Guide: BIGIP VE on VirtualBox (MacOS)

I don't know if this is the right place for something that's not a straight up question, but I've been fiddling around with VirtualBox and BIGP VEs and thought it might serve someone else to know how I set things up.

 

If you're running BIGIP VE on MacOS, the best Hypervisor is probably vmware fusion. It does however have one big problem, and that is running multiple BIGIPs at the same time. I wanted to do some labs on DSC, requiring more than one VM, and I got a lot of problem with that. Another reason to use VirtualBox is that it does not require you to purchase a license.

 

The drawback is that there is no OVA file that works out of the box. So here's how I did it:

 

1. Download the OVA file for Citrix. It uses IDE controller and that's easier to get going in VirtualBox.
2. An OVA file is just a disk image, OVF info and other files glued together. Extract them by "tar xf filename.ova" and you'll get two disk images and a few more files.
3. Get VirtualBox.
4. Create Host-Only Networks. These are found in the File menu, NOT IN THE PREFERENCES (Lots of guides are not updated on this). Host-Only Networks exists between your host computer and the VMs only (you will see virtual NICs if you run ifconfig). That makes it simple to access VMs from your physical computer. However VMs cant reach the internet since MacOS does not allow the virtual NICs that are created to route traffic. For a typical lab, four networks are needed. One for management, three for TMM.

5. Create a new VM with the following settings (per-tab):

    

   • General tab: Operating system: Linux 2.x/3.x/4.x
   • System tab: Memory: 4096 GB or more, Chipset PIIX3, Enable IO APIC, uncheck Hardware clock UTC, Processors: 2, Acceleration: Default, Enable nested paging.
   • Display tab: 8 MB video memory, uncheck acceleration
   • Storage: Add vmdk files to SATA controller (see below).
   • Audio tab: Disable Audio
   • Network tab: All four NICs Intel Pro/1000 MT, Host-only network (created earlier)
   • Ports tab: Enable COM1

6. Before the new VM guide is complete, copy the vmdk files to the VM directory, like /users/username/VirtualBox VMs/BIGIP-A. Then add both vmdk files to the SATA controller.

    

7. Boot up and dive into labs.

    

License needs to be activated though copy/paste, but I found that better than NATing managagement and having to port translate HTTP/SSH traffic to the BIGIP. Of course you shouldn't use the same vmdk files for multiple BIGIPs.

 

Nice-to-know-stuff that I have not tested:

 

• If you need more than four NICs you can add up to eight via VirtualBox CLI commands.
• According to some guides, you can route Host-Only Networks by flipping the ip-forwarding flag in /proc on Linux. The MacOS equivalent did not work for me though.

I have run this for a few days with no trouble at all. In fact it seems to be less CPU intensive than vmware fusion. Two booted BIGIPs with LTM and AVR provisioned (but idle and unconfigured) use about 16% of my MacBooks total capacity.

 

Hope this helps someone.