F5 IPAM Controller

The F5 IPAM Controller is a Docker container that runs in an orchestration environment and interfaces with an IPAM system. It allocates IP addresses from an IPAM system’s address pool for hostnames in an orchestration environment. The F5 IPAM Controller watches orchestration-specific resources and consumes the hostnames within each resource.

In this IPAM

The F5 IPAM Controller can allocate IP address from static IP address pool based on the CIDR mentioned in a Kubernetes resource The idea here is that we will support CRD, Type LB and probably also in the future route/ingress. We should make it more generic so that we don't have to update this later, F5 IPAM Controller decides to allocate the IP from the respective IP address pool for the hostname specified in the virtualserver custom resource.

Supported kubernetes resource :

RESOURCES	MINIMUM VERSION SUPPORTED
VS CRD	CIS v2.2.2

Setup Diagram and Details

Architectural diagram of how F5-IPAM-Controller(FIC) fits in the environment

The F5 IPAM Controller acts as an interface to CIS to provide an IP address from a pool of IP's to each hostname provided in the virtual server CRD.

Flow Chart for CIS-FIC working

F5 IPAM Deploy Configuration Options

Deployment Options

PARAMETER	TYPE	REQUIRED	DESCRIPTION
orchestration	String	Required	The orchestration parameter holds the orchestration environment i.e. Kubernetes.
ipam-provider	String	Required	ipam-provider parameter holds the IP provider that holds the ownership of providing IP addresses such as infoblox, f5-ip-provider. Default is f5-ip-provider.
log-level	String	Optional	Log level parameter specify various logging level such as DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR, CRITICAL.

Deployment Options of Provider (f5-ip-provider)

PARAMETER	TYPE	REQUIRED	DESCRIPTION
ip-range	String	Required	ip-range parameter holds the IP address ranges and from this range, it creates a pool of IP address range which gets allocated to the corresponding hostname in the virtual server CRD

Deployment Options of Provider (infoblox)

PARAMETER	TYPE	REQUIRED	DESCRIPTION
infoblox-labels	String	Required	infoblox labels holds the mappings for infoblox's netView, dnsView and CIDR
infoblox-grid-host	String	Required	URL (or IP Address) of Infoblox Grid Host
infoblox-wapi-port	String	Required	Port that the Infoblox Server listens on
infoblox-wapi-version	String	Required	Web API version of Infoblox
infoblox-username	String	Required	Username of Infoblox User
infoblox-username	String	Required	Password of the given Infoblox User

Note: On how to configure these Configuration Options, please refer to IPAM Deployment YAML example in below.

Installation

RBAC - ServiceAccount, ClusterRole and ClusterRoleBindings for F5 IPAM Controller

kind: ClusterRole
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: ipam-ctlr-clusterrole
rules:
  - apiGroups: ["fic.f5.com"]
    resources: ["f5ipams","f5ipams/status"]
    verbs: ["get", "list", "watch", "update", "patch"]
---
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: ipam-ctlr-clusterrole-binding
  namespace: kube-system
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: ipam-ctlr-clusterrole
subjects:
  - apiGroup: ""
    kind: ServiceAccount
    name: ipam-ctlr
    namespace: kube-system
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: ipam-ctlr
  namespace: kube-system

Example: F5 IPAM Controller Deployment YAML with Default Provider

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  labels:
    name: f5-ipam-controller
  name: f5-ipam-controller
  namespace: kube-system
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: f5-ipam-controller
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: f5-ipam-controller
    spec:
      containers:
      - args:
        - --orchestration=kubernetes
        - --ip-range={"Dev":"172.16.3.21-172.16.3.30","Test":"172.  16.3.31-172.16.3.40", "Production":"172.16.3.41-172.16.3.50","Default":"172.16.3.51-172.16.3.60"}'
        - --log-level=DEBUG
        command:
        - /app/bin/f5-ipam-controller
        image: f5networks/f5-ipam-controller
        imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
        name: f5-ipam-controller
      serviceAccount: ipam-ctlr
      serviceAccountName: ipam-ctlr

