Deploy an HTTP Load Balancer

This guide walks you through creating and deploying an HTTP Load Balancer with an associated Origin Pool and Health Check on F5 Distributed Cloud using declarative manifests in Visual Studio Code.

Prerequisites

Before starting this procedure, ensure you have:

• Installed the F5 Distributed Cloud Tools extension in Visual Studio Code.
• Configured an active profile connected to your target tenant (see Profile Setup).
• Set your active namespace to production (or your target workspace namespace).
• An accessible backend server IP address (this guide uses the RFC 5737 test address 198.51.100.10).

Step 1: Create the Health Check

1. In your workspace, create a new file named web-healthcheck.yaml.

2. Add the following configuration:

   metadata:
     name: web-healthcheck
     namespace: production
   spec:
     http_health_check:
       path: /health
       use_origin_server_name: true
     interval: 15
     timeout: 5
     healthy_threshold: 2
     unhealthy_threshold: 3

3. Open the file in the editor and press Ctrl+Shift+A (macOS: Cmd+Shift+A) to apply the health check to your tenant.

Step 2: Create the Origin Pool

1. In your workspace, create a file named web-origin-pool.yaml.

2. Add the origin pool definition referencing the health check created in Step 1:

   metadata:
     name: web-origin-pool
     namespace: production
   spec:
     origin_servers:
       - public_ip:
           ip: 198.51.100.10
     port: 8080
     healthcheck:
       - name: web-healthcheck
         namespace: production
     loadbalancer_algorithm: LB_OVERRIDE

3. Press Ctrl+Shift+A (macOS: Cmd+Shift+A) to apply the origin pool.

Step 3: Create the HTTP Load Balancer

1. In your workspace, create a file named web-loadbalancer.yaml.

2. Add the load balancer configuration referencing your origin pool and enabling automatic TLS certificates:

   metadata:
     name: web-loadbalancer
     namespace: production
   spec:
     domains:
       - app.example.com
     https_auto_cert:
       http_redirect: true
       add_hsts: true
     default_route_pools:
       - pool:
           name: web-origin-pool
           namespace: production
         weight: 1
     no_challenge: {}
     disable_rate_limit: {}
     no_service_policies: {}
     round_robin: {}

3. Press Ctrl+Shift+A (macOS: Cmd+Shift+A) to apply the load balancer.

Verify the Deployment

1. Open the F5 Distributed Cloud Tools view container from the Activity Bar.
2. In the Explorer view, expand HTTP Load Balancers.
3. Locate web-loadbalancer, right-click, and select Generate Diagram (xcsh.diagram).
4. Confirm that the diagram illustrates traffic flowing from app.example.com through the load balancer into web-origin-pool with the active health check.
5. Right-click web-loadbalancer and select Describe to verify the provisioning state.

Clean Up

To remove the resources created in this guide:

1. In the Explorer view, right-click web-loadbalancer and select Delete Resource.
2. Right-click web-origin-pool and select Delete Resource.
3. Right-click web-healthcheck and select Delete Resource.