is a kind of virtual system or subset of the chassis that
handles the management and separation of disjoint sets of blades within the
chassis. The chassis has eight slots, which can contain up to eight blades.
One or more slots are assigned to a chassis partition, which then controls
whatever blade is inserted into it (if any).
The chassis can be divided into multiple chassis partitions,
and a chassis partition can have multiple tenants. A
tenant
is a guest system running software
(for example, a BIG-IP system).
The chassis, chassis partitions, and tenants in the chassis
partitions each have separate sets of users, and they have different functions
at the different levels. The chassis administrator manages the whole chassis
and creates chassis partitions. The chassis partition administrator manages
their chassis partition only.
Within the VELOS system, a chassis administrator can create
chassis partitions then allocates one or more slots that work as a separate
computing cluster for traffic. A chassis might contain multiple chassis
partitions, and a slot might belong to only one chassis partition at a time.
For example, an 8-slot chassis could potentially have up to 8 chassis
partitions, one slot each.
The VELOS system comes initially preconfigured with one
default
chassis
partition. The slots for all blades are automatically assigned as members of
the default chassis partition. The blades in the chassis can be used that way,
so they work together as one powerful system to process network traffic, or
reconfigured into multiple chassis partitions that are organized into smaller
subsets of the chassis.
These are chassis partition attributes:
A chassis is divided into distinct sets of slots
called chassis partitions.
A slot (and the blade it contains, if any) can be part
of only one chassis partition.
Each chassis partition is an independently managed
entity with its own addressable management stack. The system controller is
responsible for isolating traffic between chassis partitions.
Each chassis partition provides REST APIs, a CLI, and
a webUI to use to perform management tasks.
The chassis partition administrator configures L2
networking, deploys tenants, and performs other administrative duties
within the chassis partition.
Each chassis partition can have multiple tenants.
Tenants can span multiple slots in a chassis
partition.
The VELOS platform supports F5-signed tenants
only.
Chassis partition high availability (HA)
The chassis partition is designed so that all of the chassis
partition configuration data is constantly stored in an active location and
replicated to a standby location. It is already configured for high
availability. The active and standby instances of a single partition are
always on different system controllers—one is on system controller 1, and the
other is on system controller 2. The active chassis instance, however, might
not always reside on the active system controller. The active and standby
chassis partition instances swap roles during a failover event.
Configuration data is not shared between chassis partitions.
Each chassis partition runs its own software image. Chassis partition
configuration data is kept independent from other chassis partitions.
Chassis partition management from the webUI
Display chassis partition information from the
webUI
You can view details on how the
chassis partitions are configured on your VELOS system from the system
contoller webUI.
Log in to the VELOS system controller webUI using an account with admin access.
On the left, click
CHASSIS PARTITIONS
.
The Chassis Partitions screen opens.
Review the chassis partition data:
Examine the graphic to see how
many slots are in use. Those in use are highlighted.
Review the chassis partition
list to see how many chassis partitions currently exist, which
slots are associated with each partition, the management IP
address of each, whether the chassis partition is Enabled or
Disabled, and the operational status.
Perform other tasks as needed regarding
chassis partition management:
From here, you can create,
edit, or delete chassis partitions.
You can
Enable
or
Disable
a chassis partition using the
Enable/Disable
partition list.
Here is a sample Chassis Partitions
screen with two chassis partitions: one named custpart, which uses the two
slots that contain blades, and the other, default, which is assigned four
empty slots. The custpart partition is Enabled and running.
Example of chassis partitions
screen
Create a chassis partition from the webUI
Before creating a chassis partition,
make sure you have chassis partition software images in the Software
Management area. You can download the latest versions from the F5 downloads
website. When creating a chassis partition, you will need to specify which
image to install and run.
The VELOS system
initially comes preconfigured with one
default
chassis
partition that you can use instead of having to create custom chassis
partitions. The slots for all blades are automatically assigned as members
of the default chassis partition. The blades in the chassis can be used
that way or reconfigured into multiple chassis partitions that are
organized into smaller subsets of the chassis.
