30.8 C
Dubai
Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Save Public IPs using F5 LTM Policies

F5 has different modules and one of them is LTM – Local Traffic Manager . At this stage I would like to explain when LTM is faced on the internet facing side. On how we can save Public IPs .

LTM has Policies feature where you can re direct traffic based on DNS hostname. So in our Case For 1 Public IP we share more than 15 Apps

AppA.azure365pro.com

AppB.azure365pro.com

AppC.azure365pro.com

AppD.azure365pro.com

and goes on and we have a wildcard SSL Sharing the same SSL Certificate. Even though Public IP is much cheaper nowadays. It allows things to manage to remove and Add applications without touching the perimeter firewall.

Just Add DNS Record and use LTM Policies to re direct traffic to the specified Virtual Server. It works seamlessly without complicating our life in to many custom iRules

Lets consider your VLANs and Self IPs are in Place with Traffic allowed from Load Balancer to Desired Apps  and SSL Imported to Load balancer Already.

Its my First Virtual Server just to redirect all HTTP to HTTPS Traffic.

83.100.100.100 is my Public IP – Allowed only 443 to 80 to F5 LTM From Perimeter Firewall

172.21.10.10 is my Private IP –  Its just a dummy IP from the Self IP Range Points no where.

Name VIP1-HTTP
Partition / Path Common
Description DMZ (83.100.100.100) – Redirect to HTTPS
Type – Standard
Source Address     Host 0.0.0.0/0
Destination Address/Mask Host 172.21.10.10
Service Port  Port 80
Notify Status to Virtual Address Checked
PVA Acceleration None
Availability     Unknown (Enabled) – The children pool member(s) either don’t have service checking enabled, or service check results are not available yet
Syncookie Status Inactive
State    Enabled

image

Configuration: Basic
Protocol    TCP
Protocol Profile (Client)    tcp
Protocol Profile (Server)   Use Client Profile
HTTP Profile (Client)    http
HTTP Profile (Server)   Use Client Profile
HTTP Proxy Connect Profile  None
FTP Profile    None
RTSP Profile  None
SSL Profile (Client)   None Selected
Selected         Available

SMTPS Profile    none
POP3 Profile    none
Client LDAP Profile    none
Server LDAP Profile   none
Service Profile  none
SMTP Profile    none
VLAN and Tunnel Traffic  All VLANS and Tunnels
Source Address Translation Auto Map

image

Everything left to default.

Content Rewrite
Rewrite Profile none
HTML Profile none

Access Policy
Access Profile none
Connectivity Profile none
Per-Request Policy none
VDI Profile none
Application Tunnels (Java & Per-App VPN)  Not Enabled
OAM Support    Not Enabled
ADFS Proxy   Not Enabled
PingAccess Profile  none

API Protection
API Protection Profile   none

Acceleration:
iSession Profile   none  Context:  server
Rate Class  none
OneConnect Profile none
NTLM Conn Pool none
HTTP Compression Profile none
Web Acceleration Profile none
HTTP/2 Profile (Client) none
HTTP/2 Profile (Server) none
HTTP MRF Router  Not Enabled

image

Load Balancing
Default Pool  none
Default Persistence Profile none
Fallback Persistence Profile none

iRules (Use the Default irule to redirect all traffic to Https no matter whatever it is)

/Common/_sys_https_redirect

image

Security Settings . We have ASM – Application Security Manager enabled am not going to into that in this article. Definitely  it has amazing features.

Policy Settings
Destination    172.21.10.10:80
Service  HTTP
Application Security Policy  Disabled
Service Policy  none

IP Intelligence Disabled
DoS Protection Profile Profile:  Enabled
Bot Defense Profile Profile:  Enabled
Log Profile Log illegal Requests

image

Now we are done with HTTP To HTTPS redirection.

Lets create a Virtual Server for HTTPS

General Properties
Name    VIP1-HTTPS
Partition / Path    Common
Description   DMZ (83.100.100.100)
Type  Standard
Source Address    Host  0.0.0.0/0
Destination Address/Mask  Host  172.21.10.10
Service Port  Port 443

Notify Status to Virtual Address  Enabled
PVA Acceleration    None
Availability     Unknown (Enabled) – The children pool member(s) either don’t have service checking enabled, or service check results are not available yet
Syncookie Status    Inactive
State  Enabled

image

Get the SSL Issues and Import using a pfx file. So that we can use them on the HTTPS Virtual Server.

Import pfx file – Certificate Management – Traffic Certificate Management – SSL Certificate List – Import

image

Local Traffic – Profiles – SSL

image

Create a Client Profile and Assign the SSL

image

Exactly Same as HTTP Profile . Only difference in here is

SSL Assigned on Both.

SSL Profile (Client)  – Valid Wild Card SSL
SSL Profile (Server) – You place a default SSL or leave it Empty

image

Leave Everything to none. Lets see how we can create this Policy.  To Get App Redirection Working.

image

  • Lets Create App A  with Same Settings but Service Port 1000
  • Lets Create App B  with Same Settings but Service Port 1001
  • Lets Create App C  with Same Settings but Service Port 1002
  • Lets Create App D  with Same Settings but Service Port 1003

It can go on with the Same Shared Public IP.

image

SSL is Assigned for SSL Profile (Client)

image

game Virtual Server with Custom port 1000 is directing the traffic to game Pool . which has the real game pool members.

Default Pool
Default Persistence Profile   cookie
Fallback Persistence Profile source_addr

image

Lets Create a Policy.

image

For Example

AppA.azure365pro.com (In my Case App A is game.azure365pro.com)

AppB.azure365pro.com

AppC.azure365pro.com

HTTP Host host is any of game.azure365pro.com request time (DNS hits the main Virtual Server)

Forward Traffic to Virtual Server game.azure365pro.com (Forward Traffic to Real Member)

image

Now Apply the Policy and Assign them to the HTTPS Main Pool listening on 443.

Now you can use the same policy to forward multiple hostnames to different pools with same ssl and same public ip.

It helps to manage F5 more simpler on the perimeter level with minimal public IPs giving a lot of flexibility.

No doubt Its an amazing product.  Their APM module is amazing as well . Will Discuss that in future posts.

Satheshwaran Manoharan
Satheshwaran Manoharanhttps://www.azure365pro.com
Award-winning Technology Leader with a wealth of experience running large teams and diversified industry exposure in cloud computing. From shipping lines to rolling stocks.In-depth expertise in driving cloud adoption strategies and modernizing systems to cloud native. Specialized in Microsoft Cloud, DevOps, and Microsoft 365 Stack and conducted numerous successful projects worldwide. Also, Acting as a Technical Advisor for various start-ups.

Related Articles

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

× How can I help you?