bigip_virtual_address – Manage LTM virtual addresses on a BIG-IP

New in version 2.4.

Synopsis

  • Manage LTM virtual addresses on a BIG-IP.

Parameters

Parameter Choices/Defaults Comments
address
string
Virtual address. This value cannot be modified after it is set.
If you never created a virtual address, but did create virtual servers, then a virtual address for each virtual server was created automatically. The name of this virtual address is its IP address value.
arp
boolean
added in 2.7
    Choices:
  • no
  • yes
Specifies whether the system accepts ARP requests.
When no, specifies that the system does not accept ARP requests.
When yes, then the packets are dropped.
Note that both ARP and ICMP Echo must be disabled in order for forwarding virtual servers using that virtual address to forward ICMP packets.
When creating a new virtual address, if this parameter is not specified, the default value is yes.
arp_state
string
    Choices:
  • enabled
  • disabled
Specifies whether the system accepts ARP requests. When (disabled), specifies that the system does not accept ARP requests. Note that both ARP and ICMP Echo must be disabled in order for forwarding virtual servers using that virtual address to forward ICMP packets. If (enabled), then the packets are dropped.
Deprecated. Use the arp parameter instead.
When creating a new virtual address, if this parameter is not specified, the default value is enabled.
auto_delete
string
Specifies whether the system automatically deletes the virtual address with the deletion of the last associated virtual server. When disabled, specifies that the system leaves the virtual address even when all associated virtual servers have been deleted. When creating the virtual address, the default value is enabled.
enabled and disabled are deprecated and will be removed in Ansible 2.11. Instead, use known Ansible booleans such as yes and no
availability_calculation
string
added in 2.6
    Choices:
  • always
  • when_all_available
  • when_any_available
Specifies what routes of the virtual address the system advertises. When when_any_available, advertises the route when any virtual server is available. When when_all_available, advertises the route when all virtual servers are available. When (always), always advertises the route regardless of the virtual servers available.

aliases: advertise_route
connection_limit
integer
Specifies the number of concurrent connections that the system allows on this virtual address.
icmp_echo
string
    Choices:
  • enabled
  • disabled
  • selective
Specifies how the systems sends responses to (ICMP) echo requests on a per-virtual address basis for enabling route advertisement. When enabled, the BIG-IP system intercepts ICMP echo request packets and responds to them directly. When disabled, the BIG-IP system passes ICMP echo requests through to the backend servers. When (selective), causes the BIG-IP system to internally enable or disable responses based on virtual server state; when_any_available, when_all_available, or C(always, regardless of the state of any virtual servers.
name
string
added in 2.6
Name of the virtual address.
If this parameter is not provided, then the value of address will be used.
netmask
string
Netmask of the provided virtual address. This value cannot be modified after it is set.
When creating a new virtual address, if this parameter is not specified, the default value is 255.255.255.255 for IPv4 addresses and ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff for IPv6 addresses.
partition
string
added in 2.5
 Default:
"Common"
Device partition to manage resources on.
password
string / required
The password for the user account used to connect to the BIG-IP.
You may omit this option by setting the environment variable F5_PASSWORD.

aliases: pass, pwd
provider
dictionary
added in 2.5
A dict object containing connection details.
password
string / required
The password for the user account used to connect to the BIG-IP.
You may omit this option by setting the environment variable F5_PASSWORD.

