Interactions between Cloudlet behaviors in Property Manager

When you have multiple Cloudlets behaviors on a single property, it’s important to understand how different Cloudlets interact with each other and which Cloudlet will handle the request.

Considerations when configuring multiple Cloudlets on a single property

Consider the following when configuring multiple Cloudlets on a single property that shares the same match criteria:

When examining interoperabilities, you can divide Cloudlets into three groups:
- Group 1: API Prioritization (AP), Request Control (RC), Visitor Prioritization (VP)
- Group 2: Edge Redirector (ER)
- Group 3: Application Load Balancer (ALB), Audience Segmentation (AS), Forward Rewrite (FR), Phased Release (PR)
  - Predominantly, Group 1 takes action before Group 2 (if the behavior from the first group applies), and Group 2 takes action before Group 3.
    For example, if AP is configured to send response to an alternate page, it will always take precedence over any Cloudlet of type ER, ALB, AS, FR, or PR. This priority holds regardless of the Cloudlets’ positions in the behavior tree or any other ordering.
  - For integrations occurring within a group, for example AP and VP, the order must be considered and the behavior is more complex with exceptions as documented in the table below.
If there is a rule that prevents traffic from reaching the origin, then it will almost always apply.
For all Cloudlets, responses with a 403 (Forbidden) status take precedence over responses with a 302 (Redirect) status. For example:
- Request Control takes precedence over Edge Redirector.
- When Visitor Prioritization is set to send all traffic to the waiting room, it takes precedence over Edge Redirector (and Request Control when it is configured to respond with a 302). Otherwise Edge Redirector takes precedence over Visitor Prioritization.
If a single property contains multiple Cloudlets, their order in the property’s metadata determines how they interoperate. Refer to the table for detailed scenarios.

The following table shows the Cloudlet that is applied to a request when you have two Cloudlets on the same property.