You create chassis partitions by
dividing the chassis into subsets of blades from the system controller webUI.
You assign one or more blades to form the chassis partition. Associating more
blades with a chassis partition provides greater computing power to
accommodate the workload requirements for tenants deployed on that chassis
partition.
Log in to the VELOS system controller webUI using an account with admin access.
On the left, click
CHASSIS PARTITIONS
.
The Chassis Partitions screen displays a graphical view of the VELOS chassis, which shows available slots, which slots contain blades, how many chassis partitions currently exist, which slots are associated with the chassis partition, and whether the chassis partitions are enabled or disabled.
If all slots are assigned to the default
chassis partition, before you can create a new chassis partition, you
first need to select one or more slots and remove them from the
default chassis partition. (Otherwise, the
Create
button will
be unavailable.)
On the chassis graphic, select the slots to associate with the chassis partition you are creating.
Make sure the slots you select are not already in use by other partitions.
The slots you select need not have blades installed when creating a chassis partition. For example, you can set up partitions before additional blades are available and install them later.
To create a new partition, click
Create
.
If using the
default
partition,
select it and click
Edit
instead.
In the list of chassis partitions, for
Name
, type a name for the chassis partition.
Partition names must consist only of alphanumerics (0-9, a-z, A-Z), must begin with a letter, and are limited to 31 characters.
To configure IPv4 addresses, in the IPv4 section:
For
IP Address
, type the IP address of the chassis partition.
For
Prefix Length
, enter a number from 1-32 for the length of the prefix.
For
Gateway
, type the IP address of the gateway.
To configure IPv6 addresses, in the IPv6 address section:
For
IP Address
, type the IP address of the chassis partition.
For
Prefix Length
, enter a number from 1-32 for the length of the prefix.
For
Gateway
, type the IP address of the gateway.
Review
Selected Slots
,
which shows the slots you selected in the chassis graphic to be
included in the chassis partition.
For
Partition Image
,
define the software to use for the chassis partition:
Click either
Bundled
or
Unbundled
.
Choose
Bundled
if
you are installing the entire operating system for the chassis
partition (use the ISO Image). Choose
Unbundled
if you are installing a service update (specify Base OS
Version and Service Versions to use).
Select the previously uploaded
software image (or images) to run on the chassis
partition.
Click
Save
.
A new chassis partition is created, enabled, and shown in the chassis partition list.
If the chassis partition does not change automatically to the Enabled state, you can manually select
Enabled
from the
Enabled/Disabled
list.
You can now log in to the chassis
partition using its management IP address to access the chassis partition
webUI and CLI.
Edit a chassis partition from the webUI
You can edit a chassis partition if
you need to change its configuration from the system controller webUI.
Log in to the VELOS system controller webUI using an account with admin access.
On the left, click
CHASSIS PARTITIONS
.
The Chassis Partitions screen opens.
From the chassis partition list, select
the chassis partition that you want to edit.
Click
Edit
.
Adjust the settings as needed.
For example, you can add available slots
to a chassis partition or delete slots from a chassis partition (so they can be added to another
partition).
Click
Save
.
Configure high availability settings for chassis partitions from
the webUI
You should not need to change chassis
partition to something other than the default configuration (Auto), but you
can opt to change it or initiate a failover from the active chassis partition
to the standby from the chassis partition webUI.
Log in to the VELOS chassis partition webUI using an account with admin access.
On the left, click
SYSTEM SETTINGS
High Availability
.
For
Preferred Node
,
select the system controller to run the active instance of the chassis
partition, or choose
Auto
to let the system decide.
Using
Auto
is strongly
recommended.
Hardware health conditions of the system
controllers always take precedence. If one of the system controllers
is not healthy, the chassis partition will ignore the preference and
synchronize with the healthy system controller.
If you select a preferred node other than auto, the preference is
ignored unless you enable
Auto Failback
.
