Forum Discussion

CraigM_17826's avatar
CraigM_17826
Icon for Altocumulus rankAltocumulus
Jul 30, 2007

New to BigIP and IRules

Hi,

 

 

we have just purchased a pair of BigIP's and I have been tasked with configuring them to work with WebSphere 5.1.x. This is all completely new to me, so can anyone point me to some guide to programming in IRules?

 

 

I have managed to get some rough IRules going by basically looking at samples others have posted and a bit of guess work. They appear to be working, however I am sure they are not the most efficient, so any pointers to some IRule programming documentation would be most welcome.

 

 

Alternatively I could post what we require and what I have coded to date and people can comment on it if people do not mind.

 

 

Regards

 

 

Craig
application delivery
dev
devops
iRules
  • Andy_Herrman_22's avatar
    Andy_Herrman_22
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Jul 30, 2007
    The only place I've found iRule documentation is on the wiki on this site:

     

     

    http://devcentral.f5.com/Default.aspx?tabid=75

     

     

    Mostly I picked it up from examples and forum posts.

     

     

    A tool I've found very helpful is the iRule Editor. If you haven't grabbed it yet I'd suggest you do. It has auto-complete for iRule related commands, and gives links directly to the iRule and TCL help:

     

     

    http://devcentral.f5.com/Default.aspx?tabid=66
  • CraigM_17826's avatar
    CraigM_17826
    Icon for Altocumulus rankAltocumulus
    Jul 31, 2007
    Well the iRule editor is really nice. The generate traffic option is especially usefull. What would be just a nice would be a BIGIP s/w based simulator/emulator. Does such a thing exist? I don't like to practice on our production switches.

     

     

    Craig
  • JRahm's avatar
    JRahm
    Icon for Admin rankAdmin
    Jul 31, 2007
    If you don't have lab boxes, I'd recommend at least configuring pre-production virtual servers that you can utilize to apply profiles/rules/etc that will hit the production units on the back end but will be hit on the front end by only your test loads.
  • CraigM_17826's avatar
    CraigM_17826
    Icon for Altocumulus rankAltocumulus
    Aug 02, 2007
    Thanks for the tips everyone. I'll try and twist my boss's arm to get at least a dev BigIP. In the meantime I'll go the test virtual servers path.

     

     

    Once again thanks for all your assistance.

     

     

    Craig
  • hoolio's avatar
    hoolio
    Icon for Cirrostratus rankCirrostratus
    Mar 20, 2008
    F5 has a CR noting the request to be able to run BIG-IP software in a vmware-like instance. I think something like this would allow users to test iRules without having to use production BIG-IP hardware. It should also allow you to test ASM security policies and other L7 configurations.

     

     

    The CR is CR81856. It doesn't sound like it's likely to be released to the public, but we can at least let F5 know it would be a valuable feature. If you think this would help you, open a case via https://websupport.f5.com and ask to have your case attached to CR81856.

     

     

    Thanks,

     

    Aaron