SearchVarnish Enterprise
DeviceAtlas is a commercial device detection database offered by Afilias subsidiary dotMobi. This is available for Varnish Enterprise users with a separate DeviceAtlas subscription. This separate subscription gives access to the DeviceAtlas VMOD and updates to the device data file. Please contact sales@varnish-software.com for more information on how to get access.
DeviceAtlas has comprehensive knowledge about HTTP client’s specifications, abilities and physical dimensions. This can be used for tailoring HTML responses to the specific type and size of the unit.
By moving this determination into Varnish, it is possible to do this with low latency and high scalability.
This is implemented as a Varnish Module (VMOD) that interfaces between Varnish and the dataset supplied by dotMobi.
Further information can be found at: https://www.varnish-software.com/partner/device-atlas
Version 2.x with Desktop Browser Properties option enabled.
These properties may not be default data file options and should be checked before using this VMOD
This VMOD needs more stack space than Varnish is configured for by default.
It is recommended to set the thread_pool_stack Varnish parameter to at
least 256KB.
The DeviceAtlas VMOD for Varnish is shipped as a separate package in a separate repository.
Repository details is sent by e-mail. Once the repository for DeviceAtlas is
enabled, the VMOD can be installed using yum or apt:
Installation on RHEL and CentOS:
sudo yum install varnish-plus-deviceatlas
Installation on Ubuntu and Debian:
sudo apt-get install varnish-plus-deviceatlas
import deviceatlas;
sub vcl_init {
deviceatlas.loadfile("/full/path/to/file.json");
}
sub vcl_deliver {
set resp.http.Vendor = deviceatlas.lookup(req.http.User-Agent, "vendor");
}
import deviceatlas;
import std;
sub vcl_recv {
if (deviceatlas.lookup(req.http.User-Agent, "isMobilePhone") == "1") {
std.log("The user-agent is a mobile phone");
} else if (deviceatlas.lookup(req.http.User-Agent, "isMobilePhone") == "0") {
std.log("The user-agent is not a mobile phone");
} else if (deviceatlas.lookup(req.http.User-Agent, "isMobilePhone") == "[unknown]") {
std.log("The user-agent is unknown");
} else {
std.log("Error during lookup");
}
}
A shorter alternative that does not catch unknowns or errors:
import deviceatlas;
sub vcl_recv {
set req.http.MobilePhone = "no";
if (deviceatlas.lookup_int(req.http.User-Agent, "isMobilePhone")) {
set req.http.MobilePhone = "yes";
}
}
import deviceatlas;
backend default {
.host = "127.0.0.1";
.port = "8080";
}
backend robots {
.host = "127.0.0.2";
.port = "8080";
}
sub vcl_init {
deviceatlas.loadfile("/etc/varnish/da.json");
}
sub vcl_recv {
# Set the default backend initially
set req.backend_hint = default;
# The isRobot property identifies non-human traffic (robots, crawlers,
# checkers, download agents, spam harvesters and feed readers).
if (deviceatlas.lookup_int(req.http.User-Agent, "isRobot")) {
set req.backend_hint = robots;
}
}
import deviceatlas;
sub vcl_recv {
unset req.http.Device-Type;
# Set desktop as the default device type, and override later if necessary
set req.http.Device-Type = "desktop";
if (deviceatlas.lookup_int(req.http.User-Agent, "isTablet")) {
set req.http.Device-Type = "tablet";
} else if (deviceatlas.lookup_int(req.http.User-Agent, "mobileDevice") ||
deviceatlas.lookup_int(req.http.User-Agent, "touchScreen") ||
deviceatlas.lookup_int(req.http.User-Agent, "isMobilePhone") ||
deviceatlas.lookup_int(req.http.User-Agent, "isEReader") ||
deviceatlas.lookup_int(req.http.User-Agent, "isGamesConsole") ||
deviceatlas.lookup_int(req.http.User-Agent, "isApp") ||
deviceatlas.lookup_int(req.http.User-Agent, "isInAppWebView")) {
set req.http.Device-Type = "mobile";
}
}
import std;
import deviceatlas;
sub vcl_deliver {
set resp.http.X-cell = deviceatlas.lookup(req.http.User-Agent, "isMobilePhone");
if (resp.http.X-cell == "[unknown]") {
std.log("UNKNOWN-UA(isMobilePhone): " + req.http.User-Agent);
} else {
std.log("IsMobilePhone=" + resp.http.X-cell + " " + req.http.User-Agent);
}
unset resp.http.X-cell;
}
The resulting shared memory log entry can be read with varnishlog or with
varnishncsa:
$ sudo varnishlog -g request -q "VCL_Log ~ UNKNOWN-UA"
$ sudo varnishncsa -q "VCL_Log ~ UNKNOWN-UA"
The device data is packaged in a JSON file. New devices are added to the data file every day. In order to ensure accuracy and support for new devices, it is necessary to download this JSON file to Varnish hosts on a regular basis. The documentation can be found here: https://deviceatlas.com/resources/getting-the-data/device-data
One way to automate this is to let cron handle it.
