Create GCP Site

Objective

This guide provides instructions on how to create a site using F5® Distributed Cloud Console (Console) and deploy to Google Cloud Platform (GCP). For more information on sites, see F5 Distributed Cloud Site.

Note: Configuring the site mesh group is not supported for the sites deployed from Console.

Using the instructions provided in this guide, you can deploy a GCP VPC ingress gateway site or ingress/egress gateway site. For more information, see Network Topology of a Site.

Design

GCP VPC Site automates the deployment of F5® Distributed Cloud Services sites in GCP. As part of the GCP VPC Site configuration, you can indicate that new VPC, subnets, and route tables need to be created. Alternatively, you can choose to provide existing VPC and subnet information, and the creation of VPC and subnet resources will be skipped.

Note: By default, a Site deployed in GCP supports Google Cloud Storage. You can configure storage within the Site creation form or using a Fleet. This document provides steps to configure storage using the Site configuration form. See Configure Storage in Fleet document for more information on using the Fleet method.

GCP VPC Site Deployment Types

A site can be deployed in two different modes with the GCP VPC Site workflow. Those modes are:

1. Ingress Gateway (One Interface): In this deployment mode, the site is attached to a single VPC and single subnet. It can provide discovery of services and endpoints reachable from this subnet to any other site configured in the Distributed Cloud Services tenant.

2. Ingress/Egress Gateway (Two Interfaces): In this deployment mode, the site is attached to a single VPC with at least two interfaces on different subnets. One subnet is labeled Outside, and the other is labeled Inside. In this mode, the site provides security and connectivity needs for virtual machines and subnets via default gateway through the site Inside interface.

Ingress Gateway (One Interface)

In this deployment mode, the F5® Distributed Cloud Mesh (Mesh) needs one interface attached. Services running on the node connect to the Internet using this interface. Also, this interface is used to discover other services and virtual machines and expose them to other sites in the same tenant. For example, in the below figure, TCP or HTTP services on the DevOps or Dev GCP VM instances can be discovered and exposed via reverse proxy remotely.

As shown in the below figure, the interface is on the outside subnet, which is associated with the VPC main routing table, whose default route is pointing to the Internet gateway. This is how traffic coming from the outside interface can reach the Internet, along with other subnets associated with this routing-table object. In case of other subnets (for example, Dev or DevOps), these are associated with the VPC main routing table, which means that any newly created subnet in this VPC is automatically associated with this routing table.

Ingress/Egress Gateway (Two Interfaces)

In this deployment scenario, the Mesh nodes need two interfaces attached. The first interface is the outside interface through which services running on the node can connect to the Internet. The second interface is the inside interface which will become the default gateway IP address for all the application workloads and services present in the private subnets.

As shown in the below figure, the outside interface is on the outside subnet, which is associated with the outside subnet route table, whose default route is pointing to the Internet gateway. This is how traffic coming from the outside interface can reach the Internet. In case of inside subnets, these are associated with the inside subnet route table which is also the main route table for this VPC. This means that any newly created subnet in this VPC is automatically associated with the inside subnet route table. This private subnet route table has a default route pointing to the inside IP address of the Mesh node (192.168.0.186).

Once the Mesh site comes online, the inside network of the node will be connected to the outside network through a forward proxy and SNAT enabled on the outside interface. All traffic coming on the inside interface will be forwarded to the Internet over the forward proxy and SNAT happening on the outside interface. All the workloads on private subnets can reach the Internet through Mesh site.

Firewall Policies

The site can be your ingress/egress security policy enforcement point, as all the traffic coming from private subnets will flow through the Distributed Cloud Services site. If the traffic does not match the type defined in firewall policy, then the default action will be to deny it.

You can define which endpoint/subnet by using the firewall policy. You can define the egress policy by adding the egress rules from the point of endpoint to deny/allow specific traffic patterns based on intent, and you can also add ingress rules to deny/allow traffic coming toward the endpoint.

Forward Proxy Policy

Using a forward proxy policy, you can specify allowed/denied TLS domains or HTTP URLs. The traffic from workloads on private subnets toward the Internet via the GCP VPC site is allowed or denied accordingly.

