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Enfield303's avatar
Enfield303
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Nov 19, 2020

Azure Big IP F5 template with HA via LB

Hello All, I have deployed two Big IP virtual appliances into Micosoft Azure using the following template: https://github.com/F5Networks/f5-azure-arm-templates/tree/master/supported/failover/same-net/via-lb/3nic/existing-stack/payg

I ran accross the problem detailed here (https://github.com/F5Networks/f5-azure-arm-templates/issues/198) but once I manually set the failover network and mirroring network IP address both devices synced in an Active/Sandby configuration.

 

My question now is how does the Azure loadbalancer in front of these F5 devices pass traffic / manage failover for them? The Azure loadbalancer as deployed from the template has the F5 external addresses in a back-end pool but there are no health probes, loadbalancing rules or inbound NAT rules defined - does all this have to be done manually similar to what is documented here? : - https://azure-f5-lab-days.readthedocs.io/en/latest/class1/module3/lab1.html

 

Thanks for any help

4 Replies

  • On a related note, the advice for using an Azure LB for failover seems to be to use a wildcard, network range or different ports for the VIP - but what if I have multiple *seperate* apps that use the *same* port? - if the secondary IP addresses are on a /24 subnet do I need to further subnet that to differentiate between different apps? - or should I use DSR instead?

    DSR does seem to simplify a lot of this but Jeff Giroux seems to not recommend it generally.

  • So it look like for more virtual servers the advice is to add more secondary IP configurations to the ext interface on the F5s: https://github.com/F5Networks/f5-azure-arm-templates/tree/master/supported/failover/same-net/via-lb/3nic/existing-stack/payg#creating-virtual-servers-on-the-big-ip-ve

    • Jim_M's avatar
      Jim_M
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      The 'adding more secondary IP' approach is working well for me. However, each F5 in the HA cluster will have differing IPs for their VIPs. So how can i keep config in sync if the 2 configs have to differ?

      • Enfield303's avatar
        Enfield303
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        Hello Jim I created a shared object that contained both F5 IPs and used that shared object for the VIP