f5networks.f5_modules.bigip_vcmp_guest – Manages vCMP guests on a BIG-IP

Note

This plugin is part of the f5networks.f5_modules collection (version 1.13.0).

You might already have this collection installed if you are using the ansible package. It is not included in ansible-core. To check whether it is installed, run ansible-galaxy collection list.

To install it, use: ansible-galaxy collection install f5networks.f5_modules.

To use it in a playbook, specify: f5networks.f5_modules.bigip_vcmp_guest.

New in version 1.0.0: of f5networks.f5_modules

Synopsis

  • Manages vCMP (Virtual Clustered Multiprocessing) guests on a BIG-IP. This functionality only exists on actual hardware and must be enabled by provisioning vcmp with the bigip_provision module.

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

allowed_slots

list / elements=string

Contains those slots to which the guest is allowed to be assigned.

When the host determines which slots this guest should be assigned, only slots in this list are considered.

This is a good way to force guests to be assigned only to particular slots, or, by configuring disjoint allowed_slots on two guests, that those guests are never assigned to the same slot.

By default, this list includes every available slot in the cluster. This means the guest may be assigned to any slot by default.

cores_per_slot

integer

Specifies the number of cores the system allocates to the guest.

Each core represents a portion of CPU and memory. Therefore, the amount of memory allocated per core is directly tied to the amount of CPU. This amount of memory varies per hardware platform type.

The number you can specify depends on the type of hardware you have.

In the event of a reboot, the system persists the guest to the same slot on which it ran prior to the reboot.

delete_virtual_disk

boolean

When state is absent, the system additionally deletes the virtual disk associated with the vCMP guest. By default, this value is no.

Choices:

  • no ← (default)

  • yes

initial_hotfix

string

Specifies the hotfix ISO image file which is applied on top of the base image.

initial_image

string

Specifies the base software release ISO image file for installing the TMOS hypervisor instance and any licensed BIG-IP modules onto the guest’s virtual disk. When creating a new guest, this parameter is required. Ensure this image is present on the VCMP host and not only on the VCMP guest. Also, the file reference for this image should be the one present on the host and not on the guest.

mgmt_address

string

Specifies the IP address and subnet or subnet mask you use to access the guest when you want to manage a module running within the guest. This parameter is required if the mgmt_network parameter is bridged.

When creating a new guest, if you do not specify a network or network mask, a default of /24 (255.255.255.0) is used.

mgmt_network

string

Specifies the method by which the management address is used in the vCMP guest.

When bridged, specifies the guest can communicate with the vCMP host’s management network.

When isolated, specifies the guest is isolated from the vCMP host’s management network. In this case, the only way a guest can communicate with the vCMP host is through the console port or through a self IP address on the guest that allows traffic through port 22.

When host only, prevents the guest from installing images and hotfixes other than those provided by the hypervisor.

If the guest setting is isolated or host only, the mgmt_address does not apply.

For mode changing, changing bridged to isolated causes the vCMP host to remove all of the guest’s management interfaces from its bridged management network. This immediately disconnects the guest’s VMs from the physical management network. Changing isolated to bridged causes the vCMP host to dynamically add the guest’s management interfaces to the bridged management network. This immediately connects all of the guest’s VMs to the physical management network. Changing this property while the guest is in the configured or provisioned state has no immediate effect.

Choices:

  • bridged

  • isolated

  • host only

mgmt_route

string

Specifies the gateway address for the mgmt_address.

If this value is not specified when creating a new guest, it is set to none.

The value none can be used during an update to remove this value.

min_number_of_slots

integer

Specifies the minimum number of slots the guest must be assigned to in order to deploy.

This field dictates the number of slots to which the guest must be assigned.

At the end of any allocation attempt, if the guest is not assigned to at least this many slots, the attempt fails and the change that initiated it is reverted.

A guest’s min_number_of_slots value cannot be greater than its number_of_slots.

name

string / required

The name of the vCMP guest to manage.

number_of_slots

integer

Specifies the number of slots for the system to use when creating the guest.

This value dictates how many cores a guest is allocated from each slot to which it is assigned.

Possible values are dependent on the type of blades being used in this cluster.

The default value depends on the type of blades being used in this cluster.

partition

string

Device partition to manage resources on.

Default: “Common”

provider

dictionary

added in 1.0.0 of f5networks.f5_modules

A dict object containing connection details.

auth_provider

string

Configures the auth provider for to obtain authentication tokens from the remote device.