Example: F5 IPAM Controller Deployment YAML with Infoblox Provider

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  labels:
    name: f5-ipam-controller
  name: f5-ipam-controller
  namespace: kube-system
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: f5-ipam-controller
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: f5-ipam-controller
    spec:
      containers:
      - args:
        - --orchestration=kubernetes
        - --log-level=DEBUG
        - --ipam-provider
        - infoblox
        - --infoblox-labels
        - '{"Dev" :{"netView": "default", "dnsView": "default", "cidr": "172.16.4.0/24"},"Test" :{"netView": "test", "dnsView": "test", "cidr": "172.16.5.0/24"}}'
        - --infoblox-grid-host
        - 10.144.75.2
        - --infoblox-wapi-port=443
        - --infoblox-wapi-version
        - 2.11.2
        - --infoblox-username
        - user
        - --infoblox-password
        - paswd

        command:
        - /app/bin/f5-ipam-controller
        image: f5networks/f5-ipam-controller
        imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
        name: f5-ipam-controller
      serviceAccount: ipam-ctlr
      serviceAccountName: ipam-ctlr

Deploying RBAC and F5 IPAM Controller

Using kubectl let's apply the above defined RBAC and Deployment definitions.

kubectl create -f f5-ipam-rbac.yaml
kubectl create -f f5-ipam-deployment.yaml

Configuring CIS to work with F5 IPAM Controller

To configure CIS to work with the F5 IPAM controller, the user needs to provide a parameter --ipam=true in the CIS deployment and also provide a parameter ipamLabel in the Kubernetes resource.

Note: ipamLabel can have values as mentioned in the ip-range parameter in the deployment.

Examples

Virtual Server CR

apiVersion: "cis.f5.com/v1"
kind: VirtualServer
metadata:
 name: coffee-virtual-server
 labels:
   f5cr: "true"
spec:
 host: coffee.example.com
 ipamLabel: Dev
 pools:
 - path: /coffee
   service: svc-2
   servicePort: 80

Tansport Server CR

  apiVersion: cis.f5.com/v1
  kind: TransportServer
  metadata:
    generation: 2
    labels:
      f5cr: "true"
  spec:
    ipamLabel: Test
    mode: standard
    pool:
      monitor:
        interval: 20
        timeout: 10
        type: tcp
      service: test-svc
      servicePort: 1344
    snat: auto
    type: tcp
    virtualServerPort: 1344

CIS Deployment with ipam enabled

apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: k8s-bigip-ctlr-deployment
  namespace: kube-system
spec:
  replicas: 1
  template:
    metadata:
      name: k8s-bigip-ctlr
      labels:
        app: k8s-bigip-ctlr
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: bigip-ctlr
      containers:
        - name: k8s-bigip-ctlr
          image: "f5networks/k8s-bigip-ctlr"
          command: ["/app/bin/k8s-bigip-ctlr"]
          args: [
            "--bigip-username=$(BIGIP_USERNAME)",
            "--bigip-password=$(BIGIP_PASSWORD)",
            "--bigip-url=<ip_address-or-hostname>",
            "--bigip-partition=<name_of_partition>",
            "--pool-member-type=nodeport",
            "--agent=as3",
            "--ipam=true", //Enable IPAM 
            ]
      imagePullSecrets:
        - name: f5-docker-images
        - name: bigip-login

NOTE:

• If the user provides the parameter --ipam=true in the CIS deployment, then CIS decides if it needs to retrieve an IP Address from the IPAM Controller or not

• If a VirtualServer Address is specified in the Kubernetes resource, CIS will not leverage the IPAM Controller for IP address even if a ipamLabel parameter is specified.

• If No VirtualServer Address is specified in the Kubernetes resource and ipamLabel parameter is specified, CIS will leverage the IPAM Controller for allocation of IP address.

Known Issues

• FIC does not allocate the last IP address specified in the ip range.
• Updating the --ip-range in FIC deployment is an issue.
• Restarting FIC with infoblox ipam provider holds/allocate more ip addresses in infoblox.