All devices are already licensed so we can focus on
configuring the basic infrastructure related settings to complete the
Device Onboarding process. The remaining items include (list not
exhaustive):
Device Settings
NTP/DNS Settings
Remote Authentication
Hostname
Admin Credentials
L1-3 Networking
Physical Interface Settings
L2 Connectivity (VLAN, VXLAN, etc.)
L3 Connectivity (Self IPs, Routing, etc.)
HA Settings
Global Settings
Config Sync IP
Mirroring IP
Failover Addresses
CMI Device Trusts
Device Groups
Traffic Groups
Floating Self IPs
We will specifically cover the items in BOLD above in the following
labs. It should be noted that many permutations of the Device Onboarding
process exist due to the nature of real-world environments. This class is
designed to teach enough information so that you can then apply the
knowledge learned and help articulate and/or deliver a specific solution
for your environment.
In this task we will modify the device hostname and disable the GUI
Setup Wizard. The Resource that contains these settings is
/mgmt/tm/sys/global-settings.
Perform the following steps to complete this task:
Expand the Lab1.3-Review/SetDeviceSettings folder in the
Postman collection.
Click the Step1:GetSystemGlobal-Settings request. Click the
Send button and review the response Body to see what
the current settings on the device are. Examine the resulting response to
understand what settings are currently applied.
Click the Step2:SetSystemGlobal-Settings request. This item uses
a PATCH request to the global-settings resource to modify the
attributes contained within it. We will update the guiSetup and
hostname attribute.
Click on Body. Review the JSON body and modify the hostname
attribute to set the hostname to bigip-a.f5.local
Also notice that we are disabling the GUI Setup Wizard as part of
the same request:
Click the Send button and review the response Body.
You should see that the attributes modified above have been updated by
looking at the response. You can also GET the global-settings by
sending the Step1:GetSystemGlobal-Settings request again to verify
they have been updated.
This task will make use of JSON arrays. The syntax for defining a
JSON array is:
myArray:[Object0,Object1...ObjectX]
To define an array consisting of Strings the syntax is:
myStringArray:["string0","string1"..."stringX"]
Much like the previous task we can update system DNS and NTP settings by
sending a PATCH request to the correct resource in the sys Organizing
Collection. The relevant Resources for this task are:
URL
Type
/mgmt/tm/sys/dns
DNS Settings
/mgmt/tm/sys/ntp
NTP Settings
Perform the following steps to complete this task:
Click the Step3:GetSystemDNSSettings item in the folder.
Click Send and review the current settings.
Click the Step4:SetSystemDNSSettings item in the folder.
Click Body. Review the JSON body to verify the name server IPs
4.2.2.2 and 8.8.8.8 are listed. Additionally, add a search domain of
f5.local. You will modify a JSON array to add a search domain:
Click the Send button and verify the requested changes were
successfully implemented by looking at the response or by sending the
Step3:GetSystemDNSSettings request again.
Click the Step5:GetSystemNTPSettings item in the folder.
Click Send and review the current settings.
Click the Step6:SetSystemNTPSettings item in the folder.
Click Body. Review the JSON body to verify the NTP servers
with hostnames 0.pool.ntp.org and 1.pool.ntp.org are contained
in the servers attribute (another JSON array!).
Click the Send button and verify the requested changes were
successfully implemented by looking at the response or sending the
Step5:GetSystemNTPSettings again.
In this task we will update the passwords for the root and admin
accounts. The process for updating the root account is different than
other system accounts because it is used by underlying Linux OS.
To update the root account password we will use a POST to the
/mgmt/shared/authn/root REST endpoint.
To update all other system accounts we will PATCH the
/mgmt/tm/auth/user/<username> Resource.
Perform the following steps to change the root user password:
Click the Step7:SetrootUserPassword item in the folder.
We are performing a POST operation to change the root user password
and have to specify the oldPassword because the REST implementation
on the BIG-IP uses the underlying Linux mechanism. Click
Body. Modify the JSON body to update the password to the
value newdefault and click the Send button.
You can verify the password has been changed by opening an SSH session
to BIG-IP A. A shortcut to a terminal is included on the desktop of
the Linux jumphost. Open a Terminal window and then open an SSH connection
to BIG-IP A using the command sshroot@10.1.1.10:
Repeat the procedure above to change the password back todefault
Perform the following steps to change the admin user password:
Click the Step8:SetadminUserPassword item in the collection.
We are performing a PATCH operation to admin user
Resource. Click Body and modify the JSON body to update the
password to the value newadmin and click the Send button.
You can verify the password has been changed by opening an SSH session
OR by logging into TMUI (HTTP GUI) to BIG-IP A in a Chrome browser tab.
Repeat the procedure above to change the password back toadmin
In this task we will do basic SNMP and syslog configuration using POST,
PUT, DELETE commands.
Perform following steps to complete this task:
Expand the Lab1.3A-SNMP&Syslog folder in the Postman Collection
Send the requests in Steps 1-14 and verify the expected result occured on
BIG-IP A. For requests using the GET method you can review the response
JSON body rather than using the BIG-IP GUI.
