F5 monitoring integration

Our F5 BIG-IP integration collects and sends inventory and metrics from your F5 BIG-IP instance to our platform, where you can aggregate and visualize key performance metrics. We collect data at the system, application, pool, pool member, virtual server, and node levels.

Read on to install the integration, and to see what data we collect.

Compatibility and requirements

Our integration is compatible with F5 BIG-IP 11.6 or higher.

Before installing the integration, make sure that you meet the following requirements:

• Install the infrastructure agent.
• Linux distribution or Windows version compatible with the infrastructure agent.
• F5 BIG-IP user account with Access Auditor-level user privileges and iControl REST API access permissions.

F5 BIG-IP users and privileges

To create a new user and assign user permissions:

1. Create a user account with, at minimum, Access Auditor-level permissions. For instructions, see the F5 official documentation.

2. Once the user has been created, assign the user iControl REST user permissions.

   Administrator-level permissions may be required to collect some system sample metrics or system inventory configuration data. For more information on user permission levels, see User role access descriptions.

   For detailed information on iControl users and permission, download and review the iControl REST User Guide.

Install and activate

To install the F5 BIG-IP integration, choose your setup:

Linux installation

1. Follow the instructions for installing an integration, using the file name nri-f5.
2. Change the directory to the integrations folder:

   cd /etc/newrelic-infra/integrations.d

3. Copy of the sample configuration file:

   sudo cp f5-config.yml.sample f5-config.yml

4. Edit the f5-config.yml file as described in the configuration settings.
5. Restart the infrastructure agent.

Windows installation

1. Download the nri-f5 MSI installer image from:

   http://download.newrelic.com/infrastructure_agent/windows/integrations/nri-f5/nri-f5-amd64.msi

2. To install from the Windows command prompt, run:

   msiexec.exe /qn /i PATH\TO\nri-f5-amd64.msi

3. In the Integrations directory, C:\Program Files\New Relic\newrelic-infra\integrations.d\, create a copy of the sample configuration file by running:

   cp f5-config.yml.sample f5-config.yml

4. Edit the f5-config.yml file as described in the configuration settings.
5. Restart the infrastructure agent.

Additional notes:

• We recommend you install the integration on a separate server and monitor F5 remotely.
• Advanced: It's also possible to install the integration from a tarball file. This gives you full control over the installation and configuration process.
• On-host integrations do not automatically update. For best results, regularly update the integration package and the infrastructure agent.

Configure the integration

An integration's YAML-format configuration is where you can place required login credentials and configure how data is collected. Which options you change depend on your setup and preference.

For an example of the configuration file, see the example config file.

Commands

The f5-config.yml file accepts the following commands:

• all_data: collects both inventory and metrics for the BIG-IP instance.
• inventory: collects only the inventory (configuration) data for the BIG-IP instance.
• metrics: collects only the metrics data for the BIG-IP instance.

Arguments

The f5-config.yml commands accept the following arguments:

• username: The username for the F5 BIG-IP connection. This field is required.

• password: The password for the F5 BIG-IP connection. This field is required.

• hostname: The hostname for the F5 BIG-IP connection. Default: f5-host.

• port: The port on which F5 BIG-IP instance is running. Default: 443.

• timeout: The number of seconds to wait before a request times out. Default: 30.

• use_ssl: Indicates whether SSL is used to connect to the API. The F5 API only allows connections using SSL by default.

• ca_bundle_file: Alternative certificate authority bundle file.

• ca_bundle_dir: Alternative certificate authority bundle directory.

• partition_filter: An array of the partitions to collect from, in JSON. Default: '["Common"]'.

Example configuration

Example f5-config.yml file configuration:

Example configuration

integration_name: com.newrelic.f5

instances:
  - name: nri-f5
    # command can be all_data, metrics, or inventory
    command: all_data
    arguments:
      # Username of the F5 instance
      username: admin
      # Password of the F5 instance
      password: admin
      # Hostname of the F5 instance
      hostname: f5-host
      # Port of the F5 instance
      port: 443
      # CA certificate file
      ca_bundle_file: /etc/ca_certificate.crt
      # A JSON array of BIG-IP partitions to collect from.
      # The partition name should have no leading slash.
      # Defaults to '["Common"]'
      partition_filter: '["Common","MyOtherPartition"]'
      # The number of seconds to wait before a request times out
      # Defaults to 30
      timeout: 10

For more about the general structure of on-host integration configuration, see Configuration.

Find and use data

To find your integration data, go to infrastructure.newrelic.com > Third-party services and select one of the F5 BIG-IP integration links.

In New Relic Insights, F5 BIG-IP data is attached to the following Insights event types:

• F5BigIpSystemSample
• F5BigIpVirtualServerSample
• F5BigIpPoolSample
• F5BigIpPoolMemberSample
• F5BigIpNodeSample

For more on how to find and use your data, see Understand integration data.

Metric data

The F5 BIG-IP integration collects the following metric data attributes. Some metric name are prefixed with a category indicator and a period, such as system., virtualserver., or pool..

System sample metrics

These attributes can be found by querying the F5BigIpSystemSample event types.

Virtual server sample metrics

These attributes can be found by querying the F5BigIpVirtualServerSample event types in Insights.

Pool sample metrics

These attributes can be found by querying the F5BigIpPoolSample event types in Insights.

Pool member sample metrics

These attributes can be found by querying the F5BigIpPoolMemberSample event types in Insights.

Node sample metrics

These attributes can be found by querying the F5BigIpNodeSample event types in Insights.

Inventory data

The F5 BIG-IP integration also collects configuration data at system, application, pool, pool member, virtual server, and node levels.

The data is available on the Infrastructure Inventory page, under the config/f5 source. For more about inventory data, see Understand integration data.

The integration captures data for the following F5 BIG-IP configuration parameters:

Pool Inventory

Metric	Description
currentLoadMode	Current load balancing mode.
description	User defined description.
kind	Kind of pool.
maxConnections	Current max number of connections seen at one point.
monitorRule	Current health monitoring rule applied.

Node inventory

Metric	Description
address	BIG-IP network address to send to the node.
fqdn	FQDN of node.
kind	Type of Node in BIG-IP.
maxConnections	Current highest number of network connections reported from BIG-IP.
monitorRule	BIG-IP Health Monitor rule.

Pool Member Inventory

Metric	Description
kind	Type of Pool member.
maxConnections	Current highest number of network connections reported from BIG-IP.
monitorRule	BIG-IP health monitor rule.
nodeName	Name of the node the pool member is using.
poolName	Name of the pool the pool member belongs.
port	Port the pool member listens on.

Virtual Server Inventory

Metric	Description
applicationService	Current application service assigned.
destination	Destination address picked up by BIG-IP.
kind	Type of virtual server.
maxConnections	Current highest number of network connections reported from BIG-IP.
name	User defined name.
pool	Pool the virtual server uses for load balancing.

System Inventory

Metric	Description
chassisSerialNumber	Chassis Serial Number for the current device. Requires Access Administrator-level user permissions to collect.
platform	Platform of the current device. Requires Access Administrator-level user permissions to collect.
product	Product Name for the current device. Requires Access Administrator-level user permissions to collect.

Application Inventory

Metric	Description
deviceGroup	Device group running application service.
kind	BIG-IP Defined type.
name	User defined name.
poolToUse	Server side pool load balancing requests.
template	Template applied to application including security and monitoring rules.
templateModified	Indicator of modifications made to out of the box template.
trafficGroup	Current traffic group to which service is applied.

Check the source code

This integration is open source software. That means you can browse its source code and send improvements, or create your own fork and build it.

For more help