Create Data Groups

Overview

Data groups are a collection of related elements, such as a set of IP addresses for specific clients. You can use data groups to store and reference large data sets with frequent lookups and specific tasks.

For this version of BIG-IP Next, you can add data groups to your SSLO policy.

Data Group Types

Data groups can be one of the following types:

  • Address: An address data group consists of a collection of IP addresses.

  • String: A string data group consists of a group of strings, such as *.jpg.

  • Integer: An integer data group consists of a group of integers.

Prerequisites

  • You must have Administrator or Application Manager user credentials to manage application services. Users with Instance Manager or Auditor credentials have read-only access to application services.

Create a new data group

Use the following procedure to create your data groups

  1. Log in to BIG-IP Next Central Manager.

  2. Click the Workspace icon next to the F5 logo and then click Applications.

  3. On the left, click Data Groups.

  4. Click the + Create button at the top right.
    The Create Data Group panel opens.

  5. Enter a Name and optional Description for the data group.

  6. Select a data Type. This specifies the type of data the in the lookup. See Data Group Types for more information.

  7. Click Save & Continue.
    This saves the data group in an empty state and moves you to the next stage of the configuration wizard.

  8. To populate the data group:

    1. Based on the Type selection in the properties stage, enter the IP Address, String, or Integer for the data group.
      You must add a valid value to this field.

    2. Type an identifying Value for the data type.

    3. Click + Create to add more rows to the data group.

    4. Click Save & Deploy.

Result: You have created and populated your data group. You can now reference the data group to your SSLO policies and deploy changes to the BIG-IP Next instance. You can view a data group’s referenced objects and associated application services by clicking the value in the Referenced Objects column.

Delete a data group

You can delete a data group that without referenced objects.

  1. Log in to BIG-IP Next Central Manager.

  2. Click the Workspace icon next to the F5 logo and then click Applications.

  3. On the left, click Data Groups.

  4. Select the row of the data group you want to delete.

  5. Click Delete.

Result: You have deleted the data group from BIG-IP Next Central Manager.