BIG-IP Container Ingress Services

Enable Advanced Application Services Across Your Container Environment

Leverage containerized environments for speed and agility

F5 Container Ingress Controller for Kubernetes or OpenShift offers highly scalable, declarative administration of F5 BIG-IP, enabling faster development through fully automated processes without manual interaction, programmatic error reduction, and extensibility.

Dynamic App Services for PaaS and Containers - Integrate with container environments such as Kubernetes and PaaS container systems such as RedHat OpenShift for managing container application services.

Self-Service and Automated Event Discovery - Enable self-service Ingress HTTP routing and app services selection by subscribing to events to automatically configure performance, routing, and security services on BIG-IP.

Scalability and Security with App Services Insertion - Integrate with the BIG-IP platform to scale apps for availability and enable app services insertion. In addition, integrate with the BIG-IP system and NGINX for Ingress load balancing.

Faster deployment and end-to-end visibility

Speed deployments with predefined BIG-IP templates and support for the Application Services 3 Extension. Gain visibility, observability, and analytics via data stream export to third-party solutions for fast resolution of anomalies and on-demand statistics.

Predefined Templates - Configure PaaS and container integrations using standardized templates, delivering consistent policies across established and emerging app architectures.

Complete Visibility and Observability - A rich set of L4-L7 stats of all container traffic and enhances app insights via data-stream export to analytics platforms like Splunk.

Cluster Networking - Seamless integration into overlay technology such as OpenShift SDN, Flannel VXLAN and Host-GW, and Calico for fast cluster networking.

F5 Ingress Link—security, availability and performance

F5 IngressLink combines BIG-IP, Container Ingress Services (CIS), and NGINX Ingress Controller to deliver unified app services for fast-changing, modern applications in Kubernetes environments. F5 IngressLink is a two-tier solution that uses BIG-IP devices outside (at the edge of) the Kubernetes cluster, and several NGINX Ingress Controller instances within the cluster.

Shared Configuration and State - Configuration and state are automatically shared between the BIG-IP, CIS and NGINX tiers by the F5 IngressLink resource.

Secure Containerize Application - App services are DevOps aligned and driven at the speed of app development and deployment requirements.

Automated Coordination - IngressLink manages the coordination between BIG-IP NetOps and NGINX DevOps teams, reducing delays and errors.

Product Overview

Use native Kubernetes or OpenShift tools

F5 BIG-IP Container Ingress Services (CIS) lets you manage your F5 BIG-IP device from Kubernetes or OpenShift using either environment’s native CLI/API. CIS is a cloud-native connector that can use either Kubernetes or OpenShift as a BIG-IP orchestration platform. CIS watches the Kubernetes API for specially formatted resources and updates the BIG-IP system configuration accordingly.

On Kubernetes

CIS installation is based on the resources (for example: ConfigMap, Ingress, Routes, and CRD) used by the customer to expose the Kubernetes services.

Read the Kubernetes User Guide ›

OpenShift

RedHat OpenShift is the Kubernetes platform that provides a foundation for on-premises, hybrid, and multi-cloud deployments.

Read the OpenShift User Guide ›

Core Capabilities

Services for containerized apps

Ingress control for application services of HTTP routing, load balancing, security, and programmability in containerized environments.

Spin up, spin down—in seconds

Enable rapid deployment of application services in containerized environments.

Scale and secure based on events

Subscribe to container events to automatically scale and secure your apps.

Pre-defined templates and packaged charts

Simplify policy management with standardized templates. Use Helm charts for repeatable Kubernetes deployments.

A/B testing and blue/green deployments

Support Blue/Green deployments for multiple app versions in production, and A/B traffic management in dev and test environments.

Attach pre-existing policies and profiles for OpenShift routes

Enable greater flexibility and usability during configurations by using pre-existing policies and profiles for OpenShift routes.

Use F5 BIG-IP custom resources to simplify Ingress deployment

Improve user experience and productivity by avoiding annotations sprawl on Ingress and Route Services.

Unified and aligned app services at the speed of DevOps

Enables DevOps teams to rapidly deploy secure, high-performance apps by utilizing CIS and NGINX with F5 IngressLink.

Platform Support and Integrations

Manage BIG-IP from Kubernetes or OpenShift

Red Hat Certified Container Partner

Manage BIG-IP from Kubernetes or OpenShift

F5 BIG-IP Container Ingress Services (CIS) lets you manage your F5 BIG-IP device from Kubernetes or OpenShift using either environment’s native CLI/API.

Resources

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