Exercise 1.5: Using the bigip_virtual_server module¶

Objective¶

Demonstrate use of the BIG-IP virtual server module to configure a virtual server on the BIG-IP. Virtual server is a combination of IP:Port.

Guide¶

Step 1:

Using your text editor of choice create a new file called bigip-virtual-server.yml.

[student1@ansible ~]$ nano bigip-virtual-server.yml

``vim`` and ``nano`` are available on the control node

Step 2:

Enter the following play definition into bigip-virtual-server.yml:

- name: BIG-IP SETUP
  hosts: lb
  connection: local
  gather_facts: false

  vars_files:
    virtuals_pools.yml

The --- at the top of the file indicates that this is a YAML file.
The hosts: f5, indicates the play is run only on the F5 BIG-IP device
connection: local tells the Playbook to run locally (rather than SSHing to itself)
gather_facts: no disables facts gathering. We are not using any fact variables for this playbook.
vars_file is a ansible reserved word to include a file to the playbook

Step 3

Next, add the first task. This task will use the set_fact module to set a parameter called ‘provider’.

This parameter will hold all the connection details to the BIG-IP and will be used in subsequent tasks

- name: BIG-IP SETUP
  hosts: lb
  connection: local
  gather_facts: false

  vars_files:
    virtuals_pools.yml

  tasks:

  - set_fact:
     provider:
      server: "{{private_ip}}"
      user: "{{ansible_user}}"
      password: "{{ansible_ssh_pass}}"
      server_port: 8443
      validate_certs: no

The server: "{{private_ip}}" parameter tells the module to connect to the F5 BIG-IP IP address, which is stored as a variable private_ip in inventory
The user: "{{ansible_user}}" parameter tells the module the username to login to the F5 BIG-IP device with
The password: "{{ansible_ssh_pass}}" parameter tells the module the password to login to the F5 BIG-IP device with
The server_port: 8443 parameter tells the module the port to connect to the F5 BIG-IP device with

Step 4

Next, add the task. This task will use the bigip-virtual-server to configure a virtual server on the BIG-IP

- name: BIG-IP SETUP
  hosts: lb
  connection: local
  gather_facts: false

  vars_files:
    virtuals_pools.yml

  tasks:

  - set_fact:
     provider:
      server: "{{private_ip}}"
      user: "{{ansible_user}}"
      password: "{{ansible_ssh_pass}}"
      server_port: 8443
      validate_certs: no

  - name: ADD VIRTUAL SERVER
    bigip_virtual_server:
      provider: "{{provider}}"
      name: "{{item.vs_name}}"
      destination: "{{private_ip}}"
      port: "{{item.port}}"
      enabled_vlans: "all"
      all_profiles: ['http','clientssl','oneconnect']
      pool: "{{item.pool_name}}"
      snat: "Automap"
    loop: "{{vips_pools}}"

name: ADD VIRTUAL SERVER is a user defined description that will display in the terminal output.
bigip_virtual_server: tells the task which module to use.
The name: "vip" parameter tells the module to create a virtual server
The destination" parameter tells the module which IP address to assign for the virtual server
The port paramter tells the module which Port the virtual server will be listening on
The enabled_vlans parameter tells the module which all vlans the virtual server is enabled for
The all_profiles paramter tells the module which all profiles are assigned to the virtuals server
The pool parameter tells the module which pool is assigned to the virtual server
The snat paramter tells the module what the Source network address address should be. In this module we are assigning it to be Automap which means the source address on the request that goes to the backend server will be the self-ip address of the BIG-IP

Step 5

Run the playbook - exit back into the command line of the control host and execute the following:

[student1@ansible ~]$ ansible-playbook bigip-virtual-server.yml

Playbook Output¶

[student1@ansible]$ ansible-playbook bigip-virtual-server.yml

PLAY [BIG-IP SETUP] *****************************************************************************************************************************************

    TASK [set_fact] *********************************************************************************************************************************************
    ok: [f5]

    TASK [ADD VIRTUAL SERVER] ***********************************************************************************************************************************
    ok: [f5] => (item={u'pool_name': u'http-pool', u'vs_name': u'vip', u'port': 8081})
    ok: [f5] => (item={u'pool_name': u'http-pool1', u'vs_name': u'vip1', u'port': 8082})
    ok: [f5] => (item={u'pool_name': u'http-pool2', u'vs_name': u'vip2', u'port': 8083})
    ok: [f5] => (item={u'pool_name': u'http-pool3', u'vs_name': u'vip3', u'port': 8084})
    ok: [f5] => (item={u'pool_name': u'http-pool4', u'vs_name': u'vip4', u'port': 8085})
    ok: [f5] => (item={u'pool_name': u'http-pool5', u'vs_name': u'vip5', u'port': 8086})
    ok: [f5] => (item={u'pool_name': u'http-pool6', u'vs_name': u'vip6', u'port': 8087})
    ok: [f5] => (item={u'pool_name': u'http-pool7', u'vs_name': u'vip7', u'port': 8088})
    ok: [f5] => (item={u'pool_name': u'http-pool8', u'vs_name': u'vip8', u'port': 8089})
    ok: [f5] => (item={u'pool_name': u'http-pool9', u'vs_name': u'vip9', u'port': 8090})
    ok: [f5] => (item={u'pool_name': u'http-pool10', u'vs_name': u'vip10', u'port': 8091})
    ok: [f5] => (item={u'pool_name': u'http-pool11', u'vs_name': u'vip11', u'port': 8092})
    ok: [f5] => (item={u'pool_name': u'http-pool12', u'vs_name': u'vip12', u'port': 8093})
    ok: [f5] => (item={u'pool_name': u'http-pool13', u'vs_name': u'vip13', u'port': 8094})
    ok: [f5] => (item={u'pool_name': u'http-pool14', u'vs_name': u'vip14', u'port': 8095})
    ok: [f5] => (item={u'pool_name': u'http-pool15', u'vs_name': u'vip15', u'port': 8096})

Solution¶

The finished Ansible Playbook is provided here for an Answer key. Click here: bigip-virtual-server.yml.

Verifying the Solution¶

To see the configured Virtual Server, login to the F5 load balancer with your web browser.

Grab the IP information for the F5 load balancer from the /home/studentX/networking_workshop/lab_inventory/hosts file, and type it in like so: https://X.X.X.X:8443/

The load balancer virtual server can be found by navigating the menu on the left. Click on Local Traffic. then click on Virtual Server.

Verifying the web servers¶

Each RHEL web server actually already has apache running. Exercise 1.1 through 1.5 have successfully setup the load balancer for the pool of web servers. Open up the public IP of the F5 load balancer in your web browser:

This time use port 8081/8096 instead of 8443, e.g. - https://X.X.X.X:8081/ - https://X.X.X.X:8082/ etc.

Each time you refresh the host will change between host1 and host2.

Alternate Verification Method¶

Instead of using a browser window it is also possible to use the command line on the Ansible control node. Use the curl command on the ansible_host public IP address in combination with the --insecure and --silent command line arguments. Since the entire website is loaded on the command line it is recommended to | grep for the student number assigned to the respective workbench. (e.g. student5 would | grep student5)

[studentX@ansible ~]$ curl https://172.16.26.136:443 --insecure --silent | grep studentX
    <p>F5TEST-studentX-host1</p>
[studentX@ansible ~]$ curl https://172.16.26.136:443 --insecure --silent | grep studentX
    <p>F5TEST-studentX-host2</p>
[studentX@ansible ~]$ curl https://172.16.26.136:443 --insecure --silent | grep studentX
    <p>F5TEST-studentX-host1</p>

You have finished this exercise.

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