FTP Session Logging
Problem this snippet solves: This iRule logs FTP connections and username information. By default connection mapping from client through BIG-IP to server is logged as well as the username entered by the client. Optionally you can log the entire FTP session by uncommenting the log message in CLIENT_DATA. Code : # This iRule logs FTP connections and username information. # By default connection mapping from client through BIG-IP to server is logged # as well as the username entered by the client. Optionally you can log the # entire FTP session by uncommenting the log message in CLIENT_DATA. when CLIENT_ACCEPTED { set vip [IP::local_addr]:[TCP::local_port] set user "unknown" } when CLIENT_DATA { # uncomment for full session logging #log local0. "[IP::client_addr]:[TCP::client_port]: collected payload ([TCP::payload length]): [TCP::payload]" # check if payload contains the string we want to replace if { [TCP::payload] contains "USER" } { # use a regular expression to save the user name ## regex modified by arkashik regexp "USER \(\[a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)" [TCP::payload] all user # log connection mapping from client through BIG-IP to server log local0. "FTP connection from $client. Mapped to $inside -> $node, user $user" TCP::release TCP::collect } else { TCP::release TCP::collect } } when SERVER_CONNECTED { set client "[IP::client_addr]:[TCP::client_port]" set node "[IP::server_addr]:[TCP::server_port]" set inside "[serverside {IP::local_addr}]:[serverside {TCP::local_port}]" TCP::collect } when SERVER_DATA { TCP::release clientside { TCP::collect } }BIG-IP Report
Problem this snippet solves: Overview This is a script which will generate a report of the BIG-IP LTM configuration on all your load balancers making it easy to find information and get a comprehensive overview of virtual servers and pools connected to them. This information is used to relay information to NOC and developers to give them insight in where things are located and to be able to plan patching and deploys. I also use it myself as a quick way get information or gather data used as a foundation for RFC's, ie get a list of all external virtual servers without compression profiles. The script has been running on 13 pairs of load balancers, indexing over 1200 virtual servers for several years now and the report is widely used across the company and by many companies and governments across the world. It's easy to setup and use and only requires auditor (read-only) permissions on your devices. Demo/Preview Interactive demo http://loadbalancing.se/bigipreportdemo/ Screen shots The main report: The device overview: Certificate details: How to use this snippet: Installation instructions BigipReport REST This is the only branch we're updating since middle of 2020 and it supports 12.x and upwards. Downloads: https://loadbalancing.se/downloads/bigipreport-v5.7.16.zip Documentation, installation instructions and troubleshooting: https://loadbalancing.se/bigipreport-rest/ Docker support https://loadbalancing.se/2021/01/05/running-bigipreport-on-docker/ Kubernetes support https://loadbalancing.se/2021/04/16/bigipreport-on-kubernetes/ BIG-IP Report (Legacy) Older version of the report that only runs on Windows and is depending on a Powershell plugin originally written by Joe Pruitt (F5) BIG-IP Report (only download this if you have v10 devices): https://loadbalancing.se/downloads/bigipreport-5.4.0-beta.zip iControl Snapin https://loadbalancing.se/downloads/f5-icontrol.zip Documentation and Installation Instructions https://loadbalancing.se/bigip-report/ Upgrade instructions Protect the report using APM and active directory Written by DevCentral member Shann_P: https://loadbalancing.se/2018/04/08/protecting-bigip-report-behind-an-apm-by-shannon-poole/ Got issues/problems/feedback? Still have issues? Drop a comment below. We usually reply quite fast. Any bugs found, issues detected or ideas contributed makes the report better for everyone, so it's always appreciated. --- Join us on Discord: https://discord.gg/7JJvPMYahA Code : BigIP Report Tested this on version: 12, 13, 14, 15, 16F5 Per-App AS3 Part 2 How to see if there are manual changes!
