Manual Chapter : Tenant Management

Applies To:

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F5OS-A

1.5.0

Tenant Management

Tenants overview

tenant

is a guest system running software on the

F5OS

platform layer (for example, a

BIG-IP

system). You can run several tenants on most platforms, although the

r2000 Series only supports a single tenant. For more information, see Tenant data.

The administrator can connect to the tenant’s webUI, CLI, or REST API and have the same experience as on their existing

platforms. A tenant on the

rSeries

platform is managed similarly to how a vCMP guest is managed today on the VIPRION platform. The tenant is assigned dedicated vCPU and memory resources and is restricted to specific VLANs for network connectivity.

The admin is responsible for configuring tenant deployments within the appliance. Once a tenant has been deployed, there is a per-tenant administrator role, whose responsibilities include configuring the services that are available on that tenant.

Tenants inherit certain capabilities, such as the license, VLANs, and management interface speed, from the

system

. Do not try to install a new license or delete the existing license on the tenants. Tenant admins cannot configure global parameters. You configure these at the platform layer, and values are propagated to all tenants in the

system

Tenant data

This table lists tenant data specifications for

rSeries

systems.

Tenant data for F5 rSeries systems
Model	Maximum number of tenants	Maximum vCPUs per tenant	Minimum vCPUs per tenant	System memory	Memory reserved for tenants	Minimum memory per tenant
r2600	1	4	4	32 GB	24 GB	12288 MB
r2800	1	8	4	32 GB	24 GB	12288 MB
r4600	2	12	4	64 GB	48 GB	12288 MB
r4800	4	16	4	64 GB	48 GB	12288 MB
r5600	8	12	1	128 GB	104 GB	4096 MB
r5800	18	18	1	128 GB	104 GB	4096 MB
r5900	26	26	1	128 GB	104 GB	4096 MB
r10600	24	24	1	256 GB	224 GB	4096 MB
r10800	28	28	1	256 GB	224 GB	4096 MB
r10900	36	36	1	256 GB	224 GB	4096 MB

Tenants example

In this diagram, an rSeries system has eight tenants (red and blue).

Each tenant has its own IP address, set of users, and software. You can access each tenant via the CLI, web-based user interface, or API.

After you have configured and deployed a tenant, you can use the tenant management IP address to connect to the tenant's web-based user interface, API, or CLI. A BIG-IP tenant is running standard TMOS and is managed like any other BIG-IP instance.

Tenant image overview

BIG-IP tenant images

These

BIG-IP

tenant images are available to deploy on

rSeries

systems:

ALL-F5OS

T4-F5OS

T2-F5OS

T1-F5OS (see note)

T1-F5OS has limitations, so using the other images is recommended. Other images must be downloaded from F5 Downloads.

Each image type has different uses so you need to be sure to use the correct type for your tenant needs. For additional information about BIG-IP tenant image types, see K45191957: Overview of the BIG-IP tenant image types.

Tenant usage

This table lists general use cases for tenant images.

Tenant image	Description of Use
ALL-F5OS	Use case: Needs multi-tenancy, multi-module, and service chaining Supports provisioning rSeries-supported modules * (also called all-instance image) Live-upgradable * The F5 r2000 platform does not support multi-tenancy. See the F5 rSeries data sheet for all currently-supported features.
T4-F5OS	Use case: Single tenant with multiple modules Supports provisioning all modules with increased capacity Live-upgradable
T2-F5OS	Use case: Needs maximum tenant density, maximum tenants per system Supports provisioning LTM or DNS only Live-upgradable
T1-F5OS	Use case: Needs maximum tenant density, maximum tenants per system Supports lightweight LTM or DNS only (also called micro-instance) You cannot upgrade or apply a hotfix to the system

Tenant sizing

Each image has different sizing requirements. You will need to understand the system and the tenant requirements to determine the number and type of tenants you can deploy. The amount of memory and disk space that a tenant actually needs is dependent on the number of modules provisioned and its use.

