Planning for VELOS Guide Source |
Deploying a Tenant¶
Tenant Image Types¶
Tenant images for F5OS are available on downloads.f5.com. VELOS allows different packaging options for tenant images. It will be up to administrators to choose the image that is best suited for their environment. The main differences between the image types will be how much space they can consume on disk, and whether or not they allow in place upgrades. VELOS only supports specific TMOS releases (currently 14.1.4 and later, and 15.1.4 and later). There is no plan to support v16.0, 16.1, or 17.0 tenants, and the next targeted tenant release will be v17.1. Tenant images for VELOS can be found on downloads.f5.com.
Choose either 14.x or v15.x BIG-IP version, to get access to the F5OS supported tenant images. Ensure you choose the option that is labeled specifically for F5OS Tenant. As an example, 15.1.5_Tenant-F5OS:
There are 4 different types of tenant images to choose from (ALL, T1, T2, T4) as seen below; please read the rest of this section to determine the best image type for your environment:
The T1-F5OS image type should be used with extreme caution. It is the smallest of the image sizes, but it only has one slot/volume for TMOS software, meaning it does not support upgrades (not even for hotfixes). This type of image is geared toward more modern environments where pave and nuke strategies are preferred over in-place upgrades.
The remaining images (T2, ALL, T4) all support in place upgrades; however, they may limit the amount of disk space that can be used by the tenant. If more disk space is needed by the tenant in the future, the tenant can be moved to provisioned state and the disk can be expanded. There is no ability to decrease the disk space, so starting smaller and increasing will ensure there is adequate disk space for many tenants.
The T2-F5OS image is intended for a tenant that will run LTM and / or DNS only; it is not suitable for tenants needing other modules provisioned (AVR may be an exception). This type of image is best suited in a high density tenant environment where the number of tenants is going to be high per blade and using minimum CPU resources (1 or 2 vCPUs per tenant). You may want to limit the amount of disk space each tenant can use as a means of ensuring the file system on the blade does not become full. As an example, there is 1TB of disk per blade, and 22 tenants each using the 142GB T4 image would lead to an over provisioning situation. Because tenants are deployed in sparse mode which allows over provisioning, this may not be an issue initially, but could become a problem later in the tenant’s lifespan as it writes more data to disk. To keep the tenants in check, you can deploy smaller T2 images, which can consume 45GB each. LTM/DNS deployments use much less disk than other BIG-IP modules, which do extensive local logging and utilize databases on disk.
The All-F5OS image is suitable for any module configuration and supports a maximum of 76GB for the tenant. It is expected that the number of tenants per blade would be much less, as the module combinations that drive the need for more disk space typically require more CPU/memory, which will artificially reduce the tenant count per blade. Having a handful of 76GB or 156GB images per blade should not lead to an out of space condition. There are some environments where some tenants may need more disk space and the T4 image can provide for that. It may be best to default to using the T4 image as that is essentially the default size for vCMP deployments today.
The T4-VELOS image also supports any module combination but has additional disk capacity. If you intend to have a lot of software images, databases for modules, run modules like SWG which utilize a lot of disk, and local logging, then the added capacity is recommended. More detail on the image types can be found in the following solution article.
https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K45191957
Note that the image sizes in the chart are the maximum amount of space a tenant could use, not necessarily what it will consume on the physical disk. VELOS tenants are deployed in sparse mode on the file system when they are created. That means that a tenant may think it has a certain amount of disk space, but in reality, most of the space that is unused is zeroed-out and not consuming any space on the disk.
This means the disk consumption on the chassis partition disk is actually much smaller than what appears inside the tenant. In the example below the tenant believes it has 77GB of disk allocated:
However, the 76GB image is allocated in a sparse manner meaning the tenant is only utilizing what it needs, and on the file system of the blade it is actually consuming only 11GB on the disk:
This is analogous to thin provisioning in a hypervisor, where you can over-allocate resources. vCMP as an example today uses an image similar in size to the T4 image. There may be rare instances where a tenant running in production for a long time can end up with lots of extra space consumed on disk. This could be due to many in-place software upgrades, local logging, core files, database use etc…There is no utility available to reclaim that space that may have been used at one point but is no longer used. If the disk utilization becomes over-utilized, you could back up the tenant configuration, create a new fresh tenant, and restore the configuration from the old tenant, and then delete the old tenant. This would free up all the unused space again.
