F5® BIG-IP® VE: 2-Device Clustering Prep

Overview

This template deploys two (2) BIG-IP® Virtual Edition (VE) servers in OpenStack and preps them for use in a ‘device service cluster’. Device service clustering, or DSC® , provides synchronization and failover of BIG-IP® configuration data across multiple BIG-IP® devices on a network.

Prerequisites

  • Basic understanding of BIG-IP® device service clustering.
  • F5 OpenStack Heat Plugins installed on the Neutron controller.
  • BIG-IP® Security Groups configured in OpenStack.
  • SSH key(s) configured in OpenStack; to be used for authentication to the BIG-IP® VE instances launched by this template.
  • BIG-IP® VE image uploaded to Glance.
  • BIG-IP® License base key.
  • Three (3) VLANs configured in Neutron – ‘mgmt’, ‘control’, and ‘data’ – to be used for system management, high availability, and data traffic, respectively.
  • F5 OpenStack Heat Plugins installed on the Neutron controller.

Caveats

  • VE images come in 3 different sizes: LTM, ALL, and LTM-1SLOT. Each has its own size requirements, which determine what Nova flavor you should select. See the F5® OpenStack BIG-IP® flavor matrix for more information.

Deployment

  1. In Horizon, go to Orchestration –> Stacks.
  2. Click Launch Stack.
  3. Choose the Template File from its location on your machine, then click Next.
  4. Provide the information required for the Heat engine to build your stack. You can use the table below as a worksheet to gather all of the necessary information ahead of time.
  5. Click Launch. The Heat engine then creates your stack; the status changes to Create complete when it is finished.
Configuration Items
Configuration Item Type Entry/Description
Stack Name string Provide a name for the stack to be created
Creation Timeout integer Length of time after which stack creation will time out (minutes)
Password for user “<username>” string Enter the password for your user account
F5 VE Image string Select a VE image from the dropdown list
F5 VE Flavor string Select a flavor to be used for the VE
Use Config Drive boolean Use config drive to provider meta and user data (default: false)
F5 Root SSH Key Name string Name of existing ssh key-pair to use for authentication to the VE instances
F5 VE Admin User Password string Create a password for the VE ‘admin’ user account
F5 VE Root User Password string create a password for the VE ‘root’ user account
Security Group for the data network string Enter the name of an existing security group
Security Group for the control network string Enter the name of an existing security group
Security Group for the management network string Enter the name of an existing security group
Primary VE License Base Key string Enter your F5 TMOS License Basekey
External Network string Select the external network from the list
VE Management Network string Select a subnet from the list to be used as the VE management interface network
VE HA Network string Select a subnet from the list to be used as the VE HA interface network
VE Network for the 1.2 Interface string Select a network to be used for the VE 1.2 TMM interface
Name for Network 1.2 string Enter a name for the Network 1.2 (default: data1)
VE Network for the 1.3 Interface string Select a network to be used for the VE 1.3 TMM interface
Name for Network 1.3 string Enter a name for the Network 1.2 (default: data2)
Default Gateway IP string Enter the upstream Gateway IP address to use for VE instances (default: none)

Download

Click the download link below to save a copy of the template.

Download <../../../f5_supported/ve/resource_group/f5_two_ve_resource_group.yaml