Lab 2.3 - Route - Blue/Green Testing

The F5 Container Connector supports Blue/Green application testing e.g testing two different versions of the same application, by using the weight parameter of OpenShift Routes. The weight parameter allows you to establish relative ratios between application Blue and application Green. So, for example, if the first route specifies a weight of 20 and the second a weight of 10, the application associated with the first route will get twice the number of requests as the application associated with the second route.

Just as in the previous exercise, the F5 Container Connector reads the Route resource and creates a virtual server, node(s), a pool per route path and pool members.

However, in order to support Blue/Green testing using OpenShift Routes, the Container Connector creates an iRule and a datagroup on the BIG-IP. The iRule handles the connection routing based on the assigned weights.

Note

At smaller request volumes, the ratio of requests to the Blue application and the requests to the Green application may not match the relative weights assigned in the OpenShift Route. However, as the number of requests increases, the ratio of requests between the Blue application and the Green application should closely match the weights assigned in the OpenShift Route.

  1. Deploy version 1 and version 2 of demo application and their associated Services

    From ose-master1, review the following deployment: f5-demo-app-bg-deployment.yaml

      1apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1
  2kind: Deployment
  3metadata:
  4  name: node-blue
  5  namespace: f5demo
  6spec:
  7  replicas: 1
  8  template:
  9    metadata:
 10      labels:
 11        run: node-blue
 12    spec:
 13      containers:
 14      - image: "chen23/f5-demo-app:openshift"
 15        env:
 16        - name: F5DEMO_APP
 17          value: "website"
 18        - name: F5DEMO_NODENAME
 19          value: "Node Blue (No SSL)"
 20        - name: F5DEMO_NODENAME_SSL
 21          value: "Node Blue (SSL)"
 22        - name: F5DEMO_COLOR
 23          value: "0000FF"
 24        - name: F5DEMO_COLOR_SSL
 25          value: "0000FF"
 26        imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
 27        name: node-blue
 28        ports:
 29        - containerPort: 80
 30        - containerPort: 443
 31          protocol: TCP
 32
 33---
 34
 35apiVersion: v1
 36kind: Service
 37metadata:
 38  name: node-blue
 39  labels:
 40    run: node-blue
 41  namespace: f5demo
 42spec:
 43  ports:
 44  - port: 8080
 45    protocol: TCP
 46    targetPort: 8080
 47    name: http
 48  - port: 8443
 49    protocol: TCP
 50    targetPort: 8443
 51    name: https
 52  type: ClusterIP
 53  selector:
 54    run: node-blue
 55
 56---
 57
 58apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1
 59kind: Deployment
 60metadata:
 61  name: node-green
 62  namespace: f5demo
 63spec:
 64  replicas: 1
 65  template:
 66    metadata:
 67      labels:
 68        run: node-green
 69    spec:
 70      containers:
 71      - image: "chen23/f5-demo-app:openshift"
 72        env:
 73        - name: F5DEMO_APP
 74          value: "website"
 75        - name: F5DEMO_NODENAME
 76          value: "Node Green (No SSL)"
 77        - name: F5DEMO_COLOR
 78          value: "99FF99"
 79        - name: F5DEMO_NODENAME_SSL
 80          value: "Node Green (SSL)"
 81        - name: F5DEMO_COLOR_SSL
 82          value: "00FF00"
 83        imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
 84        name: node-green
 85        ports:
 86        - containerPort: 80
 87        - containerPort: 443
 88          protocol: TCP
 89
 90---
 91
 92apiVersion: v1
 93kind: Service
 94metadata:
 95  name: node-green
 96  labels:
 97    run: node-green
 98spec:
 99  ports:
100  - port: 8080
101    protocol: TCP
102    targetPort: 8080
103    name: http
104  type: ClusterIP
105  selector:
106    run: node-green

    Now that you have reviewed the Deployment, you need to actually create it by deploying it to OpenShift by using the oc create command:

    oc create -f f5-demo-app-bg-deployment.yaml -n f5demo

  2. Create OpenShift Route for Blue/Green Testing

    The basic Route example from the previous exercise only included one path. In order to support Blue/Green application testing, a Route must be created that has two paths. In OpenShift, the second (and subsequent) path is defined in the alternateBackends section of a Route resource.

