Last updated on: 2023-09-12 04:11:59.

OpenShift 4.12 and F5 BIG-IP Container Ingress Services (CIS) User-Guide for Standalone BIG-IP using OVN-Kubernetes iCNI with NO Tunnels¶

This document demonstrates how to use OVN-Kubernetes with F5 BIG-IP Routes to Ingress traffic without using an Overlay. Using OVN-Kubernetes with F5 BIG-IP Routes removes the complexity of creating VXLAN tunnels or using Calico. This document demonstrates Standalone BIG-IP working with OVN-Kubernetes. The diagram below demonstrates an OpenShift Cluster with three master, and three worker nodes. Three applications: tea, coffee and mocha are deployed in the cafe namespace.

../../_images/openshift-4-12-standalone-1.png

Configuration Steps¶

Note

The configuration below has been validated on OCP versions 4.11 and 4.12.

Step 1: Deploy OpenShift using OVNKubernetes¶

Deploy the OpenShift Cluster with networkType set to OVNKubernetes. Change the default to OVNKubernetes in the install-config.yaml before creating the cluster.

Step 2: Deploy Global ConfigMap¶

Using Global ConfigMap

Global ConfigMap provides control to the admin to create and maintain the resource configuration centrally.
namespace: cafe, vserverAddr: 10.192.125.65

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
    name: global-cm
    namespace: kube-system
    labels:
        f5nr: "true"
data:
    extendedSpec: |
        extendedRouteSpec:
        - namespace: cafe
          vserverAddr: 10.192.125.65
          vserverName: cafe
          allowOverride: true

Deploy global ConfigMap

oc create -f global-cm.yaml

ConfigMap repo

Step 3: Deploy CIS¶

F5 BIG-IP Controller Ingress Services (CIS) is called the Next Generation Route Controller. The Next Generation Route Controller extended F5 CIS to use multiple Virtual IP addresses. Previously, F5 BIG-IP CIS could only manage one Virtual IP address per CIS instance.

Add the following parameters to the CIS deployment:

Routegroup specific config for each namespace is provided as part of extendedSpec through ConfigMap.
ConfigMap info is passed to CIS with the argument --route-spec-configmap="namespace/configmap-name"
Controller mode should be set to openshift enabling multiple VIP support --controller-mode="openshift"

See also

The k8s-bigip-ctlr documentation for information about all config options https://clouddocs.f5.com/containers/latest/

args: [
  "--bigip-username=$(BIGIP_USERNAME)",
  "--bigip-password=$(BIGIP_PASSWORD)",
  "--bigip-url=10.192.125.60",
  "--bigip-partition=OpenShift",
  "--namespace",
  "--cafe",
  "--pool-member-type=cluster",
  "--insecure=true",
  "--route-spec-configmap=kube-system/global-cm",
  "--controller-mode=openshift",
  "--static-routing-mode=true",
  "--orchestration-cni=ovn-k8s",
  "--as3-validation=true",
  "--log-as3-response=true",
]

Deploy CIS in OpenShift

oc create secret generic bigip-login -n kube-system --from-literal=username=admin --from-literal=password=<secret>
oc create -f bigip-ctlr-clusterrole.yaml
oc create -f f5-bigip-ctlr-deployment.yaml

CIS repo

Step 4: Verify BIG-IP Static Routes¶

CIS provisions static routes on BIG-IP using the deployment parameter. For example --static-routing-mode=true

View static routes created on BIG-IP with node subnets assigned for the three worker nodes in the OpenShift cluster.

../../_images/openshift-4-12-static-route.png

Setup complete! Deploy CIS and create OpenShift Routes

Step 5: Creating OpenShift Routes for cafe.example.com¶

User-case for the OpenShift Routes:

Edge Termination
Backend listening on PORT 8080

Create OpenShift Routes:

oc create -f route-tea-edge.yaml
oc create -f route-coffee-edge.yaml
oc create -f route-mocha-edge.yaml

Routes repo

Validation¶

Step 1: Validate OpenShift Routes using the BIG-IP¶

../../_images/openshift-4-12-standalone-virtual-server-list.png

Step 2: Validate OpenShift Virtual IP using the BIG-IP¶

../../_images/openshift-4-12-standalone-cafe-443.png

Step 3: Validate OpenShift Routes policies on the BIG-IP¶

../../_images/openshift-4-12-standalone-cafe-443-policy-1.png

Step 4: Validate OpenShift Routes policies by connecting to the Public IP¶

../../_images/openshift-4-12-standalone-verify-1.png

Note

To provide feedback on Container Ingress Services or this documentation, please file a GitHub Issue.

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