BIG-IP® Virtual Edition Setup Guide for VMware ESX® or ESXi® Version 11.
Table of Contents Table of Contents Legal Notices.....................................................................................................5 Chapter 1: Getting Started with BIG-IP Virtual Edition...........................................................7 What is BIG-IP Virtual Edition?..........................................................................................8 BIG-IP Virtual Edition compatibility with VMware hypervisor products....................8 Hypervisor guest definition....
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Legal Notices Publication Date This document was published on August 2, 2013. Publication Number MAN-0347-01 Copyright Copyright © 2012, F5 Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. F5 Networks, Inc. (F5) believes the information it furnishes to be accurate and reliable. However, F5 assumes no responsibility for the use of this information, nor any infringement of patents or other rights of third parties which may result from its use.
Legal Notices FCC Compliance This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class A digital device pursuant to Part 15 of FCC rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference when the equipment is operated in a commercial environment. This unit generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instruction manual, may cause harmful interference to radio communications.
Chapter 1 Getting Started with BIG-IP Virtual Edition • What is BIG-IP Virtual Edition?
Getting Started with BIG-IP Virtual Edition What is BIG-IP Virtual Edition? BIG-IP® Virtual Edition (VE) is a version of the BIG-IP system that runs as a virtual machine (VM) in specifically-supported hypervisors (VMware ESX® or ESXi® for this guide). BIG-IP VE emulates a hardware-based BIG-IP system running a VE-compatible version of BIG-IP® software. Note: The BIG-IP VE product license determines the maximum allowed throughput rate.
Chapter 2 Deploying BIG-IP Virtual Edition • Deployment of BIG-IP VE on VMware
Deploying BIG-IP Virtual Edition Deployment of BIG-IP VE on VMware To deploy the BIG-IP® VE system on a VMware ESX® or ESXi®, you need to perform these tasks: • • • • Verify the host machine requirements. Deploy an instance of the BIG-IP system as a virtual machine (VM) on a host system. Power on the BIG-IP VE virtual machine. Assign a management IP address to the BIG-IP VE virtual machine. After you complete these tasks, you can log in to the BIG-IP VE system and run the Setup utility.
BIG-IP® Virtual Edition Setup Guide for VMware ESX® or ESXi® For example: \MyDocuments\Work\Virtualization\ 6. Click Next. The OVF Template Details pane opens. 7. Verify that the OVF template details are correct, and click Next. This displays the End-User License Agreement (EULA). 8. Read and accept the license agreement, and click Next. The Name and Location pane opens. 9. In the Name field, type a name for the BIG-IP virtual machine, such as: smith_10.2.2.1-45. 10.
Deploying BIG-IP Virtual Edition 6. When assigned, the management IP address will appear in the Summary tab of the vSphere™ Client. Alternatively, a hypervisor generic statement can be used, such as tmsh list sys management-ip. Tip: F5 Networks highly recommends that you specify a default route for the virtual management port, but it is not required for operation of the BIG-IP VE virtual machine.
Chapter 3 Updating a BIG-IP VE Virtual Machine • Updating a BIG-IP VE virtual machine
Updating a BIG-IP VE Virtual Machine Updating a BIG-IP VE virtual machine BIG-IP® VE updates are installed in the same manner as updates to BIG-IP software already installed on BIG-IP hardware. You do not need to reinstall BIG-IP VE in the hypervisor guest environment to upgrade your system. To update a BIG-IP VE virtual machine (VM), you can use the Software Management tool in the Configuration utility, or you can upgrade the software from the command line.
BIG-IP® Virtual Edition Setup Guide for VMware ESX® or ESXi® 3. Click Install. The Install Software screen opens. 4. Select the disk you want to install the image on, and type or select a volume name and click Install. The upgrade process installs the software on the inactive disk location that you specify. This process usually takes between three and ten minutes. Tip: If there is a problem during installation, you can use log messages to troubleshoot a solution.
Appendix A Deployment Best Practices • Best practices for deploying BIG-IP VE on VMware
Deployment Best Practices Best practices for deploying BIG-IP VE on VMware When deploying BIG-IP® Virtual Edition (VE) on a VMware host, use these best practices. 18 Issue Recommendation Redundant system configuration Run the two units of an active/standby pair on separate physical hosts.
Appendix B Unsupported BIG-IP Features • BIG-IP VE unsupported features
Unsupported BIG-IP Features BIG-IP VE unsupported features BIG-IP® Virtual Edition (VE) does not support specific BIG-IP system or VMware features. These BIG-IP system features are not supported by BIG-IP Virtual Edition (VE).
Appendix C Troubleshooting BIG-IP Virtual Edition • Troubleshooting BIG-IP Virtual Edition
Troubleshooting BIG-IP Virtual Edition Troubleshooting BIG-IP Virtual Edition If you have followed the setup procedures as described in this guide, BIG-IP® VE should be working correctly with the hypervisor. However, because BIG-IP VE emulates BIG-IP hardware running in a virtual environment, you might encounter some issues as you try new configurations for BIG-IP VE that are outside the scope of this setup guide, or unsupported in BIG-IP VE with certain hypervisor environments.
BIG-IP® Virtual Edition Setup Guide for VMware ESX® or ESXi® If you change the number of virtual interfaces on the BIG-IP VE system after a binary MCPD database has been created, the system does not detect the change when subsequently rebooted. To ensure that the system properly detects the new or removed interfaces, type the command rm /var/db/mcpd* at the BIG-IP VE command prompt, and reboot the system.
Index Index 802.1q headers and QoS field, troubleshooting 22 A hard-wired failover, unsupported 20 host machine, CPU requirements 10 hypervisor, See guest environment.
Index protocols troubleshooting 22 unsupported 20 T QoS, troubleshooting 22 task list for deploying on virtual machine 10 for deploying on VMware 10 for updating on virtual machine 14 troubleshooting 22 R U Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP), unsupported 20 reboot after configuring additional interfaces, troubleshooting 22 reboot operation after updating 15 redundant system configuration and host machine requirements 10 and NTP requirement 10 deploying 18 resource reservations 18 RMON tables and SNM
