Manual Chapter :
Create an application service using an AS3 template
Applies To:
Show Versions
BIG-IQ Centralized Management
- 7.1.0
Create an application service using an AS3 template
Before you can create and deploy an AS3 application service, you must be must be assigned a custom Application Creator role, or have user permissions to access the resources (templates, devices, etc.) needed to deploy the application.
If other application services have
been deployed to the same tenant,
then you must be assigned a user role that has access permissions for every template
that has been used to deploy application services to that tenant before you can
deploy an application to that tenant.
Creating a new application service from a template allows you to start from the set of objects defined in the template, modify or add objects, and then deploy the application service to your BIG-IP devices. As you create the application, you define at least one application service. The application services specify which of the template objects you want to include and revise the settings that need to be customized.
- At the top of the screen, clickApplicationsthen, on the left, clickAPPLICATIONS.The screen lists the applications currently defined on this device.
- ClickCreate.The Create Application Service screen opens.
- Decide whether you want to add a service to an existing application or to create a new application and application service.To add a service to a new application:
- For Grouping, selectNew Application.
- ForApplication Name, type a name for the new application.
- You can type aDescriptionto identify the new application.
To add a service to an existing application:- For Grouping, selectPart of an Existing Application.
- FromApplication Name, select the name of the application to which you want to add this application service.
- You can type aDescriptionto identify the application.
- For Application Service Method, selectUsing Templates.The screen displays additional controls.
- For theTemplate Type, select the AS3 template you want to use to create this application from.
- Use theApplication Service NameandDescriptionfields to identify this application service.
- For theTargetfield, identify the BIG-IP device to which you want the application to deploy.When you choose a target device, bear in mind that when AS3 deploys an application service, it deploys to the tenant partition specified in the AS3 template you are using. As part of the deployment process AS3 removes any objects previously existing in that target partition. For example, if you had manually deployed a number of virtual servers to a partition namedmy-app-serverson a BIG-IP namedmy.server.comand then use AS3 to deploy an application service to that same partition and device, AS3 would remove all of the virtual servers and then deploy the application service.
- Determine the objects that you want to deploy in this application.Required fields for the selected template are marked with a yellow border.
- To omit any of the objects defined in this template, click the (X) icon that corresponds to that object.
- To create additional copies of any of the objects defined in this template, click the (+) icon that corresponds to that object.
- For each object you decide to include in the application, revise the settings that you need to change.If you are deploying an application service to a device that resides in an Amazon or Azure cloud, you must type0.0.0.0/0for theVirtual Address. For both of these cloud environments, F5 recommends that you use an AWS or Azure load balancer in front of the device. The applications you plan to deploy on this device determine the required load balancer listener settings. Use the protocol and port appropriate for the template used to create this application.Use care when you configure a template to create objects that are used by other objects that are created in the same template. (For example, a template might create a service and a pool that the service uses.) If you name an object (you could name the pool Pool1 for example), and allow it to be edited, then when the application deploys, BIG-IQ looks for the name specified in the template; but, the person deploying the application service can edit that name to something else. Continuing the example, if the application deployer edits the pool name to something likeMyPool1, the deployment would fail. It fails because the template creates a pool namedPool1, but the deployment ‘looks for’ a pool namedMyPool1. To ensure successful application deployment, best practice is to leave editable objects in the template un-named so that the application deployer can use the name that best suits their need at the time.
- When you have configured the objects that you want to include in this application, clickCreate.BIG-IQ creates the application and deploys the application service to the target you specified.
When you to deploy an AS3
application service, BIG-IQ creates or updates the configuration objects defined by that
service on the managed device you targeted. You can view these objects, as they perform their
function as part of an application service, on the application services dashboard.
Before you can view these
newly-deployed objects on the Configuration tab, you must rediscover and re-import services
for each service impacted by the deployment. Keep in mind that objects deployed with AS3 are
view-only on the Configuration tab. To make changes to these objects, you make changes to the
AS3 application.