More details on how to configure this is captured in the rest of this document.

Prerequisites

The following prerequisites apply:

• A Distributed Cloud Services Account. If you do not have an account, see Create an Account.

• A GCP account. See Required Access Policies for permissions needed to deploy a GCP VPC site.

Note: By proceeding with the installation, download and/or access and use, as applicable, of the Distributed Cloud Services software, and/or Distributed Cloud Services platform, you acknowledge that you have read, understand, and agree to be bound by this agreement.

• Resources required per node: Minimum 4 vCPUs and 14 GB RAM.

Deploy Using Console

The following video shows the GCP VPC site creation and site deployment workflow using Console:

GCP VPC site creation and management requires performing the following sequence of actions:

Create GCP VPC Site Object

The wizard to create the GCP VPC site object guides you through the steps for required configuration. This document covers each guided step and explains the required actions to be performed for each step.

Step 1: Start GCP VPC site object creation.

• Log into Console.

• Click Cloud and Edge Sites.

• Click Manage > Site Management > GCP VPC Sites.

• Click Add GCP VPC Site.

• In the Name field, enter a name for your VPC object.

Step 2: Configure the VPC and site settings.

In the Site Type Selection section, perform the following:

Step 2.1: Set region and configure VPC.

• From the GCP Region drop-down menu, select a region.

• From the Select Ingress Gateway or Ingress/Egress Gateway drop-down menu, select an option and perform the following:

Ingress Gateway (one interface):

• For the Ingress Gateway (One Interface) option, click Configure.

• From the GCP Certified Hardware menu, select an option. This option is set to gcp-byol-voltmesh by default.

• From the List of Gcp zone name menu, select an option that matches the configured GCP Region.

• From the Number of main nodes menu, select the number of nodes for this side.

• From the VPC Network for Local Interface menu, perform one of the following steps:

  • For the Specify VPC Network Name option, enter the name in the GCP VPC Network Name field.

  • For the Existing VPC Network option, enter an existing VPC network name in the GCP VPC Network Name field.

• From the Subnet for Local Interface menu, perform one of the following:

  • For the New Subnet Parameters option, enter a name for the subnet in the VPC Subnet Name field and a subnet prefix in the IPv4 Subnet Prefix field.

  • For the Existing Subnet option, enter the existing subnet name in the VPC Subnet Name field.

• Click Apply.

Ingress/Egress Gateway (two interfaces)

• For the Ingress/Egress Gateway (Two Interface) option, click Configure.

• From the GCP Certified Hardware menu, select an option. This option is set to gcp-byol-multi-nic-voltmesh by default.

• From the List of Gcp zone name menu, select an option that matches the configured GCP Region.

• From the Number of main nodes menu, select the number of nodes for this side.

• From the VPC Network for Inside Interface menu, perform one of the following steps:

  • For the Specify VPC Network Name option, enter the name in the GCP VPC Network Name field.

  • For the Existing VPC Network option, enter an existing VPC network name in the GCP VPC Network Name field.

• From the Subnet for Inside Interface menu, perform one of the following steps:

  • For the New Subnet Parameters option, enter the name in the VPC Subnet Name field, and enter an IP address prefix in the IPv4 Subnet Prefix field.

  • For the Existing Subnet option, enter an existing VPC network name in the VPC Subnet Name field.

• From the VPC Network for Outside Interface menu, perform one of the following steps:

  • For the Specify VPC Network Name option, enter a name in the GCP VPC Network Name field.

  • For the Existing VPC Network option, enter an existing VPC network name in the GCP VPC Network Name field.

• From the Subnet for Outside Interface menu, perform one of the following steps:

  • For the New Subnet Parameters option, enter the name in the VPC Subnet Name field, and enter an IP address prefix in the IPv4 Subnet Prefix field.

  • For the Existing Subnet option, enter an existing VPC network name in the VPC Subnet Name field.

• In the Site Network Firewall section, optionally select Active Firewall Policies from the List of Firewall Policy menu.

  • Select an existing firewall policy, or select Create new Firewall Policy to create and apply a firewall policy.

