f5networks.f5_modules.bigip_pool_member module – Manages F5 BIG-IP LTM pool members

Note

This module is part of the f5networks.f5_modules collection (version 1.28.0).

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_pool_member.

New in f5networks.f5_modules 1.0.0

Synopsis

  • Manages F5 BIG-IP LTM pool members via the REST API.

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

address

aliases: ip, host

string

IP address of the pool member. This can be either IPv4 or IPv6. When creating a new pool member, one of either address or fqdn must be provided. This parameter cannot be updated after it is set.

aggregate

aliases: members

list / elements=dictionary

List of pool member definitions to be created, modified, or removed.

When using aggregates, if one of the aggregate definitions is invalid, the aggregate run will fail, indicating the error it last encountered.

The module will NOT rollback any changes it has made prior to encountering the error.

The module also will not indicate what changes were made prior to failure. Therefore we strong advise you run the module in check mode to ensure basic validation prior to executing this module.

address

aliases: ip, host

string

IP address of the pool member. This can be either IPv4 or IPv6. When creating a new pool member, one of either address or fqdn must be provided. This parameter cannot be updated after it is set.

availability_requirements

dictionary

If you activate more than one health monitor, specifies the number of health monitors that must receive successful responses in order for the link to be considered available.

Specifying an empty string will remove the monitors and revert to inheriting from the pool (default).

Specifying none will remove any health monitoring from the member completely.

at_least

integer

Specifies the minimum number of active health monitors that must be successful before the link is considered up.

This parameter is only relevant when a type of at_least is used.

This parameter will be ignored if a type of all is used.

type

string / required

Monitor rule type when monitors is specified.

When creating a new pool, if this value is not specified, the default of all will be used.

Choices:

  • "all"

  • "at_least"

connection_limit

integer

Pool member connection limit. Setting this to 0 disables the limit.

description

string

Pool member description.

fqdn

aliases: hostname

string

FQDN name of the pool member. This can be any name that is a valid RFC 1123 DNS name. Therefore, the only usable characters are “A” to “Z”, “a” to “z”, “0” to “9”, the hyphen (“-”) and the period (“.”).

FQDN names must include at least one period; delineating the host from the domain. For example, host.domain.

FQDN names must end with a letter or a number.

When creating a new pool member, one of either address or fqdn must be provided. This parameter cannot be updated after it is set.

fqdn_auto_populate

boolean

Specifies whether the system automatically creates ephemeral nodes using the IP addresses returned by the resolution of a DNS query for a node defined by an FQDN.

When true, the system generates an ephemeral node for each IP address returned in response to a DNS query for the FQDN of the node. Additionally, when a DNS response indicates the IP address of an ephemeral node no longer exists, the system deletes the ephemeral node.

When false, the system resolves a DNS query for the FQDN of the node with the single IP address associated with the FQDN.

When creating a new pool member, the default for this parameter is true.

Once set this parameter cannot be changed afterwards.

This parameter is ignored when reuse_nodes is true.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

ip_encapsulation

string

Specifies the IP encapsulation using either IPIP (IP encapsulation within IP, RFC 2003) or GRE (Generic Router Encapsulation, RFC 2784) on outbound packets (from BIG-IP system to server-pool member).

When none, disables IP encapsulation.

When inherit, inherits the IP encapsulation setting from the member’s pool.

When any other value, the options are None, Inherit from Pool, and Member Specific.

monitors

list / elements=string

Specifies the health monitors the system currently uses to monitor this resource.

name

string

Name of the node to create or re-use when creating a new pool member.

While this parameter is optional, we recommend specifying this parameter at all times to mitigate any unexpected behavior.

If not specified, a node name is created automatically from either the specified address or fqdn.

The enabled state is an alias of present.

partition

string

Partition to manage resources on.

Default: "Common"

port

integer

Pool member port.

This value cannot be changed after it has been set.

Parameter must be provided when using aggregates.

preserve_node

boolean

When state is absent, the system attempts to remove the node the pool member references.

The node will not be removed if it is still referenced by other pool members. If this happens, the module will not raise an error.

Setting this to true disables this behavior.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

priority_group

integer

Specifies a number representing the priority group for the pool member.

When adding a new member, the default is 0, meaning the member has no priority.

To specify a priority, you must activate priority group usage when you create a new pool or when adding or removing pool members. When activated, the system load balances traffic according to the priority group number assigned to the pool member.