First create a file /etc/cron.daily/deviceatlas-update with the following contents:
#!/bin/bash
# Replace this with your own DeviceAtlas license key.
KEY="changeme"
FILE="/etc/varnish/da.json.gz"
wget -q -O "$FILE" "https://deviceatlas.com/getJSON.php?licencekey=$KEY&format=gzip&version=2"
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
echo "Unable to download device data file"
exit 1
fi
gunzip -f "$FILE"
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
echo "Unable to extract device data file"
exit 1
fi
systemctl -q is-active varnish || exit 0
systemctl reload varnish
Make this file executable:
sudo chmod +x /etc/cron.daily/deviceatlas-update
Make sure that crond is running:
sudo systemctl status crond
INT loadfile(STRING)
Loads a DeviceAtlas data file into memory.
Must be run before any calls to lookup, typically in sub vcl_init.
Using loadfile to load device data from /etc/varnish/da.json.
import deviceatlas;
sub vcl_init {
deviceatlas.loadfile("/etc/varnish/da.json");
}
The JSON file is read when running loadfile, (re)starting Varnish or recompiling VCL.
Arguments: None
Type: Function
Returns: Int
STRING lookup(STRING, STRING)
Looks up a given property for a User-Agent. Returns a string.
If the property value is not found, [unknown] is returned.
Error messages will be reported with a return message starting with [ERROR].
Using the vendor property to detect and set the Vendor response header to
the vendor of the User-Agent, for example Mozilla.
import deviceatlas;
sub vcl_deliver {
set resp.http.Vendor = deviceatlas.lookup(req.http.User-Agent, "vendor");
}
Property names are defined by DeviceAtlas. They are case sensitive. A list of known property names is included below, and also listed by the vendor on http://deviceatlas.com/properties.
Boolean properties (for example isMobilePhone) are returned as a string of either “0” or “1”. Integer properties (for example displayColorDepth) are returned as a string with the value in it.
Arguments: None
Type: Function
Returns: String
INT lookup_int(STRING, STRING)
This function looks up a given property for a User-Agent and returns an integer. Use this for matching on integer properties. Unknown and errors are indicated by return value “0”.
Note: Be careful when using this function to check booleans since a return value 0 can mean false, unknown or error.
Looking up the displayWidth property to detect the display type (such as 4K, Full HD, and HD).
import deviceatlas;
sub vcl_recv {
if (deviceatlas.lookup_int(req.http.User-Agent, "displayWidth") >= 3840) {
set req.http.Display = "4K";
} else if (deviceatlas.lookup_int(req.http.User-Agent, "displayWidth") >= 1920) {
set req.http.Display = "Full HD";
} else if (deviceatlas.lookup_int(req.http.User-Agent, "displayWidth") >= 1280) {
set req.http.Display = "HD";
} else if (deviceatlas.lookup_int(req.http.User-Agent, "displayWidth") > 0) {
set req.http.Display = "Small";
} else {
set req.http.Display = "Unknown";
}
}
Arguments: None
Type: Function
Returns: Int
STRING lookup_all(STRING)
A more advanced variant of lookup. Create a search object using all HTTP request
header fields. Subsequent calls to lookup_all will be fast as the search data is
only constructed once per request.
Arguments: None
Type: Function
Returns: String
The deviceatlas VMOD is available in Varnish Enterprise version 6.0.6r8 and later.