• From the Manage Forward Proxy menu, select an option:

  • Disable Forward Proxy

  • Enable Forward Proxy with Allow All Policy

  • Enable Forward Proxy and Manage Policies: Select an existing forward proxy policy, or select Create new Forward Proxy Policy to create and apply a forward proxy policy.

• In the Advanced Options section, optionally enable Show Advanced Fields.

• From the Select DC Cluster Group menu, select an option to set your site in a DC cluster group:

  • Not a Member of DC Cluster Group: Default option.

  • Member of DC Cluster Group via Outside Network: Select the DC cluster group from the Member of DC Cluster Group via Outside Network menu to connect your site using an outside network.

  • Member of DC Cluster Group via Inside Network: Select the DC cluster group from the Member of DC Cluster Group via Inside Network menu to connect your site using an inside network.

• Click Apply.

Note: For more information, see the Configure DC Cluster Group guide.

App Stack Cluster (one interface)

• For the App Stack Cluster (One Interface) option, click Configure.

• From the GCP Certified Hardware menu, select an option. This option is set to gcp-byol-voltstack-combo by default.

• From the List of Gcp zone name menu, select an option that matches the configured GCP Region.

• From the Number of main nodes menu, select the number of nodes for this side.

• From the VPC Network for Local Interface menu, perform one of the following steps:

  • For the Specify VPC Network Name option, enter the name in the GCP VPC Network Name field.

  • For the Existing VPC Network option, enter an existing VPC network name in the GCP VPC Network Name field.

• From the Subnet for Local Interface menu, perform one of the following:

  • For the New Subnet Parameters option, enter a name for the subnet in the VPC Subnet Name field and a subnet prefix in the IPv4 Subnet Prefix field.

  • For the Existing Subnet option, enter the existing subnet name in the VPC Subnet Name field.

• Optionally, configure more settings in the Advanced Options section:

  • From the Select DC Cluster Group menu, select an option to set your site in a DC cluster group:

    • Not a Member: Default option.

    • Member of DC Cluster Group: Select the DC cluster group from the Member of DC Cluster Group menu to connect your site using an outside network.

• Optionally, enable local K8s API access:

  • In the Advanced Options section, in the Site Local K8s API access field, select Enable Site Local K8s API access and then select a K8s cluster.

Note: Distributed Cloud Services support both mutating and validating webhooks for managed K8s. Webhook support can be enabled in the K8s configuraion. Navigate to Manage > Manage K8s > K8s Clusters. For more information, see Create K8s Cluster in the Advanced K8s cluster security settings section.

• In the Storage Configuration section, enable the Show Advanced Fields option.

• From the Select Configuration for Storage Classes menu, select Add Custom Storage Class.

• Click Add Item.

• In the Storage Class Name field, enter a name for the storage class as it will appear in Kubernetes.

• Optionally, enable the Default Storage Class option to make this new storage class the default class for all clusters.

• In the Storage Device section:

  • In the Replication field, enter a number to set the replication factor for the PV.

  • From the Storage Size field, set the storage in gigabyte (GB) for each node.

• Click Add Item.

• Click Apply.

Step 2.2: Set the deployment type.

• From the Automatic Deployment menu, select Automatic Deployment.

• Select your existing GCP credentials object, or click Create new Cloud Credential to load the credential creation wizard.

• Create the new credentials per the following guidelines:

  • Enter a name in the Metadata section.

  • Optionally, set labels and enter a description.

  • From the Select Cloud Credential Type menu, select GCP Credentials.

  • Click Configure.

  • Select an option for the Secret Info:

    • If you select Blindfold Secret, enter the secret in the field, and then click Blindfold.

    • If you select Clear Secret, enter the secret in one of the formats displayed.

  • Click Apply.

• Click Continue.

Note: Refer to the Cloud Credentials guide for more information. Ensure that the GCP credentials are applied with required access policies per the Policy Requirements document.

Deploy Site

Creating the GCP VPC site object in Console generates the Terraform parameters.

Note: Site upgrades may take up to 10 minutes per site node. Once site upgrade has completed, you must apply the Terraform parameters to site via Action menu on cloud site management page.

• Navigate to the GCP VPC site object by clicking Manage > Site Management > GCP VPC Sites.