Tenant Deployment via CLI¶
Tenant lifecycle can be fully managed via the CLI using the tenants command in config mode. Using command tab completion and question marks will help display all the tenant options. Enter config mode and enter the command tenants tenant <tenant-name> where <tenant-name> is the name of the tenant you would like to create. This will put you into a mode for that tenant and you will be prompted for some basic information to create the tenant via a CLI wizard. After answering basic information, you may configure additional tenant parameters by entering config ? within the tenant mode, that will provide all the available options:
Production-1(config)# tenants tenant tenant2
Value for 'config image' (<string>): BIGIP-14.1.4-0.0.619.ALL-VELOS.qcow2.zip.bundle
Value for 'config mgmt-ip' (<IPv4 address>): 10.255.0.205
Value for 'config prefix-length' (<unsignedByte, 1 .. 32>): 24
Value for 'config gateway' (<IPv4 address>): 10.255.0.1
When you are inside the tenant mode you can enter each configuration item one line at a time using tab completion and question mark for help.
Production-1# config
Entering configuration mode terminal
Production-1(config)# tenants tenant tenant2
Production-1(config-tenant-tenant2)# config ?
Possible completions:
appliance-mode
cryptos Enable crypto devices for the tenant.
gateway User-specified gateway for the tenant mgmt-ip.
image User-specified image for tenant.
memory User-specified memory in MBs for the tenant.
mgmt-ip User-specified mgmt-ip for the tenant management access.
nodes User-specified node-number(s) in the partition to schedule the tenant.
prefix-length User-specified prefix-length for the tenant mgmt-ip.
running-state User-specified desired state for the tenant.
storage User-specified storage information
tenant-auth-support Security can be enabled/disabled when tenant is Not in deployed state.
type Tenant type.
vcpu-cores-per-node User-specified number of logical cpu cores for the tenant.
vlans User-specified vlan-id from partition vlan table for the tenant.
Production-1(config-tenant-tenant2)# config cryptos enabled
Production-1(config-tenant-tenant2)# config vcpu-cores-per-node 4
Production-1(config-tenant-tenant2)# config type BIG-IP
Production-1(config-tenant-tenant2)# config nodes 2
Production-1(config-tenant-tenant2)# config vlans 444
Production-1(config-tenant-tenant2)# config vlans 500
Production-1(config-tenant-tenant2)# config vlans 555
Production-1(config-tenant-tenant3)# config storage size 76
Production-1(config-tenant-tenant2)# config running-state deployed
Production-1(config-tenant-tenant2)# config memory 14848
Any changes must be committed for them to be executed:
Production-1(config-tenant-tenant2)# commit
You may also put all the parameters on one line:
Production-1(config)# tenants tenant tenant2 config image BIGIP-14.1.4-0.0.619.ALL-VELOS.qcow2.zip.bundle vcpu-cores-per-node 2 nodes [ 1 2 ] vlans [ 2001 3001 ] mgmt-ip 10.144.140.107 prefix-length 24 gateway 10.144.140.254 name cbip3 running-state configured
Production-1 (tenant2)# commit
Commit complete.
After the tenant is created you can run the command show running-config tenant to see what has been configured:
Production-1# show run tenant
tenants tenant bigtenant
config name bigtenant
config type BIG-IP
config image BIGIP-14.1.4-0.0.619.ALL-VELOS.qcow2.zip.bundle
config nodes [ 1 2 ]
config mgmt-ip 10.255.0.149
config prefix-length 24
config gateway 10.255.0.1
config vlans [ 444 500 555 ]
config cryptos enabled
config vcpu-cores-per-node 6
config memory 22016
config running-state deployed
config appliance-mode disabled
!
To see the actual status of the tenants, issue the CLI command show tenants.
