open-consul/website/content/docs/guides/consul-f5.mdx

324 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
Raw Blame History

This file contains ambiguous Unicode characters

This file contains Unicode characters that might be confused with other characters. If you think that this is intentional, you can safely ignore this warning. Use the Escape button to reveal them.

In this guide you will use Consul to configure F5 BIG-IP nodes and server pools.
You will set up a basic F5 BIG-IP AS3 declaration that generates the load
balancer backend-server-pool configuration based on the available service
instances registered in Consul service discovery.
## Prerequisites
To complete this guide, you will need previous experience with F5 BIG-IP and
Consul. You can either manually deploy the necessary infrastructure, or use the
terraform demo code.
### Watch the Video - Optional
Consul's intetgration with F5 was demonstrated in a webinar. If you would prefer
to lear about the integration but aren't ready to try it out, you can [watch the
webinar recording
instead](https://www.hashicorp.com/resources/zero-touch-application-delivery-with-f5-big-ip-terraform-and-consul).
### Manually deploy your infrastructure
You should configure the following infrastructure.
- A single Consul datacenter with server and client nodes, and the configuration
directory for Consul agents at `/etc/consul.d/`.
- A running instance of the F5 BIG-IP platform. If you dont already have one
you can use a [hosted AWS
instance](https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/B079C44MFH) for this guide.
- The AS3 package version 3.7.0
[installed](https://clouddocs.f5.com/products/extensions/f5-appsvcs-extension/latest/userguide/installation.html)
on your F5 BIG-IP platform.
- Standard web server running on a node, listening on HTTP port 80. We will use
NGINX in this guide.
### Deploy a demo using Terraform - Optional
You can set up the prerequisites on your own, or use the terraform
configuration in [this
repository](https://github.com/hashicorp/f5-terraform-consul-sd-webinar) to set
up a testing environment.
Once your environment is set up, you'll be able to visit the F5 GUI at
`<F5_IP>:8443/tmui/login.jsp` where `<F5_IP>` is the address provided in your
Terraform output. Login with the username `admin` and the password from your
Terraform output.
### Verify your environment
Check your environment to ensure you have a healthy Consul datacenter by
checking your datacenter members. You can do this by running the `consul members` command on the machine where Consul is running, or by accessing the
Consul web UI at the IP address of your consul instances, on port 8500.
```shell-session
$ consul memberss
Node Address Status Type Build Protocol DC Segment
consul 10.0.0.100:8301 alive server 1.5.3 2 dc1 <all>
nginx 10.0.0.109:8301 alive client 1.5.3 2 dc1 <default>
```
In this sample environment we have one Consul server node, and one web server
node with a Consul client.
## Register a Web Service
To register the web service on one of your client nodes with Consul, create a
service definition in Consul's config directory `/etc/consul.d/` named
`nginx-service.json`. Paste in the following configuration, which includes a tcp
check for the web server so that Consul can monitor its health.
```json
{
"service": {
"name": "nginx",
"port": 80,
"checks": [
{
"id": "nginx",
"name": "nginx TCP Check",
"tcp": "localhost:80",
"interval": "5s",
"timeout": "1s"
}
]
}
}
```
Reload the client to read the new service definition.
```shell-session
$ consul reload
```
In a broswer window, visit the services page of the Consul web UI at
`<your-consul-ip>:8500/ui/dc1/services/nginx`.
![Consul UI with NGINX registered](/static/img/consul-f5-nginx.png 'Consul web
UI with a healthy NGINX service')
You should notice your instance of the nginx service listed and healthy.
## Apply an AS3 Declaration
Next you will configure BIG-IP to use Consul Service discovery with an AS3
declaration. You will use cURL to apply the declaration to the BIG-IP Instance.
First construct an authorization header to authenticate our API call with
BIG-IP. You will need to use a username and password for your instance. Below is
an example for username “admin”, and password “password”.
```shell-session
$ echo -n 'admin:password' | base64
YWRtaW46YWRtaW4=
```
Now use cURL to send the authorized declaration to the BIG-IP Instance. Use the
value you created above for your BIG-IP instance in the authorization header.
Remember t o replace `<your-BIG-IP-mgmt-ip>` with the real IP address.
```shell-session
$ curl -X POST \
https://<your-BIG-IP-mgmt-ip>/mgmt/shared/appsvcs/declare \
-H 'authorization: Basic <your-authorization-header>' \
-d '{
"class": "ADC",
"schemaVersion": "3.7.0",
"id": "Consul_SD",
"controls": {
"class": "Controls",
"trace": true,
"logLevel": "debug"
},
"Consul_SD": {
"class": "Tenant",
"Nginx": {
"class": "Application",
"template": "http",
"serviceMain": {
"class": "Service_HTTP",
"virtualPort": 8080,
"virtualAddresses": [
"<your-BIG-IP-virtual-ip>"
],
"pool": "web_pool"
},
"web_pool": {
"class": "Pool",
"monitors": [