Tenant image	Disk size	Minimum memory	Minimum # vCPUs	Max tenants per system
T1-F5OS	22GB	4GB	1	36
T2-F5OS	45GB	8GB	2	18
ALL-F5OS	77/82 GB²	8GB	2	11
T4-F5OS	142GB	8GB	2	6

Tenant resource allocation overview

These are recommended resource considerations for determining the amount of memory (RAM) and disk space to allocate when planning tenant deployments on

rSeries

systems.

Memory allocation

These are recommendations for determining the amount of memory (RAM) to allocate when planning tenant deployments on

rSeries

systems based on the number of vCPUs assigned.

Platform	Memory	Default memory allocation formula
r2000	32 GB	min-memory = (3.5 * 1024 * vcpu-cores-per-node)
r4000	64 GB	min-memory = (3.5 * 1024 * vcpu-cores-per-node)
r5000	128 GB	min-memory = (3.5 * 1024 * vcpu-cores-per-node) + 512
r10000	256 GB	min-memory = (3.5 * 1024 * vcpu-cores-per-node) + 512

The formula for finding vcpu-cores-per-node is:

multiples of 4 in range of [4, max-cores]

. The default value for

vcpu-cores-per-node

is 4, and the default value for

memory

is 12288.

There is also an advanced setting through which additional memory can be assigned out of the pool to a tenant. You can specify more than the minimum amount of memory when configuring a tenant, if needed.

Disk space

These are recommendations for determining the amount of disk space when planning tenant deployments on

rSeries

systems.

The amount of disk space that a tenant actually needs is dependent on the number of modules provisioned and its use.

As the aggregate disk usage within deployed tenants increases, the host disk can start to reach capacity on systems with many large tenants. The administrator will need to monitor disk usage to make sure there is sufficient space for the tenants.

Tenant management from the webUI

Manage tenant images from the webUI

You can add or delete tenant images from the webUI. You must use HTTPS image import or export. Note that tenant images are specific to the

rSeries

system, and the software version must be compatible with it.

On the left, click

TENANT MANAGEMENT

Tenant Images

To upload an image, click

Upload

and browse to the image location.

To import an image:

Click

Import

A popup opens.

For

URL

, enter the URL of the remote image server.

F5 recommends that the remote host be an HTTPS server with PUT/POST enabled and have a valid CA-signed certificate. You can opt to select the

Ignore Certificate Warnings

check box if you want to skip the certificate check.

For

Username

, type the user name for an account on the remote image server, if required.

For

Password

, type the password for the account, if required.

Select

Ignore Certificate Warnings

to skip the certificate check.

Click

Import Image

Depending on the image file size and network availability, the import might take a few minutes. When the import is successful, the software image is listed in the webUI.

To delete a tenant image, select the image and click

Delete

After you have added the tenant images that you want to use to the system, you can create and deploy tenants that will use that software image. The tenant image must be one that is listed as compatible with the

rSeries

system.

Create and deploy tenants from the webUI

You must have imported the tenant images that you want to use for the tenant deployments into the system. You must also have previously created any required VLANs. Before you can create and deploy tenants, you also need to estimate resource requirements so you know how many vCPUs, memory, and other resources to assign to the tenant.

An administrator can deploy tenants from the webUI. You can open a preview pane with tenant details by clicking anywhere in a row. You can resize the preview pane to show more or less information. To close the preview pane, click

or click again anywhere in the row.

On the left, click

TENANT MANAGEMENT

Tenant Deployments

The Tenant Deployment screen displays showing the existing tenant deployments and associated details.

To add a tenant deployment, click

Add

The Add Tenant Deployment screen displays.

For

Name

, enter a name for the tenant deployment (up to 49 characters).

The first character in the name cannot be a number. After that, only lowercase alphanumeric characters and hyphens are allowed.

For

Type

, keep the default setting of

BIG-IP

For

Image

, select the software image that was previously imported onto the system.

Ensure that the image you selected meets your tenant deployment needs.

For

IP Address

, enter the IPv4 address, IPv6 address, or Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) for the tenant.

For

Prefix Length

, enter a number for the length of the prefix.

The maximum prefix length is 32 for IPv4 and 128 for IPv6.

For

Gateway

, enter the IPv4 address or IPv6 address of the gateway.

