Build environment

One Time Setup

Install docker

Using your local machine or a dedicated host, install Docker. Elsewhere in these instructions we will refer to the machine with the docker installation as docker_host.

Clone the Repo

Clone the workshop repository on the docker_host.

git clone https://github.com/f5alliances/f5_provisioner.git

Build the container

The docker build command builds an image from a Dockerfile. This image will be used to run the Ansible playbooks for the provisioner. From the directory containing the Dockerfile, run the build command. This command will take a few minutes to complete.

cd f5_provisioner/docker
docker build --no-cache -t f5_sandbox_provisioner .

AWS Setup

  • Create an Amazon AWS account
  • Create an Access Key ID and Secret Access Key. Save the ID and key for later.
  • New to AWS and not sure what this step means? Click here
  • Make sure you have subscribed to the right marketplace AMI (Amazon Machine Image). - F5 BIG-IP Click here to subscribe

Run provisioner

Now you can start to provision the environment in AWS.

Make sure you move to the correct directory after the git clone and building the container above

cd f5_provisioner/provisioner

  1. Configure f5_vars.yml to reflect your environment under provisioning.

    • Modify the AWS region on which the infrastructure will spin up
    • Modify the ec2_name_prefix to represent a workshop unique to your environment
    • Modify the number of students for which the environment needs to be spun up
    • There is a dependancy on your personal AWS environment resources available if you have a large number of students - Modify the password, this password will be used to login to all machines including BIG-IP
    # region where the nodes will live
ec2_region: us-west-2
# name prefix for all the VMs
ec2_name_prefix: TESTWORKSHOP1
# amount of work benches to provision
student_total: 1

## Optional Variables
# password used for student account on control node
admin_password: ansible

# DO NOT CHANGE
# workshp runs in F5 mode
workshop_type: f5

  2. Run the playbook:

    Use the AWS ID and KEY saved earlier

    docker run \
-e AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP \
-e AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP/ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP \
-v $(pwd)/../provisioner:/ansible/playbooks \
f5_sandbox_provisioner provision_lab.yml -e @f5_vars.yml

    This command will take several minutes to complete.

    • The command mounts the repository’s provisioner directory inside the container (-v) and passes AWS credentials as environment variables (-e) to the container (the -e on the last line passes env variables to ansible itself and is not part of the docker command).
    • Docker supports multiple methods to pass environment variables to a container
    • If the environment variable already exists, the -e VARIABLE construction prevents sensitive information from appearing in bash history or the running proc.
    • Alternatively, If using an AWS CLI credential file a mapped volume could be used. For example:
    docker run \
-v ~/.aws/credentials:/root/.aws/credentials \
-v $(pwd)/../provisioner:/ansible/playbooks \
f5_sandbox_provisioner provision_lab.yml -e @f5_vars.yml

    Note

    If the provisioning is not successful, please teardown the lab by running the teardown playbook.

    docker run \
-e AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP \
-e AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP/ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP \
-v $(pwd)/../provisioner:/ansible/playbooks \
 f5_sandbox_provisioner teardown_lab.yml -e @f5_vars.yml

    Note

    Correct the issue and run the provision playbook again (Step 2).

  3. Login to the AWS EC2 console and you should see instances being created like:

    TESTWORKSHOP1-studentX-ansible

Access the Lab

Once the provisioner has run successfully and infrastructure has been spun up.

All the workbench information is stored in a local directory named after the workshop (e.g. TESTWORKSHOP1/instructor_inventory.txt) after the provisioner is run and is succesful.

Example: Make sure to go to the provisioner directoy

cd f5_provisioner/provisioner
cat TESTWORKSHOP1/instructor_inventory.txt

[all:vars]
ansible_port=22

[student1]
student1-ansible ansible_host=34.219.251.xxx ansible_user=centos #Ansible host/control node
student1-f5 ansible_host=52.39.228.xxx ansible_user=admin        #BIG-IP
student1-host1 ansible_host=52.43.153.xxx ansible_user=centos    #Backend application server1
student1-host2 ansible_host=34.215.176.xxx ansible_user=centos   #Backend application server2

Note

If there are more students configured there will be more entries to represent each student

  1. Login to Ansible control node (IP from inventory file above) using the studentID and the password mentioned in the f5_vars.yml earlier
ssh student1@34.219.251.xxx
student1@34.219.251.xxx's password:

  1. Run the ansible command with the –version command. The latest version of ansible will be installed

    [student1@ansible networking-workshop]$ ansible --version
 ansible 2.8.5
   config file = /home/student1/.ansible.cfg
   configured module search path = [u'/home/student1/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
   ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible
   executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
   python version = 2.7.5 (default, Oct 30 2018, 23:45:53) [GCC 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-36)]