Production-1# show tenants
tenants tenant bigtenant
state name bigtenant
state type BIG-IP
state mgmt-ip 10.255.0.149
state prefix-length 24
state gateway 10.255.0.1
state vlans [ 444 500 555 ]
state cryptos enabled
state vcpu-cores-per-node 6
state memory 22016
state running-state deployed
state mac-data base-mac 00:94:a1:8e:d0:0b
state mac-data mac-pool-size 1
state appliance-mode disabled
state status Running
state primary-slot 1
state image-version "BIG-IP 14.1.4 0.0.619"
NDI MAC
----------------------------
default 00:94:a1:8e:d0:09
INSTANCE
NODE ID PHASE IMAGE NAME CREATION TIME READY TIME STATUS MGMT MAC
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 1 Running BIGIP-14.1.4-0.0.619.ALL-VELOS.qcow2.zip.bundle 2021-01-15T17:15:03Z 2021-01-15T17:15:00Z Started tenant instance 0a:27:45:20:90:c4
2 2 Running BIGIP-14.1.4-0.0.619.ALL-VELOS.qcow2.zip.bundle 2021-01-15T17:15:03Z 2021-01-15T17:14:59Z Started tenant instance 52:02:73:bf:ee:ac
tenants tenant tenant2
state name tenant2
state type BIG-IP
state mgmt-ip 10.255.0.205
state prefix-length 24
state gateway 10.255.0.1
state vlans [ 444 500 555 ]
state cryptos enabled
state vcpu-cores-per-node 4
state memory 14848
state running-state deployed
state mac-data base-mac 00:94:a1:8e:d0:0d
state mac-data mac-pool-size 1
state appliance-mode disabled
state status Starting
NDI MAC
----------------------------
default 00:94:a1:8e:d0:0e
INSTANCE CREATION READY MGMT
NODE ID PHASE IMAGE NAME TIME TIME STATUS MAC
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 2 Allocating resources to tenant is in progress BIGIP-14.1.4-0.0.619.ALL-VELOS.qcow2.zip.bundle -
Tenant Deployment via webUI¶
Uploading a Tenant Image¶
You can upload a tenant image via the webUI in two different places. The first is by going to the Tenant Management > Tenant Images page. Click the Add button and you will receive a pop-up asking for the URL of a remote HTTPS server with optional credentials, and the ability to ignore certificate warnings. There is also an option to upload directly from a computer via the browser using the Upload option.
After the image is uploaded you need to wait until it shows Replicated status before deploying a tenant.
Alternatively, you can upload from the System Settings > File Utilities page.
Creating a Tenant¶
You can deploy a tenant from the webUI using the Add button in the Tenant Management > Tenant Deployments screen.
The tenant deployment options are almost identical to deploying a vCMP guest, with a few minor differences. You’ll supply the tenant a name, and choose the image for it to run. Next, you will pick what slots (blades) within the chassis partition you want the tenant to run on, and assign an out-of-band management address, prefix, and gateway. There are Recommended and Advanced options for resource provisioning, Choosing Recommended will automatically adjust memory based on the vCPUs allocated to the tenant. Choosing Advanced will allow you to over-allocate memory which is something VIPRION did not support. You can choose different states (Configured, Provisioned, Deployed) just like vCMP, and there is an option to enable/disable hardware crypto acceleration (Enable is recommended). And finally, there is an option to enable Appliance mode which will disable root/bash access to the tenant.
Tenant Deployment via API¶
The VELOS tenant lifecycle is fully supported in the F5OS API. This section will cover common examples.
Uploading a Tenant Image¶
The upload utility requires a remote HTTPS, SCP, or SFTP server that is hosting the tenant image file. All API calls for tenant lifecycle are posted to the IP address of the chassis partition. To copy a tenant image into a chassis partition from a remote HTTPS server, use the following API call to the chassis partition IP address:
POST https://{{velos_chassis1_chassis_partition1_ip}}:8888/api/data/f5-utils-file-transfer:file/import
{
"input": [
{
"remote-host": "10.255.0.142",
"remote-file": "upload/{{Tenant_Image}}",
"local-file": "images/{{Tenant_Image}}",
"insecure": "",
"f5-utils-file-transfer:username": "corpuser",
"f5-utils-file-transfer:password": "Passw0rd!!"
}
]
}
To list the current tenant images available on the chassis partition use the following API Call:
GET https://{{velos_chassis1_chassis_partition1_ip}}:8888/restconf/data/f5-tenant-images:images
Below is output generated from the previous command:
{
"f5-tenant-images:images": {
"image": [
{
"name": "BIGIP-15.1.4-0.0.46.ALL-VELOS.qcow2.zip.bundle",
"in-use": true,
"status": "replicated"
},
{
"name": "BIGIP-15.1.4-0.0.47.ALL-VELOS.qcow2.zip.bundle",
"in-use": false,
"status": "replicated"
}
]
}
}
Creating a Tenant¶
Tenant creation via the API is as simple as defining the parameters below and sending the POST to the chassis partition.
