F5 monitoring integration

The F5 BIG-IP integration reports data from your BIG-IP instance to New Relic Infrastructure. This document explains how to install and configure the F5 BIG-IP integration and describes the data collected.

Access to this feature depends on your subscription level. Requires Infrastructure Pro.

Features

The F5 BIG-IP on-host integration collects and sends inventory and metrics from your F5 BIG-IP instance to the New Relic platform, where you can aggregate and visualize key performance metrics. Data is collected at system, application, pool, pool member, virtual server, and node levels.

Compatibility and requirements

To use the F5 BIG-IP integration, ensure your system meets these requirements:

New Relic Infrastructure installed on host.
Linux distribution compatible with New Relic Infrastructure.
F5 BIG-IP 11.6 or newer.
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:

Using the F5 documentation, create a user account with, at minimum, Access Auditor-level 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.
Once the user has been created, assign the user iControl REST user permissions.

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

Install

Recommendations:

We recommend you install the integration on a separate server and monitor the F5 remotely.
On-host integrations don't update automatically. For best results, you should occasionally update the integration and update the Infrastructure agent.

To install the F5 BIG-IP integration:

Follow the instructions for installing an integration, using the file name nri-f5.
Via the command line, change directory to the integrations folder:
```
cd /etc/newrelic-infra/integrations.d
```
Create a copy of the sample configuration file by running:
```
sudo cp f5-config.yml.sample f5-config.yml
```
Edit the f5-config.yml configuration file using the configuration settings.
Restart the infrastructure agent.

Configure

Use the F5 BIG-IP integration's f5-config.yml configuration file to put required login credentials and configure how data is collected. For an example configuration, see the example config file.

Commands

The f5-config.yml file provides these 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.nri-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

Find and use data

To find your integration data in Infrastructure, go to infrastructure.newrelic.com > Integrations > On-host integrations 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 in Insights.

Metric	Description
`system.cpuIdleTicksPerSecond`	Amount of CPU ticks that the CPU was idle per second. Requires Administrator-level user permissions to collect.
`system.cpuIdleUtilization`	Average percentage of time the CPU is idle.
`system.cpuInterruptRequestUtilization`	Average percentage of time the CPU is handling interrupt requests.
`system.cpuIOWaitUtilization`	Average percentage of time the CPU is waiting on IO.
`system.cpuNiceLevelUtilization`	Average percentage of time the CPU is handling nice level processes.
`system.cpuSoftInterruptRequestUtilization`	Average percentage of time the CPU is handling soft interrupt requests.
`system.cpuStolenUtilization`	Average percentage of time the CPU is handling reclaimed cycles by the hypervisor.
`system.cpuSystemTicksPerSecond`	Amount of CPU ticks used by the kernel processes per second. Requires Administrator-level user permissions to collect.
`system.cpuSystemUtilization`	Average percentage of time the CPU is used by the kernel.
`system.cpuUserTicksPerSecond`	Amount of CPU ticks used by user processes per second. Requires Administrator-level user permissions to collect.
`system.cpuUserUtilization`	Average percentage of time the CPU is used by user processes.
`system.memoryFreeInBytes`	Total amount of memory free, in bytes.
`system.memoryTotalInBytes`	Total amount of memory, in bytes. Requires Administrator-level user permissions to collect.
`system.memoryUsedInBytes`	Total amount of memory used, in bytes. Requires Administrator-level user permissions to collect.
`system.otherMemoryFreeInBytes`	Free memory reserved for control plane processes, in bytes.
`system.otherMemoryTotalInBytes`	Total memory reserved for control plane processes, in bytes.
`system.otherMemoryUsedInBytes`	Used memory reserved for control plane processes, in bytes.
`system.swapFreeInBytes`	Swap space free, in bytes.
`system.swapTotalInBytes`	Swap space total, in bytes.
`system.swapUsedInBytes`	Swap space used, in bytes.
`system.tmmMemoryFreeInBytes`	Free memory reserved for Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM), in bytes.
`system.tmmMemoryTotalInBytes`	Total memory reserved for Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM), in bytes.
`system.tmmMemoryUsedInBytes`	Used memory reserved for Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM), in bytes.

