F5 ACI ServiceCenter
Company: F5 Networks
Details
What’s New in v2.11
Multi-tenancy Support which includes:
1. VRF to Route Domain Mapping Support for Tenant|Application|EPG Mapping in Visibility Tables, Visibility Dashboards and L4-L7 Application Services.
2. Partition and Route Domain Support for L2-L3 Network Management including VLANs, Self IPs & Default Routes.
3. Default Routes Support for each Route Domain.
F5 ACI ServiceCenter v2.11 release notes:
clouddocs.f5.com/f5-aci-servicecenter/latest/release-notes.html
Introduction
F5 ACI ServiceCenter runs natively on Cisco APIC, providing administrators a unified way to manage both L2-L3 and L4-L7 infrastructure. The application offers enhanced ACI-to-BIG-IP visibility; L2-L3 network management capability; and L4-L7 application services to ACI workloads. F5 ACI ServiceCenter can also be driven as part of the ACI REST API model, which allows administrators to integrate the L2-L7 workflow into an organization's automation and orchestration model seamlessly.
Highlights:
1. Single point of automation with enhanced visibility into Cisco ACI and F5 BIG-IP.
2. Suitable for both green field and brown field deployment.
3. Stateful application - saves data configured by the application.
4. Non disruptive - deleting the application will NOT impact ACI and BIG-IP configurations.
5. Easy to automate - application itself can be automated by APIC REST API.
6. Application usage maintains organization operational model and ownership.
Features:
BIG-IP Devices Management
- Manage different form factors of BIG-IP devices (Physical, Virtual Edition, vCMP).
- Self-Discovery of BIG-IP devices (Physical, vCMP) in the APIC fabric using LLDP protocol.
- Hostname login supported for Standalone BIG-IPs and High Availability setups.
- Search IP: Search IP on a single BIG-IP or across BIG-IPs. View details of the searched Node or VIP IP.
- LDAP admin users can login and access all the features of the app.
Visibility Tables
- View BIG-IP Network elements like VLANs, VIPs and Nodes, and co-relate them with APIC information like Tenant, Application profile and End point groups.
- VLAN Visibility: VLAN table displays Self IP and Interface information.
- VIP Visibility: VIP table displays the associated Pool and Node information.
- Node Visibility: Node table displays the associated Pool and VIP information.
- Static port and Static leaf VLAN support in Visibility VLAN table.
- Support for FQDN based nodes.
- Route Domain is supported.
- Excel reports for Visibility tables using API and FASC UI.
Visibility Dashboards
- Displays VIP and Node details including APIC and BIG-IP details.
- VIP dashboard support for MAC Masquerade configurations.
- Node dashboard support for VXLAN tunnel configurations.
- Route Domain is supported.
- View Connections: Displays the active connections to VIP/Node.
- View Logs: Displays the BIG-IP logs with filtering options.
- View Statistics: Displays telemetry statistics for VIPs and Pools.
L2-L3 Network Management
- Facilitates L2-L3 Stitching between APIC Logical Device and BIG-IP Device (Create/Delete/Update operations for VLAN, Self IP, and Default Gateway).
- Partition and Route Domain are supported for L2-L3 Network resources.
- Brownfield default gateway is supported by the app.
L4-L7 Application Services
- Leverages F5 Automation and Orchestration toolchain (a declarative API model) to deploy feature rich applications on the BIG-IP.
- VRF to Route Domain mapping is supported for L4-L7 App Services.
- AS3 Templates: Manage applications using L4-L7 App Services Advanced tab which supports AS3 plugin.
- FAST Templates: Manage applications using L4-L7 App Services Basic tab which supports FAST plugin.
- FAST support for field dependencies, property ordering, pattern matching and other validations.
- Dynamic attaching and detaching of APIC workloads to BIG-IP pool's using the notifications mechanism from APIC.
- Real-time logs can be found on the file system of the APIC controller on which the F5 ACI ServiceCenter is running.
- F5 ACI ServiceCenter application upgrades supported.
- F5 ACI ServiceCenter database import and export capabilities present.
- App Faults: Errors/warnings generated on the user interface are recorded by the F5 ACI ServiceCenter application for troubleshooting purposes only.
- Built-in debug utility to easily identify and fix F5 ACI ServiceCenter backend tasks if, or when, needed.
Pre-requisites
1. Reference to version compatibility matrix for supported APIC and BIG-IP versions: clouddocs.f5.com/f5-aci-servicecenter/latest/support.html.
2. To enable and use L4-L7 application services, install the latest f5-appsvcs package BIG-IP device using BIG-IP configuration UI. (clouddocs.f5.com/products/extensions/f5-appsvcs-extension/latest/userguide/installation.html#installation)
3. Any APIC related configuration (logical device cluster, service graph template etc.) must be done on APIC directly. The application does not support APIC configuration.
Reference URLs
F5 ACI ServiceCenter User and Deployment Guide: clouddocs.f5.com/f5-aci-servicecenter/latest
Feature and version compatibility matrix: clouddocs.f5.com/f5-aci-servicecenter/latest/support.html
Support: github.com/F5Networks/f5-aci-servicecenter/issues
Video Playlist: F5 BIG-IP and Cisco ACI Integration - F5 ACI ServiceCenter (www.youtube.com/watch?v=g68z_i4mjCQ&list=PLyqga7AXMtPOZiIGutw3k2M9Ap_X_6kjO&index=2)
The application gathers non-identifiable usage data for the purposes of improving the product. To opt out of data collection, disable data gathering as described in the deployment and user guide under section "TEEM - F5 ACI ServiceCenter data usage collection".
