Getting started

The Integration documentation section is organized linearly; each document representing the next step in the Cloud-Native Network Functions (CNFs) integration process. The CNFs integration process relies heavily on the Helm package manager to install each of the CNFs software components.

This document provides a brief description of each integration step, and the command line interface (CLI) tools required to perform the integration tasks. A careful review of this document ensures a positive experience.

Note: You can click Next at the bottom of each page, or scroll through the CNFs PDF to follow the integration process.

Integration tools

Install the CLI tools listed below on your Linux based workstation:

• Helm CLI - Manages the CNFs Pod installations.
• OpenSSL toolkit - Creates SSL certificates to secure Pod communication.
• Podman - Tags and pushes images to a local registry.

Integration stages

Integrating the CNFs software images involves six required steps, and three optional steps:

1. Open-source Cert Manager - Optional: Obtains certificates from a variety of Issuers and ensures the certificates are valid and up-to-date.

   Note: If you wish to use Open Source Cert Manager, install oss cert-manager and ensure that it is available in the cluster. You can skip step 3 (F5 Cert Manager) in the following while using the open source cert manager configuration.

2. CNFs Software - Extract and upload the CRDs and software images to a local container registry.

   • CNFs Software - CRDs and software images are extracted from a .tgz file to helm install.
   • CNFs Artifacts Via F5 Artifact Registry - The F5 Artifact Registry (FAR) at repo.f5.com is used to download the helm charts, docker images, and other utilities.

   Note: Either CNFs Software or CNFs Artifacts Via F5 Artifact Registry can be used to download the artifacts.

3. CNFs Cert Manager (f5-cert-manager) - Secures communication between the CNFs Pods, and regularly rotates secure secrets.

   Note: The user can install f5-cert-manager or oss cert-manager. This step can be ignored if Open-source cert manager is configured and available in the cluster.

4. Fluentd Logging - Centralize logging data sent from each of the CNF Pods.

5. Coremond - Processes core files generated by the operating system or third party.

6. OTEL Collectors - Optional: Collect and view statistics from the CNFs Pods.

7. dSSM Database - Optional: Store session-state data for the AFM and TMM Pods.

8. CNFs CWC - Install the Cluster Wide Controller to enable gathering CNFs software telemetry.

9. CNFs Licensing - License the cluster to enable flexible consumption software use.

10. BIG-IP Controller - Process CNFs Custom Resources to configure the CNFs Pods.

11. CNFs CRs - Configure a Custom Resource (CR) to begin processing application traffic.

Next step

Continue to the CNFs Software guide to extract and install the CNFs software images and CRDs.

Feedback

Provide feedback to improve this document by emailing cnfdocs@f5.com.

Supplemental

• CNF Config File Reference
• Kubernetes Custom Resources
• Kubernetes Ingress