    From ose-master1, review the following Route: f5-demo-app-bg-route.yaml

     1apiVersion: v1
 2kind: Route
 3metadata:
 4  labels:
 5    name: f5-demo-app-bg-route
 6  name: f5-demo-app-bg-route
 7  namespace: f5demo
 8  annotations:
 9    # Specify a supported BIG-IP load balancing mode
10    virtual-server.f5.com/balance: least-connections-node
11    virtual-server.f5.com/health: |
12      [
13        {
14          "path": "mysite-bg.f5demo.com/",
15          "send": "HTTP GET /",
16          "interval": 5,
17          "timeout": 10
18        }
19      ]
20spec:
21  host: mysite-bg.f5demo.com
22  port:
23    targetPort: 8080
24  to:
25    kind: Service
26    name: node-blue
27    weight: 20
28  alternateBackends:
29  - kind: Service
30    name: node-green
31    weight: 10

    Note

    How the Route resource refers to two different services: The first service is for the Blue application with a weight of 20 and the second service is for the Green application with a weight of 10.

    Attention

    Knowledge Check: How many requests will the **Blue* application receive relative to the Green application?*

    Now that you have reviewed the Route, you need to actually create it by deploying it to OpenShift by using the oc create command:

    oc create -f f5-demo-app-bg-route.yaml

    Verify that the Route was successfully creating by using the OpenShift oc get route command. Note that, under the SERVICES column, the two applications are listed along with their request distribution percentages.

    oc get route -n f5demo
    ../../../_images/oc-get-route.png

    Attention

    Knowledge Check: What would the Route percentages be if the weights were 10 and 40?

  3. Review BIG-IP configuration. Examine the BIG-IP configuration for changes made by the Container Connector after the the OpenShift Route was deployed.

    Using the Chrome web browser, navigate to Local Traffic ‣ Pools ‣ Pool List and change the partition to ocp using the dropdown in the upper right.

    ../../../_images/bigip01-route-bg-pool.png

    Note

    There are two pools defined: one pool for the Blue application and a second pool for the Green application. Additionally, the Container Connector also creates an iRule and a datagroup that the BIG-IP uses to distribute traffic based on the weights assigned in the OpenShift Route.

  4. Test the application. Use the Chrome browser to access blue and green applications you previously deployed.

    Because the Route resource you created specifies a hostname for the path, you will need to use a hostname instead of an IP address to access the demo application. Open a new browser tab and enter the hostname http://mysite-bg.f5demo.com in to the address bar

    Refresh the browser periodically and you should see the web page change from the Blue application to the Green application and back to the Blue application as noted by the colors on the page.

    ../../../_images/f5-demo-app-blue.png ../../../_images/f5-demo-app-green.png

  5. Generate some request traffic. Use the Linux curl utility to send a large volume of requests to the application.

    As the number of requests increases, the relative number of requests between the Blue application and the Green application begins to approach the weights that have been defined in the OpenShift Route.

    From the ose-master1 server, run the following command to make 1000 requests to the application:

    for i in {1..1000}; do curl -s -o /dev/null http://mysite-bg.f5demo.com; done

  6. Review the BIG-IP configuration

    In the previous step, you used the curl utility to generate a large volume of requests. In this step, you will review the BIG-IP pool statistics to see how the requests were distributed between the Blue application and the Green application.

    Using the Chrome web browser, navigate to Local Traffic ‣ Pools ‣ Statistics and change the partition to ocp using the dropdown in the upper right.

    ../../../_images/bigip-blue-green-pool-stats.png

  7. Cleanup deployed resources. Remove the Deployment, Service and Route resources you created in the previous steps using the OpenShift oc delete command.

    From ose-master1 server, run the following commands:

    oc delete -f f5-demo-app-bg-route.yaml -n f5demo
oc delete -f f5-demo-app-bg-deployment.yaml -n f5demo