For

VLANs

, select one or more VLANs that are available to the tenant.

You can assign VLANs to more than one tenant.

For

Virtual Wires

, select configured virtual wires for the tenant.

This field displays only when virtual wires are configured on the system.

For

Resource Provisioning

, select one of these options:

Option	Description
Recommended	Recommended values for vCPUs and memory for the tenant.
Advanced	Enables you to configure custom values for vCPUs and memory on the tenant. For example, if you want to configure a single vCPU tenant, or a tenant that uses more than the recommended amount of memory.

For

vCPUs

, select the number of vCPUs to provide to the tenant.

The minimum recommended number of vCPUs per typical tenant is two (one vCPU is sufficient only for lightweight tenants that cannot be updated). The number of vCPUs needed depends on the amount of traffic the tenant will be handling. More vCPUs provide faster throughput.

For

Memory

, specify the amount of RAM, in MB, to allocate to the tenant.

The amount of memory needed depends on the number of vCPUs assigned. The minimum amount of memory needed is determined by the formula

[(3.5 * 1024 * #ofvCPUs) + 512]

If you do not allocate sufficient memory, you may receive a warning message.

For

Virtual Disk Size

, specify the storage quota, in GB, for the tenant virtual disk.

Default size depends on the image type used. The default size for the ALL image is 82GB.

For

State

, choose one of these options:

Options	Description
Configured	The tenant configuration exists on the system, but the tenant is not running, and no hardware resources (CPU, memory) are allocated to it. This is the initial state and the default.
Provisioned	Moves the tenant into the Provisioned state, which causes the system to install the software, assign the tenant to nodes, and create virtual disks for the tenant on those nodes. If you choose this option, it takes a few minutes to complete the provisioning. The tenant does not run while in this state.
Deployed	Changes the tenant to the Deployed state. The tenant is set up, resources are allocated to the tenant, the image is moved onto the system, the software is installed, and after those tasks are complete, the tenant is fully deployed and running. If you choose this option, it takes a few minutes to complete the deployment and bring up the system. Once a tenant is Deployed (and is up and running), changing its state back to Configured or Provisioned stops the tenant. You will receive a warning message before this occurs.

For

Crypto/Compression Acceleration

, select

Enabled

if the tenant requires high-performance crypto processing and compression.

When this option is enabled, the tenant receives dedicated crypto devices proportional to the number of vCPU cores. Crypto processing and compression are off-loaded to the hardware. When the option is disabled, the tenant receives no crypto devices.

To restrict usage of the Bash shell for tenant administrators, set

Appliance Mode

Enabled

(this is

Disabled

by default.)

Click

Save & Close

The tenant is now configured and in the Deployed state. When the status says Running, the tenant administrator can log in to the tenant webUI or CLI using the management IP address (with HTTPS or SSH) and continue configuring the tenant system.

If the Status says Pending instead of Running, this may mean that there are not enough resources (vCPUs, memory, or other resources) for the tenant to be deployed. See the Tenant Details screen in the webUI for more information about the specific tenant.

Modify tenant deployments from the webUI

Depending on the state that the tenant is in, you can change certain tenant settings from the webUI. A warning displays if you try to make any other changes.

Deployed

: You can change the

State

only while tenants are running.

Once a tenant is Deployed (and is up and running), changing its state back to Provisioned or Configured stops the tenant. You will receive a warning message before this occurs.

Provisioned

: You can change all settings except

Image

Configured

: You can change all settings except

Image

On the left, click

TENANT MANAGEMENT

Tenant Deployments

The Tenant Deployment screen displays showing the existing tenant deployments and associated details.

Click the name of the tenant deployment you want to modify.

The Edit Tenant Deployment screen displays.

For

Image

, select a different software image to use for the tenant, if in Configured state.

You can change the

IP Address

Prefix Length

(1-32), and

Gateway

for the tenant, if in Configured or Provisioned state. Enter an IPv4 address or IPv6 address.

For

VLANs

, you can select different VLANs for the tenant, if in Configured or Provisioned state.

For

Virtual Wires

, select configured virtual wires for the tenant.

This field displays only when virtual wires are configured on the system.

