Install F5 Lifecycle Operator

F5 Lifecycle Operator (FLO) is seamlessly installed by using Helm with the values override file flo-value.yaml file, which includes all essential configurations for the successful installation of FLO and the necessary resources to configure BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes. During the FLO Helm installation, the IPAM operator, BnkGatewayClass custom resource definition (CRD), and BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes component CRDs are installed along with FLO. The IPAM Operator, in collaboration with the F5 IPAM Controller (FIC), manages the dual-stack IP addresses (IPv4 and IPv6) for Gateway resources. For more information, see F5 IPAM Controller for Gateway API.

Note: By default, the BNKGatewayClass CR deployment will install the product in the default namespace. However, this approach is not recommended. It is expected that customers provide a non-default tenant namespace when installing the FLO helm-chart. This will ensure that FLO is deployed in the designated user-provided tenant namespace. It is important that the BNKGatewayClass CR is also deployed in the same tenant namespace.

Prerequisites

Before you install FLO, ensure that the following prerequisites are met:

Install the F5 Lifecycle Operator

For information on the F5 Lifecycle Operator parameters featured in this example, or for a comprehensive list of available parameters, see F5 Lifecycle Operator Parameters.

  1. Create a flo-values.yaml  file with the contents below.

    vi flo-values.yaml

    global:
  imagePullSecrets:
    - name: far-secret
  certmgr:
    clusterIssuer: <Name of the ClusterIssuer>
 
image:
  repository: repo.f5.com/images
  name: f5-lifecycle-operator
  pullPolicy: Always

namespace: "f5-operators"

fluentbit_sidecar:
  enabled: true
  image:
    name: f5-fluentbit
 
f5-ipam-operator:
  image:
    repository: repo.f5.com/images
    pullPolicy: IfNotPresent
  namespace: "f5-operators"
  nameOverride: "f5-ipam-operator"
  fullnameOverride: "f5-ipam-operator"
 
license:
  jwt: " "

  2. Before you perform the Helm installation for FLO, ensure that you update the flo-value.yaml file with the correct values.

    Note: For information on the FLO Values spec parameters featured in this example, or for a comprehensive list of parameters, see F5 Lifecycle Operator (FLO).

    • Update the namespace details according to your planned configuration.

      Note: Ensure that the f5-ipam-operator.namespace parameter is updated to match the namespace used to install the FLO helm chart.

    • Update the license.jwt with the actual JWT.

    • Update the imagePullSecrets.name with the actual secret to download artifacts from the registry, see Create FAR secret.

    • Ensure that the global.certmgr.clusterIssuer parameter in flo-value.yaml is properly updated with the metadata.name value of the cluster issuer, see Configure Cert Manager.

    • Update the below licensing parameters with the specified values to successfully license the cluster in connected mode:

      • f5CertUrl: https://product.apis.f5.com/ee/v1

      • f5EntitlementUrl: https://product-s.apis.f5.com/ee/v1

      • f5InitialConfigUrl: https://product-s.apis.f5.com/ee/v1.

    • By default, BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes clusters are licensed in connected mode. If you want to license the clusters in FLP mode, set:

      • license.operationMode to f5licenseproxy.

      • license.licenseserverrootca with FLP RootCA. See License the cluster in FLP Mode.

      • f5CertUrl to https://<FLP HostName>:30001/license-proxy/v1 and update the FLP HostName according to your configuration.

      • f5EntitlementUrl to https://<FLP HostName>:30001/license-proxy/v1 and update the FLP HostName according to your configuration.

      • f5InitialConfigUrl to https://<FLP HostName>:30001/license-proxy/v1 and update the FLP HostName according to your configuration.

  3. Install the F5 Lifecycle Operator.

    helm install flo oci://repo.f5.com/charts/f5-lifecycle-operator --version <<FLO_VERSION>> -f flo-values.yaml --namespace <<namespace>>

    In the below example, charts/f5-lifecycle-operator is the path for pulling f5-lifecycle-operator Helm chart and its version is v1.7.8-0.3.37 as retrieved from the bnk-manifest-2.0.0-1.7.8-0.3.37.yaml file.

    helm install flo oci://repo.f5.com/charts/f5-lifecycle-operator --version v1.7.8-0.3.37 -f flo-values.yaml --namespace f5-operators

  4. Check the FLO and F5 IPAM Operator pods status.

    kubectl get pods

    Sample Output:

    NAME                                         READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
f5-ipam-operator-75977bb4c6-zhpf7            1/1     Running   0          17s
flo-f5-lifecycle-operator-6c86fcf6f5-rw8t6   2/2     Running   0          17s

    The FLO and F5 IPAM Controller are successfully installed and running.

  5. Check the BNKGatewayClass CRD and BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes component CRDs.

    NOTE: The BNKGatewayClass CRD and BIG-IP Next for Kubernetes component CRDs will remain in the cluster after the Helm uninstallation of FLO.

    kubectl get crd | grep k8s.f5.com

    Sample Output:

    afms.k8s.f5.com                                  2025-03-18T00:14:41Z
bnkgatewayclasses.k8s.f5.com                     2025-03-18T00:14:41Z
coremonds.k8s.f5.com                             2025-03-18T00:14:41Z
crdconversions.k8s.f5.com                        2025-03-18T00:14:41Z
csrcs.k8s.f5.com                                 2025-03-18T00:14:41Z
cwcs.k8s.f5.com                                  2025-03-18T00:14:41Z
dssms.k8s.f5.com                                 2025-03-18T00:14:41Z
f5ingresses.k8s.f5.com                           2025-03-18T00:14:41Z
f5tmms.k8s.f5.com                                2025-03-18T00:14:41Z
fluentds.k8s.f5.com                              2025-03-18T00:14:41Z
ipamoperators.k8s.f5.com                         2025-03-18T00:14:41Z
nodelabelers.k8s.f5.com                          2025-03-18T00:14:41Z
observers.k8s.f5.com                             2025-03-18T00:14:41Z
rabbitmqs.k8s.f5.com                             2025-03-18T00:14:41Z

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