Virtual server sample metrics

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

Metric	Description
`virtualserver.avaibilityState`	The BIG-IP defined availability. Options: `0` = Offline `1` = Unknown `2` = Online
`virtualserver.clientsideConnectionsPerSecond`	The rate of connections created through the client side of the object per second.
`virtualserver.cmpEnabled`	Indicates whether or not Cluster Multiprocessing (CMP) is enabled.
`virtualserver.cmpEnableMode`	Shows the Cluster Multiprocessing (CMP) mode indicators. Options: CMP disabled = `none`, `disable`, or `single`. CMP enabled = `enable` or `all`.
`virtualserver.connections`	The current number of connections from BIG-IP.
`virtualserver.csMaxConnDur`	Maximum connection duration from the client side of the object.
`virtualserver.csMinConnDur`	Minimum connection duration from the client side of the object.
`virtualserver.enabled`	The current enabled state. Options: `0` = Disabled `1` = Enabled
`virtualserver.ephemeralBytesInPerSecond`	Total number of bytes in through the ephemeral port per second.
`virtualserver.ephemeralBytesOutPerSecond`	Total number of bytes out through the ephemeral port per second.
`virtualserver.ephemeralConnectionsPerSecond`	The rate of connection creation through the ephemeral port per second.
`virtualserver.ephemeralCurrentConnections`	The current number of connections through the ephemeral port.
`virtualserver.ephemeralEvictedConnectionsPerSecond`	The number of connections that are evicted through the ephemeral port per second.
`virtualserver.ephemeralMaxConnections`	Maximum number of connections through the ephemeral port.
`virtualserver.ephemeralPacketsReceivedPerSecond`	The number of packets in through the ephemeral port per second.
`virtualserver.ephemeralPacketsSentPerSecond`	The number of packets out through the ephemeral port per second.
`virtualserver.ephemeralSlowKilledPerSecond`	The number of slow connections that are killed through the ephemeral port per second.
`virtualserver.evictedConnsPerSecond`	The rate of connections evicted per second.
`virtualserver.inDataInBytes`	The amount of data received from the BIG-IP virtual server, in bytes.
`virtualserver.outDataInBytes`	The amount of data sent to the BIG-IP virtual server, in bytes.
`virtualserver.packetsReceived`	The number of packets received from the BIG-IP virtual server.
`virtualserver.packetsSent`	The number of packets sent to the BIG-IP virtual server.
`virtualserver.requests`	The number of requests in the last collection interval to BIG-IP.
`virtualserver.slowKilledPerSecond`	The number of slow connections killed through the client side of the object per second.
`virtualserver.statusReason`	An explanation of the current status.
`virtualserver.usageRatio`	The usage ratio for the virtual server.

Pool sample metrics

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

Metric	Description
`pool.activeMembers`	The number of active pool members.
`pool.availabilityState`	The current availability state. Options: `0` = Offline `1` = Unknown `2` = Online
`pool.connections`	The current number of connections.
`pool.connqAgeEdm`	The queue age exponential-decaying max.
`pool.connqAgeEma`	The queue age exponential-moving average.
`pool.connqAgeHead`	The current queue age head.
`pool.connqAgeMax`	The queue age all-time max.
`pool.connqAllAgeEdm`	The sum of pool member queue age exponential-decaying max.
`pool.connqAllAgeEma`	The sum of pool member queue age exponential-moving average.
`pool.connqAllAgeHead`	The sum of pool member queue age head.
`pool.connqAllAgeMax`	The sum of pool member queue age all-time max.
`pool.connqAllDepth`	The sum of pool member depth.
`pool.connqDepth`	The queue depth.
`pool.currentConnections`	The current connections.
`pool.enabled`	The current enabled state, can be user defined. Options: `0` = Disabled `1` = Enabled
`pool.inDataInBytes`	The amount of data received from the BIG-IP pool, in bytes.
`pool.minActiveMembers`	Pool minimum active members.
`pool.outDataInBytes`	The amount of data sent to the BIG-IP pool, in bytes.
`pool.packetsReceived`	The number of packets received from the BIG-IP pool.
`pool.packetsSent`	The number of packets sent to the BIG-IP pool.
`pool.requests`	The total number of requests to the pool.
`pool.statusReason`	Textual property explaining the overall health reason.

Pool member sample metrics

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

Metric	Description
`member.availabilityState`	The current availability from the BIG-IP system. Options: `0` = Offline `1` = Unknown `2` = Online
`member.connections`	The current connections.
`member.enabled`	Enabled state of the pool member with regards to the parent pool. Options: `0` = Disabled `1` = Enabled
`member.inDataInBytes`	The amount of data received from the BIG-IP pool member, in bytes.
`member.monitorStatus`	The status of the monitor. Options: `0` = Down `1` = Unchecked `2` = Any other status
`member.outDataInBytes`	The amount of data sent to the BIG-IP pool member, in bytes.
`member.packetsReceived`	The number of packets received from the BIG-IP pool member.
`member.packetsSent`	The number of packets sent to the BIG-IP pool member.
`member.requests`	The current number of requests over the last collection interval.
`member.sessions`	The current session count.
`member.sessionStatus`	The current session health status. Options: `0` = Disabled `1` = Enabled
`member.state`	The current state. Options: `0` = Down `1` = Up
`member.statusReason`	Explanation of the current status.

Node sample metrics

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

Metric	Description
`node.availabilityState`	The current BIG-IP availability state to the node. Options: `0` = Offline `1` = Unknown `2` = Online
`node.connections`	The current number of network connections from BIG-IP.
`node.connectionsPerSecond`	The number of connections made per second.
`node.enabled`	The current BIG-IP enabled state. Options: `0` = Disabled `1` = Enabled ,
`node.inDataInBytes`	The amount of data received from the BIG-IP node, in bytes.
`node.monitorStatus`	The current health monitor rule status. Options: `0` = Down `1` = Unchecked `2` = Any other status
`node.outDataInBytes`	The amount of data sent to the BIG-IP node, in bytes.
`node.packetsReceived`	The number of packets received from the BIG-IP node.
`node.packetsSent`	The number of packets sent to the BIG-IP node.
`node.requests`	The current number of requests over the last collection from BIG-IP.
`node.sessions`	The current number of sessions.
`node.sessionStatus`	The current status of the session. Options: `0` = Disabled `1` = Enabled
`node.statusReason`	BIG-IP reason for the current status.

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.

On-Host Integrations

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Installation

Understand and Use Data

Troubleshooting