Timeout questions

[Laurent Lefoll <Laurent.Lefoll@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

If I am not misunderstanding something, the variable
/proc/sys/net/ipv4/vs/timeout_established gives the time a TCP connection can be
idle and after that the entry corresponding to this connection is cleared. My
problem is that it seems that sometimes it's not the case. For example I have a
system (2.2.16 and ipvs 0.9.15) with  /proc/sys/net/ipv4/vs/timeout_established
= 480 but the entries are created with a real timeout of 120 ! On another system
I have the same value for  /proc/sys/net/ipv4/vs/timeout_established but the
entries are created with a real timeout of 15 min. Are there any other
parameters affecting the real timeout or am I wrong somewhere ?

Another question : what is the usefulness of the ICMP packets that are sent when
new packets arrives for a TCP connection that timed out for in LVS box ? I
understand obviously for UDP but I don't see their role for a TCP connection...

Thanks 

Laurent