Exercise 3.1: Operational Change with AS3

Objective

Demonstrate changing an existing Web Application AS3 template. There is a problem with the existing template, the serviceMain is showing red. What is wrong?

Guide

Step 1:

Figure out what is wrong. Login to the F5 with your web browser to see what was configured.

1. Click on ServiceMain to see why its down.
2. Look at the Availability field in the table.

pool-nodes-down.png

3. Click on the Pools under Local Traffic
4. Click on app_pool
5. Click on the Members button

443

The port 443 is incorrect. The two RHEL web servers are only running on port 80. This is why they are showing down.

Step 2:

Using your text editor of choice open the existing jinja template as3_template.j2:

vim and nano are available on the control node. The Ansible node is equiped with Visual Studio Code and can be accessed via UDF ACCESS Methods.

Step 3:

Find where the port 443 is and modify it to port 80.

The line looks as follows->

"servicePort": 443,

change it to->

"servicePort": 80,

Step 4

Run the playbook - exit back into the command line of the control host and execute the following:

[centos@ansible ~]$ ansible-playbook as3.yml

Playbook Output

The output will look as follows.

[centos@ansible ~]$ ansible-playbook as3.yml

PLAY [Linklight AS3] ***********************************************************

TASK [Create AS3 JSON Body] ****************************************************
ok: [f5]

TASK [Push AS3] ****************************************************************
ok: [f5 -> localhost]

PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
f5                         : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0

Solution

The fixed Jinja template is provided here for an Answer key. Click here: as3_template.j2.

Verifying the Solution

Login to the F5 with your web browser to see what was configured. Grab the IP information for the F5 load balancer from the lab_inventory/hosts file, and type it in like so: https://X.X.X.X:8443/

f5 gui as3

1. Click on the Local Traffic on the lefthand menu
2. Click on Virtual Servers.
3. On the top right, click on the drop down menu titled Partition and select WorkshopExample
4. The Virtual Server serviceMain will be displayed.
5. This time it will be Green (Available (Enabled) - The virtual server is available)
6. Verify under Pools for app_pool that both web servers are set to port 80 for their service_port

Note

In your environment, go to the f5 component and use the HTTP Virtual Server Test access method to test.

You have finished this exercise. Click here to return to the lab guide