Code version: The code was tested on 17.1.5.3 AS3: 3.55 For more about AS3 and per-app AS3 see my previous code share Part 1 article: https://community.f5.com/kb/codeshare/f5-per-app-as3-part-1-how-share-tenant-specific-object/345072 First we will send Per-App AS3 declaration as shown below. { "id": "per-app-declarationn", "schemaVersion": "3.55.0", "controls": { "class": "Controls", "logLevel": "debug", "trace": true, "traceResponse": true }, "A2": { "class": "Application", "service": { "class": "Service_HTTP", "virtualAddresses": [ "10.0.3.10" ], "pool": "web2_pool" }, "web2_pool": { "class": "Pool", "monitors": [ "http" ], "members": [{ "servicePort": 80, "serverAddresses": [ "192.7.21.10", "192.7.21.11" ] }] } } } Then we will change for example virtual server ip from 10.0.3.10 to 10.0.3.11 and we will send the same declaration but with "dryRun" set to true as this will cause AS3 to validate the config but not to execute it and with trace and traceResponse we will get the difference 😎 { "id": "per-app-declarationn", "schemaVersion": "3.55.0", "controls": { "class": "Controls", "logLevel": "debug", "trace": true, "dryRun": true, "traceResponse": true }, "A2": { "class": "Application", "service": { "class": "Service_HTTP", "virtualAddresses": [ "10.0.3.10" ], "pool": "web2_pool" }, "web2_pool": { "class": "Pool", "monitors": [ "http" ], "members": [{ "servicePort": 80, "serverAddresses": [ "192.7.21.10", "192.7.21.11" ] }] } } } Now we see that the IP has been changed from 10.0.3.10 to 10.0.3.11 and here we go now we have the difference ! This can be added in CI/CD to always first do "dry-run" using the original declaration to see if there are changes before executing the new AS3 declaration that could be for example changing the IP address to 10.0.3.12 but using the official way. Look at the Json reply "diff" section that is seen thanks to trace and traceResponse options and an automation can just check this section and stop the new deployment if the manual changes need to be reviewed first. For AS3 basic declaration not Per-App actually the "dry-run" is a different. F5 likes changing the naming like Local Traffic policies to Endpoint Policies or naming of TLS profiles between GU/TMSH and AS3 😅 { "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/F5Networks/f5-appsvcs-extension/refs/heads/main/schema/3.55.0/as3-schema.json", "class": "AS3", "action": "dry-run", "logLevel": "debug", "trace": true, "traceResponse": true, "persist": true, "declaration": { "class": "ADC", "schemaVersion": "3.55.0", "id": "BIG-IP-Example-Tenant", "Example": { "class": "Tenant", "Shared": { "class": "Application", "template": "shared", "Example_Response": { "remark": "Used for F5 response", "class": "iRule", "iRule": { "base64": "d2hlbiBIVFRQX1JFUVVFU1Qgew0KICAgSFRUUDo6cmVzcG9uZCAyMDAgY29udGVudCB7DQogICAgICA8aHRtbD4NCiAgICAgICAgIDxoZWFkPg0KICAgICAgICAgICAgPHRpdGxlPkFwb2xvZ3kgUGFnZTwvdGl0bGU+DQogICAgICAgICA8L2hlYWQ+DQogICAgICAgICA8Ym9keT4NCiAgICAgICAgICAgIFdlIGFyZSBzb3JyeSwgYnV0IHRoZSBzaXRlIHlvdSBhcmUgbG9va2luZyBmb3IgaXMgdGVtcG9yYXJpbHkgb3V0IG9mIHNlcnZpY2U8YnI+DQogICAgICAgICAgICBJZiB5b3UgZmVlbCB5b3UgaGF2ZSByZWFjaGVkIHRoaXMgcGFnZSBpbiBlcnJvciwgcGxlYXNlIHRyeSBhZ2Fpbi4NCiAgICAgICAgIDwvYm9keT4NCiAgICAgIDwvaHRtbD4NCiAgIH0NCn0=" } } } } } } This will not show if someone has manually added a vlan for example as only changes on the apps that were deployed with AS3 will be seen. For those you will get error like the one below when you try to delete the partition. "" 0107082a:3: All objects must be removed from a partition "" https://my.f5.com/manage/s/article/K02718312 https://my.f5.com/manage/s/article/K000138638 Github link: https://github.com/Nikoolayy1/AS3-Per-App-Manual-Changes/tree/mainF5 Per-App AS3 Part 1 How Share Tenant specific object
