Create a Virtual Server on Big-IP VE the Old Fashioned Way

1. From the Linux terminal tab with the ssh session open to the Super-NetOps Docker container:

terraform output

…Note both the Bigip1subnet1Az1SelfEipAddress and BigipUrl values.

2. Big-IP Virtual Edition appliances deployed to public cloud are initially accessible only via ssh key. You have to create an admin account and password before you can configure this Big-IP from the Configuration utility (Web UI). Run the reset-password script to create an admin account.

Attention

Replace x.x.x.x with the terraform output value of Bigip1subnet1Az1SelfEipAddress. Take a close look at the example screenshot.

reset-password x.x.x.x

3. Note the BigipURL value. Copy and paste into a web browser. Be mindful of HTTPS: port 8443 for management!

Attention

This lab makes use of insecure self-signed certificates. Bypass the warnings by clicking on “Confirm Security Exception”.

4. Login to your F5 Big-IP VE running in AWS. Username: admin and Password: the value of shortUrl for your class.

5. From the Super-NetOps terminal:

terraform output

…Note the Bigip1ExternalInterfacePrivateIp value and both web-server-# values. Bigip1ExternalInterfacePrivateIp will be the IP address of your virtual server on the Big-IP VE and the web-server-#’s will be the pool members.

6. From the Big-IP Configuration utility (Web UI), navigate to Local Traffic => Virtual Servers => Create new virtual server.

Parameter	value
Name	app1
Destination Address/Mask	terraform output value of Bigip1ExternalInterfacePrivateIp
Service Port	443 / HTTPS
HTTP Profile	http
SSL Profile (Client)	clientssl-secure
Source Address Translation	Auto Map
Default Pool	+ to create pool1

Parameter	value
Name	pool1
Health Monitors	http
New Members	terraform output values of web-server-1 and web-server-2
Service Port	80 / HTTP

Click Finished to complete the creation of Pool pool1.

Click Finished to complete the creation of Virtual Server app1.

7. From the Linux terminal tab with the ssh session open to the Super-NetOps docker container:

terraform output

…Note the BigipUrl value. HTTPS to the BigipUrl without explicit port number (default 443). Your Big-IP is protecting traffic to/from our sample application.

Single NIC / Single-IP deployments work well in public cloud topologies. In this lab, we connected to the Big-IP over a single IP address to:

1. ssh on tcp port 22 to create an admin account
2. https on tcp port 8443 for config management
3. https on tcp 443 to process traffic