POST https://{{velos_chassis1_chassis_partition1_ip}}:8888/restconf/data/f5-tenants:tenants
{
"tenant": [
{
"name": "{{New_Tenant1_Name}}",
"config": {
"image": "{{Tenant_Image}}",
"nodes": [
1
],
"mgmt-ip": "{{Chassis1_Tenant1_IP}}",
"gateway": "{{OutofBand_DFGW}}",
"prefix-length": 24,
"vlans": [
3010,
501,
3011
],
"vcpu-cores-per-node": 2,
"memory": 7680,
"cryptos": "enabled",
"storage": {
"size": 76
},
"running-state": "deployed"
}
}
]
}
Validating Tenant Status¶
You can validate the status of all tenants within the chassis partition using the following API call.
GET https://{{Chassis1_Partition_IP}}:8888/restconf/data/f5-tenants:tenants
Below is an example output from a VELOS system:
{
"f5-tenants:tenants": {
"tenant": [
{
"name": "tenant1",
"config": {
"name": "tenant1",
"type": "BIG-IP",
"image": "BIGIP-15.1.5-0.0.10.T4-F5OS.qcow2.zip.bundle",
"nodes": [
1
],
"mgmt-ip": "10.255.0.149",
"prefix-length": 24,
"gateway": "10.255.0.1",
"vlans": [
501,
3010,
3011
],
"cryptos": "enabled",
"tenant-auth-support": "disabled",
"vcpu-cores-per-node": 2,
"memory": "7680",
"storage": {
"size": 70
},
"running-state": "configured",
"appliance-mode": {
"enabled": false
}
},
"state": {
"name": "tenant1",
"unit-key-hash": "3LKG3f3UTbc5Talm3+D5uKodIC/LsO5w43m0n3EYHLOMEJM0E4E0Q27OK3WLWma4tBpY6Nu59i1m4HA+hR81hA==",
"type": "BIG-IP",
"image": "BIGIP-15.1.5-0.0.10.T4-F5OS.qcow2.zip.bundle",
"nodes": [
1
],
"mgmt-ip": "10.255.0.149",
"prefix-length": 24,
"gateway": "10.255.0.1",
"mac-ndi-set": [
{
"ndi": "default",
"mac": "00:94:a1:8e:d0:09"
}
],
"vlans": [
501,
3010,
3011
],
"cryptos": "enabled",
"tenant-auth-support": "disabled",
"vcpu-cores-per-node": 2,
"memory": "7680",
"storage": {
"size": 70
},
"running-state": "configured",
"mac-data": {
"base-mac": "00:94:a1:8e:d0:0b",
"mac-pool-size": 1
},
"appliance-mode": {
"enabled": false
},
"status": "Configured"
}
},
{
"name": "tenant2",
"config": {
"name": "tenant2",
"type": "BIG-IP",
"image": "BIGIP-15.1.5-0.0.10.T4-F5OS.qcow2.zip.bundle",
"nodes": [
1
],
"mgmt-ip": "10.255.0.205",
"prefix-length": 24,
"gateway": "10.255.0.1",
"vlans": [
502,
3010,
3011
],
"cryptos": "enabled",
"tenant-auth-support": "disabled",
"vcpu-cores-per-node": 6,
"memory": "22016",
"storage": {
"size": 76
},
"running-state": "deployed",
"appliance-mode": {
"enabled": false
}
},
"state": {
"name": "tenant2",
"unit-key-hash": "cDzVBaFAZD+kHosgnwjzteF9D13BsmvcgXCdz2xMi8kztd0uxouyTNkvPt8uSaNLu5i5VyTLSRFt8fkcJahEvg==",
"type": "BIG-IP",
"image": "BIGIP-15.1.5-0.0.10.T4-F5OS.qcow2.zip.bundle",
"nodes": [
1
],
"mgmt-ip": "10.255.0.205",
"prefix-length": 24,
"gateway": "10.255.0.1",
"mac-ndi-set": [
{
"ndi": "default",
"mac": "00:94:a1:8e:d0:0a"
}
],
"vlans": [
502,
3010,
3011
],
"cryptos": "enabled",
"tenant-auth-support": "disabled",
"vcpu-cores-per-node": 6,
"memory": "22016",
"storage": {
"size": 76
},
"running-state": "deployed",
"mac-data": {
"base-mac": "00:94:a1:8e:d0:0c",
"mac-pool-size": 1
},
"appliance-mode": {
"enabled": false
},
"status": "Starting",
"instances": {
"instance": [
{
"node": 1,
"pod-name": "tenant2-1",
"instance-id": 1,
"phase": "Pending",
"creation-time": "2022-03-29T04:49:41Z",
"ready-time": "",
"status": "0/5 nodes are available: 2 Insufficient devices.kubevirt.io/kvm, 2 Insufficient devices.kubevirt.io/tun, 2 Insufficient devices.kubevirt.io/vhost-net, 2 Insufficient hugepages-2Mi, 4 node(s) didn't match node selector, 5 Insufficient f5.com/qat.",
