F5 Network

Create an integration to manage access to an F5 instance

F5 Network provides an application delivery and security platform that optimizes performance, ensures availability, and protects applications across on-premises and cloud environments.

Through this integration, Apono enables you to dynamically manage access to F5 resources by automating permissions and policies within your F5 Access Policy Manager (APM) instance.

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Prerequisites

Item	Description
F5 Admin Access	User account with admin permissions to create a new user account
F5 Network info	Information for integrating Apono and F5: F5 Hostname Access Profile Id Resource Assign Id Webtop path (Optional) Webtop Sections path
Apono connector	On-prem connection serving as a bridge between your Elastic Cloud instance and Apono: AWS Azure GCP Kubernetes Learn how to update an existing AWS, Azure, GCP, or Kubernetes connector.

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Create a dedicated Apono user

Follow these steps to create a dedicated user for Apono:

1. In F5, create a new admin user account with a user-friendly name, such as apono-connector.

2. Create a secret for the dedicated user to use during the Apono integration setup. Use the values from step 1 to generate the secret.

"username": "F5_USERNAME",
"password": "F5_PASSWORD"

You can also input the user credentials directly into the Apono UI during the integration process.

You can now integrate F5 Network.

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Integrate F5 Network

F5 Network tile

You can also use the steps below to integrate with Apono using Terraform.

In step 10, instead of clicking Confirm, follow the Are you integrating with Apono using Terraform? guidance.

Follow these steps to complete the integration:

1. On the Catalog tab, click F5 Network. The Connect Integration page appears.

2. Under Discovery, click Next. The Apono connector section expands.

3. From the dropdown menu, select a connector. Choosing a connector links Apono to all the services available on the account where the connector is located.

If the desired connector is not listed, click + Add new connector and follow the instructions for creating a connector (AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes).

1. Click Next. The Integration Config section expands.

2. Define the Integration Config settings.

   Setting	Description
   Integration Name	Unique, alphanumeric, user-friendly name used to identify this integration when constructing an access flow
   F5 Hostname	Host and port of the F5 server hosting the Access Policy Manager (APM)
   Access Profile Id	Identifier of the top-level access policy container that defines authentication and access logic
   Resource Assign Id	Identifier of the rule set that represents the permission and assignment of webtop links to users
   Webtop	Path to the Webtop object that presents assigned applications and links after user authentication
   Webtop Sections (Optional)	Path used to group or organize webtop links within the Webtop resource

3. Click Next. The Secret Store section expands.

4. Associate the secret or credentials.

If you select the Apono secret manager, enter the following values:

• Username: Enter the F5 Apono admin account username.

• Password: Enter the F5 Apono admin account user password.

1. Click Next. The Get more with Apono section expands.

2. Define the Get more with Apono settings.

   Setting	Description
   Custom Access Details	(Optional) Instructions explaining how to access this integration's resources Upon accessing an integration, a message with these instructions will be displayed to end users in the User Portal. The message may include up to 400 characters. To view the message as it appears to end users, click Preview.
   Integration Owner	(Optional) Fallback approver if no resource owner is found Follow these steps to define one or several integration owners: From the Attribute dropdown menu, select User or Group under the relevant identity provider (IdP) platform. From the Value dropdown menu, select one or multiple users or groups. NOTE: When Resource Owner is defined, an Integration Owner must be defined.
   Resource Owner	(Optional) Group or role responsible for managing access approvals or rejections for the resource Follow these steps to define one or several resource owners: Enter a Key name. This value is the name of the tag created in your cloud environment. From the Attribute dropdown menu, select an attribute under the IdP platform to which the key name is associated. Apono will use the value associated with the key (tag) to identify the resource owner. When you update the membership of the group or role in your IdP platform, this change is also reflected in Apono. NOTE: When this setting is defined, an Integration Owner must also be defined.

3. Click Confirm.

💡 Are you integrating with Apono using Terraform?

If you want to integrate with Apono using Terraform, follow these steps instead of clicking Confirm:

1. At the top of the screen, click View as Code. A modal appears with the completed Terraform configuration code.

2. Click to copy the code.

3. Make any additional edits.

4. Deploy the code in your Terraform.

Refer to Integration Config Metadata for more details about the schema definition.

Usage

Now that the integration is complete, you can use F5 Network to define the resources in an access flow. This allows requesters to access F5 Network resources securely based on your approval and provisioning rules.

Follow the guidance in these articles to define the resource using F5 Network:

• Define the resource (Self Serve Access Flows)

• Define the resource (Automatic Access Flows)