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TTF888_160708's avatar
TTF888_160708
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Jun 24, 2014

How do I configure an F5 LTM VE Lab on my Laptop and drive traffic to it to generate logs?

I have successfully installed the F5 LTM VE Lab on VMWare Fusion 6, but I'm unclear how to configure it so that I can drive traffic through it from my browser (I am open to driving traffic in other w...
application delivery
cloud
configuration
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LTM
virtualization
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Kevin_Davies_40's avatar
Kevin_Davies_40
Icon for Nacreous rankNacreous
Jun 28, 2014

`Ok in the latest VMware Fusion this has became a LOT easier.

 

  1. Start up VMware fusion then goto preferences -> networking.
  2. Unlock the padlock at the bottom to make changes
  3. Remove the tick against require auth to enter promiscuous mode
  4. Add four new interfaces. Where it says auto generated specify your own subnets like 192.168.86.0 (I believe it requires VMware Fusion Professional to do this from the GUI)
  5. Make sure each interface has "Connect the host MAC to this network checked."
  6. Any network that requires external access should have the NAT option but only one interface on a VM can have this feature.
  7. Apply and save.
  8. Download the BIGIP 11.5.1 Virtual Edition OVA for VMware
  9. Now open the OVA with VMware but do not start it.
  10. Assign the four new interfaces to your VM.
  11. Inside the VM they will be mgmt(eth0), 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 in that order
  12. Start the VM, when you get the login prompt it should be ready to configure.
  13. In about two minutes you should be able to access the GUI on https://x.x.x.128 address of the first network adapter you assigned to the VM.
  • Kevin_Davies_40's avatar
    Kevin_Davies_40
    Icon for Nacreous rankNacreous
    Jun 28, 2014
    Note: I just performed this procedure now with 11.5.1 so I documented it.
  • Patrik_Jonsson's avatar
    Patrik_Jonsson
    Icon for MVP rankMVP
    Jun 28, 2014
    He got it working but this is great info for people stumbling across this thread seeking the same answers. /Patrik
  • Kevin_Davies_40's avatar
    Kevin_Davies_40
    Icon for Nacreous rankNacreous
    Jun 28, 2014
    If you tick NAT on the first interface you can use automatic licensing when your laptop has internet access. The DHCP assigns both default route and DNS settings to the BIGIP on boot so it can reach license.f5.com directly. As a general note the your laptop will have an address of .1 on each interface. If NAT is ticked you can route to the Internet through .2 for each network . I usually assign .10 as the self IP on my data interfaces and then my Virtual servers start at .11. Because the Mac has a built in webserver I use that for testing. Configuration is defined in /etc/apache2/httpd.conf. The webserver files can be found in /Library/WebServer/Documents. Start with sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist. Just be mindful this listens on all interfaces so you define pool members as x.x.x.1:80 to reach your test web pages. Where x.x.x is the network of the interface you defined as internal facing.
  • Kevin_Davies_40's avatar
    Kevin_Davies_40
    Icon for Nacreous rankNacreous
    Jun 28, 2014
    Just turn the webserver off when you are finished as its listening on the ethernet interface of your Mac as well.