"http"
],
"members": [
{
"servicePort": 80,
"addressDiscovery": "consul",
"updateInterval": 5,
"uri": "http://<your-consul-ip>:8500/v1/catalog/service/nginx"
}
]
}
}
}
}
'
```
You should get a similar output to the following after youve applied your
declaration.
```json
{
"results": [
{
"message": "success",
"lineCount": 26,
"code": 200,
"host": "localhost",
"tenant": "Consul_SD",
"runTime": 3939
}
],
"declaration": {
"class": "ADC",
"schemaVersion": "3.7.0",
"id": "Consul_SD",
"controls": {
"class": "Controls",
"trace": true,
"logLevel": "debug",
"archiveTimestamp": "2019-09-06T03:12:06.641Z"
},
"Consul_SD": {
"class": "Tenant",
"Nginx": {
"class": "Application",
"template": "http",
"serviceMain": {
"class": "Service_HTTP",
"virtualPort": 8080,
"virtualAddresses": ["10.0.0.200"],
"pool": "web_pool"
},
"web_pool": {
"class": "Pool",
"monitors": ["http"],
"members": [
{
"servicePort": 80,
"addressDiscovery": "consul",
"updateInterval": 5,
"uri": "http://10.0.0.100:8500/v1/catalog/service/nginx"
}
]
}
}
},
"updateMode": "selective"
}
}
```
The above declaration does the following:
- Creates a partition (tenant) named `Consul_SD`.
- Defines a virtual server named `serviceMain` in `Consul_SD` partition with:
- A pool named web_pool monitored by the http health monitor.
- NGINX Pool members autodiscovered via Consul's [catalog HTTP API
endpoint](/api-docs/catalog#list-nodes-for-service).
For the `virtualAddresses` make sure to substitute your BIG-IP Virtual
Server.
- A URI specific to your Consul environment for the scheme, host, and port of
your consul address discovery. This could be a single server, load balanced
endpoint, or co-located agent, depending on your requirements. Make sure to
replace the `uri` in your configuration with the IP of your Consul client.
You can find more information on Consul SD declarations in [F5s Consul service
discovery
documentation](https://clouddocs.f5.com/products/extensions/f5-appsvcs-extension/latest/declarations/discovery.html#service-discovery-using-hashicorp-consul)
You can read more about composing AS3 declarations in the [F5 documentation](https://clouddocs.f5.com/products/extensions/f5-appsvcs-extension/latest/userguide/composing-a-declaration.html). The Terraform provider for BIG-IP [also supports AS3 resources](https://www.terraform.io/docs/providers/bigip/r/bigip_as3.html).
## Verify BIG-IP Consul Communication
Use the `consul monitor` command on the consul agent specified in the AS3 URI to
verify that you are receiving catalog requests from the BIG-IP instance.
```shell-session
$ consul monitor -log-level=debug
2019/09/06 03:16:50 [DEBUG] http: Request GET /v1/catalog/service/nginx (103.796µs) from=10.0.0.200:29487
2019/09/06 03:16:55 [DEBUG] http: Request GET /v1/catalog/service/nginx (104.95µs) from=10.0.0.200:42079
2019/09/06 03:17:00 [DEBUG] http: Request GET /v1/catalog/service/nginx (98.652µs) from=10.0.0.200:45536
2019/09/06 03:17:05 [DEBUG] http: Request GET /v1/catalog/service/nginx (101.242µs) from=10.0.0.200:45940
```
Check that the interval matches the value you supplied in your AS3 declaration.
## Verify the BIG-IP Dynamic Pool
Check the network map of the BIG-IP instance to make sure that the NGINX
instances registered in Consul are also in your BIG-IP dynamic pool.
To check the network map, open a browser window and navigate to
`https://<your-big-IP-mgmt-ip>/tmui/tmui/locallb/network_map/app/?xui=false#!/?p=Consul_SD`.
Remember to replace the IP address.
![NGINX instances in BIG-IP](/static/img/consul-f5-partition.png 'NGINX
instances listed in the BIG-IP web graphical user interface')
You can read more about the network map in the [F5
documentation](https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K20448153#accessing%20map).
## Test the BIG-IP Virtual Server
Now that you have a healthy virtual service, you can use it to access your web
server.
```shell-session
$ curl <your-BIG-IP-virtual-ip>:8080
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Welcome to nginx!</title>
<style>
body {
width: 35em;
margin: 0 auto;
font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Welcome to nginx!</h1>
<p>If you see this page, the nginx web server is successfully installed and
working. Further configuration is required.</p>
<p>For online documentation and support please refer to
<a href="http://nginx.org/">nginx.org</a>.<br/>
Commercial support is available at
<a href="http://nginx.com/">nginx.com</a>.</p>
<p><em>Thank you for using nginx.</em></p>
</body>
</html>
```
## Summary
The F5 BIG-IP AS3 service discovery integration with Consul queries Consul's
catalog on a regular, configurable basis to get updates about changes for a
given service, and adjusts the node pools dynamically without operator
intervention.
In this guide you configured an F5 BIG-IP instance to natively integrate with
Consul for service discovery. You were able to monitor dynamic node registration
for a web server pool member, and test it with a virtual server.
As a follow up, you can add or reemove web server nodes reegistered with Consul
and validate that the network map on the F5 BIG-IP updates automatically.