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Manual Chapter : Managing Service Templates

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BIG-IQ Centralized Management

  • 6.1.0
Manual Chapter
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Managing Service Templates

Deploying applications to devices

A service template allows you to create and deploy the applications to individual BIG-IP devices or to the auto-scaled BIG-IP VE devices in your cloud. When you create an application, you decide which objects to include and which settings to revise, and then identify the device, or service scaling group (SSG) to which you want it to deploy.

Create a service template by manually specifying objects

When you create a new service template, you specify a set of objects that define an application that can then be deployed to BIG-IP devices. When you define the application, you can omit or include certain objects. Parameters you define as not editable are not visible, and are included using the default values specified in the service template. This allows you to maintain a consistent environment.

  1. At the top of the screen, click Applications then, on the left, click APPLICATION TEMPLATES.
    The screen displays the list of AS3 and service catalog templates defined on this device.
    Note: AS3 templates can only deploy applications to managed devices. To deploy to an SSG, you need a service catalog template.
  2. Under Service Catalog Templates, click Create.
    The General Properties tab of the Create Service Template screen opens.
  3. Type a Name and (optional) Description for the service template you are creating, and then click Save.
    Once you define the name, you can define the default objects for this template. This workflow shows you how to manually define objects for this template. For details about other ways to create templates, refer to Create a service template starting with a clone of an existing template or Create a service template by importing existing objects on support.f5.com.
  4. If you have created any scripts that BIG-IQ should run before or after it creates this application, or after you delete this application, click PROPERTIES, and then select the ones you want.
    You can find the screen used to create scripts here: Devices > SCRIPT MANAGEMENT > Scripts .
  5. Click Save.
    BIG-IQ saves the name and your script selections. Now you can start adding the traffic management and security objects that you want to define for this application.
  6. On the left, under PROPERTIES, expand LOCAL TRAFFIC or SECURITY POLICIES and then select any object type.
    For example, you could expand LOCAL TRAFFIC, and then click Virtual Servers.
    Note: Until you configure at least one virtual server for this template, you cannot select any security policies to attach to the virtual servers in this template.
  7. Click Create.
    The screen you use to define the selected object type (for example, New Virtual Server) opens.
  8. In the Prompt field, type the text string that you want to display for this object when someone uses this template to create a new application.
  9. If you want applications created with this template to be able to include more than one copy of the object you are adding, select Enable for Allow Multiple Instances.
  10. Specify all of the default parameters that you want to define for this object.
    Before you can add an object to the template, you must specify at least the required parameters for that object type. For example, to specify a virtual server, you only need to provide a name, a destination address, and a service port, even though there are another fifty or so settings you could specify.
  11. For each parameter that you specify, determine whether you want the person who deploys an application using this template to be able to edit the default settings you are defining.
    Option Description
    If you check Editable When this template is used to create an application, this parameter will be visible and the default values configurable.
    If you do not check Editable When this template is used to create an application, this parameter will be included in the application (with the settings that you specify here), but it will not be visible in the user interface.
    Only the parameters you select appear in the user interface when someone deploys an application using this template.
  12. As you specify parameter values for this template object, you can click Preview in the upper right corner to see what the user interface will look like when someone uses this template to deploy an application.
    Note: For detailed information on the parameter settings to specify for particular use cases, refer to the documentation for that object type on support.F5.com. For example, for help understanding the parameters you specify for a client SSL profile, you would go to support.F5.com, select BIG-IQ Centralized Management, select the BIG-IQ version you are using, and then select Managing Local Traffic Profiles.
  13. When you finish specifying parameters for this object, click Save.
    BIG-IQ adds the object you defined to the list of objects in this template. When you finish adding an object to a template, you can use it to create an application.
  14. Continue this process until you have added all of the objects needed in this template.
    When you finish the edits to this new template, you can use it to create a new application that deploys to your BIG-IP devices.
  15. Click Save & Close.
  16. If you are ready to use this service template to create an application, select it, and click Publish.

Create a service template by importing existing objects

Before you can import objects to an application template, you must have either created or imported the LTM objects from one of your managed BIG-IP devices.

When you create a new service template, you specify a set of objects that define an application that can then be deployed to BIG-IP devices. When you define the application, you can omit or include certain objects. Parameters you define as not editable are not visible, and are included using the default values specified in the service template. This allows you to maintain a consistent environment.

