Introduction
The CloudCenter platform supports integration to various Load Balancers. This document provides information on integration with F5 by creating an external service in CloudCenter.
F5 BIG-IP provides a wide range of application delivery services, such as server load balancing (SLB), L4-L7 firewall and SSL VPN. With the use of iApps and rich foundation of F5 API, Cisco Cloud Center can deploy F5 virtual servers to provide SLB, FW and SSL VPN services to the applications.
Cisco Cloud Center will maintain the application services catalog, provide consistent and agile L4-L7 services to application deployment in both private and public cloud environments.
Prerequisites
CloudCenter
- CloudCenter 4.8 and above
- Knowledge on how to use CloudCenter
F5 BIG-IP
- Release 12.1.x
- Download App Services iApps 2.0 from GitHub and import into BIG-IP
- BIG-IP management interface must be configured and reachable by Cloud Center
- BIG-IP must be licensed
Service Package Bundle
The Packer Service bundle consists of the following files:
- service - The main script that has the logic for the integration
- serviceDictionary.csv - The dictionary CSV file that has the list of all the parameters and their defaults. If you want to get addition input from the user, they need to be added to this file and also in the UI. The format of this file is as follows:
- DisplayName,paramName,paramType,defaultValue,visible,optional
- e.g. Root Volume Size,root_volume_size,10,Y,N
The parameter name is key here and should match the parameter name in the UI
- bigip_rest.py - script that calls the F5 APIs. This python script is called from the main service script
- cliqr.template - F5 template file use by bigip_rest.py
Service Description
To add this service login to CloudCenter as an administrator and click on Admin->Services->Add Service. Use the information listed below to create the service.
Service Type: External Service
Name: F5-LB
Service ID: f5lb
Description: F5 Load Balancer
Category: Load Balancer
External Lifecycle Actions:
External Action Bundle: <location of f5lb.zip>
Update:
Script from Bundle: service update
Start:
Script from Bundle: service start
Stop:
Script from Bundle: service stop
Service Parameters
| Parameter Name | bigIPAddress |
| Display Name | IP Address of BIG-IP |
| Type | string |
| Default Value | |
| User Options |
| Parameter Name | bigIPuser |
| Display Name | User Name for BIG IP |
| Type | string |
| Default Value | admin |
| User Options |
| Parameter Name | bigIPPassword |
| Display Name | Password for BIG-IP |
| Type | password |
| Default Value | |
| User Options |
Deployment Parameters
| Parameter Name | pool__addr |
| Display Name | Virtual Server Address |
| Type | string |
| Default Value | |
| User Options | Visible, Editable |
| Parameter Name | name |
| Display Name | Application Services Name |
| Type | string |
| Default Value | |
| User Options | Visible, Editable |
| Parameter Name | pool__port |
| Display Name | VIP Pool Port |
| Type | string |
| Default Value | 80 |
| User Options | Visible, Editable |
Downloads
Appendix
Importing iApps into BIG-IP
Go to BIG-IP -> iApps -> Template -> Import:
Click “Choose File”
After locate and select the iApps, click “Upload”
Now the iApps is ready to be deployed through Cisco Cloud Center
