F5 Lifecycle Operator

F5 Lifecycle Operator (FLO) is a life cycle management operator that manages BNK pods and deployments as Kubernetes resources. By leveraging the BnkGatewayClass custom resource (CR), FLO seamlessly deploys these resources to the desired state, including component versions and configurations such as TMM, TODA, BGP, and the OpenTelemetry collector.

FLO streamlines the installation, upgrading, and uninstallation processes for BNK, requiring minimal user input. Upon application of the BnkGatewayClass CR, FLO effectively deploys all necessary BNK pods by instantiating a CR for each component, such as CWC, F5 Ingress, DSSM, and TMM. Furthermore, FLO continuously monitors the BnkGatewayClass CR, automatically redeploying any modified configurations to ensure optimal performance.

Prior to applying the BnkGatewayClass CR, ensure that you deploy the Gateway API CRDs and BNK CRDs. This guarantees the readiness of BNK to monitor any customer-deployed use case CRs post-installation. It should be noted that CRDs are cluster-scoped resources and can be deployed either before or after the installation of FLO.

To successfully install and configure BNK, follow the instructions in the sections below in the specified order:

• Install F5 Lifecycle Operator
  • Prerequisites
  • Install the F5 Lifecycle Operator
• Install F5 Use case Custom Resource Definitions
• Install Gateway API CRDs
• Install BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes
  • Prerequisites
  • Apply BnkGatewayClass CR