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F5 Kubernetes BIG-IP Controller¶

F5 Kubernetes BIG-IP Controller manages F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) objects from Kubernetes.

Release Notes

Attributions

Attributions.md

Features¶

Dynamically creates, manages, and destroys BIG-IP objects.
Forwards traffic from BIG-IP to Kubernetes clusters via NodePorts or ClusterIPs.
Support for F5 iApps.

Guides¶

See the F5 Kubernetes Container Connector user documentation.

Overview¶

F5 Kubernetes BIG-IP Controller is a Docker container that runs in a Kubernetes Pod. It uses an F5 Resource to determine:

what objects to configure on your BIG-IP, and
to which Kubernetes Service the BIG-IP objects belong.

The F5 Kubernetes BIG-IP Controller watches the Kubernetes API for the creation and modification of F5 resources. When it discovers changes, the F5 Kubernetes BIG-IP Controller modifies the BIG-IP accordingly.

For example:

F5 Kubernetes BIG-IP Controller discovers a new F5 virtualServer resource.
F5 Kubernetes BIG-IP Controller creates a new virtual server object on the BIG-IP. [1]
F5 Kubernetes BIG-IP Controller creates a pool member on the virtual server for each node in the cluster. [2]
F5 Kubernetes BIG-IP Controller monitors F5 resources, and linked Kubernetes resources, for changes.
F5 Kubernetes BIG-IP Controller reconfigures the BIG-IP when it discovers changes.

The BIG-IP handles traffic for the Service the specified virtual address and load-balances to all nodes in the cluster. Within the cluster, the allocated NodePort load balances traffic to all pods.

Configuration Parameters¶

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description	Allowed Values
bigip-username	string	Required	n/a	BIG-IP iControl REST username
bigip-password	string	Required	n/a	BIG-IP iControl REST password [3]
bigip-url	string	Required	n/a	BIG-IP admin IP address
bigip-partition	string	Required	n/a	The BIG-IP partition in which to configure objects.
namespace	string	Required	n/a	Kubernetes namespace to watch
kubeconfig	string	Optional	./config	Path to the kubeconfig file
python-basedir	string	Optional	/app/python	Path to python utilities directory
running-in-cluster	boolean	Optional	true	Indicates whether or not a kubernetes cluster started `k8s-bigip-ctlr`	true, false
use-node-internal	boolean	Optional	true	filter Kubernetes InternalIP addresses for pool members	true, false
verify-interval	integer	Optional	30	In seconds, interval at which to verify the BIG-IP configuration.
node-poll-interval	integer	Optional	30	In seconds, interval at which to poll the cluster for its node members.
log-level	string	Optional	INFO	Log level	INFO, DEBUG, CRITICAL, WARNING, ERROR
pool-member-type	string	Optional	nodeport	Create this type of BIG-IP pool members Use `cluster` to create pool members for each of the endpoints for the service. e.g. the pod’s ip Use `nodeport` to create pool members for each schedulable node using the service’s NodePort	cluster, nodeport
openshift-sdn-name	string	Optional	n/a	BigIP configured VxLAN name for access into the Openshift SDN and Pod network

F5 Resource Properties¶

F5 Resources are JSON blobs encoded within Kubernetes ConfigMaps. The ConfigMap must contain the following properties:

Property	Description	Allowed Values
f5type	Defines the type of object `k8s-bigip-ctlr` creates on the BIG-IP	virtual-server
schema	Verifies the `data` blob	f5schemadb://bigip-virtual-server_v0.1.2.json
data	Defines the F5 resource
frontend	Defines object(s) created on the BIG-IP	See frontend
backend	Identifes the Kubernets Service acting as the server pool	See backend

Frontend¶

virtualServer¶

Property		Type	Required	Default	Description	Allowed Values
partition		string	Required		Define the BIG-IP partition to manage
mode		string	Required		Set the proxy mode	http, tcp
balance		string	Required	round- robin	Set the load balancing mode	round-robin
virtualAddress		JSON object	Required		Allocate a virtual address from the BIG-IP
	bindAddr	string	Required		Virtual IP address
	port	integer	Required		Port number
sslProfile		JSON object	Optional		BIG-IP SSL profile to apply to the virtual server.
	f5ProfileName	string	Optional		Name of the BIG-IP SSL profile. Uses format ‘partition_name/ cert_name’ Example: ‘Common/testcert’

iApps¶

Property	Type	Required	Description	Allowed Values
partition	string	Required	Define the BIG-IP partition to manage.
iapp	string	Required	BIG-IP iApp template to use to create the application service.	Any iApp template already configured on the BIG-IP.
iappPoolMemberTable	JSON object	Required	Define the name and layout of the pool-member table in the iApp. See the iApp Pool Member Table section below.
iappTables	JSON object array	Optional	Define iApp tables to apply to the Application Service Example: `"iappTables": {` `"monitor__Monitors":` `{"columns": ["Index", "Name", "Type", "Options"],` `"rows": [[0, "mon1", "tcp", "" ],` `[1, "mon2", "http", ""]]}}"`
iappOptions	key-value object	Required	Define the App configurations	See configuration parameters above.
iappVariables	key-value object	Required	Define the iApp variables needed for service creation.

iApp Pool Member Table¶

You can use the iappPoolMemberTable option to describe the layout of the pool-member table that the controller should configure. It is a JSON object with these properties:

name (required): A string that specifies the name of the table that contains the pool members.
columns (required): An array that specifies the columns that the controller will configure in the pool-member table, in order.

Each entry in columns is an object that has a name property and either a kind or value property:

name (required): A string that specifies the column name.
kind: A string that tells the controller what property from the node to substitute. The controller supports "IPAddress" and "Port".
value: A string that specifies a value. The controller will not perform any substitution, it uses the value as specified.

For instance, if you configure an application with two pods at 1.2.3.4:20123 and 1.2.3.5:20321, and you specify:

"iappPoolMemberTable" = {
  "name": "pool__members",
  "columns": [
    {"name": "Port", "kind": "Port"},
    {"name": "IPAddress", "kind": "IPAddress"},
    {"name": "ConnectionLimit", "value": "0"}
  ]
}

This would configure the following table on BIG-IP:

{
  "name": "pool__members",
  "columnNames": [
    "Port",
    "IPAddress",
    "ConnectionLimit",
  ],
  "rows": [
    {
      "row": [
        "20123",
        "1.2.3.4",
        "0",
      ]
    },
    {
      "row": [
        "20321",
        "1.2.3.5",
        "0",
      ]
    },
  ]
}

You will need to adjust this for the particular iApp template that you are using. One way to discover the format is to configure an iApp manually from a template, and then check its configuration using tmsh list sys app service <appname>.

Backend¶

Property	Type	Required	Default	Description
serviceName	string	Required	none	The Kubernetes Service representing the server pool.
servicePort	integer	Required	none	Kubernetes Service port number
healthMonitors	JSON object array	Optional	none	Array of TCP or HTTP Health Monitors.

Example Configuration Files¶

[1]	The F5 Kubernetes BIG-IP Controller creates and manages objects in the BIG-IP partition defined in the F5 resource ConfigMap.

[2]	The F5 Kubernetes BIG-IP Controller forwards traffic to the NodePort assigned to the service by Kubernetes; see the Kubernetes Services documentation for more information.

[3]	You can store sensitive information as a Kubernetes Secret. See the user documentation for instructions.

F5 Kubernetes BIG-IP Controller v1.0.0