Code version: The code was tested on 17.1.5.3 AS3: 3.55 For testing F5 AS3 you can use combination of Postman as Visual Studio has option to post AS3 declarations but not Per-App specific as that will be needed for executing my code. Still I recommend using Visual Studio for general AS3 or Fast Templates and you can use the reference links for how to use Visual Studio F5 extensions and maybe F5 will update the extension in the future to work for Per-App AS3 with options for adding tenant and as variables 🤔 For FAST nice example is at https://github.com/Nikoolayy1/fast-template-examples The same way the /Shared objects can be configured under /Common can be done under a specific tenant and this is really useful if Per-App AS3 is enabled as each AS3 app will use separate declaration and all of them can use a customer iRule defined under /<Tenant>/Shared. References for AS3 Declarative API: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrjrcnwAe1g&t=433s AS3 Foundations: Beyond Imperatives - What the Heck is AS3? | DevCentral https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHSBpOtQg_0&list=PLrn3yqXftAPUPdSP_kbCX6BDicVprsnfI Per-App AS3 is enabled by default for the AS3 3.50.x and above but if needed enable it. POST Endpoint: /mgmt/shared/appsvcs/settings { "perAppDeploymentAllowed": true } POST Endpoint for Creating the Tenant and the Shared irule that is base64 endpoint: /mgmt/shared/appsvcs/declare { "schemaVersion": "3.45.0", "Shared": { "class": "Application", "template": "shared", "test": { "class": "iRule", "remark": "yes", "iRule": { "base64": "d2hlbiBIVFRQX1JFUVVFU1Qgew0KICAgSFRUUDo6cmVzcG9uZCAyMDAgY29udGVudCB7DQogICAgICA8aHRtbD4NCiAgICAgICAgIDxoZWFkPg0KICAgICAgICAgICAgPHRpdGxlPkFwb2xvZ3kgUGFnZTwvdGl0bGU+DQogICAgICAgICA8L2hlYWQ+DQogICAgICAgICA8Ym9keT4NCiAgICAgICAgICAgIFdlIGFyZSBzb3JyeSwgYnV0IHRoZSBzaXRlIHlvdSBhcmUgbG9va2luZyBmb3IgaXMgdGVtcG9yYXJpbHkgb3V0IG9mIHNlcnZpY2U8YnI+DQogICAgICAgICAgICBJZiB5b3UgZmVlbCB5b3UgaGF2ZSByZWFjaGVkIHRoaXMgcGFnZSBpbiBlcnJvciwgcGxlYXNlIHRyeSBhZ2Fpbi4NCiAgICAgICAgIDwvYm9keT4NCiAgICAgIDwvaHRtbD4NCiAgIH0NCn0=" } } } } POST Endpoint for sending Per-App AP that references the Tenant shared iRule I: /mgmt/shared/appsvcs/declare/Example/applications { "schemaVersion": "3.45.0", "A1": { "class": "Application", "service": { "class": "Service_HTTP", "virtualAddresses": [ "10.0.1.10" ], "pool": "web_pool", "iRules": [ { "use": "/Test/Shared/test" }, "insert_xff" ] }, "web_pool": { "class": "Pool", "monitors": [ "http" ], "members": [ { "servicePort": 80, "serverAddresses": [ "192.0.1.10", "192.0.1.12" ] } ] }, "insert_xff": { "class": "iRule", "iRule": "when HTTP_REQUEST { HTTP::header insert X-Forwarded-For [IP::client_addr] }" } } } Github link: Editing AS3-Per-App-Shared-Tenant-Objects/README.md at main · Nikoolayy1/AS3-Per-App-Shared-Tenant-Objects Note! To see the Tenant config use GET Endpoint /mgmt/shared/appsvcs/declare/Example or for the app /mgmt/shared/appsvcs/declare/Example/A1 For only the Tenant shared config use GET /mgmt/shared/appsvcs/declare/Example/applications/Shared By placing the pools in the /Shared under the Tenant all Per-AS3 declarations for Tenant can use the pool like for the iRule example I showed and also the pools can share the node IP addresses like the "shareNodes" option but only for the tenant. https://my.f5.com/manage/s/article/K88250015
Weblogic JSessionID Persistence
Problem this snippet solves: Contributed by: unRuleY, Summarized by: deb Note: The previous version of this iRule contained escaped newlines following the session command, which in versions 10.0 - 10.2.0 causes TMM to core as documented in CR135937 / SOL11427. This was fixed in 10.2.1. See this related Codeshare example for details on how to take advantage of session replication on the WebLogic servers with targeted node failover in an iRule. Provides persistence on the jsessionid value found in either the URI or a cookie. When a request is received, the iRule first looks for a "jsessionid" cookie, and if not found, for a "jsessionid" parameter in the requested URI. If either is found, a persistence record is created if it doesn't already exist, or followed if it does. If neither is found, the request is load balanced according to the load balancing method applied to the virtual server and persisted based on the client's IP address. In order to ensure the second and subsequent requests follow the first, LTM must create a persistence record indicating the pool member to which the first request was load balanced. If the server is setting the jsessionid in a cookie, the persistence key value may be extracted from the server response to create the persistence record. If the server is setting the jsessionid in the URLs, source address persistence with a short timeout is recommended to track the original destination until the jsessionid is sent. How to use this snippet: To ensure a new persistence record is followed when a