For more information regarding the security incident at F5, the actions we are taking to address it, and our ongoing efforts to protect our customers, click here.

Forum Discussion

phcd_170645's avatar
phcd_170645
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Oct 13, 2014

Partitions - Duplicate Object names?

Hi,

 

Sorry for all the questions - nearly there.

 

I've read some documentation that says you can't have two objects on the F5 with the same name (v10 documentation) even if they are in different partitions. I've tried adding objects with the same name (but in different partitions) on my v11.6 Lab Edition and everything looks ok. I take it this functionality to have multiple objects with the same name but in different partitions is a recent addition.

 

Hopefully that's the case as it would make our lives a lot easier. We'd like to reuse the same iRule and Pool names across multiple partitions, that way our iRules can remain exactly the same and we have less management overhead.

 

Cheers,

 

Phil

 

application delivery
design
devops
iRules
management
partitions

3 Replies

  • StephanManthey's avatar
    StephanManthey
    Icon for Nacreous rankNacreous
    Oct 13, 2014

    Hi Phil,

     

    configuration items of different admin partitions are stored in different configuration files in v11.

     

    Please check the /config/partitions/ folder in the BIG-IP filesystem.

     

    In v10 everything was stored in separated sections of /config/bigip.conf.

     

    As they show up with a different paths now, perhaps it is supported now.

     

    Especially with v11.6 we saw a couple of changes regarding administration and privileges and even the ability to rename objects.

     

    As there are very likely more changes to come in future release I would recommend to be conservative with the naming conventions to avoid problems after updates in the future.

     

    Thanks, Stephan

     

  • Stefan_Klotz's avatar
    Stefan_Klotz
    Icon for Cumulonimbus rankCumulonimbus
    Dec 11, 2014

    Hi Phil,

     

    as Stephan already mentioned, in v10 this was because everything was stored within the same file. This limitation seems to be gone since v11, as you have different files for each partition.

     

    If we are using profiles, monitors or iRules across multiple partitions/route domains we typically create them once in the common partition with naming convention like "default_xxx". Objects of the common partition are inherit in every other partition and can be used there. The only thing you have to keep in mind (same as for parent objects), if you are changing these "default" objects this will have impact through all partitions where it is in use. But on the other hand you have to perform the changes only ones and don't have any risk of inconsistency. I think this depends on your personal use case, but it's maybe an option for the future.

     

    But in case we have objects within a partition with the same names, we typically use a naming convention like xxx_. This way it's always unique and safe for any future update.

     

    Ciao Stefan :)

     

  • phcd_170645's avatar
    phcd_170645
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Dec 12, 2014

    Thanks Stefan, I think we are going to take a similar approach.

     

    Appreciate the input!