Automate F5 LTM with Ansible

Ansible has included F5 as extra network module, which can help to provide LBaaS by use of Infrastructure as Code method.

Like normal Ansible modules, Ansible F5 module is installed the /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible/modules/extras/network directory.

[dzhang@localhost network]$ pwd
/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible/modules/extras/network
[dzhang@localhost network]$ ls -al
total 512
drwxr-xr-x. 9 root root 4096 Jan 30 03:17 .
drwxr-xr-x. 20 root root 4096 Jan 30 03:17 ..
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Jan 30 03:17 a10
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Jan 30 03:17 asa
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Jan 30 03:17 citrix
-rw-r–r–. 1 root root 24673 Jan 16 08:48 cloudflare_dns.py
-rw-r–r–. 2 root root 18915 Jan 16 14:36 cloudflare_dns.pyc
-rw-r–r–. 2 root root 18915 Jan 16 14:36 cloudflare_dns.pyo
-rw-r–r–. 1 root root 11833 Jan 16 08:48 dnsimple.py
-rw-r–r–. 2 root root 8642 Jan 16 14:36 dnsimple.pyc
-rw-r–r–. 2 root root 8642 Jan 16 14:36 dnsimple.pyo
-rw-r–r–. 1 root root 13723 Jan 16 08:48 dnsmadeeasy.py
-rw-r–r–. 2 root root 12410 Jan 16 14:36 dnsmadeeasy.pyc
-rw-r–r–. 2 root root 12410 Jan 16 14:36 dnsmadeeasy.pyo
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Jan 30 03:17 exoscale
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Jan 30 03:17 f5
-rw-r–r–. 1 root root 13404 Jan 16 08:48 haproxy.py
-rw-r–r–. 2 root root 13504 Jan 16 14:36 haproxy.pyc
-rw-r–r–. 2 root root 13504 Jan 16 14:36 haproxy.pyo

The Ansible playbook below is to:

Create 2 web servers as F5 LTM nodes;
Create a F5 LTM pool;
Add the 2 web servers as the member for F5 LTM pool which is created in Step 2;
Create a F5 LTM vIP and associate the F5 LTM pool created in Step 2 with this newly created vIP;

[dzhang@localhost f5]$ cat f5-v0.4.yml
—
– name: f5 config
hosts: lb.davidwzhang.com
connection: local

tasks:
– name: create a pool
bigip_pool:
lb_method: “ratio_member”
name: “web”
password: “password”
server: “10.1.1.122”
user: “admin”
validate_certs: “no”
monitors:
– /Common/http
delegate_to: localhost
– name: create a node1
bigip_node:
host: “192.168.72.168”
name: “node-1”
password: “password”
server: “10.1.1.122”
user: “admin”
monitors:
– /Common/icmp
validate_certs: “no”
delegate_to: localhost
– name: create a node2
bigip_node:
host: “192.168.72.128”
name: “node-2”
password: “password”
server: “10.1.1.122”
user: “admin”
monitors:
– /Common/icmp
validate_certs: “no”
delegate_to: localhost
– name: add a node to pool
bigip_pool_member:
description: “webservers”
host: “{{item.host}}”
name: “{{item.name}}”
password: “password”
pool: “web”
port: “80”
connection_limit: “0”
monitor_state: “enabled”
server: “10.1.1.122”
user: “admin”
validate_certs: “no”
delegate_to: localhost
with_items:
– host: “192.168.72.168”
name: “node-1”
– host: “192.168.72.128”
name: “node-2”
– name: create a VIP
bigip_virtual_server:
description: “ansible-vip”
destination: “192.168.72.199”
name: “ansible-vip”
pool: “web”
port: “80”
snat: “Automap”
password: “password”
server: “10.1.1.122”
user: “admin”
all_profiles:
– “http”
validate_certs: “no”
delegate_to: localhost

Run the playbook:

[dzhang@localhost f5]$ ansible-playbook f5-v0.4.yml
/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/cffi/model.py:525: UserWarning: ‘point_conversion_form_t’ has no values explicitly defined; guessing that it is equivalent to ‘unsigned int’
% self._get_c_name())

PLAY [f5 config] ***************************************************************

TASK [setup] *******************************************************************
ok: [lb.davidwzhang.com]

TASK [create a pool] ***********************************************************
ok: [lb.davidwzhang.com -> localhost]

TASK [create a node1] **********************************************************
ok: [lb.davidwzhang.com -> localhost]

TASK [create a node2] **********************************************************
ok: [lb.davidwzhang.com -> localhost]

TASK [add a node to pool] ******************************************************
ok: [lb.davidwzhang.com -> localhost] => (item={u’host’: u’192.168.72.168′, u’name’: u’node-1′})
ok: [lb.davidwzhang.com -> localhost] => (item={u’host’: u’192.168.72.128′, u’name’: u’node-2′})

TASK [create a VIP] ************************************************************
ok: [lb.davidwzhang.com -> localhost]

PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
lb.davidwzhang.com : ok=6 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0

In F5 LTM, you can verify the configuration:

LTM Node:

NodeList