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We are using Confluence with the F5 load balancing and quite often IE11 loses the session. When we inspect the call sequence IE11 is nicely sending the JSESSIONID cookie, but suddenly it doesn't send the JSESSIONID cookie and the server responses the error code 401 unauthorized.

When we don't use the F5 load balancing we are not able to reproduce the problem.

In the article https://connect.microsoft.com/IE/feedback/details/810700/subject-ie11-is-losing-cookie-information-and-thus-becoming-detached-from-a-web-application-session is a description about the session losing problem, but there is mentioned that the problem occurs when a new window is opened. This is not our case.

Normally we don't refresh the browser (use the F5 button), but if we press the F5 button, the problem occurs very fastly.

Sakke
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  • have you taken a tcpdump capture to see if the jsessionid cookie is being sent back to the client prior to the next request from client without the cookie? Also, how is the app configured on BIG-IP? If you upload a qkview to ihealth.f5.com and shoot me the ID, I can take a look (full disclosure - I'm an F5 employee) – Jason Rahm Aug 28 '17 at 13:57

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You need to enable "sticky-sessions".

A method used with Application Load Balancing, to achieve server-affinity. A router or load balancer with sticky-session support can assign a single server to a particular user, based on their HTTP session or IP address.

Please take a look at this article on how to set it up using F5.

Sotiris Kiritsis
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  • Currently we have only one active Confluence server and the domain name resolves only to one IP address. All traffic goes through one F5 device – Sakke Aug 25 '17 at 07:29
  • Hi Sotiris Kiritsis, looks like they removed the article, do you know valid link ? – DEREK LEE Oct 17 '19 at 11:00
  • @Sakke I found the following question for IIS, maybe it is helpful https://devcentral.f5.com/s/question/0D51T00006i7hgF/f5-ltm-sticky-session-for-iis-server. – Sotiris Kiritsis Oct 17 '19 at 11:31