request is re-load balanced in a client-side Keep-Alive connection, apply a OneConnect profile to the virtual server. The iRule assumes the jsessionid is in upper case when used as a cookie name. If this isn't the case, please update the example. To persist on jsessionid, create the iRule below and create a custom Universal persistence profile, with Match Across Services enabled, that uses the iRule. Then use this custom Universal persistence profile as the Default Persistence profile on your Virtual Server. Applying a Fallback Persistence profile of type Source Address Affinity with a host mask and a short timeout (the default source_addr persistence profile will do the trick) to your Virtual Server is also recommended. Attention, if you are running firmware 11.0 - 11.2.1 and enabled "Match Across Services"! There is a bug inside. SOL14061 This iRule requires LTM v10. or higher. Code : when HTTP_REQUEST { # Log details for the request set log_prefix "[IP::client_addr]:[TCP::client_port]" log local0. "$log_prefix: Request to [HTTP::uri] with cookie: [HTTP::cookie value JSESSIONID]" # Check if there is a JSESSIONID cookie if { [HTTP::cookie "JSESSIONID"] ne "" }{ # Persist off of the cookie value with a timeout of 1 hour (3600 seconds) persist uie [string tolower [HTTP::cookie "JSESSIONID"]] 3600 # Log that we're using the cookie value for persistence and the persistence key if it exists. log local0. "$log_prefix: Used persistence record from cookie. Existing key? [persist lookup uie [string tolower [HTTP::cookie "JSESSIONID"]]]" } else { # Parse the jsessionid from the path. The jsessionid, when included in the URI, is in the path, # not the query string: /path/to/file.ext;jsessionid=1234?param=value set jsess [findstr [string tolower [HTTP::path]] "jsessionid=" 11] # Use the jsessionid from the path for persisting with a timeout of 1 hour (3600 seconds) if { $jsess != "" } { persist uie $jsess 3600 # Log that we're using the path jessionid for persistence and the persistence key if it exists. log local0. "$log_prefix: Used persistence record from path: [persist lookup uie $jsess]" } } } when HTTP_RESPONSE { # Check if there is a jsessionid cookie in the response if { [HTTP::cookie "JSESSIONID"] ne "" }{ # Persist off of the cookie value with a timeout of 1 hour (3600 seconds) persist add uie [string tolower [HTTP::cookie "JSESSIONID"]] 3600 log local0. "$log_prefix: Added persistence record from cookie: [persist lookup uie [string tolower [HTTP::cookie "JSESSIONID"]]]" } }Encrypted UCS Backup with REST-API
Because it seems this nowhere documented: Create a encrypted F5 backup with REST-API including private keys. This script should creates the task, starts it and get's it status. #!/usr/bin/env bash CURL_OPTS=("--fail-with-body" "--show-error" "-s" "-k" "-u" "user:pass" "-H" "Content-Type: application/json" "-H" "Accept: application/json, */*") # Create task and get id TASK_ID=$(jq -n --arg name /var/local/ucs/test.ucs \ --arg passphrase "testpw" \ '{ "command": "save", "name": $name, "options": [ { "passphrase": $passphrase } ] }' \ | curl "${CURL_OPTS[@]}" -X POST -d @- https://f5-lab/mgmt/tm/task/sys/ucs \ | jq -r "._taskId") # Start task jq -n '{ "_taskState": "VALIDATING" }' | curl "${CURL_OPTS[@]}" -X PUT -d @- "https://f5-lab/mgmt/tm/task/sys/ucs/$TASK_ID" # Get task status curl "${CURL_OPTS[@]}" --retry 5 --retry-all-errors --retry-delay 10 "https://f5-lab/mgmt/tm/task/sys/ucs/$TASK_ID" \ | jq -r "._taskState" Reference was https://my.f5.com/manage/s/article/K000138875 and the passphrase options was found by trial and error.Logstash pipeline tester
Code is community submitted, community supported, and recognized as ‘Use At Your Own Risk’. Short Description A tool that makes developing logstash pipelines much much easier. Problem solved by this Code Snippet Oh. The problem... Have you ever tried to write a logstash pipeline? Did you suffer hair loss and splitting migraines? So did I. Presenting, logstash pipeline tester which gives you a web interface where you can paste raw logs, send them to the included logstash instance and see the result directly in the interface. The included logstash instance is also configured to automatically reload once it detects a config change. How to use this Code Snippet TLDR; Don't do this, read the manual or checkout the video below Still here? Ok then! 