Module 1: Working with BIG-IP HA Pairs or Device Groups

Each Container Connector is uniquely suited to its specific container orchestration environment and purpose, utilizing the architecture and language appropriate for the environment. Application Developers interact with the platform’s API; the CCs watch the API for certain events, then act accordingly.

The Container Connector is stateless (Stateless means there is no record of previous interactions and each interaction request has to be handled based entirely on information that comes with it). The inputs are:

• the container orchestration environment’s config
• the BIG-IP device config
• the CC config (provided via the appropriate means from the container orchestration environment).

Wherever a Container Connector runs, it always watches the API and attempts to bring the BIG-IP up-to-date with the latest applicable configurations.

You can use the F5 Container Connectors (also called F5 BIG-IP Controller) to manage a BIG-IP HA active-standby pair or device group. The deployment details vary depending on the platform. For most, the basic principle is the same: You should run one BIG-IP Controller instance for each BIG-IP device. You will deploy two BIG-IP Controller instances - one for each BIG-IP device. To help ensure Controller HA, you will deploy each Controller instance on a separate Node in the cluster.

Warning

If Class 4 was previously attempted be sure to remove the objects created before attempting this lab. See Class 4 / Module 2 / Lab 2.2 - F5 Container Connector Usage and scroll down to bottom of the page for instructions.

• Lab 1.1 - Initial BIG-IP HA Setup
• Lab 1.2 - Configure VXLAN (OpenShift and Big-IP)
• Lab 1.3 - F5 Container Connector Setup
• Lab 1.4 - F5 Container Connector Usage