aliases: pass, pwd
server
string / required
The BIG-IP host.
You may omit this option by setting the environment variable F5_SERVER.
server_port
integer
Default:
443
The BIG-IP server port.
You may omit this option by setting the environment variable F5_SERVER_PORT.
ssh_keyfile
path
Specifies the SSH keyfile to use to authenticate the connection to the remote device. This argument is only used for cli transports.
You may omit this option by setting the environment variable ANSIBLE_NET_SSH_KEYFILE.
timeout
integer
Default:
10
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
    Choices:
  • cli
  • rest ←
Configures the transport connection to use when connecting to the remote device.
user
string / required
The username to connect to the BIG-IP with. This user must have administrative privileges on the device.
You may omit this option by setting the environment variable F5_USER.
validate_certs
boolean
    Choices:
  • no
  • yes ←
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.
route_advertisement
string
added in 2.6
    Choices:
  • disabled
  • enabled
  • always
  • selective
  • any
  • all
Specifies whether the system uses route advertisement for this virtual address.
When disabled, the system does not advertise routes for this virtual address.
The majority of these options are only supported on versions 13.0.0-HF1 or higher. On versions less than this, all choices expect disabled will translate to enabled.
When always, the BIG-IP system will always advertise the route for the virtual address, regardless of availability status. This requires an enabled virtual address.
When enabled, the BIG-IP system will advertise the route for the available virtual address, based on the calculation method in the availability calculation.
When disabled, the BIG-IP system will not advertise the route for the virtual address, regardless of the availability status.
When selective, you can also selectively enable ICMP echo responses, which causes the BIG-IP system to internally enable or disable responses based on virtual server state. Either any virtual server, all virtual servers, or always, regardless of the state of any virtual server.
When any, the BIG-IP system will advertise the route for the virtual address when any virtual server is available.
When all, the BIG-IP system will advertise the route for the virtual address when all virtual servers are available.
route_domain
string
added in 2.6
The route domain of the address that you want to use.
This value cannot be modified after it is set.
server
string / required
The BIG-IP host.
You may omit this option by setting the environment variable F5_SERVER.
server_port
integer
added in 2.2
 Default:
443
The BIG-IP server port.
You may omit this option by setting the environment variable F5_SERVER_PORT.
spanning
boolean
added in 2.7
    Choices:
  • no
  • yes
Enables all BIG-IP systems in a device group to listen for and process traffic on the same virtual address.
Spanning for a virtual address occurs when you enable the spanning option on a device and then sync the virtual address to the other members of the device group.
Spanning also relies on the upstream router to distribute application flows to the BIG-IP systems using ECMP routes. ECMP defines a route to the virtual address using distinct Floating self-IP addresses configured on each BIG-IP system.
You must also configure MAC masquerade addresses and disable arp on the virtual address when Spanning is enabled.
When creating a new virtual address, if this parameter is not specified, the default valus is no.
state
string
    Choices:
  • present ←
  • absent
  • enabled
  • disabled
The virtual address state. If absent, an attempt to delete the virtual address will be made. This will only succeed if this virtual address is not in use by a virtual server. present creates the virtual address and enables it. If enabled, enable the virtual address if it exists. If disabled, create the virtual address if needed, and set state to disabled.
traffic_group
string
added in 2.5
The traffic group for the virtual address. When creating a new address, if this value is not specified, the default of /Common/traffic-group-1 will be used.
use_route_advertisement
boolean
    Choices:
  • no
  • yes
Specifies whether the system uses route advertisement for this virtual address.
When disabled, the system does not advertise routes for this virtual address.
Deprecated. Use the route_advertisement parameter instead.
user
string / required
The username to connect to the BIG-IP with. This user must have administrative privileges on the device.
You may omit this option by setting the environment variable F5_USER.
validate_certs
boolean
added in 2.0
    Choices:
  • no
  • yes ←
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.

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 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 virtual address
  bigip_virtual_address:
    state: present
    partition: Common
    address: 10.10.10.10
    provider:
      server: lb.mydomain.net
      user: admin
      password: secret
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Enable route advertisement on the virtual address
  bigip_virtual_address:
    state: present
    address: 10.10.10.10
    use_route_advertisement: yes
    provider:
      server: lb.mydomain.net
      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 Returned Description
address
integer
 created
The address of the virtual address.

Sample:
2345
arp
boolean
 changed
The new way the virtual address handles ARP requests.

Sample:
True
auto_delete
string
 changed
New setting for auto deleting virtual address.

Sample:
enabled
connection_limit
integer
 changed
The new connection limit of the virtual address.

Sample:
1000
icmp_echo
string
 changed
New ICMP echo setting applied to virtual address.

Sample:
disabled
netmask
integer
 created
The netmask of the virtual address.

Sample:
2345
spanning
string
 changed
Whether spanning is enabled or not

Sample:
disabled
state
string
 changed
The new state of the virtual address.

Sample:
disabled
use_route_advertisement
boolean
 changed
The new setting for whether to use route advertising or not.

Sample:
True


Status

Authors

  • Tim Rupp (@caphrim007)
  • Wojciech Wypior (@wojtek0806)

Hint

If you notice any issues in this documentation you can edit this document to improve it.

© 2012–2018 Michael DeHaan
© 2018–2019 Red Hat, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/2.8/modules/bigip_virtual_address_module.html