Manage and upgrade vCMP hardware using Ansible
I am going to start with a definition of vCMP since many use it but don’t know what it stands for: **Virtual Clustered Multiprocessing™ (vCMP®)** is a feature of the BIG-IP® system that allows you to provision and manage multiple, hosted instances of the BIG-IP software on a single hardware platform.
With managing multiple instances on a single platform there is, almost certainly, repetitive tasks that will need to be performed. The vCMP platform is no exception. The vCMP host can consist of multiple slots and multiple guests can be distributed among those slots. There are different ways to provision vCMP guests on a host depending on the hardware specifications of the host. I won't go into details here but click here for great resource to guide you on vCMP guest distribution on vCMP hosts.
While there is a inclination to use a software-only solution, F5 BIG-IP vCMP can be a great solution since it provides the performance and reliability you can get from hardware along with an added layer of virtualization. Learn more about the benefits and comparisons of vCMP over other solutions
In this article I am going to talk about how you can use Ansible to deploy vCMP guests and also talk about how you can upgrade software on those guests.
Part 1: Deploy vCMP guests
The BIG-IP image is downloaded and accessible in a directory (/root/images) local from where the ansible playbook is being run
Example playbooks: vcmp_host_mgmt.yml
Deploy 1 vCMP guest
- name: vCMP MGMT
hosts: localhost
connection: local
vars:
image: "BIGIP-14.1.2-0.0.37.iso"
tasks:
# Setup the credentials used to login to the BIG-IP and store it
# in a fact that can be used in subsequent tasks
- name: Setup provider
set_fact:
vcmp_host_creds:
server: "10.192.xx.xx"
user: "admin"
password: "admin"
server_port: "443"
validate_certs: "no"
# Upload the software image to the BIG-IP (vCMP host)
- name: Upload software on vCMP Host
bigip_software_image:
image: "/root/images/{{image}}"
provider: "{{vcmp_host_creds}}"
# Deploy a vCMP guest with the base version of the software image uploaded above
- name: Create vCMP guest
bigip_vcmp_guest:
name: "vCMP85"
initial_image: "{{image}}"
mgmt_network: bridged
mgmt_address: 10.192.73.85/24
mgmt_route: 10.192.73.1
state: present
provider: "{{vcmp_host_creds}}"
Complete list of parameters that can be used for the module above
Few pointers:
- The vCMP guest when created can be set to any initial BIG-IP image that is present on the vCMP host (that could be the image and version of the vCMP host itself)
- If VLAN's need to be assigned to the vCMP guest at the time of creation those VLAN's need to be added to the host beforehand
- Different cores and slots can be assigned to the vCMP guest
- Management network can be set to bridged or isolated
Now the code above deploys 1 vCMP guest. If you have multiple vCMP guests that need to be deployed there are a number of ways to do that:
- Variable file: A variable file can be used to store information on each vCMP guest and then referenced within the playbook
- Loops: Using a loop within the task itself
Let's take a look at each option
Variable file: Deploy multiple vCMP guests using the async operation and a variable file
Example variable file: variable_file.yml
vcmp_guests: - name: "vCMP85" ip: "10.192.73.85" - name: "vCMP86" ip: "10.192.73.86"
Example playbook variable file: vcmp_host_mgmt_var.yml
- name: vCMP MGMT
hosts: localhost
connection: local
vars:
image: "BIGIP-14.1.2-0.0.37.iso"
vars_files:
- variable_file.yml
tasks:
- name: Setup provider
set_fact:
vcmp_host_creds:
server: "10.192.xx.xx"
user: "admin"
password: "admin"
server_port: "443"
validate_certs: "no"
- name: Upload software on vCMP Host
bigip_software_image:
image: "/root/images/{{image}}"
provider: "{{vcmp_host_creds}}"
- name: Create vCMP guest
bigip_vcmp_guest:
name: "{{item.name}}"
initial_image: "{{image}}"
mgmt_network: bridged
mgmt_address: "{{item.ip}}/24"
mgmt_route: 10.192.73.1
cores_per_slot: 1
state: present
provider: "{{vcmp_host_creds}}"
with_items: "{{vcmp_guests}}"
register: _create_vcmp_instances
# This will run the tasks in parallel and spin the vCMP guests simultaneously
async: 900
poll: 0
- name: Wait for creation to finish
async_status:
jid: "{{ item.ansible_job_id }}"
register: _jobs
until: _jobs.finished
delay: 10 # Check every 10 seconds. Adjust as you like.