    Note

    The version of ansible you have might differ from above (the latest ansible version gets installed)

  2. Use the commands below to view the contents of your inventory

    [student1@ansible ~]$ cd networking-workshop/
[student1@ansible networking-workshop]$ cat lab_inventory/hosts

    The output will look as follows with student1 being the respective student workbench:

    [all:vars]
ansible_user=studentx
ansible_ssh_pass=<password_from_file>
ansible_port=22

[lb]
f5 ansible_host=34.199.128.69 ansible_user=admin private_ip=172.16.26.136 ansible_ssh_pass=<password_from_file>

[control]
ansible ansible_host=107.23.192.217 ansible_user=ec2-user private_ip=172.16.207.49

[webservers]
host1 ansible_host=107.22.141.4 ansible_user=ec2-user private_ip=172.16.170.190
host2 ansible_host=54.146.162.192 ansible_user=ec2-user private_ip=172.16.160.13

    Note

    The IP’s in your environment will defer.

    The values from the inventory file will be used in subsequent playbooks

  3. Using your text editor of choice create a new file called bigip-facts.yml in the home directory ~/

    The BIG-IP input values are taken from the inventory file mentioned earlier

    ---
- name: GRAB F5 FACTS
  hosts: f5
  connection: local
  gather_facts: no

  tasks:
  - name: Set a fact named 'provider' with BIG-IP login information
    set_fact:
     provider:
      server: "{{private_ip}}"
      user: "{{ansible_user}}"
      password: "{{ansible_ssh_pass}}"
      server_port: 8443
      validate_certs: no

  - name: COLLECT BIG-IP FACTS
    bigip_device_facts:
      provider: "{{provider}}"
      gather_subset:
       - system-info
    register: device_facts

  - name: DISPLAY COMPLETE BIG-IP SYSTEM INFORMATION
    debug:
      var: device_facts

  - name: DISPLAY ONLY THE MAC ADDRESS
    debug:
      var: device_facts['system_info']['base_mac_address']

  - name: DISPLAY ONLY THE VERSION
    debug:
      var: device_facts['system_info']['product_version']

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

cd ~/
[student1@ansible ~]$ ansible-playbook bigip-facts.yml
  1. The output will look as follows. This playbook is grabbing information from the BIG-IP and displaying the relevant information.
[student1@ansible ~]$ ansible-playbook bigip-facts.yml

PLAY [GRAB F5 FACTS]
****************************************************************
TASK [Set a fact named 'provider' with BIG-IP login information]
****************************************************************
ok: [f5]

TASK [COLLECT BIG-IP FACTS]
****************************************************************
changed: [f5]

TASK [DISPLAY COMPLETE BIG-IP SYSTEM INFORMATION]
****************************************************************

ok: [f5] =>
  device_facts:
    ansible_facts:
      discovered_interpreter_python: /usr/bin/python
    changed: true
    failed: false

    system_info:
      base_mac_address: 02:f1:92:e9:a2:38
      chassis_serial: 4eae2aec-f538-c80b-b48ce7466d8f
      hardware_information:
      - model: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2686 v4 @ 2.30GHz
        name: cpus
        type: base-board
        versions:
        - name: cpu stepping
          version: '1'
        - name: cpu sockets
          version: '1'
        - name: cpu MHz
          version: '2294.944'
        - name: cores
          version: 2  (physical:2)
        - name: cache size
          version: 46080 KB
      marketing_name: BIG-IP Virtual Edition
      package_edition: Point Release 7
      package_version: Build 0.0.1 - Tue May 15 15:26:30 PDT 2018
      platform: Z100
      product_build: 0.0.1
      product_build_date: Tue May 15 15:26:30 PDT 2018
      product_built: 180515152630
      product_changelist: 2557198
      product_code: BIG-IP
      product_jobid: 1012030
      product_version: 13.1.0.7
      time:
        day: 28
        hour: 18
        minute: 38
        month: 10
        second: 42
        year: 2019
      uptime: 8196900.0

TASK [DISPLAY ONLY THE MAC ADDRESS]
****************************************************************
ok: [f5] =>
  device_facts['system_info']['base_mac_address']: 02:f1:92:e9:a2:38

TASK [DISPLAY ONLY THE VERSION]
****************************************************************
ok: [f5] =>
  device_facts['system_info']['product_version']: 13.1.0.7

PLAY RECAP
****************************************************************
f5                         : ok=4    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0

You have been successful in logging into the BIG-IP and grabbing/displaying facts. Your access to the BIG-IP is verified.

Congratulations, your lab is up and running!