v5.3.1.0

This maintenance release corrected errors that occurred in some F5 ARM templates due to an incorrect version of the Application Insights node SDK.

Released on 9/6/18

v5.3.0.0

Supported templates in release 3.3.0

In addition to minor enhancements and fixes, this release contains the following:

• Auto Scale LTM and WAF templates using DNS now supported
  The auto scale templates for BIG-IP LTM and WAF (ASM) using DNS are now fully supported by F5. By virtue of a DNS request made by the client to the DNS provider (currently only BIG-IP DNS), traffic flows to the current BIG-IP VE (cluster) members directly, which then process traffic to the application servers, allowing you to deploy without using an AWS Elastic Load Balancer (ELB).

• Support for BIG-IP version 13.1.1
  This release introduces support for BIG-IP version 13.1.1 across templates. In this release, for BYOL and BIG-IQ licensing, the BIG-IP image names have changed (previous options were Good, Better, and Best). Now you choose a BIG-IP VE image based on whether you need LTM only or All modules available (including WAF, ASM, etc.), and if you need 1 or 2 boot locations. Use 2 boot locations if you expect to upgrade the BIG-IP VE in the future. If you do not need room to upgrade (if you intend to create a new instance when a new version of BIG-IP VE is released), use an image with 1 boot location.

Released on 8/28/18

v5.2.0.0

In addition to minor enhancements and fixes, this release contains the following:

• F5 Azure ARM template repository structure changes
  In an effort to provide consistency across our different cloud offerings, we have modified the directory structure of the F5 Azure ARM template repository. Now each template has its own folder with an associated readme file specific to the template. Any bookmarked links will likely need to be updated due to this change.

Released on 6/28/18

v5.1.0.0

In addition to minor enhancements and fixes, this release contains the following:

• The Cluster, Failover-API template now includes N-NIC option
  The F5 ARM template for HA Cluster (Active/Standby) now includes the option of launching with additional NICs. This is extremely useful when the BIG-IP VE requires more than 3 network interfaces.
  Additionally, this template now moves Azure IP Configurations on failover that match a Self IP address in a floating traffic group.

• Option of using SSH public key for authentication
  All of our ARM templates now give you the option of using a password or SSH public key for authentication, providing greater deployment flexibility and security.

• All templates with BIG-IQ licensing now support using a ELA/subscription pool
  The templates now support BIG-IQ licensing using an ELA (Enterprise Licensing Agreement)/subscription pool, which enables self-licensing of BIG-IP virtual editions (VEs). This reduces time and effort and enables the quick delivery of application and security services.

• Templates now allow use of custom BIG-IP image
  The templates now support using a custom BIG-IP image if necessary. You simply add the URL to the VHD in Azure storage or the full resource ID to an existing Microsoft.Compute image resource, and the custom BIG-IP image launches. This allows greater flexibility for your cloud deployments.

Released on 5/17/18

v5.0.0.0

Supported templates additions in 5.0.0.0

In addition to minor enhancements and fixes, this release contains the following:

• Auto scale templates now automatically backup BIG-IP configuration
  All Azure auto scale templates now automatically create a UCS backup of the BIG-IP VE configuration and store it in Azure in the storage account created by the template. Backups occur once a day at 12am and 7 days of backups are saved. In the event the system needs to restore from a backup UCS file, it uses the file with the latest timestamp.

• HA-AVSET template renamed, relocated, and updated
  The HA-AVSET template now called Failover – API, and resides in the /cluster/failover-api/ directory. For this release, the failover script was overhauled to focus on moving IP configurations based on BIG-IP virtual addresses, and not tags on public IP addresses in Azure.

• Logging iApp template
  F5 has created an iApp for configuring logging for BIG-IP modules to be sent to a specific set of cloud analytics solutions. The iApp creates logging profiles which can be attached to the appropriate objects (virtual servers, APM policy, and so on) which results in logs being sent to the selected cloud analytics solution, Azure in this case. This iApp now loads on the BIG-IP VE as a part of the template.

Experimental template additions in 5.0.0.0

• Learning stacks
  The experimental F5 Azure ARM templates now include an option for learning stacks. Learning stacks means that in addition to creating a new networking stack, it also creates all of the appropriate configuration for an example web service. This allows you to create a quick, working demo, or a place to get hands on learning, with a click of a button; everything is created from scratch for you.

• Auto scale using DNS (no ALB required)
  These new experimental templates for our auto scale solutions now use a DNS request made by the client to the DNS provider (currently only BIG-IP DNS (formerly BIG-IP GTM) is supported) to direct traffic to the current BIG-IP VE (cluster) members directly, which will then process traffic to the application servers. This allows deployments without using an Azure Load Balancer (ALB), which saves money and simplifies the configuration.