For

MAC Data/MAC Block Size

, select One, Small, Medium, or Large.

Option	Description
One	Represents a block with one MAC. This is used when l2-inline-device functionality is not needed. This is the default value.
Small	Represents a block of 8 MACs. When this value is used, the l2-inline-device is enabled, and the tenant gets a block of 8 contiguous MACs.
Medium	Represents a block of 16 MACs. When this value is used, the l2-inline-device is enabled, and the tenant gets a block of 16 contiguous MACs.
Large	Represents a block of 32 MACs. When this value is used, the l2-inline-device is enabled, and the tenant gets a block of 32 contiguous MACs.

For

Resource Provisioning

, if changing resources, select either:

Recommended

(to use recommended values) or

Advanced

(to customize values), if in Configured or Provisioned state.

For

vCPUs

, select the number of vCPUs for the tenant, if in Configured or Provisioned state.

For

Memory

, specify the amount of RAM in MB to allocate to the tenant, if in Configured or Provisioned state.

The amount of memory needed depends on the number of vCPUs assigned. The minimum amount of memory needed is determined by the formula

[(3.5 * 1024 * #ofvCPUs) + 512]

, so a two vCPU tenant needs a minimum of 7680 MB, and a four vCPU tenant needs a minimum of 14,848MB.

Change

State

(with caution!):

Option	Description
Configured	If tenant has been Provisioned or Deployed, the virtual disk is deleted.
Provisioned	If Deployed, this option stops the tenant from running, but maintains the configuration. If Configured, causes the system to install the software, assign the tenant to nodes, and create virtual disks for the tenant on those nodes. The tenant does not run, consume resources, or pass traffic.
Deployed	Directly deploys the tenant. This sets up the tenant, allocates resources, moves the image onto the system, and installs the software. When these tasks are complete, the tenant is fully deployed and running.

Change

Crypto/Compression Acceleration

only if the tenant is in either the Configured or Provisioned state.

To restrict usage of the Bash shell for tenant administrators, set

Appliance Mode

Enabled

(this is

Disabled

by default.)

Click

Save & Close

The tenant is reconfigured according to the changes made.

Tenant management from the CLI

Display tenant resources from the CLI

Before creating a tenant, you can display total and available tenant resources, such as vCPUs, memory, and disk space from the CLI. You can also display storage and tenant volume size from the CLI.

When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

Show the storage and tenant volume size.

show components component storage

This example displays the storage and tenant volume size:

appliance-1# show components component storage
components component platform
storage state disks disk nvme0n1
  state model Micron_7300_MTFDHBA480TDF
  state vendor Micron
  state version 954300T0
  state serial-no 213931BC1153
  state size 480.00GB

Import a tenant image from the CLI

Before you get started, you might want to upload the tenant image you want to use to a local Linux server that uses HTTPS, so you can more easily import it to the

rSeries

system.

You can import a tenant image onto the system from the CLI.

When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

Import a tenant image to the system.

file import remote-port <port-number> username <user> password <password> remote-host <ip-address-or-fqdn> remote-file <remote-file-path> remote-url <full-remote-url> local-file images

This example imports a

BIG-IP

tenant image from server.company.com:

appliance-1(config)# file import username admin password remote-url 
  https://server.company.com/images/BIGIP-1x.x.x-x.x.x.ALL-F5OS.qcow2.zip.bundle
  local-file images

Create and deploy tenants from the CLI

Before you get started, import the tenant images you want to use for the tenant deployments. You must already have created VLANs on the system. Before you can create and deploy tenants, you also need to estimate resource requirements so you know how many vCPUs, memory, and other resources to assign to the tenant.

You can create and deploy tenants from the CLI.

When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

Change to config mode.

config

The CLI prompt changes to include

(config)

Create and deploy the tenant.

tenants tenant <name> config <options>

For more information about CLI options, see Tenant CLI command syntax.