Specifying the objects by importing existing objects saves time and ensures that you get precisely the settings you are looking for.
  1. At the top of the screen, click Applications then, on the left, click APPLICATION TEMPLATES.
    The screen displays the list of AS3 and service catalog templates defined on this device.
    Note: AS3 templates can only deploy applications to managed devices. To deploy to an SSG, you need a service catalog template.
  2. Click Create.
  3. Type a Name and (optional) Description for the service template you are creating, and then click Save.
    Once you define the name and save the template, you need to define the default objects for this template. This workflow shows you how to import objects that already exist on devices managed by this BIG-IQ. For details about other ways to define objects, refer to Create a service template starting with a clone of an existing template or Create a service template by manually specifying objects on support.f5.com.
  4. On the left, under PROPERTIES, expand LOCAL TRAFFIC > SECURITY POLICIES > Security , and then select any object type.
    For example, you could expand LOCAL TRAFFIC, and then click Virtual Servers.
    The screen lists any objects defined for this template along with buttons you can use to import or create new objects.
  5. Click Import.
    The Import Resources screen opens. The top half of the screen displays resources selected for importing. The bottom half provides controls for selecting objects to import to this template.
  6. From the select list about half way down the screen, select one of the object types you want to import.
    Objects of the type you selected that are currently defined on this BIG-IQ display just below the Select list.
  7. Select the check box for each object that you want to import.
    The lower right part of the screen displays preview information for the selected object. If you select multiple objects, the most recently selected item is previewed.
  8. When you have selected all of the objects that you want for a particular type, click Add Selected.
    The selected objects show in the list of objects to be imported.
  9. Repeat the previous three steps for each of the default object types that you want to import to this template.
  10. When you have assembled all of the objects that you want to import to this template, click Import.
    Note: When you import an object created outside of the service template user interface into a service template, only the object name is set to be editable (and visible when someone uses this template to create a new application). For example, if a virtual server named SeattleServer is created on one of the BIG-IP devices that a BIG-IQ manages, that virtual server is imported to the BIG-IQ when you discover and import that device. You can then import SeattleServer into a service template, but only the name (SeattleServer) appears when that template is used to create an application. You can edit the visibility setting on the Edit Template screen for the imported object.
    BIG-IQ adds the imported objects to the service template. Objects that are set to be editable display when someone uses this template to create a new application.
  11. If you want to edit any of the settings for the objects you imported, click the name of the object to access the edit screen for that object.
    When you save the changes for an object, the revisions you made become part of the template, and you can use it to create a new application that deploys to your BIG-IP devices.
  12. Click Save & Close.
  13. If you are ready to use this service template to create an application, select it, and click Publish.

Edit a service template

A service template specifies a set of objects and parameter settings that can be used to create an application that can be deployed to your BIG-IP devices. Editing a service template is similar to creating one; you can either add individual objects manually, or import them.
Important: Before you can use a service template to create an application, it must be published. Publishing makes a service template read-only. To make changes to a published service template, you have two options.
  • Make a clone of the template, then make your changes to the clone.
  • Unpublish the template, and make changes to the original. However, you cannot unpublish a template that is being used by a deployed application. In this case, it's better to make a clone. For details on this workflow, refer to Create a service template starting with a clone of an existing template on support.f5.com.
  1. At the top of the screen, click Applications then, on the left, click APPLICATION TEMPLATES.
    The screen displays the list of AS3 and service catalog templates defined on this device.
    Note: AS3 templates can only deploy applications to managed devices. To deploy to an SSG, you need a service catalog template.
  2. Find the service template that you want to edit and note whether or not is published. If it is published, select that service template and click Unpublish.
    • If the template is not being used by any deployed applications, BIG-IQ makes the template writeable.
    • If the template is in use, an error message displays, identifying the application that uses it. When this occurs, you can either delete the application (consider whether it is passing traffic first), or make a clone of the template. For details on this workflow, refer to Create a service template starting with a clone of an existing template on support.f5.com.
  3. Click the name of the service template that you want to edit.
    The properties tab displays the name and description for the selected template.
  4. On the left, under Properties, expand Local Traffic or Security and then select the object type you want to edit.
    For example, you could expand Local Traffic, and then click Virtual Servers.
    You can edit the settings for this template either manually or by importing existing objects.
  5. Make the revisions you want to make for this template. You can edit the settings for this template either manually or by importing existing objects.
    • For details on making manual revisions, refer to Create a service template by manually specifying objects.
    • For details on importing template objects, refer to Create a service template by importing existing objects.
  6. When you finish working on the template, choose what to do next.
    Option Description
    To save your work but keep the template writeable: In the lower right corner, click Save & Close.
    To save your work and make the template read-only: In the upper right corner, click Publish & Close.
    To make a writeable copy so you can use changes: In the upper right corner, click Clone.
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