🙂 Install docker Clone the repo Run these commands in the repo root folder:sudo docker-compose build # Skip sudo if running Windows sudo docker compose up​ # Skip sudo if running WindowsGo to http://localhost:8080 on your PC/Mac Pick a pipeline and send data Edit the pipeline Send data Rince, repeat Version info v1.0.27: Dependency updates, jest test retries and more since 1.0.0 https://github.com/epacke/logstash-pipeline-tester/releases/tag/v1.0.29 Video on how to get started: https://youtu.be/Q3IQeXWoqLQ Please note that I accidentally started the interface on port 3000 in the video while the shipped version uses port 8080. It took me roughly 5 hours and more retakes than I can count to make this video, so that mistake will be preserved for the internet to laugh at. 🙂 The manual: https://loadbalancing.se/2020/03/11/logstash-testing-tool/ Code Snippet Meta Information Version: Check GitHub Coding Language: NodeJS, Typescript + React Full Code Snippet https://github.com/epacke/logstash-pipeline-testerF5 DNS/GTM External Monitor(EAV) with SNI support and response code check
Code is community submitted, community supported, and recognized as ‘Use At Your Own Risk’. The example DNS/GTM health monitor is for versions before 16.1 as BIG-IP supports SNI for default DNS/GTM HTTPS monitor in the latest version but if you have still not upgraded then this is for you! I have used this monitor for XC Distributed Cloud as the HTTP LB share by default the same tenant IP address and SNI support is needed. You can order dedicated public IP addresses for each HTTP LB and enable "Default Load Balancer" ( https://my.f5.com/manage/s/article/K000152902 ) option but it will cost you extra 😉 The script is a modified version of External https health monitor for SNI-enabled pool as to handle response codes and to set the SNI globally for the entire pool and it's members. If you are uploading from Windows machine see External monitor fails to run as you could hit the bug. This could be needed for F5 DNS/GTM below 16.1 that do not support SNI in HTTPS monitors. The only mandatory variable is "SNI" that should be set in the external monitor config that references this uploaded bash script. The "URI" variable by default is set to "/" and "$2" variable by default is empty or 443, the default expected response code 200. #!/bin/sh # External monitoring script for checking HTTP status code # $1 = IP (::ffff:nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn notation or hostname) # $2 = port (optional; defaults to 443 if not provided) # Default SNI to IP if not explicitly provided node_ip=$(echo "$1" | sed 's/::ffff://') # Remove IPv6 compatibility prefix SNI=${SNI:-"$node_ip"} # Assign sanitized IP to SNI # Default variables MON_NAME=${MON_NAME:-"MyExtMon$$"} pidfile="/var/run/$MON_NAME.$1..$2.pid" # PID file path DEBUG=${DEBUG:-0} # Enable debugging if set to 1 EXPECTED_STATUS=${EXPECTED_STATUS:-200} # Default HTTP status code to 200 URI=${URI:-"/"} # Default URI DEFAULT_PORT=443 # Default port (used if $2 is unset) # Set port to default if $2 is not provided if [ -z "${2}" ]; then PORT=${DEFAULT_PORT} else PORT=${2} fi # Kill old process if pidfile exists if [ -f "$pidfile" ]; then kill -9 -$(cat "$pidfile") > /dev/null 2>&1 fi echo "$$" > "$pidfile" # Perform the HTTP(S) request via single curl (fetch status code only) status_code=$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' --connect-timeout 5 --resolve "${SNI}:${PORT}:${node_ip}" "https://${SNI}:${PORT}${URI}") # Cleanup rm -f "$pidfile" > /dev/null 2>&1 # Output server status based on HTTP status code match if [ "$status_code" -eq "$EXPECTED_STATUS" ]; then echo "up" else echo "down" fi # Debugging if [ "$DEBUG" -eq 1 ]; then echo "Debugging on..." echo "SNI=${SNI}" echo "URI=${URI}" echo "IP=${node_ip}" echo "PORT=${PORT}" echo "MON_NAME=${MON_NAME}" echo "STATUS_CODE=${status_code}" echo "EXPECTED_STATUS=${EXPECTED_STATUS}" echo "curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' --connect-timeout 5 --resolve ${SNI}:${PORT}:${node_ip} https://${SNI}:${PORT}${URI}" fiLess than 60 seconds lab setup
