Run Bot Manager on every request

Create the Rules Engine rule that hands every request a firewall receives to one Bot Manager instance, from Azion Console, the Azion CLI, or the API.

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You can run a Bot Manager instance on every request a firewall receives with one Rules Engine for Firewall rule, from Azion Console, the Azion CLI, or the API. A function instance scores nothing until a rule hands it a request; for where the rule sits in the path a request travels, refer to Bot scoring.

Prerequisites

Create the rule

The rule below matches every request its firewall receives and runs one instance on each of them. value holds the id of the function instance on this firewall, so replace 12347 with your own. It never holds the id of the installed function, which is the same for every instance of it in the account.

JSON
01{
02 "name": "Run Bot Manager on every request",
03 "active": true,
04 "criteria": [
05 [
06 {
07 "conditional": "if",
08 "variable": "${request_uri}",
09 "operator": "starts_with",
10 "argument": "/"
11 }
12 ]
13 ],
14 "behaviors": [
15 {
16 "type": "run_function",
17 "attributes": {
18 "value": 12347
19 }
20 }
21 ]
22}

To create the rule from Azion Console:

Open the firewall that carries the instance

Access Azion Console > Firewalls, then select that firewall.

Select the Rules Engine tab
Select + Rule
Name the rule

Enter Run Bot Manager on every request as the name. The description is optional.

Set the criterion

In the Criteria section, select Request Uri as the variable and starts with as the operator, then enter / as the argument.

Add the Run Function behavior

In the Behaviors section, select Run Function. Doing so adds a second control, which carries no label and the placeholder Select an function. That control holds the function instances on this firewall; select the one to run.

Select Save

The firewall now holds the rule, and the instance scores every request the firewall receives. The behavior selector lists instances, not functions, and only the active ones. A rule carries at most one Run Function behavior, which Azion Console enforces by disabling the option once one is in the rule. The Request Uri variable needs nothing else turned on, while Header User Agent and Request Args are offered only while WAF is on for the firewall.

Note — Key the criterion on the request URI. The ${request_args} variable with the matches operator and .* as the argument looks like a match on everything and is not: the variable is empty whenever a request carries no query string, and an empty variable matches nothing. A rule keyed that way passes silently over every POST whose payload sits in the body. Running a second instance on the same request takes a second rule, because a rule carries at most one run_function behavior.

Next steps

Read the report log for one instanceThe scores the instance produces once the rule hands it every request.Rules Engine for FirewallThe criteria and behaviors a firewall rule accepts, beyond the two this rule uses.