Lab 2.4 – Create an L4–7 Service Template & Deployment

To drive iApp automation-based L4-7 deployments, iWorkflow includes the capability to create a Tenant Service Catalog via L4 – L7 Service Templates. This model of deployment enables Declarative automation of F5 L4-7 services provided the underlying iApp templates are designed with a declarative presentation layer in mind. To demonstrate this capability we will create a simple Service Catalog Template and deploy and application from a tenant on our BIG-IP devices.

Task 1 – Create L4–7 Service Template

An L4-7 Service Deployment on iWorkflow is driven by the creation of an L4 – L7 Service Template. These templates allow a provider (administrator) to specify the values of specific fields from an origin iApp presentation layer. Additionally, the provider also defines the tenant interface to the service by marking which fields are ‘Tenant Editable’ and therefore visible during service deployment from the tenant. You can think of a Service Catalog Template and a filter that allows the vast majority of fields to be filled in or defaulted while only exposing the minimal set of fields required to deploy a service.

In this task we will create a Service Catalog Template that utilizes the f5.http iApp.

Perform the following steps to complete this task:

  1. Expand the “Lab 2.4 – iWorkflow Service Catalog & Service Deployment” folder in the Postman collection

  2. Click the “Step 1: Create PROVIDER Service Catalog Template” item in the collection. This request is pre-built and will create a new template using the f5.http iApp. Click the ‘Send’ button to create the template.

  3. Open a Chrome tab to iWorkflow (https://10.1.1.6) and login with admin/admin credentials. Expand the ‘Catalog’ pane and double-click the “Lab2.4_HTTP” template. Notice the cloud connector was associated as part of the REST request, various defaults have been populated (e.g. port ‘80’ for the pool__port variable) and some fields have been marked as ‘Tenant Editable’:

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  4. Go back to the Postman window and select the “Step 2: Get TENANT Service Catalog Template” item in the collection. Click the ‘Send’ button and examine the response. Notice that the TENANT definition of the service only shows fields that were marked ‘Tenant Editable’

Task 2 – Tenant L4-7 Service Deployment

In this task we will perform CRUD operations based on a deployment of the Service Catalog Template created in the previous task.

Perform the following steps to complete this task:

  1. Open a new Chrome tab to iWorkflow (https://10.1.1.6) and login with the credentials Username: tenant, Password: tenant. Expand the ‘Services’ pane.

  2. Click the “Step 3: Create TENANT Service Deployment” item in the collection. Examine the URL and JSON body. We will be creating a new Tenant Service Deployment under ‘MyTenant’ with the properties marked as ‘Tenant Editable’ provided:

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  3. Click the ‘Send’ button to create the Service Deployment. Examine the response. The iWorkflow GUI in your Chrome tab will also reflect a new item in the Services pane:

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  4. Open a Chrome tab to BIGIP-A. Click on Application Services -> Applications -> Lab2.4_HTTP_DEMO to view the config that was deployed on BIG-IP:

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  5. Go back to Postman and click the “Step 4: Get TENANT Service Deployment” item in the collection and click ‘Send’. This item is example of a GET of the service definition. The response should match what you see in the iWorkflow GUI when viewing the properties of a deployment.

  6. Click the “Step 5: Modify TENANT Service Deployment” item in the collection. This request is an example of an Update operation. Notice that we are sending a PUT request to the URL representing the service deployment. Examine the JSON body and note that in the ‘pool__members’ table there is an additional pool member with an IP of 10.1.10.12 that will be added. Click the ‘Send’ button to re-deploy the service:

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  7. Verify that the pool member was added on BIG-IP:

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  8. Go back to Postman and click the “Step 6: Delete TENANT Service Deployment” item. This item will send a DELETE request to the URL for the service deployment. Click ‘Send’ and verify that the deployment has been removed in the iWorkflow and BIG-IP GUIs.