This option is really used when working with BIG-IQ devices.

no_f5_teem

boolean

If yes, TEEM telemetry data is not sent to F5.

You may omit this option by setting the environment variable F5_TELEMETRY_OFF.

Previously used variable F5_TEEM is deprecated as its name was confusing.

Choices:

  • no ← (default)

  • yes

password

aliases: pass, pwd

string / required

The password for the user account used to connect to the BIG-IP.

You may omit this option by setting the environment variable F5_PASSWORD.

server

string / required

The BIG-IP host.

You may omit this option by setting the environment variable F5_SERVER.

server_port

integer

The BIG-IP server port.

You may omit this option by setting the environment variable F5_SERVER_PORT.

Default: 443

timeout

integer

Specifies the timeout in seconds for communicating with the network device for either connecting or sending commands. If the timeout is exceeded before the operation is completed, the module will error.

transport

string

Configures the transport connection to use when connecting to the remote device.

Choices:

  • rest ← (default)

user

string / required

The username to connect to the BIG-IP with. This user must have administrative privileges on the device.

You may omit this option by setting the environment variable F5_USER.

validate_certs

boolean

If no, SSL certificates are not validated. Use this only on personally controlled sites using self-signed certificates.

You may omit this option by setting the environment variable F5_VALIDATE_CERTS.

Choices:

  • no

  • yes ← (default)

state

string

The state of the vCMP guest on the system. Each state implies the actions of all states before it.

When configured, guarantees the vCMP guest exists with the provided attributes. Additionally, ensures the vCMP guest is turned off.

When disabled, behaves the same way as configured, it is just a more user-friendly name.

When provisioned, ensures the guest is created and installed. This state does not start the guest; use deployed for that purpose. This state is one step beyond present, as present does not install the guest; only sets up the configuration for it to be installed.

When present, ensures the guest is properly provisioned and starts the guest so that it is in a running state.

When absent, removes the vCMP from the system.

Choices:

  • configured

  • disabled

  • provisioned

  • present ← (default)

  • absent

vlans

list / elements=string

VLANs the guest uses to communicate with other guests, the host, and with the external network. The available VLANs in the list are those that are currently configured on the vCMP host.

The order of these VLANs is not important and is ignored. This module orders the VLANs automatically. Therefore, if you deliberately re-order them in subsequent tasks, this module does not register a change.

Notes

Note

  • This module can take a lot of time to deploy vCMP guests. This is an intrinsic limitation of the vCMP system, because it is booting real VMs on the BIG-IP device. This boot time is very similar in length to the time it takes to boot VMs on any other virtualization platform; public or private.

  • When BIG-IP starts, the VMs are booted sequentially; not in parallel. This means it is not unusual for a vCMP host with many guests to take a long time (60+ minutes) to reboot and bring all the guests online. The BIG-IP chassis will be available before all vCMP guests are online.

  • For more information on using Ansible to manage F5 Networks devices see https://www.ansible.com/integrations/networks/f5.

  • Requires BIG-IP software version >= 12.

  • The F5 modules only manipulate the running configuration of the F5 product. To ensure that BIG-IP specific configuration persists to disk, be sure to include at least one task that uses the f5networks.f5_modules.bigip_config module to save the running configuration. Refer to the module’s documentation for the correct usage of the module to save your running configuration.

Examples

- name: Create a vCMP guest
  bigip_vcmp_guest:
    name: foo
    mgmt_network: bridge
    mgmt_address: 10.20.30.40/24
    provider:
      password: secret
      server: lb.mydomain.com
      user: admin
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Create a vCMP guest with specific VLANs
  bigip_vcmp_guest:
    name: foo
    mgmt_network: bridge
    mgmt_address: 10.20.30.40/24
    vlans:
      - vlan1
      - vlan2
    provider:
      password: secret
      server: lb.mydomain.com
      user: admin
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Remove vCMP guest and disk
  bigip_vcmp_guest:
    name: guest1
    state: absent
    delete_virtual_disk: yes
    provider:
      password: secret
      server: lb.mydomain.com
      user: admin
  register: result

Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key

Description

vlans

list / elements=string

The VLANs assigned to the vCMP guest, in their full path format.

Returned: changed

Sample: [“/Common/vlan1”, “/Common/vlan2”]

Authors

  • Tim Rupp (@caphrim007)

  • Wojciech Wypior (@wojtek0806)