Reference deployment guides for placing an F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) in front of an S3-compatible object storage cluster. Each guide walks through the network, pool, and virtual server configurations needed to expose a multi-node storage cluster behind a single, highly available S3 endpoint — turning a set of individual storage nodes into a single resilient, load-balanced service.
The guides share a common architecture: S3 clients connect to a BIG-IP virtual server (the single S3 endpoint), and the BIG-IP load balances requests across the storage cluster nodes, monitoring node health and applying TCP and TLS optimizations tuned for S3 traffic. Each guide is self-contained and includes an optional Ansible path that reproduces the manual steps declaratively.
Note: These documents are demonstration content intended to illustrate reference deployments. Substitute your own addresses, naming conventions, security policies, and operational practices before applying any of these steps in a production environment.
| Storage platform | Guide | Automation |
|---|---|---|
| Dell ObjectScale | Dell/README.md | Dell/automation/ |
| MinIO AIStor | MinIO/README.md | MinIO/automation/ |
| NetApp StorageGRID | NetApp/README.md | NetApp/automation/ |
Each guide covers:
- Setup — lab topology, component versions, and the network addressing used in the examples.
- BIG-IP configuration — VLANs, Self IPs and routes, health monitors, the backend pool, and the client-facing virtual server.
- S3 traffic optimization — custom client- and server-side TCP profiles, node connection limits, and optional client/server SSL profiles for TLS termination and re-encryption.
- Validation — configuring a bucket, user, and access key on the storage cluster, then driving a mixed S3 workload through the virtual server with the MinIO WARP benchmarking tool to confirm end-to-end connectivity.
- Automation with Ansible — a declarative alternative to the GUI walkthrough.
- An F5 BIG-IP running a supported version (the guides use BIG-IP 21.1.0; the Dell guide also covers rSeries/F5OS tenant provisioning).
- A deployed, reachable S3 object storage cluster (Dell ObjectScale, MinIO AIStor, or NetApp StorageGRID).
- Administrative access to both the BIG-IP and the storage cluster.
- Familiarity with basic L2/L3 networking concepts.
- For validation: the MinIO WARP CLI and
jq. - For the automation path: Python 3, Ansible, and the
f5networks.f5_modulescollection (see each guide'sautomation/README.md).
- Pick the guide that matches your storage platform from the table above.
- Follow the setup section to confirm your topology and addressing.
- Work through the BIG-IP configuration, adapting the example addresses and names to your environment.
- Apply the S3 traffic optimizations appropriate to your workload.
- Validate the deployment with a WARP test through the virtual server.
- Optionally, reproduce the configuration declaratively using the Ansible automation in the guide's
automation/directory.
Each platform directory contains a README.md (the guide), an assets/ directory of screenshots, and an automation/ directory with Ansible playbooks, roles, and inventory.
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