A&O Toolchain: BIG-IP HA in Public Cloud with Terraform (Agility Labs 2023)

Note

This lab relies on UDF Blueprint: Agility 2023 - A&O BIG-IP HA in Public Cloud with Terraform

The code provided for this lab was tested with BIG-IP 17.1.0.1.

This is an intermediate level instructor-led class.

The instructor will present content that relates to concepts used in the accompanying hands-on lab portion of the class (detailed in this lab guide).

In this lab, you will learn how to perform the following:

• Provision a pair of BIG-IP VE instances in AWS using Terraform
• Onboard BIG-IP instances with F5 Automation Toolchain components - BIG-IP Runtime-init, Declarative Onboarding (DO) extension
• Deploy a sample application with the F5 Application Services 3 (AS3) extension
• Deploy the F5 Telemetry Streaming (TS) extension for Amazon CloudWatch integration
• Deploy and test API-based BIG-IP failover with the F5 Cloud Failover Extension (CFE)
• Deploy and test LB-based BIG-IP failover with AWS Network Load Balancer
• Remove deployed AWS resources with Terraform

Expected time to complete: 4 hours

Pre-requisite: None. A basic understanding of traditional (non-cloud) BIG-IP HA configuration would be valuable, but not required.

CONTENTS

• 1. Lab Environment Access and Initial Setup
  • 1.1. Access the Jump Host
  • 1.2. Access the AWS Console
  • 1.3. Subscribe to EC2 Instances
  • 1.4. Download the Lab Files and Setup Environment
• 2. Automating BIG-IP Provisioning with Terraform
  • 2.1. What is Terraform?
  • 2.2. Lab Scenario
  • 2.3. Review the Terraform Configuration Files
  • 2.4. Deploy the Terraform Configuration
  • 2.5. Review the Deployment in AWS Console
  • 2.6. Verify the BIG-IP Configurations
  • 2.7. Check Status of F5 Automation Toolchain Extensions
• 3. App Deployment with Application Services 3 Extension (AS3)
  • 3.1. Lab Scenario
  • 3.2. F5 Extensions for VS Code
  • 3.3. Managing Devices with F5 VS Code Extension
  • 3.4. Deploy AS3 declarations with F5 VS Code Extension
  • 3.5. Convert an existing config to AS3 using the F5 VS Code Extension
• 4. HA Failover via Cloud Failover Extension (CFE)
  • 4.1. What is the F5 Cloud Failover Extension?
  • 4.2. Lab Scenario
  • 4.3. BIG-IP CFE and AWS Resource Tag Dependencies
  • 4.4. Deploy CFE Configuration
  • 4.5. Test HA failover
  • 4.6. Remove CFE configuration
• 5. HA Failover via Cloud Load Balancer
  • 5.1. Lab Scenario
  • 5.2. Convert BIG-IPs to Active-Active
  • 5.3. AWS Network Load Balancer
  • 5.4. Test HA Failover
• 6. F5 Analytics Integration with AWS
  • 6.1. What is F5 Telemetry Streaming?
  • 6.2. Lab Scenario
  • 6.3. Verify installation of F5 Telemetry Streaming
  • 6.4. Review Telemetry Streaming Declaration
  • 6.5. Deploy Telemetry Streaming Configuration
  • 6.6. Review Telemetry Streaming Logs in the AWS Console Using CloudWatch
• 7. Deleting the Deployment
  • 7.1. Delete the AWS Deployment (Terraform)
• 8. Conclusion
• 9. Related Labs
• 10. Contributors
• 11. Revision History
• 12. Lab Guide Repository (GitHub)
• 13. END OF LAB