Class 7: Dude Where's My Services: Introduction to Service Discovery with Consul

During this lab you will make use of Terraform to deploy a BIG-IP, Consul Server, and NGINX nodes.

Once these devices are deployed you will use Terraform to install AS3 onto the BIG-IP and deploy an AS3 declaration to use Consul for Service Discovery to create a pool of the NGINX nodes.

You will then modify the Auto-Scale group of NGINX nodes to observe how Consul get detect the new NGINX nodes and the BIG-IP will also be updated.

Steps You will Peform

  1. Connect to AWS Console
  2. Use Terraform to deploy AWS infrastructure, Consul, NGINX, and BIG-IP instances
  3. Use Terraform to install AS3 on BIG-IP and deploy AS3 configuration
  4. Observe that AS3 is deployed and using Consul to detect location of NGINX instances
  5. Use AWS autoscale to increase the number of NGINX instances and observe that Consul and BIG-IP detect the increase in NGINX instances automatically

Terms Used in this Lab

About Terraform

Terraform is an automation tool from HashiCorp that can be used to automate and stardize infrastructure deployments.

About Consul

Consul is software created by HashiCorp that provides service discovery of infrastructure. Typically it makes use of a Consul agent that will register services with the Consul server. This allows mutable infrastructure that can scale-out/in and always be identified at the correct location (IP address).

About BIG-IP

F5 BIG-IP is a platform that can provide many high-availibility, security, and telemetry services in a reverse-proxy.

About AS3

Application Services Extension 3 (AS3) provides a declarative interface to the BIG-IP that enables ecosystem partners like HashiCorp to easily integrate with BIG-IP solutions.

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