The F5 Distributed Cloud Services (XC) feature called BIG-IP Service Discovery makes it easier to deliver and protect distributed applications on BIG-IP virtual servers. It does this by automatically finding them in an existing BIG-IP TMOS setup.

Augmenting BIG-IP with F5 Distributed Cloud streamlines operations and maximizes efficiency. This makes it easier to change your network settings without having to do it yourself. It also makes it easier to manage global traffic, without having to worry about managing hardware across regions. Ensure application uptime with real-time health monitoring and automated service registration for seamless handling of ephemeral applications. Additionally, this accelerates deployment in new environments with high-speed discovery and one-click policy deployment. Simplify, scale, and secure your applications effortlessly with F5 Distributed Cloud

Value delivered to BIG-IP deployments

Service discovery unlocks the full potential of your BIG-IP deployments by extending them with F5 Distributed Cloud’s SaaS services. Customers gain centralized observability across multiple BIG-IP instances via the F5 Distributed Cloud Console, ensuring seamless visibility and control. It strengthens application security with advanced services like API Discovery and XC WAF while shifting the security perimeter to the F5 Global Network for superior defense against large-scale attacks. It also enables secure partner access with ease and simplifies application migration to public clouds to optimize BIG-IP resources.

Technical details

The feature requires the deployment of an F5 Distributed Cloud CE with reachability to the BIG-IP management and data interfaces. In the case of the F5 rSeries, the CE and BIG-IP can be deployed on the same hardware. See the reference architecture for details. For other BIG-IP hardware and virtual deployments, the CE can be deployed on any supported platform like VMWare, KVM, or bare-metal servers.

The diagram below provides an overview of the solution in action:

 

 

 

With the XC CE Site, you can securely access internal resources without exposing them to the internet, providing enhanced control and security. Once the XC Site is set up, configuring BIG-IP Service Discovery becomes straightforward.

Before starting to configure Service Discovery, decide where the configuration will be. If BIG-IP is a dedicated resource managed by a single team, configure the Service Discovery object within the specific App Connect Namespace to ensure all resources are discovered in one namespace. This setup keeps the deployment isolated for use by a single team. Alternatively, for shared BIG-IP resources managed by different teams, configure the Service Discovery object in the Shared Configurations workspace.

 

To begin with, create a new BIG-IP Service Discovery object from the XC Cloud portal. Then enter the BIG-IP Management IP and Username and click on Configure to add the Admin Password. This establishes communication between F5 XC Cloud and the BIG-IP deployment.

 

In the Virtual Server Filter, you can fine-tune the discovery process by filtering Virtual Servers based on Name, Description, or Port Range. For instance, in this example:

• Name: Apply a regex filter using ^*app* to identify Virtual Servers containing the word "app" in their names.
• Port Range: Set the range to 8080-8090 to include only Virtual Servers operating within that specific port range.

This flexible filtering mechanism allows you to target specific services for discovery, streamlining the load balancer configuration process.

After applying the configuration, the Discovered Virtual Servers will appear in the interface. Keep in mind that it may take a few minutes for the system to load and display the Virtual Servers. Once they are listed, you can click on any of the discovered services to view detailed information

After the Virtual Servers are discovered, it becomes possible to create an HTTP Load Balancer in just a few clicks. Simply provide a name, domain name, and SSL details, and the HTTP Load Balancer will be created and configured automatically. While the initial setup is quick and straightforward, you can further customize it later by adding advanced features such as enhanced security, high availability (HA), or a DMZ configuration to meet specific operational requirements.

With HA, you will need to deploy an additional rSeries device with the same configuration to ensure redundancy and continuous availability. For a DMZ setup, a second data center is required to segregate external and internal traffic for added security. Once these components are in place, you can update the Origin Pool of the HTTP Load Balancer to include the new resources, ensuring a robust and scalable load balancing solution.

The diagram below illustrates this configuration, showing how HA and DMZ work together with the HTTP Load Balancer to enhance reliability and security.

Conclusion

In this article, we walk through configuring BIG-IP Service Discovery to automatically discover Virtual Servers and create an HTTP Load Balancer to expose applications to the internet. Beyond the basic setup, we also implemented High Availability by adding a second rSeries device and introduced a DMZ deployment by including a second data center, ensuring a more resilient and secure architecture.

More details on this feature and its configuration options are available in this technical documentation.

Or you can view a demonstration of the feature and related use cases in this Teachable Course.

With F5’s rSeries devices, you get the performance and scalability required to handle modern multi-cloud environments, while F5 Distributed Cloud simplifies management by providing centralized visibility and control. Elevate security, streamline operations, and future-proof your BIG-IP applications with F5 Distributed Cloud.