Code is community submitted, community supported, and recognized as ‘Use At Your Own Risk’. Today I'll share with you my less than 60 seconds lab setup which I use for testing basic stuff. It's an AS3 declaration that will setup two virtuals, the first virtual that accepts any http traffic on port 80 and forwards it to a second virtual that will respond 200 OK to any HTTP request. The lab can easily be extended to add a https virtual. Purpose of this setup I use this configuration for many scenarios. With this setup I can test different profiles, TLS configurations (requires small adjustments), AWAF rules and iRules attached to the first virtual server without the requirement to setup any backend application. Deploying this AS3 declaration takes less than 20 seconds and I have a basic lab environment ready. Prerequisites In order to use this config, you must have AS3 installed on your BIG-IP. If you have not worked with AS3 yet and you are new to automation, I recommend you to start with Visual Studio Code and install The F5 Extension. From The F5 Extension you can connect your BIG-IP and install the AS3 extension and deploy the declaration. Furthermore: if you have not with AS3 yet - you're damn late to the party! My AS3 declaration The full declaration is available on GitHub, let's just look at the iRules. The iRules are the important part of this lab config. Don't get confused that you won't see the iRule code in the AS3 declaration. It's there, but it's base64 encoded. Forwarding iRule The iRule attached to the first virtual just forwards to the second virtual. Don't get confused by the path /simple_testing/responder_service/. AS3 works with Partitions, so called tenants. Therefore I must reference the second virtual with the name of its partition and application. when HTTP_REQUEST { virtual /simple_testing/responder_service/service_http_200 } HTTP Responder iRule The second iRule is attached to the second virtual server. It will just return a HTML page that says 200 OK to any request. when HTTP_REQUEST { HTTP::respond 200 content { <html> <head> <title>BIG-IP</title> </head> <body> 200 OK </body> </html> } } Deployment As said above, for starting with this you don't need anything but a BIG-IP and Visual Studio Code. After installing the F5 Extension you can connect (using the + symbol) to your BIG-IP from VS Code. After connecting you can install the AS3 extension on your BIG-IP. And then you are ready to deploy the AS3 declaration linked above. The deployment will take less than 60 seconds. Once the deployment is done, you will have a Partition called on your BIG-IP. There you will find the two virtual servers. The website is nothing special... What's next? In the next couple of days, I will share with you a simple website I made with the help of ChatGPT. It can run on any webserver, NGINX, Apache, IIS... The website has 4 flavors (red, blue, green and yellow) and I use it for testing LTM use-cases like persistence, priority groups, http profiles, SNAT, etc. This will be my less than 600 seconds lab.Less than 600 seconds lab
Code is community submitted, community supported, and recognized as ‘Use At Your Own Risk’. In my previous post I shared with you, how you can deploy a lab environment in less than 60 seconds with AS3. This time let's take a look at another lab, that you can set up in less than 10 minutes. Purpose of this lab This lab requires a web server. And some minimal knowledge of Linux (Debian) and git. In my example, I use NGINX. The web application consists of four pages in four colours (red, blue, yellow and green) that are designed to demonstrate the load balancing functionality of the F5 Local Traffic Manager (LTM). You can use the app to familiarise yourself with load balancing functionalities such as: different load balancing methods and priority groups different types of persistence caching HTTP, SSL and other profiles SNAT The web application has a couple of nice features real-time server information display like Server hostname Request timestamp (ISO 8601 format) Request URI Source IP address X-Forwarded-For (XFF) header User-Agent informatio modern, responsive UI picture gallery Prerequisites First you need to set up and configure the web server. Add multiple IPs to the web server (Debian 11+). Edit /etc/network/interfaces: sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces Add the following: allow-hotplug eth0 iface eth0 inet static address 192.168.1.10/24 gateway 192.168.1.1 auto eth0:1 allow-hotplug eth0:1 iface eth0:1 inet static address 192.168.1.11/24 auto eth0:2 allow-hotplug eth0:2 