Exercise 1.4: Adding members to a pool on F5¶
Objective¶
Demonstrate use of the BIG-IP pool member module to tie web server nodes into the load balancing pool http_pool created in the previous exercises.
Guide¶
Step 1:¶
Examine the
bigip-pool-members.ymlin the VSCode editor. Expand in the Explorer (f5-bd-ansible-labs –> 101-F5-Basics –> 1.4-add-pool-members):
Examine the Code¶
name: ADD POOL MEMBERSis a user defined description that will display in the terminal output.Tje
bigip_pool_member:is the module for adding/modifying/deleting pool members on the BIG-IP.The
provider:parameter is a group of connection details for the BIG-IP.
The
server: "{{ ansible_host }}"parameter tells the module to connect to the F5 BIG-IP IP address, which is stored as a variableansible_hostin inventoryThe
user: "{{ ansible_user }}"parameter tells the module the username to login to the F5 BIG-IP device withThe
password: "{{ ansible_password }}"parameter tells the module the password to login to the F5 BIG-IP device withThe
server_port: "{{ server_port }}parameter tells the module the port to connect to the F5 BIG-IP device withThe
validate_certs: falseparameter tells the module to not validate SSL certificates. This is just used for demonstration purposes since this is a lab.The
state: "present"parameter tells the module we want this to be added rather than deleted.The
name: "{{hostvars[item].inventory_hostname}}"parameter tells the module to use theinventory_hostnameas the name (which will be node1 and node2).The
host: "{{hostvars[item].ansible_host}}"parameter tells the module to add a web server IP address already defined in our inventory.The
port: parameter tells the pool member port.The
pool: "http_pool"parameter tells the module to put this node into a pool named http_poolThe
loop:tells the task to loop over the provided list. The list in this case is the group web which includes two RHEL hosts.
Step 2:¶
Change directories to the exercise 1.4 folder to examine and execute the code in the Terminal
cd ~/f5-bd-ansible-labs/101-F5-Basics/1.4-add-pool-members/
Step 3:¶
Run the playbook - Go back to the Terminal on VS Code server on the control host and execute the following:
ansible-navigator run bigip-pool-members.yml --mode stdoutPlaybook Output
The output will look as follows.
[rhel-user@ede... 1.4-add-pool-members]$ ansible-navigator run bigip-pool-members.yml --mode stdout PLAY [BIG-IP SETUP] ************************************************************ TASK [ADD POOL MEMBERS] ******************************************************** changed: [f5] => (item=node1) changed: [f5] => (item=node2) PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************* f5 : ok=1 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
Step 4:¶
Let’s use the bigip_device_info to collect the pool members on BIG-IP. JSON query is a powerful filter that can be used.
Examine the
display-pool-members.ymlin the VSCode editor. Expand in the Explorer (f5-bd-ansible-labs –> 101-F5-Basics –> 1.4-add-pool-members -> display-pool-members.yml):
Examine the Code¶
vars:in the module is defining a variable query_string to be used within the module itself
query_Stringwill have the name of all members from pool name ‘http_pool’. query_string is defined to make it easier to read the entire json string
Step 5:¶
Run the playbook - Go back to the Terminal on VS Code server on the control host and execute the following:
ansible-navigator run display-pool-members.yml --mode stdoutPlaybook Output
The output will look as follows.
[rhel-user@ede7a345-c0f1-47f9-a73b-74fded8ec113 1.4-add-pool-members]$ ansible-navigator run display-pool-members.yml --mode stdout PLAY [List pool members] ******************************************************* TASK [Query BIG-IP facts] ****************************************************** ok: [f5] TASK [View complete output] **************************************************** ok: [f5] => { "msg": { "ansible_facts": { "ansible_net_ltm_pools": [ { "active_member_count": 2, "all_avg_queue_entry_age": 0, "all_max_queue_entry_age_ever": 0, "all_max_queue_entry_age_recently": 0, "all_num_connections_queued_now": 0, "all_num_connections_serviced": 0, "all_queue_head_entry_age": 0, "allow_nat": "yes", "allow_snat": "yes", "availability_status": "available", "available_member_count": 2, "client_ip_tos": "pass-through", "client_link_qos": "pass-through", "current_sessions": 0, "enabled_status": "enabled", "full_path": "/Common/http_pool", "ignore_persisted_weight": "no", "lb_method": "round-robin", "member_count": 2, "members": [ { "address": "10.1.10.5", "connection_limit": 0, "dynamic_ratio": 1, "ephemeral": "no", "fqdn_autopopulate": "no", "full_path": "/Common/node1:80", "inherit_profile": "yes", "logging": "no", "monitors": [], "name": "node1:80", "partition": "Common", "priority_group": 