"mgmt-mac": "00:00:00:00:00:00"
}
]
}
}
},
{
"name": "tenant3",
"config": {
"name": "tenant3",
"type": "BIG-IP",
"image": "BIGIP-15.1.5-0.0.10.T4-F5OS.qcow2.zip.bundle",
"nodes": [
1
],
"mgmt-ip": "5.5.5.5",
"prefix-length": 24,
"gateway": "5.5.5.254",
"cryptos": "enabled",
"tenant-auth-support": "disabled",
"vcpu-cores-per-node": 2,
"memory": "7680",
"storage": {
"size": 76
},
"running-state": "configured",
"appliance-mode": {
"enabled": false
}
},
"state": {
"name": "tenant3",
"unit-key-hash": "LopnQ/ImnqSeOnTTraC84M9FITYVz2//d6lS4wpQxoc5AzQr/dtjy6aU2Q225JURT4viuWj9HwjB19KZSW6KEA==",
"type": "BIG-IP",
"image": "BIGIP-15.1.5-0.0.10.T4-F5OS.qcow2.zip.bundle",
"nodes": [
1
],
"mgmt-ip": "5.5.5.5",
"prefix-length": 24,
"gateway": "5.5.5.254",
"cryptos": "enabled",
"tenant-auth-support": "disabled",
"vcpu-cores-per-node": 2,
"memory": "7680",
"storage": {
"size": 76
},
"running-state": "configured",
"mac-data": {
"base-mac": "00:94:a1:8e:d0:0d",
"mac-pool-size": 1
},
"appliance-mode": {
"enabled": false
},
"status": "Configured"
}
}
]
}
}
Resizing a Tenant¶
VELOS tenants have static CPU and memory allocations. These can be changed after a tenant has been deployed, but the tenant will have to be temporarily suspended (put in the provisioned state), then the change to CPU and/or memory allocation can be made. A tenant can be expanded within a single blade or it can be configured to extend across blades assuming adequate resources are available. Once the changes are completed the tenant can be put into the deployed state and returned to service.
Expanding a Tenant within the Same Blade via webUI¶
Below is webUI output of a single tenant that is in the deployed and running state configured with 2 vCPUs per slot, 7680 memory per slot, and the tenant is allowed to run on only slot1. The workflow below will cover expanding the tenant from 2 to 4 vCPUs and the memory from 7680 to 14848 per slot. Click the check box next to the tenant, and then select the Provision button.
Click OK. This will move the tenant from deployed to provisioned state. You will see the tenant go from running, to stopping, to stopped.
Next click on the hyperlink for tenant1. This will bring you into the configuration page for that tenant. Change the vCPUs per slot to 4, and the Memory per Slot to 14848, and set the state back to deployed. When finished click Save and the tenant will start up again with the new configuration.
Expanding a Tenant within the Same Blade via CLI¶
Expanding a tenant on the same blade via the CLI follows the same workflows as the webUI. You must first put the tenant in a provisioned state, and then make configuration changes, and then change back to deployed state. You can view the current configuration of the tenant by issuing the show running-config tenants command. Note the tenant currently has 2 vCPU, and 7680 MB of memory.
Production-1# show running-config tenants
tenants tenant tenant1
config type BIG-IP
config image BIGIP-14.1.4-0.0.654.ALL-VELOS.qcow2.zip.bundle
config nodes [ 1 ]
config mgmt-ip 10.255.0.207
config prefix-length 24
config gateway 10.255.0.1
config vlans [ 444 500 555 ]
config cryptos enabled
config vcpu-cores-per-node 2
config memory 7680
config running-state deployed
config appliance-mode disabled
!