This example creates a BIG-IP tenant called

big-ip

that is in the configured running-state, by default:

appliance-1(config)# tenants tenant big-ip config type BIG-IP 
  image BIGIP-15.1.6-0.0.3.ALL-F5OS.qcow2.zip.bundle mgmt-ip 192.0.2.200
  prefix-length 24 gateway 192.0.2.254 nodes 1

Commit the configuration changes.

commit

Return to user (operational) mode.

end

You can monitor the operational state of the tenant and move the tenant into the provisioned running-state.

tenants tenant big-ip config running-state provisioned

This causes the system to assign the tenant to nodes and create virtual disks for the tenant on those nodes.

Show the current status for the tenant:

show tenants tenant big-ip

When the system is creating the virtual disk and installing the image on a disk, the operational state of the tenant shows this information:

PHASE – Allocating resources to the tenant is in progress

status – Provisioning

A summary similar to this example displays:

appliance-1# show tenants tenant big-ip
tenants tenant big-ip
 state name          big-ip
 state unit-key-hash PcPJWXRSLgdL3FRivOJODwrIZdYLncH3rqrjkW0X03uKHZFSLPjAc3d3E3Pbgd+Piq8p86LsMgma/kHoRdd+Kg==
 state type          BIG-IP
 state image         BIGIP-15.1.6-0.0.3.ALL-F5OS.qcow2.zip.bundle
 state mgmt-ip       192.0.2.200
 state prefix-length 24
 state gateway       192.0.2.254
 state cryptos       disabled
 state vcpu-cores-per-node 2
 state memory        7680
 state running-state provisioned
 state mac-data mgmt-mac 00:0a:49:ff:20:0c
 state mac-data base-mac 00:0a:49:ff:20:0d
 state mac-data mac-pool-size 1
 state appliance-mode disabled
 state status        Provisioning
                INSTANCE                                                 CREATION  READY          MGMT
NODE  POD NAME  ID        PHASE                                          TIME      TIME   STATUS  MAC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1     big-ip-1  1         Allocating resources to tenant is in progress                           -

When the system completes the virtual disk creation, the operational state shows this information:

PHASE – Ready to deploy

status – Provisioned

A summary similar to this example displays:

appliance-1# show tenants tenant big-ip
tenants tenant big-ip
 state name          big-ip
 state unit-key-hash PcPJWXRSLgdL3FRivOJODwrIZdYLncH3rqrjkW0X03uKHZFSLPjAc3d3E3Pbgd+Piq8p86LsMgma/kHoRdd+Kg==
 state type          BIG-IP
 state image         BIGIP-15.1.6-0.0.3.ALL-F5OS.qcow2.zip.bundle
 state mgmt-ip       192.0.2.200
 state prefix-length 24
 state gateway       192.0.2.254
 state cryptos       disabled
 state vcpu-cores-per-node 2
 state memory        7680
 state running-state provisioned
 state mac-data mgmt-mac 00:0a:49:ff:20:0c
 state mac-data base-mac 00:0a:49:ff:20:0d
 state mac-data mac-pool-size 1
 state appliance-mode disabled
state status        Provisioned
                INSTANCE                   CREATION  READY          MGMT
NODE  POD NAME  ID        PHASE            TIME      TIME   STATUS  MAC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1     big-ip-1  1         Ready to deploy                           -

Change to config mode.

config

The CLI prompt changes to include

(config)

You can then deploy the tenant.

tenants tenant big-ip config running-state deployed

This example moves the tenant into the deployed state, which causes the system to start and maintain VMs on each node to which the tenant is assigned.

Commit the configuration changes.

commit

Return to user (operational) mode.

end

You can check the status of the tenant.

show tenants tenant big-ip state instances

A summary similar to this example displays:

appliance-1# show tenants tenant big-ip state instances
                INSTANCE
NODE  POD NAME  ID        PHASE    CREATION TIME         READY TIME            STATUS                   MGMT MAC
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1     big-ip-1  1         Running  2022-04-08T15:30:20Z  2022-04-08T15:30:21Z  Started tenant instance  00:94:a1:69:34:25

Once you configure and deploy the tenant, and the Status is updated to Running, then you can use the management IP address to access the tenant system using SSH, the web-based interface, or TMOS Shell (

tmsh

Once a tenant is Deployed (and is up and running), changing its state back to Configured or Provisioned stops the tenant. You will receive a warning message before this occurs.

