F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management Lab > BIG-IQ All Labs > Class 1: BIG-IQ Application Management and AS3 Source | Edit on
Module 2: BIG-IQ Application Templates & Deployment with AS3 using the API¶
Overview¶
In this module we will explore how to use F5’s AS3 extension with BIG-IQ.
Application Services 3 Extension (referred to as AS3 Extension or more often simply AS3) is a flexible, low-overhead mechanism for managing application-specific configurations on a BIG-IP system. AS3 uses a declarative model, meaning you provide a JSON declaration rather than a set of imperative commands.
The declaration represents the configuration which AS3 is responsible for creating on a BIG-IP system. AS3 is well-defined according to the rules of JSON Schema, and declarations validate according to JSON Schema. AS3 accepts declaration updates via REST (push), reference (pull), or CLI (flat file editing).
BIG-IQ is a a key component of F5 BIG-IP Cloud Edition™. This new solution provides DevOps and application teams with self-service management of F5 application services, along with per-app manageability and analytics.
While working through this module we will be focusing on L4-L7 deployments (Virtual Servers, Pools, etc).
- AS3 documentation on BIG-IQ integration with AS3
- How to Use BIG-IQ and Ansible to Build Advanced BIG-IP Automation Workflows
Layer 4-7 Application Service Delivery¶
L4-7 Application Service Delivery is accomplished by:
- Providing templates within BIG-IQ as a Service Catalog. With BIG-IQ, you will have access to the traditional templates provided with BIG-IQ but you’ll be able to create new kind of templates to consume AS3.
Note
Moving forward, BIG-IQ will invest on AS3 Templates more than on existing BIG-IQ templates.
- Utilizing BIG-IQ’s Role Based Access Control (RBAC) to divide workloads based on user functions.
The labs in the module will focus on the high level features in place to achieve full L4-7 automation.
In this Module, we will provision BIG-IQ to deploy and modify the AS3 declarations.
The focus of Module 2 was to demonstrate application deployment directly to the BIG-IP. BIG-IQ will allow the administrator to restrict access an interface and API for users based on their current role within the organization.
For example, in Module 2, we pushed AS3 declarations, updated pool members, and provided the user access to modify the full AS3 declaration. This approach would provide each user the same administrative priviledges and may not scale within organizations with separate user functions.
To solve this problem, BIG-IQ allows the administrator to create Templates which can provide further Abstraction of the AS3 declarations. The administrator can enforce specific Tenants or parameters to be used based on the user running the template. This abstraction allows the templates to be integrated directly into the relevant CI/CD toolchains and workflows.
- Lab 2.1: Application Creation using AS3 through BIG-IQ
- Lab 2.2: Modify Tenant/Application using AS3
- Lab 2.3: Deploying AS3 Templates on BIG-IQ
- Lab 2.4: Delete AS3 Tenant/Applications on BIG-IQ
- Lab 2.5: FQDN and Service Discovery
- Lab 2.6: Enable/Disable Enhanced Analytics via API for AS3 apps on BIG-IQ
- Lab 2.7: Perform lab 1, 2 and 4 using Ansible
- Lab 2.8: AS3 Application Creation using AWX/Ansible Tower and BIG-IQ
- Lab 2.9: AS3 Application Service deployment from Visual Studio Code using BIG-IQ
- Lab 2.10: Moving existing AS3 Application Services from BIG-IP to BIG-IQ
- Lab 2.11: Create and deploy a SSL Certificate & Key from Venafi with BIG-IQ and AS3 using Ansible
- Lab 2.12: AS3 Application Creation using GitLab CI/CD pipeline, Ansible and BIG-IQ
- Lab 2.13: Migrate AS3 application service(s) with its referenced objects from a BIG-IP to another BIG-IP
- Lab 2.14: Application Creation using AS3 with shared objects through BIG-IQ (new 8.0)