Production-1#
You can also view the tenant running status by issuing the CLI command show tenants.
Production-1# show tenants
tenants tenant tenant1
state type BIG-IP
state mgmt-ip 10.255.0.207
state prefix-length 24
state gateway 10.255.0.1
state vlans [ 444 500 555 ]
state cryptos enabled
state vcpu-cores-per-node 2
state memory 7680
state running-state deployed
state mac-data base-mac 00:94:a1:8e:58:1b
state mac-data mac-pool-size 1
state appliance-mode disabled
state status Running
state primary-slot 1
state image-version "BIG-IP 14.1.4 0.0.654"
NDI MAC
----------------------------
default 00:94:a1:8e:58:19
INSTANCE
NODE ID PHASE IMAGE NAME CREATION TIME READY TIME STATUS MGMT MAC
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 1 Running BIGIP-14.1.4-0.0.654.ALL-VELOS.qcow2.zip.bundle 2021-02-04T22:02:22Z 2021-02-04T22:02:18Z Started tenant instance 42:d9:d1:e5:a3:c0
Production-1#
To change the tenant configuration, you must first enter config mode and then change the tenant running state to provisioned. The change won’t take effect until the commit command is issued:
Production-1# config
Entering configuration mode terminal
Production-1(config)# tenants tenant tenant1 config running-state provisioned
Production-1(config-tenant-tenant1)# commit
Commit complete.
You can monitor the tenant transition to provisioned state using the show commands above. Once in the provisioned state you can change the vCPU and memory configurations as well as the running-state back to deployed. Then issue the commit command to execute the changes.
Production-1(config-tenant-tenant1)# exit
Production-1(config)# tenants tenant tenant1 config vcpu-cores-per-node 4 memory 14848 running-state deployed
Production-1(config-tenant-tenant1)# commit
Commit complete.
Expanding a Tenant within the Same Blade via API¶
First get the current tenant status via the API and note the current CPU Allocation. The tenant in the example below is currently configured to run on slot1 (node) and has 2 vCPUs and 7680 of memory per slot:
GET https://{{velos_chassis1_chassis_partition1_ip}}:8888/restconf/data/f5-tenants:tenants/tenant={{New_Tenant1_Name}}/config
The API output:
{
"f5-tenants:config": {
"name": "tenant1",
"type": "BIG-IP",
"image": "BIGIP-14.1.4-0.0.654.ALL-VELOS.qcow2.zip.bundle",
"nodes": [
1
],
"mgmt-ip": "10.255.0.207",
"prefix-length": 24,
"gateway": "10.255.0.1",
"vlans": [
444,
500,
555
],
"cryptos": "enabled",
"vcpu-cores-per-node": "2",
"memory": "7680",
"running-state": "deployed",
"appliance-mode": {
"enabled": false
}
}
}
If you attempt to change the tenant configuration while it is in the deployed state, it will fail with an error like the one below notifying you that config changes when in the deployed state are not allowed:
{
"errors": {
"error": [
{
"error-message": "/tenants/tenant{tenant1}/config/vcpu-cores-per-node (value \"4\"): cannot change vcpu-cores-per-node when tenant is in deployed state",
"error-path": "/f5-tenants:tenants/tenant=tenant1/config/vcpu-cores-per-node",
"error-tag": "invalid-value",
"error-type": "application"
}
]
}
}
The workflow to change the tenant configuration is to first change the tenant state to be provisioned then make the configuration change. Use the following API PATCH call to move the tenant to the provisioned state:
PATCH https://{{velos_chassis1_chassis_partition1_ip}}:8888/restconf/data/f5-tenants:tenants/tenant={{New_Tenant1_Name}}/config/running-state
And for the JSON body of the API call change the running-state to provisioned:
{
"running-state": "provisioned"
}
Next issue the GET command above to obtain the tenant status and note that its running state has changed to provisioned:
"cryptos": "enabled",
"vcpu-cores-per-node": "2",
"memory": "7680",
"running-state": "provisioned",
"appliance-mode": {
"enabled": false
Send a PATCH API command to change the CPU and memory configuration so the tenant can expand from 2 to 4 vCPUs, and from 7680 to 14848 GB of memory. It’s important to change both the CPU and memory allocation when expanding the tenant.