If the Status is Pending instead of Running, this might mean that there are not enough resources (vCPUs, memory, or other resources) for the tenant to be deployed. See the Tenant Details screen in the webUI for more information about the specific tenant.

Display tenant information from the CLI

You can display detailed information about configured tenants from the CLI.

When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

Show the tenants that are currently configured.

show tenants

This example displays the operational data for a

BIG-IP

tenant. It uses one VLAN, no cryptos, two vCPU cores, and appliance mode is not enabled. The Instance table in the output displays the live health of the tenant running on the

rSeries

system.

appliance-1# show tenants tenant big-ip
tenants tenant bigip
 state unit-key-hash oa9gv8VYHcSoApv1234GQMn2uM9UzNKiDz78cIbqKv26LVjlIo9TCdp56z5UnXcVvr3hj0/ym2kbdWyBhPbkLA==
 state type          BIG-IP
 state image         BIGIP-15.1.6-0.0.3.ALL-F5OS.qcow2.zip.bundle
 state mgmt-ip       192.0.2.59
 state prefix-length 24
 state gateway       192.0.2.254
 state cryptos       enabled
 state vcpu-cores-per-node 2
 state memory       7680
 state storage size 77
 state running-state deployed
 state mac-data base-mac 00:12:a1:8e:70:0a
 state mac-data mac-pool-size 1
 state appliance-mode disabled
 state status        Starting
                INSTANCE                                                 CREATION  READY          MGMT
NODE  POD NAME  ID        PHASE                                          TIME      TIME   STATUS  MAC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1     big-ip-1  1         Allocating resources to tenant is in progress                           -

Show the running configuration of the tenants.

show running-config tenants tenant

A summary similar to this example displays:

appliance-1# show running-config tenants tenant
tenants tenant big-ip
 config name         big-ip
 config type         BIG-IP
 config image        BIGIP-15.1.6-0.0.3.ALL-F5OS.qcow2.zip.bundle
 config nodes        [ 1 ]
 config mgmt-ip      192.0.2.59
 config prefix-length 24
 config gateway      192.0.2.254
 config cryptos      enabled
 config vcpu-cores-per-node 2
 config memory       7680
 config storage size 77
 config running-state deployed
 config appliance-mode disabled
!

Modify tenant configuration from the CLI

You can modify a tenant configuration from the CLI.

The administrator is able to modify only these fields while the tenant is running:

Running-state

VLANS

Nodes

When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

Show configuration information for the tenant you want to update.

show tenants tenant <name>

Change to config mode.

config

The CLI prompt changes to include

(config)

You can modify these options while the tenant is running:

vlans

nodes

running-state

, or

virtual-wires

tenants tenant <name> config [ vlans <vlan-id> | nodes {

} | running-state {

configured

provisioned

deployed

} ]

To modify any of the other options, first change the running state of the tenant to

provisioned

tenants tenant <name> config running-state provisioned

Make the desired changes. For more information, see the

Tenant CLI command syntax

section.

Commit the configuration changes.

commit

Resize tenant virtual disk from the CLI

You can resize the storage quota for a tenant virtual disk from the CLI.

When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

Display configuration information for the tenant you want to update.

show tenants tenant <name>

Change to config mode.

config

The CLI prompt changes to include

(config)

Change the storage quota, in GB, for the virtual disk for a specified tenant.

The default size is 77 GB.

tenants tenant big-ip config storage size 80

You cannot modify the size of the virtual disk when the tenant is in the deployed running-state. The tenant must be in a configured or provisioned running-state.

Commit the configuration changes.

commit

Delete a tenant from the CLI

You can delete tenant configurations from the CLI.

When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.

Show the tenants that are currently configured in the system to check the names of the tenants.

show tenants

Change to config mode.

config

The CLI prompt changes to include

(config)

Remove a tenant configuration.

no tenants tenant <tenant-name>

Commit the configuration changes.

commit

The tenant deployment is removed from the system.

