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PowerRangers's avatar
PowerRangers
Icon for Cirrostratus rankCirrostratus
Mar 10, 2026

F5 in AZ

We are building F5 BIG-IP in Azure. Our long term intention is Active-Active or Active-Standby HA, but to kick start we are deploying a single standalone instance first.   The F5 is not exposed to ...
application delivery
cloud
deployment
F5_Design_Engineer's avatar
F5_Design_Engineer
Icon for MVP rankMVP
Mar 11, 2026

Hi PowerRangers​ ,

 

Here are some pointers you can follow:

 

Standalone deployment:

 

  1. Backend pool should reference the F5’s Primary Self‑IP (10.1.1.10), NOT the VIP secondary IPs.
  2. DO NOT put the VIPs (10.1.1.11 / 10.1.1.12) in the Azure Load Balancer backend pool.
  3. One ALB can handle multiple VIPs == > YES — A single Azure Load Balancer can forward to multiple VIPs on the same F5.

 

Future Active/Standby HA:

 

  1. Both F5 devices will have the same VIP secondary IPs on their NICs (Azure requirement).
  2. F5 Cloud Failover Extension (CFE) or Azure LB health probes will determine which is active.
  3. Backend pool of Azure LB should contain Primary Self‑IPs of BOTH devices.
  4. Failover is handled by Azure LB + CFE (no floating IPs, no gratuitous ARP in Azure) and Azure health probes determine F5 active node

    let me know if you are looking for more details.

HTH

F5 Design Engineer