PATCH https://{{velos_chassis1_chassis_partition1_ip}}:8888/restconf/data/f5-tenants:tenants/tenant={{New_Tenant1_Name}}/config/vcpu-cores-per-node
{
"vcpu-cores-per-node": 4,
"memory": 14848
}
Finally change the tenant status back to deployed and then check the status again to confirm the change. The tenant should boot up with the expanded memory and CPU.
PATCH https://{{velos_chassis1_chassis_partition1_ip}}:8888/restconf/data/f5-tenants:tenants/tenant={{New_Tenant1_Name}}/config/running-state
{
"running-state": "deployed"
}
Expanding a Tenant Across Blades via webUI¶
VELOS tenants can be configured to expand across multiple blades. You can pre-configure a tenant to span more than one blade, and as blades are added to a chassis partition the tenant should automatically expand and start using additional resources it has been configured for. Spanning tenants across two or more blades have advantages and disadvantages that need to be considered.
For tenants where the control plane is heavily utilized, spanning the tenant across blades can make the control plane performance worse, as it now needs to replicate its state between blades and this adds addtional overhead. Spanning tenants across blades also requires more IP addresses inside the tenants (one for each blade the tenant resides on) to ensure all failure cases are handled properly. A tenant can be configured to survive a blade failure and not failover to its peer, provided it has enough resources to run on a single blade. This is handled through HA group configuration within the tenant itself. It may be better in some cases to just failover to the tenant’s peer in another chassis if a blade failure occurs. Expanding a tenant across blades can provide much higher data plane performance for a single tenant, so all these considerations need to be examined to determine the best configuration.
One consideration when expanding a tenant across more than one blade is that you will need to configure additional out-of-band IP addresses for each blade that the tenant will reside on. This is required for proper HA communication and failover to cover specific cases around blade failures. Below is a webUI screenshot inside a VELOS tenant that shows the out-of-band management IP address along with the Cluster Member IP Addresses. You should configure a Cluster Member IP Address for each slot that a tenant will span. The Alternate Management and Alternate Cluster Member IP addresses are for dual stack IPv4/IPv6 support and you would configure IPv6 addresses here, if the primary addresses were IPv4.
Next a tenant that currently exists on a single blade will be expanded to span two blades using the webUI. In the screenshot below tenant2 is currently configured to only run on slot/blade1 due to the Allowed Slots being configured for 1. This tenant is using 6 vCPUs and 22016 MB of memory on slot1.
Select the checkbox next to tenant2 and then click the Provision button to move the tenant to the provisioned state so that configuration changes can occur. A pop-up will appear asking you to confirm. After confirming it will take a few seconds for the tenant to spin down into the provisioned state.
Next click on the hyperlink for tenant2 to change the configuration of the tenant. Change the Allowed Slots so that both 1 and 2 are now checked. Change the state from Provisioned to Deployed* and then click **Save. When prompted, confirm, and then watch the tenant start up.
Note the tenant is now configured for both Slots 1 & 2 for Allowed Slots.
Expanding a Tenant Across Blades via CLI¶
The same workflow can be done in the CLI. A tenant that currently exists on a single blade will be expanded to span two blades using the CLI. First display the current tenant status:
Production-1# show tenants tenant tenant2
tenants tenant tenant2
state type BIG-IP
state mgmt-ip 10.255.0.208
state prefix-length 24
state gateway 10.255.0.1
state vlans [ 444 500 555 ]
state cryptos enabled
state vcpu-cores-per-node 6
state memory 22016
state running-state deployed
state mac-data base-mac 00:94:a1:8e:58:1c
state mac-data mac-pool-size 1
state appliance-mode disabled
state status Running
state primary-slot 1
state image-version "BIG-IP 14.1.4 0.0.654"
NDI MAC
----------------------------
default 00:94:a1:8e:58:1a
INSTANCE
NODE ID PHASE IMAGE NAME CREATION TIME READY TIME STATUS MGMT MAC
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 1 Running BIGIP-14.1.4-0.0.654.ALL-VELOS.qcow2.zip.bundle 2021-02-05T18:10:47Z 2021-02-05T18:10:42Z Started tenant instance 72:f1:75:fd:0e:5f
Production-1# show running-config tenants tenant tenant2
tenants tenant tenant2
config type BIG-IP
config image BIGIP-14.1.4-0.0.654.ALL-VELOS.qcow2.zip.bundle
config nodes [ 1 ]
config mgmt-ip 10.255.0.208
config prefix-length 24
config gateway 10.255.0.1
config vlans [ 444 500 555 ]
config cryptos enabled
config vcpu-cores-per-node 6
config memory 22016
config running-state deployed
config appliance-mode disabled
!
