F5 BigIP Local Traffic Manager

This example lives in the pulumi/examples repository. Check out just this directory to use it:

$ git clone --filter=blob:none --sparse https://github.com/pulumi/examples pulumi-examples
$ git -C pulumi-examples sparse-checkout set f5bigip-ts-ltm-pool
$ cd pulumi-examples/f5bigip-ts-ltm-pool

This example demonstrates use of the Pulumi F5 BigIP Provider to provide load balancing via an F5 BigIP appliance to backend HTTP instances. The example provisions:

• an LTM Monitor with a Send String value of GET /
• an LTM Pool using the LTM Monitor
• N number of LTM Pool Attachments based on provided backend addresses
• an LTM Virtual Server

All of these happen behind a single pulumi up command, and are expressed in just a handful of TypeScript.

Prerequisites#

Ensure you have downloaded and installed the Pulumi CLI.

If you already have an F5 BigIP appliance available, you only need administrative credentials to it and at least one backend HTTP instance to load balance to.

If you do not already have an F5 BigIP appliance available, you can use the example in f5bigip-ec2-instance to deploy an F5 BigIP instance on AWS using an F5 BigIP AMI from the AWS Marketplace. Note: you must first subscribe to the AWS Marketplace product here.

If you do not already have backend HTTP instance available, you can use the example in nginx-ec2-instance to deploy multiple NGINX instances on AWS and use them as members of the LTM Pool as Pool Attachments.

Running the Example#

If you need to deploy an F5 BigIP appliance or backend HTTP instances as described above, first Configure Pulumi for AWS.

(Optional) Provision an F5 BigIP appliance on AWS#

1. Change directory to f5bigip-ec2-instance.

   $ cd f5bigip-ec2-instance

2. Create a new stack, which is an isolated deployment target for this example:

   $ pulumi stack init f5bigip-ec2-instance-dev

3. Set the required configuration variables for this program:

   $ pulumi config set aws:region us-west-2    # any valid AWS zone works
   $ pulumi config set f5BigIpAdminPassword --secret [your-new-bigip-password-here]

4. Deploy everything with the pulumi up command. This provisions the necessary AWS resources, primarily a VPC Security group and EC2 Instance, in a single gesture:

   $ pulumi up

   This will show you a preview, ask for confirmation, and then begin provisioning your resources:

   Updating (f5bigip-ec2-instance-dev):
   
   Type                      Name                                           Status
   +   pulumi:pulumi:Stack       f5bigip-ec2-instance-f5bigip-ec2-instance-dev  created
   +   ├─ aws:ec2:SecurityGroup  bigIp                                          created
   +   └─ aws:ec2:Instance       bigIp                                          created
   
   Outputs:
       f5Address  : "https://34.210.83.227:8443"
       f5PrivateIp: "172.31.42.112"
   
   Resources:
       + 3 created
   
   Duration: 40s

   After this completes, numerous outputs will show up. f5Address and f5PrivateIp are values you will use in the f5bigip-pool example later on.

(Optional) Provision Backend NGINX Instances#

1. Change directory to nginx-ec2-instance.

   $ cd nginx-ec2-instance

2. Create a new stack, which is an isolated deployment target for this example:

   $ pulumi stack init nginx-ec2-instance-dev

3. Set the required configuration variables for this program:

   $ pulumi config set aws:region us-west-2    # any valid AWS zone works

4. Deploy everything with the pulumi up command. This provisions a VPC security group allowing access to NGINX from anywhere and three EC2 Instances running NGINX:

   $ pulumi up

   This will show you a preview, ask for confirmation, and then begin provisioning your resources:

   Updating (nginx-ec2-instance-dev):
   
       Type                      Name                                        Status
   +   pulumi:pulumi:Stack       nginx-ec2-instance/-nginx-ec2-instance-dev  created
   +   ├─ aws:ec2:SecurityGroup  nginx                                       created
   +   ├─ aws:ec2:Instance       nginx-2                                     created
   +   ├─ aws:ec2:Instance       nginx-1                                     created
   +   └─ aws:ec2:Instance       nginx-0                                     created
   
   Outputs:
       instancePublicIps: [
           [0]: "52.35.179.187"
           [1]: "34.213.179.46"
           [2]: "54.184.63.40"
       ]
   
   Resources:
       + 5 created
   
   Duration: 44s

   After this completes, a single output with multiple values will display. instancePublicIps are the IP addresses you will use to provide load balancing to in the f5bigip-pool example.

Provision F5 BigIP Application Pool Resources#

1. Change directory to f5bigip-pool.

   $ cd f5bigip-pool

2. Create a new stack, which is an isolated deployment target for this example:

   $ pulumi stack init f5bigip-pool-dev

3. Set the required configuration variables for this program:

   $ pulumi config set f5bigip:address <f5Address>    # the address of your BigIP appliance - i.e. https://10.10.10.200:8443
   $ pulumi config set f5bigip:username admin
   $ pulumi config set f5bigip:password <f5Password>    # the 'admin' password of your BigIP appliance
   $ pulumi config set f5bigip-pool:backendInstances <address1:port,address2:port,...> #    Comma-delimited list of IP addresses with ports to load balance - i.e. '10.0.0.10:80,10.0.0.11:80,10.0.0.12:80'
   $ pulumi config set f5bigip-pool:f5BigIpPrivateIp <f5PrivateIp>    # the Private IP address of your BigIP appliance

4. Deploy everything with the pulumi up command. This provisions F5 BigIP LTM resources - application monitor, application pool, pool attachments, and virtual server:

   $ pulumi up

   This will show you a preview, ask for confirmation, and then begin provisioning your resources:

   Updating (f5bigip-pool-dev):
   
       Type                           Name                           Status
   +   pulumi:pulumi:Stack            f5bigip-pool-f5bigip-pool-dev  created
   +   ├─ f5bigip:ltm:Monitor         backend                        created
   +   ├─ f5bigip:ltm:Pool            backend                        created
   +   ├─ f5bigip:ltm:VirtualServer   backend                        created
   +   ├─ f5bigip:ltm:PoolAttachment  backend-0                      created
   +   ├─ f5bigip:ltm:PoolAttachment  backend-2                      created
   +   └─ f5bigip:ltm:PoolAttachment  backend-1                      created
   
   Resources:
       + 7 created
   
   Duration: 3s

   After this completes, a single output with multiple values will display. instancePublicIps are the IP addresses you will use to provide load balancing to in the f5bigip-pool example.

Clean Up#

1. Once you are done, you can destroy all of the resources, and the stack. Repeat this in each directory for each of the examples from above that you ran pulumi up within.

   $ pulumi destroy
   $ pulumi stack rm