retries: 85 # Retry up to 10 times. Adjust as needed.
with_items: "{{ _create_vcmp_instances.results }}"
Click here to learn more about the async_status module
Next let's look at an example of using loops
Example playbook loops: vcmp_host_mgmt_loops.yml
Deploy multiple vCMP guests using the async operation
- name: vCMP MGMT
hosts: localhost
connection: local
vars:
image: "BIGIP-14.1.2-0.0.37.iso"
tasks:
# Setup the credentials used to login to the BIG-IP and store it
# in a fact that can be used in subsequent tasks
- name: Setup provider
set_fact:
vcmp_host_creds:
server: "10.192.xx.xx"
user: "admin"
password: "admin"
server_port: "443"
validate_certs: "no"
# Upload the software image to the BIG-IP (vCMP host)
- name: Upload software on vCMP Host
bigip_software_image:
image: "/root/images/{{image}}"
provider: "{{vcmp_host_creds}}"
# Deploy a vCMP guest with the base version of the software image uploaded above
- name: Create vCMP guest
bigip_vcmp_guest:
name: "{{item.name}}"
initial_image: "{{image}}"
mgmt_network: bridged
mgmt_address: "{{item.ip}}/24"
mgmt_route: 10.192.73.1
state: present
provider: "{{vcmp_host_creds}}"
with_items:
- { name: 'vCMP85', ip: '10.192.73.85' }
- { name: 'vCMP86', ip: '10.192.73.86' }
register: _create_vcmp_instances
# This will run the tasks in parallel and spin the vCMP guests simultaneously
async: 900
poll: 0
- name: Wait for tasks creation above to finish
async_status:
jid: "{{ item.ansible_job_id }}"
register: _jobs
until: _jobs.finished
delay: 10 # Check every 10 seconds. Adjust as you like.
retries: 85 # Retry up to 10 times. Adjust as needed.
with_items: "{{ _create_vcmp_instances.results }}"
Part 2: Software upgrade
Once we have the vCMP guests deployed let's consider a scenario where a new software BIG-IP build is out with a fix for the vCMP guest.
Go through certain considerations while upgrading vCMP guests.
Example playbook: vcmp_guest_mgmt.yml
- name: vCMP guest MGMT
hosts: localhost
connection: local
vars:
image: "BIGIP-14.1.2.2-0.0.4.iso"
tasks:
- name: Setup provider
set_fact:
vcmp_guest_creds:
server: "10.192.xx.xx"
user: "admin"
password: "admin"
server_port: "443"
validate_certs: "no"
- name: Upload software on vCMP guest
bigip_software_image:
image: "/root/images/{{image}}"
provider: "{{vcmp_guest_creds}}"
# This command will list of the volumes available and the software present on each volume
- name: run show version on remote devices
bigip_command:
commands: show sys software
provider: "{{vcmp_guest_creds}}"
register: result
- debug: msg="{{result.stdout_lines}}"
# Enter the volume from above to which you want to install the software
- pause:
prompt: "Choose the volume for software installation (Example format HD1.2)"
register: volume
# If the format of the volume entered does not match below the playbook will fail
- fail:
msg: "{{volume.user_input}} is not a valid volume format"
when: volume.user_input is not regex("HD[1-9].[1-9]")
# This task will install the software and then boot the BIG-IP to that specific volume
- name: Ensure image is activated and booted to specified volume
bigip_software_install:
image: "{{image}}"
state: activated
volume: "{{volume.user_input}}"
provider: "{{vcmp_guest_creds}}"
Some End Notes
The upgrade procedure for vCMP guests is not just applicable for vCMP. This process can be used for a virtual edition or any hardware appliance of BIG-IP.
he same process is used on vCMP hosts as well although for vCMP hosts there are other factors to consider before performing an upgrade.
The code above was tested with Ansible 2.9 and a subset of modules used in the playbooks from the list of complete F5 ansible modules available
Happy automating !!
Published Nov 22, 2019
Version 1.0
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