About HTTP automatic configuration
Automatic configurations define the optimal combination of URL Learning, Parse and Prefetch, and Object Prefetch for an HTTP server subnet or host. Autoconfigured subnets and hosts appear in the Subnet or Host list.
SteelHead derives web server subnets and hostnames from HTTP request headers and collects traffic statistics for them. Hostnames and subnets that don’t match any other rules are evaluated.
Disabling the feature removes automatically configured items from the list, but they aren’t removed from the appliance’s database. Upon re-enabling the feature, the items reappear in the list with previous settings intact. You can’t remove autoconfigured items from the list, but you can reconfigure them, save them as a static host, and then remove them. Statically configured items also appear in the list. To allow a static host to be automatically configured, simply remove it.
For secure traffic requiring authentication, Kerberos is supported. Per-host or subnet authorization optimizations and basic tuning are also supported. We recommend that you enable:
• Strip compression—Removes the Accept-Encoding lines from headers that contain gzip or deflate. These Accept-Encoding directives allow web browsers and servers to send and receive compressed content rather than raw HTML.
• Insert cookie—Tracks repeat requests from the client.
• Insert Keep Alive—Maintains persistent connections. This is often disabled, even when the web server can support it. This is especially true for Apache web servers that serve HTTPS to Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers.