FAST Overview

This section has a summary of FAST’s user interface and how to manage applications using loaded templates.

FAST Menu Tabs

When using FAST, the Applications List tab is selected. If you have never used FAST before the application list will likely be empty. See the Deploy tab on deploying a new application.

You see the following tabs in the FAST interface:


Tab Summary
Application List This is a list of AS3 applications currently deployed to the BIG-IP. In the table, AS3 applications are displayed along with the template they were deployed with (if deployed using a FAST Template). Applications can be modified or deleted from this page.
Deploy This is where you create a new application. Use this tab to choose a template and provide parameters to submit a new application to AS3.
Templates This table has a list of installed templates, with any applications using them.
Deploy Log The deploy log is a summary of AS3’s async task results.
API This tab contains documentation on how to use FAST’s REST API.

Application List

Use this tab to view existing FAST/AS3 applications currently deployed on this BIG-IP.

Each application is identified by its Tenant and Application name. It also shows the Template used to deploy the application.

On this tab, there are two buttons for each application: Modify and Delete.

  • Clicking Modify loads the application template form with the values last used to deploy. This enables changing configuration parameters for operations such as adding and removing pool members. Click Submit to redeploy the application.
  • Clicking Delete deletes the application from the BIG-IP.

Warning

Once you delete an application, there is no easy way to recall an application’s deployment parameters

Deploy

The Deploy tab is where you create new AS3 applications using a FAST template.

At the top of the Deploy pane, there are buttons for each installed template.

To open a template, click one of the template buttons. The template loads into the interface, with required fields marked by a red asterisk.

At the bottom of the template, you see the following options for what to do once the template is complete.

Action Summary
Submit Submit this application to AS3 for deployment.
Render See a sample of the rendered output of this template.
Schema View the JSON schema of this template parameters.
Template Display the original template text.

Filling out the form with the requested values, and clicking Submit will submit the declaration for deployment.

After a successful deployment, you can navigate back to the Applications tab to see the application in the list view.

Templates

The Templates tab shows a list of installed template packages, the templates in each, and which applications are deployed using them.

FAST comes pre-installed with base template sets satisfying common use cases. Included are templates to deploy virtual servers for basic HTTP and HTTPS applications, as well as simple TCP and UDP applications.

New Templates

FAST can be extended beyond the included templates, new custom templates can be installed for any AS3 use case. Template sets are packaged into a single file that can be loaded into the system via the REST API.

Template sets may be provided by F5, sourced from the community, or custom written. Template sets can be added or removed via the user interface by clicking either the Add Set or Remove buttons.

For information on authoring template sets and understanding the template set format, see Creating New Templates.

For information on updating, adding and removing template sets, see Managing FAST Templates.

Deploy Log

The deploy log is a summary of AS3’s async task results, newer jobs are nearer to the top. The output includes the Task ID, the Tenant (BIG-IP partition), and the result.

API

The API tab contains documentation for the F5 Application Services API and SDK. Use the index in the left pane to find specific information.

Important

If you manually modify a FAST tenant outside of FAST via TMSH, GUI, REST API for example, FAST will overwrite those changes the next time the FAST template modifies the tenant. See FAST Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for more information.