Tenant CLI command syntax

Use the

tenants

command from the CLI to configure a cluster of virtual machines (VMs) that run on one or more nodes within the system

The

tenant

command includes this syntax and these options:

tenants tenant <options>

Option	Value	Description
appliance-mode	enabled or disabled (default)	When enabled, appliance-mode disallows root and Bash access for the tenant.
cryptos	enabled or disabled (default)	Specifies the crypto device support for the tenant. When enabled, the tenant receives dedicated crypto devices proportional to the number of vCPU cores. When disabled, the tenant receives no crypto device support.
gateway	IP address	Specifies the IPv4/IPv6 address of the default gateway for the management network. This IP address can be changed on the tenant itself. This field is required.
image	Image name for the tenant	Specifies which software image to install on newly-created virtual disks for this tenant. This field is required.
mac-data	Available options are: one - Represents a block with one MAC. small - Represents a contiguous block of 8 MACs. medium - Represents a contiguous block of 16 MACs. large - Represents a contiguous block of 32 MACs.	Specifies configuration data for MAC block size per tenant.
memory	Memory allocated for the tenant	Specifies the memory in MBs for the tenant. For the commit to succeed, tenant configuration requires the minimum MBs depending on the number of cores specified for the tenant. The administrator must decide what amount of dedicated memory is needed to satisfy the requirements of the modules that will be provisioned within the tenant. For more information on resource allocation, see Tenant resource allocation overviewt.
mgmt-ip	IP address	Specifies the management IP address to the tenant. This address applies to the primary node of the tenant. The address can be changed on the tenant. This field is required.
nodes	Node numbers in square brackets separated by a space. For example, [1 2]	Lists the nodes to which the tenant can be assigned. This field is required.
prefix-length	Decimal value	Specifies the prefix length of the management network. This field is required.
running-state	Configured (default), provisioned, or deployed	Specifies the state of a tenant: configured, provisioned, or deployed. Tenants are in the configured state by default. Configured means the tenant exists but has no hardware resources (CPU or memory) allocated to it and is not running. When the tenant is provisioned, the system assigns the tenant to nodes and creates virtual disks for the tenant on those nodes. In the deployed state, allocated resources are used to launch the tenant VM. Note that specifying deployed causes the actions that occur in the configured and provisioned states. To shut down the tenant VM without removing the virtual disk, change the running-state from deployed to provisioned. Changing the tenant running-state to configured from provisioned or deployed causes its virtual disk to be deleted.
storage	Storage quota in GB for the tenant	Specifies how much storage quota a tenant is allocated. The default size is 77 GB. You cannot modify the size of the virtual disk when the tenant is in the deployed running-state. You can modify the storage size when the tenant is in configured or provisioned running-states. For information on determining minimum disk size, see Tenant sizing.
tenant-auth-storage
trust-mode (F5 r2000/r4000 platforms only)	false (default) or true	Specifies whether a tenant is trusted. MAC masquerade (MM) is required for high availability (HA) on F5 r2000/r4000 platforms, and only between trusted tenants. This option is available only on F5 r2000/r4000 platforms. For more information about configuring MM, see K13502: Configuring MAC masquerade (11.x - 17.x). Enabling trust mode might reduce the security profile of the platform.
type	BIG-IP (default)	Specifies the supported tenants on the system. The field is not required.
vcpu-cores-per-node	Decimal number	Specifies how many cores a tenant is allocated from each node to which it is assigned. Use tab completion to see a list of possible values on the current rSeries system. The default value is 2
virtual-wires	Virtual wire name	Specifies which user-specified virtual-wires to use for the tenant.
vlans	VLAN ID	Specifies the VLAN ID to be used for tenant traffic. To process the traffic through the tenant, make sure the VLAN is configured on the system.

Tenant high availability (HA) overview

You can configure tenants for high-availability (HA) on an

rSeries

system similar to how it is done on a

BIG-IP

system or for vCMP guests. To implement high-availability, you set up device service clustering or DSC. DSC provides synchronization and failover of

BIG-IP

configuration data and traffic groups on two or more tenants. The tenant administrator sets up DSC on the tenants.

If you plan to set up mirroring, you must use an additional

system

. Connection mirroring requires that both

rSeries

systems have identical hardware platforms.

Tenants must have identical resources to ensure seamless HA failover. F5 does not support HA between tenants on disparate platforms.