The higher the number, the higher the priority. So a member with a priority of 3 has higher priority than a member with a priority of 1.

rate_limit

integer

Pool member rate limit (connections-per-second). Setting this to 0 disables the limit.

ratio

integer

Pool member ratio weight. Valid values range from 1 through 100. New pool members – unless overridden with this value – default to 1.

reuse_nodes

boolean

Reuses node definitions if requested.

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

state

string

Pool member state.

Choices:

  • "present" ← (default)

  • "absent"

  • "enabled"

  • "disabled"

  • "forced_offline"

availability_requirements

dictionary

If you activate more than one health monitor, specifies the number of health monitors that must receive successful responses in order for the link to be considered available.

Specifying an empty string will remove the monitors and revert to inheriting from the pool (default).

Specifying none will remove any health monitoring from the member completely.

at_least

integer

Specifies the minimum number of active health monitors that must be successful before the link is considered up.

This parameter is only relevant when a type of at_least is used.

This parameter will be ignored if a type of all is used.

type

string / required

Monitor rule type when monitors is specified.

When creating a new pool, if this value is not specified, the default of all will be used.

Choices:

  • "all"

  • "at_least"

connection_limit

integer

Pool member connection limit. Setting this to 0 disables the limit.

description

string

Pool member description.

fqdn

aliases: hostname

string

FQDN name of the pool member. This can be any name that is a valid RFC 1123 DNS name. Therefore, the only usable characters are “A” to “Z”, “a” to “z”, “0” to “9”, the hyphen (“-”) and the period (“.”).

FQDN names must include at least one period; delineating the host from the domain. For example, host.domain.

FQDN names must end with a letter or a number.

When creating a new pool member, one of either address or fqdn must be provided. This parameter cannot be updated after it is set.

fqdn_auto_populate

boolean

Specifies whether the system automatically creates ephemeral nodes using the IP addresses returned by the resolution of a DNS query for a node defined by an FQDN.

When true, the system generates an ephemeral node for each IP address returned in response to a DNS query for the FQDN of the node. Additionally, when a DNS response indicates the IP address of an ephemeral node no longer exists, the system deletes the ephemeral node.

When false, the system resolves a DNS query for the FQDN of the node with the single IP address associated with the FQDN.

When creating a new pool member, the default for this parameter is true.

Once set this parameter cannot be changed afterwards.

This parameter is ignored when reuse_nodes is true.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

ip_encapsulation

string

Specifies the IP encapsulation using either IPIP (IP encapsulation within IP, RFC 2003) or GRE (Generic Router Encapsulation, RFC 2784) on outbound packets (from BIG-IP system to server-pool member).

When none, disables IP encapsulation.

When inherit, inherits the IP encapsulation setting from the member’s pool.

When any other value, the options are None, Inherit from Pool, and Member Specific.

monitors

list / elements=string

Specifies the health monitors the system currently uses to monitor this resource.

name

string

Name of the node to create or re-use when creating a new pool member.

While this parameter is optional, we recommend specifying this parameter at all times to mitigate any unexpected behavior.

If not specified, a node name is created automatically from either the specified address or fqdn.

The enabled state is an alias of present.

partition

string

Partition to manage resources on.

Default: "Common"

pool

string / required

Pool name. This pool must exist.

port

integer

Pool member port.

This value cannot be changed after it has been set.

Parameter must be provided when using aggregates.

preserve_node

boolean

When state is absent, the system attempts to remove the node the pool member references.

The node will not be removed if it is still referenced by other pool members. If this happens, the module will not raise an error.

Setting this to true disables this behavior.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

priority_group

integer

Specifies a number representing the priority group for the pool member.

When adding a new member, the default is 0, meaning the member has no priority.

To specify a priority, you must activate priority group usage when you create a new pool or when adding or removing pool members. When activated, the system load balances traffic according to the priority group number assigned to the pool member.

The higher the number, the higher the priority. So a member with a priority of 3 has higher priority than a member with a priority of 1.

provider

dictionary

added in f5networks.f5_modules 1.0.0

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:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

password

aliases: pass, pwd

string / required

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

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

server

string / required

The BIG-IP host or the BIG-IQ 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 or the BIG-IQ. 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:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

rate_limit

integer

Pool member rate limit (connections-per-second). Setting this to 0 disables the limit.

ratio

integer

Pool member ratio weight. Valid values range from 1 through 100. New pool members – unless overridden with this value – default to 1.

replace_all_with

aliases: purge

boolean

Removes members not defined in the aggregate parameter.

This operation is all or none, meaning it will stop if there are some pool members that cannot be removed.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

reuse_nodes

boolean

Reuses node definitions if requested.

