digits, and special characters: !$'()+,./:;=?@^-_'. Asterisks () and question marks (?) can be used as wildcard characters. Example Request URL: https://www.example.com/login.php?locale=en-us*#videos A query string needs to be configured for the forwarding rule: Key: locale Value: en-us
HTTP request method	Route requests based on the HTTP method. You can configure multiple request methods in a forwarding policy. The following methods are available: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH, HEAD, and OPTIONS. Example GET
HTTP header	Route requests based on the HTTP header. An HTTP header consists of a key and one or more values. You need to configure the key and values separately. The key can contain only letters, digits, underscores (_), and hyphens (-). NOTE: The first letter of HTTP request headers User-agent and Connection must be capitalized. Multiple values can be configured for a key. The value can contain only letters, digits, and special characters: !#$%&'()+,.\/:;<=>?@[]^-_'{\|}~. Asterisks () and question marks (?) can be used as wildcard characters. Example Key: Accept-Language Value: en-us
CIDR block	Route requests based on source IP addresses from where the requests originate. Example 192.168.1.0/24 or 2020:50::44/127
Cookie	Route requests based on the cookie. A cookie consists of a key and a value. You need to configure the key and value separately. A key can contain 1 to 100 characters and cannot start or end with a space. Each key can contain only letters, digits, and special characters: !%'\"()*+,./:;<=>?@[]^-_` {\|}~ A key can have one value, which can contain 1 to 100 characters. Example: Key: cookie_name Value: cookie_value