If you really want to indicate a
preference and have selected one of the system controllers (not auto):
Set
Auto
Failback
to
Enabled
.
In the
Failback
Delay
field, type the number of seconds to
delay before initiating the failback.
To force a failover to occur
immediately, for
Force
Failover
, click
Failover
.
You would only do this only if
you want the current standby system controller to become the active
system controller.
Chassis partition management from the CLI
Create a chassis partition from the CLI
The VELOS system includes one
preconfigured chassis partition that includes all slots, by default. You can
create additional chassis partitions but you need to remove the slots
associated with the default chassis partition first.
Log in to the command line interface
(CLI) of the system controller using an account with admin
access.
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 a chassis partition by naming the
chassis partition and specifying the ISO version, management IP
address (IPv4), gateway IP address, prefix length (1-32), and then
enabling the chassis partition.
Chassis partition names must
consist of only alphanumerics (0-9, a-z, A-Z), must begin with a
letter, and are limited to 31 characters.
partitions partition
<
partition-name
> config iso-version <
iso-version
> mgmt-ip ipv4 address <
address
>
gateway <
gateway-ip
> prefix-length <
prefix-length
> ipv6 address <
address
>
gateway <
gateway-ip
> prefix-length <
prefix-length
> enabled
This example creates a chassis
partition named
custom
with an IPv4 IP address of 192.0.2.20, a
gateway address of 192.0.2.254, a prefix length of 24, and enables the
chassis partition:
The system creates the chassis
partition. You can now log in to the chassis partition using its management IP
address to access the chassis partition webUI, the chassis partition CLI over SSH, or use the
REST API.
Log in to a new chassis partition from the CLI
After you have created a chassis
partition, you can enable it and log in to it using the default admin username
and password.
Use SSH to log in to the chassis
partition using the management IP address.
This example shows the
admin user logging in to partition1:
ssh admin@192.0.2.20
admin@192.0.2.20's password:
Last login: Fri, Oct 30 08:02:15 2020 from 192.0.2.20
Welcome to the F5OS Chassis Partition Management CLI
admin connected from 192.0.2.20 using ssh on partition1
partition1#
You can work in the chassis partition
to set up networking parameters, configure the interface, VLANS, and LAG. You
can also add VELOS system users, if needed, set up logging, and install and
deploy a tenant in the chassis partition.
Add a slot to a chassis partition from the CLI
Before you can use a chassis
partition, you must add slots to the chassis partition. Slots can be assigned
to one partition only.
Log in to the command line interface
(CLI) of the system controller using an account with admin
access.
When you log in to the system,
you are in user (operational) mode.
Show how chassis partitions and slots
are currently configured on the system.
show running-config
slots
A summary similar to this example,
which shows that all slots are still assigned to the default chassis
partition, displays:
You can show the status of chassis
partition redundancy from the chassis partition CLI.
Log in to the command line interface
(CLI) of the chassis partition using an account with admin
access.
When you log in to the system,
you are in user (operational) mode.
Show the chassis partition redundancy
configuration.
show system
redundancy
This example shows a
chassis partition with two assigned
slots.
default-1# show system redundancy
system redundancy state mode auto
system redundancy state auto-failback disabled
system redundancy state auto-failback failback-delay 30
system redundancy state current-active controller-2
system redundancy state status redundant
SERVICES
NAME STATUS FAULT STARTUP TIME LAST TRANSITION OS VERSION VERSION
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
blade-1 replica false 2021-11-13 17:38:22 2021-11-13 17:38:23 1.3.0-10781 1.3.0-12345
blade-2 replica false 2021-11-13 17:38:31 2021-11-13 17:38:31 1.3.0-10781 1.3.0-12345
controller-1 standby false 2021-11-13 17:32:48 2021-11-13 17:32:48 1.3.0-10781 1.3.0-12345
controller-2 active false 2021-11-13 17:31:50 2021-11-13 17:32:18 1.3.0-10781 1.3.0-12345
