Automating BIG-IP with Ansible v.1.7

This course is intended for network administrators and operators and DevOps engineers interested in automating tasks on BIG-IP systems in their public and private Clouds as well as in their data-center infrastructure.

• Review Automation and DevOps concepts

• Describe the components of iControl REST calls and how they interact with BIG-IP

• Stand up and configure BIG-IP applications using iControl REST

• Describe the major components of Ansible and how they work together to configure BIG-IP

• Use flow control elements such as conditionals and looping in Ansible Playbooks

• Onboard and configure BIG-IP applications using Ansible

Chapter 1: Linux Command Line Review

• Navigating the Linux File System

• Creating and Deleting Files and Directories

• Copying and Moving Files

• Command Line Auto-Completion and Editing

• Tools for Analyzing Test Results and Inspecting Log Files

Chapter 2: BIG-IP Application Creation Review

• Understanding Load Balancing Basics

• Configuring Virtual Servers, Pools, Pool Members and Nodes

• Configuring Health Monitors and SSL Profiles

• Understanding the Full Proxy Architecture and Source Address Translation

Chapter 3: Automation and DevOps Concepts

• Understanding Infrastructure as Code, NetOps and DevOps

• Differentiating Automation and Orchestration Concepts

• Diving into DevOps Concepts such as Idempotency, Atomicity and Imperative vs Declarative

Chapter 4: Programming BIG-IP with iControl REST

• Introducing Basic JavaScript Types

• Introducing JavaScript Object Notation

• Discovering an existing BIG-IP Configuration using iControl REST

• Deploying Apps on BIG-IP using iControl REST

• Onboarding BIG-IP using iControl REST

• Working with JSON Programmatically

Chapter 5: Automating BIG-IP with Ansible

• Introducing YAML

• Establishing an Ansible Trust Relationship

• Creating an Ansible Playbook

• Exploring the Playbook

• Working with the Inventory File

• Using the Command Module

• Gathering Facts for the Playbook

• Deploying Apps on BIG-IP using Ansible

• Deleting a BIG-IP Application

• Onboarding a BIG-IP system using Ansible

• Deploying BIG-IP HA

• Investigating Ansible Roles

Students should be familiar with and be able to configure basic BIG-IP elements such as:

• Virtual Servers

• Pools, Pool Members and Nodes

• Pool Monitors

• Basic Virtual Server Profiles

Students should also be familiar with the basics of the Linux command line.  In addition, the following general technical knowledge should be well understood:

• Layer 2 Ethernet and ARP networking concepts

• Layer 3 and 4 TCP/IP networking concepts, including IP addressing and subnetting

• Layer 7 HTTP networking concepts

• Linux command line and basic Linux commands

• HTML

Finally, nice-to-have knowledge includes familiarity with programming and/or scripting languages, such as:

• JavaScript or NodeJS

• Python

• Bash

Delegates will be provided with official F5 e-kit courseware approximately 1 week prior to the start of the course.