• Find your GCP VPC site object and click Apply under the Status column. The Status column for your GCP VPC object changes to Apply Planning.

Note: Optionally, you can perform Terraform plan activity before the deployment. Find your GCP VPC site object and click ... > Plan (Optional) to generate the execution plan for Terraform.

• Wait for the status to change to Applied.

Note: You can check the status for the apply action. Click ... > Terraform Parameters for your GCP VPC site object and then click the Apply Status tab.

• Navigate to Sites > Sites List.

• Verify status is Online. It takes a few minutes for the site to deploy and status to change to Online.

Note: You cannot add worker nodes. You can log into your node’s command-line interface (CLI) via SSH with username centos and your private key.

Delete GCP VPC Site

Perform the following to delete the GCP VPC site:

Note: If you scale down the GCP instance size from the GCP UI and revert it to original number, ensure that you create the instance in the instance group with the same instance name using the create-instance command from the gcloud CLI.

• Navigate to the GCP VPC site object by clicking Manage > Site Management > GCP VPC Sites.

• Find your GCP VPC site object and click ... > Delete.

• Click Delete in the confirmation window.

Note: Deleting the VPC site object deletes the sites and nodes from the VPC and deletes the VPC. If the delete operation does not remove the object and returns an error, check the error from the status, fix the error, and then re-attempt the delete operation. If the problem persists, contact technical support. You can check the status using the ... > Terraform Parameters > Apply status option.

Deploy Site Using Terraform

This chapter provides instructions on how to create a single-node or multi-node site on GCP with Terraform.

Perform the following procedure to deploy a site using Terraform:

terraform {
  required_version = ">= 0.13.1"
  required_providers {
    volterra = {
      source = "volterraedge/volterra"
    }
  }
}
variable "site_name" {}
variable "gcp_cred_file" {}
variable "gcp_instance_type" {
  default = "n1-standard-4"
}
variable "gcp_region" {
  default = "us-east1"
}
variable "gcp_az" {
  default = "us-east1-b"
}
variable "outside_subnet_cidr_block" {
  default = "192.168.0.0/25"
}
resource "volterra_cloud_credentials" "gcp_cred" {
  name      = format("%s-cred", var.site_name)
  namespace = "system"
  gcp_cred_file {
    credential_file {
      clear_secret_info {
        url = format("string:///%s", base64encode(file(var.gcp_cred_file)))
      }
    }
  }
}
resource "volterra_gcp_vpc_site" "site" {
  name      = var.site_name
  namespace = "system"
  cloud_credentials {
    name      = volterra_cloud_credentials.gcp_cred.name
    namespace = "system"
  }
  gcp_region    = var.gcp_region
  instance_type = var.gcp_instance_type
  ingress_gw {
    gcp_certified_hw = "gcp-byol-voltmesh"
    gcp_zone_names   = [var.gcp_az]
    local_network {
      new_network {
        name = "outside-network"
      }
    }
    node_number = 1
    local_subnet {
      new_subnet {
        primary_ipv4 = var.outside_subnet_cidr_block
        subnet_name  = "outside-subnet"
      }
    }
  }
  lifecycle {
    ignore_changes = [labels]
  }
}
resource "volterra_tf_params_action" "apply_gcp_vpc" {
  site_name        = volterra_gcp_vpc_site.site.name
  site_kind        = "gcp_vpc_site"
  action           = "apply"
  wait_for_action  = true
  ignore_on_update = true
}

site_name = <site-name>
gcp_region = <region-name>
gcp_az = <gcp-az-name>
gcp_cred_file = <gcp-credential-file-location>

export VES_P12_PASSWORD=<credential-password>
export VOLT_API_P12_FILE=<path-to-local-p12-file>
export VOLT_API_URL=https://example.console.ves.volterra.io/api

Destroy Site

Perform the following procedure to destroy the site using Terraform:

• Enter terraform destroy.

• If prompted for the access key and secret key encoded in Base64, enter both.

• Enter yes to confirm. This may take a few minutes to complete. After the process is complete, the output will state Destroy complete!.

• In Console, navigate to the list of sites and confirm the site was destroyed.

Concepts

• System Overview
• Core Concepts
• F5 Distributed Cloud Site