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Zdenek's avatar
Zdenek
Icon for Cirrus rankCirrus
Feb 07, 2024
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AS3 - virtual server naming

I am new to AS3 (I use version 3.49) and I noticed that all virtual servers created by AS3 have hardcoded name "serviceMain" and the actual name of the service is written in the description. 

I would like to ask if this is some kind of joke or do I do something wrongly. I can paste AS3 declaration here, but I use slightly updated basic one I found here

When I try to modify the "serviceMain" to something else in the AS3 declaration I get an error that this is a required property.

devops
  • Zdenek's avatar
    Zdenek
    Feb 12, 2024

    Ok, all virtual servers don't have to have name "serviceMain" or "service". According to this article    if I use "Shared" as application class + I use template "shared" then I can use own naming for the virtual servers. That is related to version AS3 3.20+, so the link above is not valid as that's related to v3.19

     

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  • whisperer's avatar
    whisperer
    Icon for MVP rankMVP
    Feb 07, 2024

    No joke :)

    AS3 generally derives BIG-IP configuration component pathnames from declaration AS3 pointers by simply mapping AS3 Tenant name to BIG-IP partition name, AS3 Application name to BIG-IP folder name, and AS3 object name to BIG-IP component name. For instance, AS3 implements an AS3 Pool /T/A/mypool as BIG-IP ltm pool /T/A/mypool.

    This rule causes some confusion in the AS3 Service classes, where the schema forces the object name to be serviceMain. Without a static name, AS3 cannot perform validation, and to be consistent, AS3 was built to always match the BIG-IP object name to the name used in the declaration. However, when multiple apps are configured, the GUI view shows a list of seemingly identical virtual server names (serviceMain, serviceMain, serviceMain…). The difference between them is shown in a column to the right, where each virtual is shown to be in a different folder.

     

    Please take a look at this reference: https://clouddocs.f5.com/products/extensions/f5-appsvcs-extension/3.19/refguide/declaration-purpose-function.html.

    • Zdenek's avatar
      Zdenek
      Icon for Cirrus rankCirrus
      Feb 09, 2024

      Hmm, I wonder whether the AS3 dev team had a chance to work with F5 at bigger scale, because to do a decision that all virtual servers will be "serviceMain" is pure ignorance or limited experience. Now it's too late, but it surely could be done differently. We have environments with few tens of thousands virtual servers, all with the same name potentialy in future ... sweet

  • Zdenek's avatar
    Zdenek
    Icon for Cirrus rankCirrus
    Feb 12, 2024

    Ok, all virtual servers don't have to have name "serviceMain" or "service". According to this article    if I use "Shared" as application class + I use template "shared" then I can use own naming for the virtual servers. That is related to version AS3 3.20+, so the link above is not valid as that's related to v3.19