Multi-tenancy Support which includes:
1. VRF to Route Domain Mapping Support for Tenant|Application|EPG Mapping in Visibility Tables, Visibility Dashboards and L4-L7 Application Services.
2. Partition and Route Domain Support for L2-L3 Network Management including VLANs, Self IPs & Default Routes.
3. Default Routes Support for each Route Domain.
F5 ACI ServiceCenter v2.11 release notes:
clouddocs.f5.com/f5-aci-servicecenter/latest/release-notes.html
Introduction
F5 ACI ServiceCenter runs natively on Cisco APIC, providing administrators a unified way to manage both L2-L3 and L4-L7 infrastructure. The application offers enhanced ACI-to-BIG-IP visibility; L2-L3 network management capability; and L4-L7 application services to ACI workloads. F5 ACI ServiceCenter can also be driven as part of the ACI REST API model, which allows administrators to integrate the L2-L7 workflow into an organization's automation and orchestration model seamlessly.
Highlights:
1. Single point of automation with enhanced visibility into Cisco ACI and F5 BIG-IP.
2. Suitable for both green field and brown field deployment.
3. Stateful application - saves data configured by the application.
4. Non disruptive - deleting the application will NOT impact ACI and BIG-IP configurations.
5. Easy to automate - application itself can be automated by APIC REST API.
6. Application usage maintains organization operational model and ownership.
Features:
BIG-IP Devices Management
- Manage different form factors of BIG-IP devices (Physical, Virtual Edition, vCMP).
- Self-Discovery of BIG-IP devices (Physical, vCMP) in the APIC fabric using LLDP protocol.
- Hostname login supported for Standalone BIG-IPs and High Availability setups.
- Search IP: Search IP on a single BIG-IP or across BIG-IPs. View details of the searched Node or VIP IP.
- LDAP admin users can login and access all the features of the app.
Visibility Tables
- View BIG-IP Network elements like VLANs, VIPs and Nodes, and co-relate them with APIC information like Tenant, Application profile and End point groups.
- VLAN Visibility: VLAN table displays Self IP and Interface information.
- VIP Visibility: VIP table displays the associated Pool and Node information.
- Node Visibility: Node table displays the associated Pool and VIP information.
- Static port and Static leaf VLAN support in Visibility VLAN table.
- Support for FQDN based nodes.
- Route Domain is supported.
- Excel reports for Visibility tables using API and FASC UI.
Visibility Dashboards
- Displays VIP and Node details including APIC and BIG-IP details.
- VIP dashboard support for MAC Masquerade configurations.
- Node dashboard support for VXLAN tunnel configurations.
- Route Domain is supported.
- View Connections: Displays the active connections to VIP/Node.
- View Logs: Displays the BIG-IP logs with filtering options.
- View Statistics: Displays telemetry statistics for VIPs and Pools.
L2-L3 Network Management
- Facilitates L2-L3 Stitching between APIC Logical Device and BIG-IP Device (Create/Delete/Update operations for VLAN, Self IP, and Default Gateway).
- Partition and Route Domain are supported for L2-L3 Network resources.
- Brownfield default gateway is supported by the app.
L4-L7 Application Services
- Leverages F5 Automation and Orchestration toolchain (a declarative API model) to deploy feature rich applications on the BIG-IP.
- VRF to Route Domain mapping is supported for L4-L7 App Services.
- AS3 Templates: Manage applications using L4-L7 App Services Advanced tab which supports AS3 plugin.
- FAST Templates: Manage applications using L4-L7 App Services Basic tab which supports FAST plugin.
- FAST support for field dependencies, property ordering, pattern matching and other validations.
- Dynamic attaching and detaching of APIC workloads to BIG-IP pool's using the notifications mechanism from APIC.
- Real-time logs can be found on the file system of the APIC controller on which the F5 ACI ServiceCenter is running.
- F5 ACI ServiceCenter application upgrades supported.
- F5 ACI ServiceCenter database import and export capabilities present.
- App Faults: Errors/warnings generated on the user interface are recorded by the F5 ACI ServiceCenter application for troubleshooting purposes only.
- Built-in debug utility to easily identify and fix F5 ACI ServiceCenter backend tasks if, or when, needed.
Pre-requisites
1. Reference to version compatibility matrix for supported APIC and BIG-IP versions: clouddocs.f5.com/f5-aci-servicecenter/latest/support.html.
2. To enable and use L4-L7 application services, install the latest f5-appsvcs package BIG-IP device using BIG-IP configuration UI. (clouddocs.f5.com/products/extensions/f5-appsvcs-extension/latest/userguide/installation.html#installation)
3. Any APIC related configuration (logical device cluster, service graph template etc.) must be done on APIC directly. The application does not support APIC configuration.
Reference URLs
F5 ACI ServiceCenter User and Deployment Guide: clouddocs.f5.com/f5-aci-servicecenter/latest
Feature and version compatibility matrix: clouddocs.f5.com/f5-aci-servicecenter/latest/support.html
Support: github.com/F5Networks/f5-aci-servicecenter/issues
Video Playlist: F5 BIG-IP and Cisco ACI Integration - F5 ACI ServiceCenter (www.youtube.com/watch?v=g68z_i4mjCQ&list=PLyqga7AXMtPOZiIGutw3k2M9Ap_X_6kjO&index=2)
The application gathers non-identifiable usage data for the purposes of improving the product. To opt out of data collection, disable data gathering as described in the deployment and user guide under section "TEEM - F5 ACI ServiceCenter data usage collection".