Enter config mode and change the tenant running-state to provisioned so that changes can be made to its configuration. A commit is needed to make the change.
Production-1# config
Entering configuration mode terminal
Production-1(config)# tenants tenant tenant2 config running-state provisioned
Production-1(config-tenant-tenant2)# commit
Commit complete.
Next alter the nodes configuration to [ 1 2 ] so that the tenant will deploy onto both blades, and set the running-state back to deployed so that the tenant will start back up.
Production-1(config-tenant-tenant2)# exit
Production-1(config)# tenants tenant tenant2 config node [ 1 2 ] running-state deployed
Production-1(config-tenant-tenant2)# commit
Commit complete.
You can verify the tenant status using the show tenants command. Note that Node 1 and Node 2 have an instance of tenant2 running.
Production-1# show tenants tenant tenant2
tenants tenant tenant2
state type BIG-IP
state mgmt-ip 10.255.0.208
state prefix-length 24
state gateway 10.255.0.1
state vlans [ 444 500 555 ]
state cryptos enabled
state vcpu-cores-per-node 6
state memory 22016
state running-state deployed
state mac-data base-mac 00:94:a1:8e:58:1c
state mac-data mac-pool-size 1
state appliance-mode disabled
state status Running
state primary-slot 1
state image-version "BIG-IP 14.1.4 0.0.654"
NDI MAC
----------------------------
default 00:94:a1:8e:58:1a
INSTANCE
NODE ID PHASE IMAGE NAME CREATION TIME READY TIME STATUS MGMT MAC
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 1 Running BIGIP-14.1.4-0.0.654.ALL-VELOS.qcow2.zip.bundle 2021-02-05T18:30:14Z 2021-02-05T18:30:11Z Started tenant instance de:b5:21:4c:1b:f6
2 2 Running BIGIP-14.1.4-0.0.654.ALL-VELOS.qcow2.zip.bundle 2021-02-05T18:31:24Z 2021-02-05T18:31:21Z Started tenant instance 26:4f:35:7f:5d:1b
Expanding a Tenant Across Blades via API¶
If the tenant is already deployed, then you must first change the tenant to a provisioned state before changes can be made. This will cause the tenant to shutdown. The following API call will move the tenant to a provisioned state.
PATCH https://{{velos_chassis1_chassis_partition1_ip}}:8888//restconf/data/f5-tenants:tenants/tenant={{New_Tenant2_Name}}/config/running-state
{
"running-state": "provisioned"
}
Once the tenant is in the provisioned state you can issue another API call to modify its configuration. In this case the tenant will be expanded to run across slots 1 and 2, and also have its status changed back to deployed.
PATCH https://{{velos_chassis1_chassis_partition1_ip}}:8888//restconf/data/f5-tenants:tenants/tenant={{New_Tenant2_Name}}/config/vcpu-cores-per-node
{
"vcpu-cores-per-node": 6,
"memory": 22016,
"nodes": [
1,
2
],
"running-state": "deployed"
}
The last part is to verify the tenant’s status, and that the config change has taken affect:
GET https://{{velos_chassis1_chassis_partition1_ip}}:8888/restconf/data/f5-tenants:tenants/tenant={{New_Tenant2_Name}}/config
{
"f5-tenants:config": {
"name": "tenant2",
"type": "BIG-IP",
"image": "BIGIP-14.1.4-0.0.654.ALL-VELOS.qcow2.zip.bundle",
"nodes": [
1
],
"mgmt-ip": "10.255.0.208",
"prefix-length": 24,
"gateway": "10.255.0.1",
"vlans": [
444,
500,
555
],
"cryptos": "enabled",
"vcpu-cores-per-node": "6",
"memory": "22016",
"running-state": "deployed",
"appliance-mode": {
"enabled": false
}
}
}