• Auto scale using BIG-IQ and scaling with PAYG instances
  These new experimental auto scale templates launch at least one BIG-IP VE Local Traffic Manager with a BYOL (bring your own license) license, but then use hourly BIG-IP VEs when auto scale events occur. The templates rely on an existing F5 BIG-IQ device with a pool of 1-4 BYOL licenses. But instead of scaling BYOL BIG-IP VE instances as our other auto scale solutions do, as traffic through the BIG-IP VE or the BIG-IP CPU utilization increases, up to 8 PAYG (pay as you go) BIG-IP VE LTM instances automatically instantiate to seamlessly handle the load. When traffic or CPU utilization decreases, the hourly BIG-IP VEs are automatically removed.

Released 4/12/18

v4.4.0.1

This release removes the option of using BIG-IP v12.1 and v13.0 images from the templates. As a result of changes within the Azure environment, deployments of F5 ARM templates using these versions were experiencing a high rate of failure. All templates in this release (4.4.0.1) use BIG-IP version 13.1, which is not susceptible to these failures. See the note on the top-level README in this repo for more information.

v4.4.0.0

In addition to minor enhancements and fixes, this release contains the following:

• Logging
  All F5 Azure ARM templates now capture all deployment logs to the BIG-IP VE in /var/log/cloud/azure. Depending on which template you are using, this includes deployment logs (stdout/stderr), Cloud Libs execution logs, recurring solution logs (metrics, failover, and so on), and more.

• Support for BIG-IP v13.1.0.2
  All F5 Microsoft ARM templates now support BIG-IP v13.1.0.2. This release contains a number of new features and fixes. For complete details, see https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/products/big-ip_ltm/releasenotes/related/relnote-supplement-bigip-13-1-0-2.html and https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/products/big-ip_ltm/releasenotes/product/relnote-bigip-ve-13-1-0.html.

v4.3.0.0

Supported templates additions in 4.3.0.0

• HA Cluster 3 NIC templates support all-protocol ILB (internal load balancer) and network failover
  Taking advantage of Azure’s preview of the new internal load balancer with all-protocol LB rules, this template deploys the ILB in front of the internal subnet. This release adds the choice of having the ILB configured with a per-protocol or all-protocol rule.
  In an Active-Active deployment, this allows failover to occur extremely fast, with no service principal authentication required.

• HA Cluster 3 NIC templates allow deploying either ALB, ILB (or both)
  In the HA Cluster templates, you now have the option of using either ALB, ILB, or both. This provides more flexibility for users who do not want to use an external Azure load balancer.

• Auto Scale based on vCPU
  This release introduces new options for the AWS Auto Scale LTM and WAF templates. You can now choose to scale based on metrics from the BIG-IP VE CPU (specifically the F5 TMM CPU), traffic going through the BIG-IP VE TMM, Azure host throughput (specifically Network_Out). See the README files for more information.
  These new options provide a new level of flexibility, enabling you to more granularly configure scaling thresholds.

• Auto Scale WAF/LTM using BYOL licensing via BIG-IQ
  These experimental templates allow you to use a BIG-IQ device to license BIG-IP VEs using BYOL licenses in an auto scale deployment. Additionally, the BIG-IP device(s) in the auto scale deployment will handle revoking licenses from the BIG-IQ LM when an instance is terminated as a part of the scale down process, allowing you more control over your available licenses.

• Standalone production stack templates launch without a public IP
  The standalone (1, 2, 3, and nNIC) templates now include the ability to launch without a public IP address. This allows organizations to operate their BIG-IP VEs privately with no ingress public external access. These templates allow trusted users management access to the BIG-IP VEs and perform ADC functions in private network environments. This can be useful (or possibly required) in deployments where accessing resources does not require a public IP address on the BIG-IP VE, such as users connecting to internal applications using a VPN.

• HA-AVSET templates allow either public IP address or UDR failover (or both)
  In the HA-AVSET templates, you now have the option of using public IP address for failover, or UDR failover (or both). This provides more flexibility for users who do not want to use public IP failover, which was previously required.

Experimental template additions in 4.3.0.0

• Experimental logging iApp template
  F5 has created an iApp (https://github.com/F5Networks/f5-cloud-iapps/tree/master/f5-cloud-logger) for configuring logging for BIG-IP modules to be sent to a specific set of cloud analytics solutions. The iApp creates logging profiles which can be attached to the appropriate objects (virtual servers, APM policy, and so on) which results in logs being sent to the selected cloud analytics solution, Azure in this case.

v4.2.0.0

This release was for the new BIG-IP VE images in Azure as a result of the Security Advisory. We recommend new Azure ARM template deployments use this release or later. See the note at the top of the main README file for additional information.

Released on 11/24/17

v4.1.0.0

This release was for adding the note about the Security Advisory to the top level README file. There were no other changes to this repository from v4.0.0.0. As soon as the BIG-IP VE images are available, will we have another release so all templates will reference the new images.