0, "rate_limit": "no", "ratio": 1, "real_session": "monitor-enabled", "real_state": "up", "state": "present" }, { "address": "10.1.10.6", "connection_limit": 0, "dynamic_ratio": 1, "ephemeral": "no", "fqdn_autopopulate": "no", "full_path": "/Common/node2:80", "inherit_profile": "yes", "logging": "no", "monitors": [], "name": "node2:80", "partition": "Common", "priority_group": 0, "rate_limit": "no", "ratio": 1, "real_session": "monitor-enabled", "real_state": "up", "state": "present" } ], "minimum_active_members": 0, "minimum_up_members": 0, "minimum_up_members_action": "failover", "minimum_up_members_checking": "no", "monitors": [ "/Common/http" ], "name": "http_pool", "pool_avg_queue_entry_age": 0, "pool_max_queue_entry_age_ever": 0, "pool_max_queue_entry_age_recently": 0, "pool_num_connections_queued_now": 0, "pool_num_connections_serviced": 0, "pool_queue_head_entry_age": 0, "priority_group_activation": 0, "queue_depth_limit": 0, "queue_on_connection_limit": "no", "queue_time_limit": 0, "reselect_tries": 0, "server_ip_tos": "pass-through", "server_link_qos": "pass-through", "server_side_bits_in": 0, "server_side_bits_out": 0, "server_side_current_connections": 0, "server_side_max_connections": 0, "server_side_pkts_in": 0, "server_side_pkts_out": 0, "server_side_total_connections": 0, "service_down_action": "none", "slow_ramp_time": 10, "status_reason": "The pool is available", "total_requests": 0 } ], "ansible_net_queried": true }, "changed": false, "failed": false, "ltm_pools": [ { "active_member_count": 2, "all_avg_queue_entry_age": 0, "all_max_queue_entry_age_ever": 0, "all_max_queue_entry_age_recently": 0, "all_num_connections_queued_now": 0, "all_num_connections_serviced": 0, "all_queue_head_entry_age": 0, "allow_nat": "yes", "allow_snat": "yes", "availability_status": "available", "available_member_count": 2, "client_ip_tos": "pass-through", "client_link_qos": "pass-through", "current_sessions": 0, "enabled_status": "enabled", "full_path": "/Common/http_pool", "ignore_persisted_weight": "no", "lb_method": "round-robin", "member_count": 2, "members": [ { "address": "10.1.10.5", "connection_limit": 0, "dynamic_ratio": 1, "ephemeral": "no", "fqdn_autopopulate": "no", "full_path": "/Common/node1:80", "inherit_profile": "yes", "logging": "no", "monitors": [], "name": "node1:80", "partition": "Common", "priority_group": 0, "rate_limit": "no", "ratio": 1, "real_session": "monitor-enabled", "real_state": "up", "state": "present" }, { "address": "10.1.10.6", "connection_limit": 0, "dynamic_ratio": 1, "ephemeral": "no", "fqdn_autopopulate": "no", "full_path": "/Common/node2:80", "inherit_profile": "yes", "logging": "no", "monitors": [], "name": "node2:80", "partition": "Common", "priority_group": 0, "rate_limit": "no", "ratio": 1, "real_session": "monitor-enabled", "real_state": "up", "state": "present" } ], "minimum_active_members": 0, "minimum_up_members": 0, "minimum_up_members_action": "failover", "minimum_up_members_checking": "no", "monitors": [ "/Common/http" ], "name": "http_pool", "pool_avg_queue_entry_age": 0, "pool_max_queue_entry_age_ever": 0, "pool_max_queue_entry_age_recently": 0, "pool_num_connections_queued_now": 0, "pool_num_connections_serviced": 0, "pool_queue_head_entry_age": 0, "priority_group_activation": 0, "queue_depth_limit": 0, "queue_on_connection_limit": "no", "queue_time_limit": 0, "reselect_tries": 0, "server_ip_tos": "pass-through", "server_link_qos": "pass-through", "server_side_bits_in": 0, "server_side_bits_out": 0, "server_side_current_connections": 0, "server_side_max_connections": 0, "server_side_pkts_in": 0, "server_side_pkts_out": 0, "server_side_total_connections": 0, "service_down_action": "none", "slow_ramp_time": 10, "status_reason": "The pool is available", "total_requests": 0 } ], "queried": true } } TASK [Show members belonging to pool] ****************************************** ok: [f5] => (item=node1:80) => { "msg": "node1:80" } ok: [f5] => (item=node2:80) => { "msg": "node2:80" } PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************* f5 : ok=3 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
Solution¶
The finished Ansible Playbook is provided here. Click here bigip-pool-members.yml.
Verifying the Solution¶
To see the configured Pool Members, login to the F5 load balancer with your web browser.
BIG-IP - (In UDF Console –> Components –> BIG-IP –> Access –> TMUI) - This will popup a webpage to access the F5 Login Page
Login to the BIG-IP instance
username: admin
password: found in the inventory hosts file
The pool will now show two members (node1 and node2). Click on Local Traffic-> then click on Pools. Click on http_pool to get more granular information. Click on the Members tab in the middle to list all the Members.
You have finished this exercise.