For more information, see these guides at K000130285: F5 Product Manuals Index:

vCMP for VIPRION Systems: Administration

BIG-IP Device Service Clustering: Administration

Configure high availability (HA) for
BIG-IP
tenants

Before you begin, you must set up two

rSeries

systems with initial configuration, management IP addresses, gateways, DNS servers, and licensing. For more information, see

F5 rSeries Systems: Software Installation and Upgrade

and other sections in this guide.

The F5 r2000/r4000 systems require that MAC masquerade (MM) is configured for high availability (HA). MAC masquerade can only be configured on trusted tenants. Ensure that you have enabled trust-mode for any tenant on which you plan to configure HA (see Create and deploy tenants from the CLI). For more information about configuring MM, see K13502: Configuring MAC masquerade (11.x - 16.x).

You can set up high availability for two

BIG-IP

tenants that reside on two separate systems.

BIG-IP

tenant.

Make sure that both tenants are running the same

BIG-IP

software version and that it is compatible with rSeries systems.

On the tenants, set up L2 network connectivity between the two tenants including setting up VLANs and self-IPs for ConfigSync, failover, and mirroring.

For example, create the same VLAN on both tenants with management IP addresses that can communicate with each other.

Establish device trust: On one of the tenants, go to

Device Management

Device Trust

, create a device trust, and add the management IP of the other tenant.

Create a Sync-Failover device group: On the tenants, go to

Device Management

Device Group

and create a device group with the

Group Type

option set to

Sync-Failover

For more information, see the "Working with Device Groups" section in

BIG-IP Device Service Clustering: Administration

at K000130285: F5 Product Manuals Index ).

On the tenants, go to

Device Management

Devices

, select the device and initiate the first ConfigSync manually.

For tenants on the F5 r2000/r4000 platforms, configure MAC masquerade.

For more information, see the "Managing Failover" section in

BIG-IP Device Service Clustering: Administration

at K000130285: F5 Product Manuals Index ).

For information about configuring MAC masquerade, see K13502: Configuring MAC masquerade (11.x - 17.x).

After setting up HA for tenants, you can optionally create traffic groups, enable mirroring on the virtual servers, and sync the configurations.

Understand that there are many ways to configure HA, and this summary explains the general work flow for how to approach tenant HA. Your environment might require additional steps.

Subscriptions

Product Usage

Trials

Registration Keys

Downloads

Applies To:

F5OS-A

Tenant Management

Tenants overview

Tenant data

Tenants example

Tenant image overview

BIG-IP tenant images

Tenant usage

Tenant sizing

Tenant resource allocation overview

Memory allocation

Disk space

Tenant management from the webUI

Manage tenant images from the webUI

Create and deploy tenants from the webUI

Modify tenant deployments from the webUI

Tenant management from the CLI

Display tenant resources from the CLI

Import a tenant image from the CLI

Create and deploy tenants from the CLI

Display tenant information from the CLI

Modify tenant configuration from the CLI

Resize tenant virtual disk from the CLI

Delete a tenant from the CLI

Tenant CLI command syntax

Tenant high availability (HA) overview

Configure high availability (HA) for
BIG-IP
tenants

Have a Question?

About F5

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Subscriptions

Product Usage

Trials

Registration Keys

Downloads

Applies To:

F5OS-A

Tenant Management

Tenants overview

Tenant data

Tenants example

Tenant image overview

BIG-IP tenant images

Tenant usage

Tenant sizing

Tenant resource allocation overview

Memory allocation

Disk space

Tenant management from the webUI

Manage tenant images from the webUI

Create and deploy tenants from the webUI

Modify tenant deployments from the webUI

Tenant management from the CLI

Display tenant resources from the CLI

Import a tenant image from the CLI

Create and deploy tenants from the CLI

Display tenant information from the CLI

Modify tenant configuration from the CLI

Resize tenant virtual disk from the CLI

Delete a tenant from the CLI

Tenant CLI command syntax

Tenant high availability (HA) overview

Configure high availability (HA) for BIG-IP tenants

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Configure high availability (HA) for
BIG-IP
tenants