Exercise 4.2: Creating a Workflow

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Table of Contents

• Objective
• Guide
• Takeaways
• Complete

Objective

Demonstrate the use of Ansible Tower workflow for F5 BIG-IP. Workflows allow you to configure a sequence of disparate job templates (or workflow templates) that may or may not share inventory, playbooks, or permissions.

For this exercise we will use workflow to achieve the same as the create_vs job template, while at the same time adding failure handling for each job.

Guide

Step 1: Prepare Job Templates

Following what we learned from Lab 4.1, create the following job templates with the respective playbook:

Job template Name	Playbook
Create node	create_node.yml
Create pool	create_pool.yml
Create virtual server	create_virtualserver.yml
Rollback node deploy	rollback_node_deploy.yml
Rollback pool deploy	rollback_pool_deploy.yml
Rollback virtual server deploy	rollback_vs_deploy.yml

Apart from above, we use the same template parameters as Lab 4.1 for each of the above templates,:

Parameter	Value
NAME
JOB TYPE	Run
INVENTORY	Workshop Inventory
PROJECT	Workshop Project
PLAYBOOK
CREDENTIAL	BIGIP

Here is the template example of Create node:

Step 2: Create a Workflow Template

1. Click on the Templates link on the left menu.

2. Click on the green button and select the Workflow Template.

3. Fill out the form as follows:

   Parameter	Value
   NAME	Workshop Workflow
   ORGANIZATION	Default
   INVENTORY	Workshop Inventory

4. Click on the Save button

   

Step 3: The Workflow Visualizer

1. When you click the SAVE the WORKFLOW VISUALIZER should automatically open. If not, click on the blue WORKFLOW VISUALIZER button.

2. By default only a green START button will appear. Click on the START button.

3. The ADD A NODE window will appear on the right. Select the Create node Job Template that was created in previous step (or whatever you named it!).

   

   The Create node job template is now a node. Job or workflow templates are linked together using a graph-like structure called nodes. These nodes can be jobs, project syncs, or inventory syncs. A template can be part of different workflows or used multiple times in the same workflow. A copy of the graph structure is saved to a workflow job when you launch the workflow.

4. Click the green SELECT button.

   

Step 4: Add Create pool Job Template

1. Hover over the Create node node and click the green + symbol. The ADD A NODE will appear again.

2. Select the Create pool job template. For the Run parameter select On Success from the drop down menu.

3. Click the green SELECT button.

   

Step 5: Add Create virtual server Job Template

1. Hover over the Create pool node and click the green + symbol. The ADD A NODE will appear again.

2. Select the Create virtual server job template. For the Run parameter select On Success from the drop down menu.

3. Click the green SELECT button.

   

Step 6: Rollback node deploy Template

1. Hover over the Create node node and click the green + symbol. The ADD A NODE will appear again.

2. Select the Rollback node deploy job template. For the Run parameter select On Failure from the drop down menu.

3. Click the green SELECT button.

   

Step 7: Rollback pool deploy Template

1. Hover over the Create pool node and click the green + symbol. The ADD A NODE will appear again.

2. Select the Rollback pool deploy job template. For the Run parameter select On Failure from the drop down menu.

3. Click the green SELECT button.

   

Step 8: Rollback virtual server Template

1. Hover over the Create virtual server node and click the green + symbol. The ADD A NODE will appear again.

2. Select the Rollback virtual server deploy job template. For the Run parameter select On Failure from the drop down menu.

3. Click the green SELECT button.

   

4. Click the green SAVE button.

Step 9: Run the Workflow

1. Return to the Templates window

2. Click the rocket ship to launch the Workshop Workflow workflow template.

   

   At any time during the workflow job you can select an individual job template by clicking on the node to see the status.

Step 10: Error Handling

Next, we will show a failed job template for the workflow, where a rollback is performed.

1. Click on the Templates link on the left menu.

   

2. Select template Create virtual server

3. Change the PLAYBOOK from create_virtualserver.yml to create_virtualserver_error.yml

   The create_virtualserver_error.yml playbook will configure the Virtual Server, but tries to attach a pool http_pool_error which does not exist. Therefore, the addition of virtual server will fail, and the Rollback virtual server deploy node will be triggered.

4. Scroll down and click the green save button.

5. Return to the Templates window, click the rocket ship to launch the Workshop Workflow workflow template again.

   

6. Login to the F5 BIG-IP with your web browser to see what was configured.

   Click on Local Traffic then Virtual Servers, Pools, and Nodes. You should see that Rollback virtual server deploy kicked in and removed all BIG-IP configuration.

Step 11: Clean Up

Finally, we revert the configuration, and make it ready for next lab:

1. Click on the Templates link on the left menu. Select template Create virtual server

2. Change the PLAYBOOK back to create_virtualserver.yml

3. Scroll down and click the green save button.

4. Return to the Templates window, click the rocket ship to launch the Workshop Workflow template again.
5. Validate the Virtual Server was created via the BIGIP MGMT GUI.

Takeaways

You have

• Created a workflow template that create node, a pool, and virtual server
• Made the workflow robust, if either job template fails it will rollback the deployment
• Launched the workflow template and explored the VISUALIZER

Complete

You have completed lab exercise 4.2

Click here to return to the Ansible Network Automation Workshop