F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management Lab > BIG-IQ Test Drive Labs Source | Edit on

Lab 2.12: AS3 Application Creation using GitLab CI/CD pipeline, Ansible and BIG-IQ¶

Note

Estimated time to complete: 25 minutes

In this lab, we are going to use GitLab to store the BIG-IP configuration (AS3 declaration) and deploy it through BIG-IQ to BIG-IP using Ansible.

We are leveraging a CI/CD pipeline in GitLab in order to make changes on the BIG-IP device.

Ansible is an open-source software provisioning, configuration management, and application-deployment tool enabling infrastructure as code.

GitLab is a web-based DevOps lifecycle tool that provides a Git-repository manager providing wiki, issue-tracking and continuous integration and deployment pipeline features.

GitLab will keep track of the changes and control user access to the application service configuration of the F5 BIG-IP. We are using BIG-IQ to provide visibility with enhanced analytics (HTTP/TCP) to the DevOps/Application owner.

This lab will be using the following F5 Ansible Galaxy roles:

atc_deploy ansible Role: Allows AS3 declaration to be sent to automation tool chain service.
bigiq_move_app_dashboard ansible Role: Move Application Service(s) in BIG-IQ Application Dashboard.

Lab environment access¶

If you have not yet visited the page Getting Started, please do so.

Workflow¶

Start GitLab and create new a project
Clone gitlab project and deploy AS3 HTTP application service to a BIG-IP through BIG-IQ
Infrastructure as code: add a new pool member to the AS3 app service through GitLab

Start GitLab and create new a project¶

Connect via SSH or Web Shell to the system Ubuntu Lamp Server. (if you use the Web Shell, login as f5student first: su - f5student).
Execute the following commands:
```
./gitlab/start-gitlab.sh
```
Wait ~10 min to open GitLab web UI from the lab environment. Click on the ACCESS button of the Ubuntu Lamp Server system and click on GitLab. The login/password is root/purple123. Or open http://localhost:7002 from Google Chrome browser in the Jumphost.

Note

You can check GitLab status with docker exec gitlab_gitlab_1 gitlab-ctl status and GitLab logs with docker logs gitlab_gitlab_1.

Click on the GitLab button on the system Ubuntu Lamp Server in the lab environment. Create a new project and name it mywebapp.

Select Initialize repository with a README.

Copy the Jumphost Ubuntu Lamp Server ssh public key:
```
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
```
Back in GitLab, click on Add SSH Key.

Paste the public key and click om Add Key.

Let’s now configure the gitlab runner with this project. This runner will be used to trigger pipelines when a commit is done on the project and allow us to automatically trigger a set of tasks.

First Let’s open your project, click Your Projects.

Click on mywebapp.

Navigate the CI/CD option copy the token value.

Click on Settings > CI/CD.

Find and expand the Runner section.

Finally copy the token value.

Back in the Linux Jumphost, run the following command to register the gitlab runner using the token value:
```
./gitlab/gitlab-runner-register.sh <token>
```
In GitLab, confirm the GitLab runner is correctly attached to your project. Navigate to the same location where you copy the token.

Clone gitlab project and deploy AS3 HTTP application service to a BIG-IP through BIG-IQ¶

From the Linux Jumphost, clone the repository:

git clone ssh://git@localhost:7022/root/mywebapp.git

Or order to be able to commit and push changes, we will need to configure the user email and name in git:
```
git config --global user.email "admin@example.com"
git config --global user.name "root"
```

Copy the lab files into the mywebapp repository:

cd mywebapp
cp -r ~/gitlab/lab1/* ~/gitlab/lab1/.gitlab-ci.yml .
ls -la
ls -l as3

This folder contains:

.gitlab-ci.yml: pipeline definition
hosts: ansible host file with BIG-IQ access information
bigiq_as3_deploy.yml: ansible playbook to deploy the AS3 application services
as3/my_http_app_service1.json: AS3 declaration defining HTTP application service load balancer

You can look at each file on the lab GitHub repository.

Add and commit the new files to the mywebapp repository:

git status
git add .
git status
git commit -m "Add .gitlab-ci.yml, Ansible playbook, host file and AS3 declaration"
git status

Push the changes to gitlab:
```
git push origin master
```
Back in gitlab, navigate under jobs and click on the running jobs, display output.

Follow the execution of the job and wait for it to end.

Login on BIG-IQ as david, go to Applications tab, under``LAB_gitlab`` Application, check the application is there and analytics are showing.

Warning

Starting 7.0, BIG-IQ displays AS3 application services created using the AS3 Declare API as Unknown Applications. You can move those application services using the GUI, the Move/Merge API, bigiq_move_app_dashboard F5 Ansible Galaxy role or create it directly into Application in BIG-IQ using the Deploy API to define the BIG-IQ Application name.

Infrastructure as code: add a new pool member to the AS3 app service through GitLab¶

Now, let’s add a new pool member to our HTTP application service. Edit the file as3/my_http_app_service1.json:
```
vi as3/my_http_app_service1.json
```

Add the pool member 10.1.20.111 as showing below:

"members": [
{
   "servicePort": 80,
   "serverAddresses": [
   "10.1.20.110",
   "10.1.20.111"
   ],
   "shareNodes": true
}

Note

How to Use the vi Editor

Commit and push the changes:

git add as3/my_http_app_service1.json
git commit -m "Add new pool member 10.1.20.111"
git status
git push origin master

Back in gitlab, navigate under jobs and click on the running jobs, display output.

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