iface eth0:2 inet static address 192.168.1.12/24 auto eth0:3 allow-hotplug eth0:3 iface eth0:3 inet static address 192.168.1.13/24 Restart networking: sudo systemctl restart networking Note: Replace eth0 with your actual interface name. Generate SSL Certificate Create a self-signed SSL certificate with RSA 2048-bit key (no password): openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 \ -keyout nginx-selfsigned.key -out nginx-selfsigned.crt \ -subj "/C=US/ST=State/L=City/O=Organization/CN=example.com" Installing the web application Example for NGINX 1. Clone the repository git clone https://github.com/webserverdude/ltm-demo-html.git cd webpages 2. Deploy to your web server sudo cp -r * /var/www/ltm-demo-html 3. Configure your web server see below NGINX Configuration The configuration includes HTTP as well as HTTPS listeners. Add this configuration to your NGINX server block: server { listen 192.168.1.10:8000 default_server; root /var/www/ltm-demo-html; index index_red.html; server_name _; add_header X-Backend-Server 1; add_header Set-Cookie "X-Backend-Server=1; Max-Age=10"; location / { try_files $uri $uri/ =404; } # Enable the substitution filter sub_filter_once off; # Allow multiple substitutions # Replace template variables with actual NGINX variables sub_filter '{{server_name}}' '$hostname'; sub_filter '{{time_iso8601}}' '$time_iso8601'; sub_filter '{{request_uri}}' '$request_uri'; sub_filter '{{remote_addr}}' '$remote_addr'; sub_filter '{{http_x_forwarded_for}}' '$http_x_forwarded_for'; sub_filter '{{http_user_agent}}' '$http_user_agent'; } server { listen 10.0.2.71:443 ssl default_server; ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/nginx-selfsigned.crt; ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/nginx-selfsigned.key; # SSL configuration ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3; ssl_ciphers ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384; ssl_prefer_server_ciphers off; ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:10m; ssl_session_timeout 10m; root /var/www/ltm-demo-html; index index_red.html; server_name _; add_header X-Backend-Server 1; add_header Set-Cookie "X-Backend-Server=$request_id; Max-Age=10; Secure; SameSite=Strict"; location / { try_files $uri $uri/ =404; } # Enable the substitution filter sub_filter_once off; # Allow multiple substitutions # Replace template variables with actual NGINX variables sub_filter '{{server_name}}' '$hostname'; sub_filter '{{time_iso8601}}' '$time_iso8601'; sub_filter '{{request_uri}}' '$request_uri'; sub_filter '{{remote_addr}}' '$remote_addr'; sub_filter '{{http_x_forwarded_for}}' '$http_x_forwarded_for'; sub_filter '{{http_user_agent}}' '$http_user_agent'; } Note: This is just a snippet for one HTTP and one HTTPS virtual. The full config for all four pages is available at my Git repository in the nginx_config folder. Once this is done, check the web pages from your browser. Make sure they work as expected. Configure your BIG-IP After the web server is running and serving all 4 pages with HTTP and HTTPS, you can configure your BIG-IP. My AS3 declaration includes an HTTP and an HTTPS virtual server, two pools and some http and persistence profiles. Here is a snippet: { "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/F5Networks/f5-appsvcs-extension/main/schema/latest/as3-schema.json", "class": "AS3", "action": "deploy", "persist": true, "declaration": { "class": "ADC", "schemaVersion": "3.0.0", "LTM_Demo": { "class": "Tenant", "LTM_Demo": { "class": "Application", "vs_http": { "class": "Service_HTTP", "virtualAddresses": [ "192.168.3.80" ], "persistenceMethods": [], "profileHTTP": { "use": "pr_http_xff" }, "pool": "pl_ltm-demo_http", "snat": { "use": "pl_SNAT_addresses" } }, ... The complete AS3 configuration can be found in my Git repository. The repository also contains an additional AS3 declaration with further configuration options. Note: You should not deploy the second declaration with the optional configurations; instead, merge the snippets you want to use into ltm_demo.json. Deployment The deployment of the AS3 declaration works similar like I described in my previous post. What's next? You can try differnet load balancing algorithms, persistence methods, caching, SSL configurations. Once you set up the web app and the LTM config, play around - the sky is the limit. Have fun!
