Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From BIG-IP Administration Control Plane Admi 13 nistration documents:

To accurately report the current status of specific web applications hosted on the same server (node), the Control Plane must use a monitor that operates at the application layer.

Application-Specific Monitoring : While a node (the IP address) might be up and responding to ICMP (ping) or TCP handshakes, a specific web service or path on that server could be failing.

Custom Send Strings : An HTTP monitor allows the administrator to define a " Send String " to request a specific page or URI related to the application in that pool .

Receive Strings : The " Receive String " identifies a unique value that the application must return to be considered " Available " .

Granular Status Reporting : By deploying these monitors at the pool level, the Control Plane can mark a pool member " Offline " for one application pool if the receive string is missing, while keeping it " Available " in another pool where the service is still healthy.