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

state

string

Pool member state.

Choices:

  • "present" ← (default)

  • "absent"

  • "enabled"

  • "disabled"

  • "forced_offline"

Notes

Note

  • 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: Add pool member
  bigip_pool_member:
    pool: my-pool
    partition: Common
    name: my-member
    host: "{{ ansible_default_ipv4['address'] }}"
    port: 80
    description: web server
    connection_limit: 100
    rate_limit: 50
    ratio: 2
    provider:
      server: lb.mydomain.com
      user: admin
      password: secret
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Modify pool member ratio and description
  bigip_pool_member:
    pool: my-pool
    partition: Common
    name: my-member
    host: "{{ ansible_default_ipv4['address'] }}"
    port: 80
    ratio: 1
    description: nginx server
    provider:
      server: lb.mydomain.com
      user: admin
      password: secret
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Remove pool member from pool
  bigip_pool_member:
    state: absent
    pool: my-pool
    partition: Common
    name: my-member
    host: "{{ ansible_default_ipv4['address'] }}"
    port: 80
    provider:
      server: lb.mydomain.com
      user: admin
      password: secret
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Force pool member offline
  bigip_pool_member:
    state: forced_offline
    pool: my-pool
    partition: Common
    name: my-member
    host: "{{ ansible_default_ipv4['address'] }}"
    port: 80
    provider:
      server: lb.mydomain.com
      user: admin
      password: secret
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Create members with priority groups
  bigip_pool_member:
    pool: my-pool
    partition: Common
    host: "{{ item.address }}"
    name: "{{ item.name }}"
    priority_group: "{{ item.priority_group }}"
    port: 80
    provider:
      server: lb.mydomain.com
      user: admin
      password: secret
  delegate_to: localhost
  loop:
    - address: 1.1.1.1
      name: web1
      priority_group: 4
    - address: 2.2.2.2
      name: web2
      priority_group: 3
    - address: 3.3.3.3
      name: web3
      priority_group: 2
    - address: 4.4.4.4
      name: web4
      priority_group: 1

- name: Add pool members aggregate
  bigip_pool_member:
    pool: my-pool
    aggregate:
      - host: 192.168.1.1
        partition: Common
        port: 80
        description: web server
        connection_limit: 100
        rate_limit: 50
        ratio: 2
      - host: 192.168.1.2
        partition: Common
        port: 80
        description: web server
        connection_limit: 100
        rate_limit: 50
        ratio: 2
      - host: 192.168.1.3
        partition: Common
        port: 80
        description: web server
        connection_limit: 100
        rate_limit: 50
        ratio: 2
    provider:
      server: lb.mydomain.com
      user: admin
      password: secret
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Add pool members aggregate, remove non aggregates
  bigip_pool_member:
    pool: my-pool
    aggregate:
      - host: 192.168.1.1
        partition: Common
        port: 80
        description: web server
        connection_limit: 100
        rate_limit: 50
        ratio: 2
      - host: 192.168.1.2
        partition: Common
        port: 80
        description: web server
        connection_limit: 100
        rate_limit: 50
        ratio: 2
      - host: 192.168.1.3
        partition: Common
        port: 80
        description: web server
        connection_limit: 100
        rate_limit: 50
        ratio: 2
    replace_all_with: true
    provider:
      server: lb.mydomain.com
      user: admin
      password: secret
  delegate_to: localhost

Return Values

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

Key

Description

address

string

The address of the pool member.

Returned: changed

Sample: "1.2.3.4"

connection_limit

integer

The new connection limit of the pool member.

Returned: changed

Sample: 1000

description

string

The new description of pool member.

Returned: changed

Sample: "My pool member"

fqdn

string

The FQDN of the pool member.

Returned: changed

Sample: "foo.bar.com"

fqdn_auto_populate

boolean

Whether FQDN auto population was set on the member or not.

Returned: changed

Sample: true

monitors

list / elements=string

The new list of monitors for the resource.

Returned: changed

Sample: ["/Common/monitor1", "/Common/monitor2"]

priority_group

integer

The new priority group.

Returned: changed

Sample: 3

rate_limit

integer

The new rate limit, in connections per second, of the pool member.

Returned: changed

Sample: 100

ratio

integer

The new pool member ratio weight.

Returned: changed

Sample: 50

replace_all_with

boolean

Purges all non-aggregate pool members from device.

Returned: changed

Sample: true

Authors

  • Tim Rupp (@caphrim007)

  • Wojciech Wypior (@wojtek0806)