Cloud Docs Home > F5 Agent for OpenStack Neutron Index

Set up BIG-IP High Availability mode

Overview

HA, or, ‘high availability’, mode refers to high availability of the BIG-IP device(s). The F5 Agent for OpenStack Neutron can configure BIG-IP to operate in standalone, pair, or scalen mode. The F5 agent configures LBaaS objects on HA BIG-IP devices in real time.

Learn more

Caveats

  • If you only have one (1) BIG-IP device deployed, you must use standalone mode.
  • In this context, HA pertains to the BIG-IP device(s), not to the F5 agent.

Configuration

  1. Edit the F5 Agent Configuration File

    Use your text editor of choice to edit the F5 Agent Configuration File as appropriate for your environment.

vim /etc/neutron/services/f5/f5-openstack-agent.ini
  1. Set the Device driver settings.

  2. Set f5_ha_type as appropriate for your environment.

    #
    # HA mode
    #
    f5_ha_type = standalone
    #
    
  3. Set up the F5 Agent for OpenStack Neutron to use L2-adjacent mode or Global Routed mode.

Learn more

Use Case

High availability modes provide redundancy, helping to ensure service interruptions don’t occur if a device goes down.

  • standalone mode utilizes a single BIG-IP device; here, ‘high availability’ means that BIG-IP core services are up and running, and VLANs are able to send and receive traffic to and from the device.

  • pair mode requires two (2) BIG-IP devices and provides active-standby operation. When an event occurs that prevents the ‘active’ BIG-IP device from processing network traffic, the ‘standby’ device immediately begins processing that traffic so users experience no interruption in service. The standby device takes over the entire traffic load, avoiding a loss in performance.

  • scalen mode requires a device service cluster of two (2) - four (4) BIG-IP devices.

    Scalen allows you to configure multiple active devices, each of which can fail over to other available active devices (active-active mode). For example, if two BIG-IP devices are using active-active mode, both devices in the pair actively handling traffic. If an event occurs that prevents one device from processing traffic, that traffic automatically directs to the other active device.

    Note

    When failover occurs on an active-active cluster, a secondary device takes over the peer traffic load in addition to its current load. Depending on device configuration and capabilities, there may be a reduction in performance.

BIG-IP HA pair using active-standby mode

BIG-IP HA pair using active-standby mode