GUI Overview

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

FAST Menu Tabs

When launching FAST, the FAST Templates tab is selected. The page is divided into 2 sections: bigip-fast-templates and examples. If new template sets are added in the future, those will be displayed here as well. See Creating New Templates for information on creating templates sets.

The tabs in the FAST interface:

Tab	Summary
FAST Templates	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.
Applications	A list of AS3 applications currently deployed onto 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.
History	This is a list of installed templates, along with any applications using them and timestamp information.
Settings	Settings is where optional deployment parameters are set.
API	This tab contains documentation on how to use FAST’s REST API.

Expanded definitions the FAST Menu tabs are below.

FAST Templates

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

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

The template displays the following buttons for what to do once the template is complete.

Action	Summary
Deploy	Submits the application to AS3 for deployment.
Cancel	Cancels the application returning to the template list.
Debug View	Opens a panel of option buttons to view template text, JSON schema, inputs and sample rendered output.
View Template	Displays the original template text.
View Schema	View the JSON schema of the template.
View Inputs	View a list of inputs by field.
View Rendered	View a sample of the rendered output of the template.

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

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

New Templates and Template Sets

A template is a parameterized AS3 declaration while a template set is a grouping of templates.

FAST can be extended beyond the included templates. New templates can be self-authored and installed for any AS3 use case. Template sets are templates packaged into a single .zip file that can be loaded into the system via the REST API. They 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 Template Set or Remove buttons.

See also

Creating New Templates for information on authoring template sets and understanding the template set format. Managing FAST Templates for information on updating, adding and removing template sets. Appendix C: FAST Available Templates for a list of FAST installed templates.

Applications

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, the application can be deleted or modified.

• To Delete one, or multiple applications, check the box next to the application(s) and press Delete. A confirmation dialog will display with the options to Cancel or Continue the deletion.

• Clicking the template name 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 Deploy to redeploy the application.

Warning

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

History

The History tab displays a list of deployments. The list is a summary of AS3’s async task results with newer jobs nearer to the top. The information includes:

• Application name - the name given to the application

• Template used - the name of the template used for deployment including the template set and template name

• Tenant - the name of the deployed tenant

• Operation

  • Create operation shows the initial deployment

  • Update operation shows any updates to the application in order of deployment

  • Delete

  • Delete All

• Status

  • In Progress - application deployment is processing

  • Success - deployment succeeded

  • No Change

  • Error - See Info column

  • Declaration is Invalid - See Info column

  • Declaration Failed - See Info column

• App Template - allows for eding and resubmitting of the template

• Timestamp - the date and time of deployment

• Info - displays information such as a reason for an invalid declaration.

  • invalid: failed AS3 schema validation (e.g., undefined /Tenant01/Application01/Application01_pool/members: should be array)

  • failed: passed validation but still failed to apply (e.g., ip addr conflict)

  • error: generic error from AS3

Settings

Settings is where optional deployment parameters are set. See FAST Settings for a list of currently supported optional deployment settings.

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 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for more information.