Lab 1.1: Setup a device template

The first thing to setup to be able to deploy Service Scaling Group (SSG) is to setup a device template

A device template contains all the configuration items that should be pushed on a newly provisioned F5 Virtual edition:

• Hostname (prefix/Serial Number/suffix)
• Default route (if you don’t use DHCP)
• Management port (may vary if you use VMWare - 443 - or AWS - 8443 -)
• License
• Modules to provision
• VLANs
• Self-IPs
• User accounts

In this lab, we will create a device template that will be used for our SSG

License Pool Setup

Your BIG-IQ should already have a license pool setup.

Connect to your BIG-IQ (as admin)and go to : Devices > License Management > Licenses

Here you should see a license pool called byol-pool

IP Pools Setup

When you provision dynamically new F5 virtual edition, you need to be able to automatically assign Self IPs to this instance. To do that, we will rely on the IP Pool feature of BIG-IQ

For our lab, we will need two IP pools:

• One for the network between Tier1 (Service Scaler) and Tier2 (SSG)
• One for the servers network

Go to Devices > IP POOLS, you should see two already defined IP Pool:

• external
• internal

Device Template Setup

To create your Device Template, go to Devices > Device Templates and click on Create

you should see this:

Click on the button Add/remove to select the configuration items you want to enforce when deploying a new F5 virtual edition in your SSG

Here, for the Provider Type, select VMWare. It will automatically select all the required information related to a VMWare environment (in regards to Using Service Scaling Group)

Note

The Provider selection has been moved to Template Properties section in the device template.

Click OK. You’ll see new tabs under the Objects column.

In the Name field, specify your Device Template name: SSGSetupClass2

Click on the configuration tab , DO NOT CLICK SAVE YET or you’ll lose the unconfigured tabs

Setup the configuration tab like this:

• Hostname Components:
  • Default Route: LEAVE EMPTY
  • Management port: 443
  • Check Text (prefix) and put: SSGClass2-
  • Check Serial Number
  • Check Text (suffix) and put: .f5demo.local

Click on the License tab and setup the following:

• License Type : Select Purchased Pool
• License Name: Select byol-pool

Click on the Provisioning tab,

• Select the module Local Traffic Manager (LTM) and set it to Nominal
• Select the module Application Visibility and Reporting and set it to Minimum
• Select the module Application Security (ASM) and set it to Nominal

Click on the DNS & NTP tab and setup the following:

• Lookup Servers: 8.8.4.4
• NTP Server: pool.ntp.org
• Timezone: America/Los_Angeles

Note

IP Pool can be used for the management IP. See BIG-IQ documentation for more information (the VM template need some pre-work).

Click on the Management IP tab and setup the following:

• IP Address: DHCP

Click on the VLANs tab. You should see a vlan defined by default: external.

Note

When you create/update a VLAN, you’ll see the interface 1.1 being pre-populated. In fact, it is showed as an example. You need to type the interface yourself -ie 1.1 / 1.2 / …

Click on the Add button:

• Name: internal
• Tag: EMPTY
• Interface: 1.2

Click on the Save and Close button. Click on the external vlan and assign the interface 1.1 to it.

Click on the Self IP’s tab. You should see a Self IP defined called external. Click on the Add button:

• Name: internal
• IP Address: IP Pool > Select internal
• VLAN: internal
• Port lockdown: Allow None

Click on the Save and Close button. Click on the external self ip to set it up

• Name: external
• IP Address: IP Pool > Select external
• VLAN: external
• Port lockdown: Allow None

Note

The external self IP is important because this is the self IP we will use to LB traffic between our tier1 (Service Scaler) and tier2 BIG-IPs (SSG). You need to use it as is. if you don’t use a external self IP on your tier2 device, BIG-IQ won’t know which interface to use

Click on the Root Account tab. Specify a new password for the root account: purple

Click on the User Accounts tab. You will see the admin user. Click on the Admin user.

• Role: select Administrator
• Username: admin
• Password: u7BnD@4f5
• Confirm Password: u7BnD@4f5

Click on the button Save & Close, Click on the button Save & Close again

You should see your Device Template available now.