Getting started

This document describes each stage of the Cloud-Native Network Functions (CNFs) integration process, and the command line interface (CLI) tools required to complete the integration. A careful review of this document ensures a positive experience.

_images/spk_info.png 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 four essential stages to begin processing application traffic, and two optional stages to enable logging collection and session-state data persistence:

  1. CNFs Software - Extract and upload the CRDs and software images to a local container registry.
  2. CNFs Secrets - Secure communication between the Controller and the AFM and TMM Pods.
  3. CNFs RBAC - Optional: Secure access to the Kubernetes API when installing CNFs.
  4. Fluentd Logging - Optional: Centralize logging data sent from each of the CNF Pods.
  5. OTEL Collectors - Optional: Collect and view statistics from the CNFs Pods.
  6. dSSM Database - Optional: Store session-state data for the AFM and TMM Pods.
  7. BIG-IP Controller - Prepare the cluster to proxy and load balance application traffic.
  8. 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.