Cloudlet	ALB	AP	AS	ER	FR	PR	RC	VP
ALB	N/A	AP wins over ALB if origin matches the AP’s criteria for the alternate origin. Otherwise, the request goes to the origin specified in the ALB config.	Cloudlet lower in the order wins.	ER wins over ALB.	First, for path modification, FR operates in line with ALB. Next, when selecting an origin, Cloudlet lower in the order wins, unless FR uses Cloudlets Origins. In this case, ALB wins regardless of the order.	Cloudlet lower in the order wins.	ALB wins when the RC rule is to allow the traffic. Otherwise, RC wins over ALB.	VP wins when all traffic is sent to the waiting room. Otherwise, Cloudlet lower in the order wins.
AP	AP wins over ALB if origin matches the AP’s criteria for the alternate origin. Otherwise, the request goes to the origin specified in the ALB config.	N/A	AP wins over AS. AS is only considered when AP sends traffic to origin.	AP wins over ER when all traffic is sent the alternate response. Otherwise, Cloudlet lower in the order wins.	AP wins over FR. FR is only considered when AP sends traffic to origin.	PR wins over AP when alternate response is NOT selected.	This depends on the RC rule behavior. See the AP-RC special considerations below.	Usually, Cloudlet lower in the order wins. If a lower Cloudlet like VP handles the request (e.g., with waiting room enabled), it responds. But if VP forwards the request to origin, the higher Cloudlet (such as AP) determines the final response. VP does not override AP.
AS	Cloudlet lower in the order wins.	AP wins over AS. AS is only considered when AP sends traffic to origin.	N/A	ER wins over AS.	Cloudlet lower in the order wins, unless FR uses Cloudlets Origins – in this case, AS wins regardless of the order. The path modification happens only when FR is lower in the order.	Cloudlet lower in the order wins.	RC wins over AS.	VP wins when all traffic is sent to waiting room. Otherwise, Cloudlet lower in the order wins.
ER	ER wins over ALB.	AP wins over ER when all traffic is sent the alternate response. Otherwise Cloudlet lower in the order wins.	ER wins over AS.	N/A	ER wins over FR.	ER wins over PR.	RC wins over ER.	VP wins when all traffic is sent to the waiting room. Otherwise, Cloudlet lower in the order wins.
FR	First, for path modification, FR operates in line with ALB. Next, when selecting an origin, Cloudlet lower in the order wins, unless FR uses Cloudlets Origins. In this case, ALB wins regardless of the order.	AP wins over FR. FR is only considered when AP sends traffic to origin.	Cloudlet lower in the order wins, unless FR uses Cloudlets Origins – in this case, AS wins regardless of the order. The path modification happens only when FR is lower in the order.	ER wins over FR.	N/A	First, for path modification, FR operates in line with PR. Next, when selecting an origin, Cloudlet lower in the order wins, unless FR uses Cloudlets Origins. In this case, PR wins regardless of the order.	RC wins over FR.	VP wins when all traffic is sent to the waiting room. Otherwise, Cloudlet lower in the order wins.
PR	Cloudlet lower in the order wins.	PR wins over AP when alternate response is NOT selected.	Cloudlet lower in the order wins.	ER wins over PR.	First, for path modification, FR operates in line with PR. Next, when selecting an origin, Cloudlet lower in the order wins, unless FR uses Cloudlets Origins. In this case, PR wins regardless of the order.	N/A	RC wins over PR.	VP wins when all traffic is sent to waiting room. Otherwise, Cloudlet lower in the order wins.
RC	ALB wins when the RC rule is to allow the traffic. Otherwise, RC wins over ALB.	This depends on the RC rule behavior. See the AP-RC special considerations below.	RC wins over AS.	RC wins over ER.	RC wins over FR.	RC wins over PR.	N/A	This depends on the RC rule behavior. See the RC-VP special considerations below.
VP	VP wins when all traffic is sent to waiting room. Otherwise, Cloudlet lower in the order wins.	Usually, Cloudlet lower in the order wins. If a lower Cloudlet like VP handles the request (e.g., with waiting room enabled), it responds. But if VP forwards the request to origin, the higher Cloudlet (such as AP) determines the final response. VP does not override AP.	VP wins when all traffic is sent to waiting room. Otherwise, Cloudlet lower in the order wins.	VP wins when all traffic is sent to the waiting room. Otherwise, Cloudlet lower in the order wins.	VP wins when all traffic is sent to the waiting room. Otherwise, Cloudlet lower in the order wins.	VP wins when all traffic is sent to waiting room. Otherwise, Cloudlet lower in the order wins.	This depends on the RC rule behavior. See the RC-VP special considerations below.	N/A

AP-RC special considerations

The interaction depends on the RC rule behavior:

When the RC rule is allow, AP wins if it is serving the alternate page.
When the RC rule is deny and AP is not serving an alternate response page, the response is 403. If AP is serving an alternate response page, the response is 403 if RC is lower in the order, or 429 if AP is lower in the order.
When the RC rule is branded deny, the responses are code-dependent:
- For codes 200, 403, and 500: If the AP is not serving an alternate response page, RC wins and the response is a branded page. Otherwise, the Cloudlet lower in the order wins.
- For code 302: AP wins if it serves the alternate response page. Otherwise, the response is 302.

RC-VP special considerations

The interaction depends on the RC rule behavior:

When the RC rule is allow, VP wins if it is sending traffic to the waiting room.
When the RC rule is deny and the VP is not sending traffic to the waiting room, the response is 403. If VP is sending traffic to the waiting room, the response is 403 if RC is lower in the order, or 429 if VP is lower in the order.
When the RC rule is branded deny, the responses are code-dependent:
- For codes 200, and 500: If the VP is not sending traffic to the waiting room, RC wins and the response is a branded page. Otherwise, the Cloudlet lower in the order wins.
- For code 302: VP wins if it is sending traffic to the waiting room. Otherwise, the response is 302.
- For code 403: If the VP is not sending traffic to the waiting room, RC wins and the response is a branded page. Otherwise, the Cloudlet lower in the order wins. If RC is lower, the response is 403.