Forum Discussion
CirrusOptions for geoip data like country and city information (from Digital Element).
We have a contract with Digital Element where we can go to their portal and get the F5GeoIPCity2.dat. Directly from F5 we download the ISP.dat, Org.dat and IPv6.dat. Is there a reason why we have a middle man and get this City2.dat file from a 3rd party? I tried looking around and saw Jason Reed respond to a question with this:
The IP geolocation database is currently provided by Digital Element per K21866. K12866: Troubleshooting IP geolocation database inaccuracies https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K12866
That article doesn't say why we get these files from Digital Element. Does that mean that's our only option for this type of geo-ip data? Does F5 provide this .dat file directly?
Jad_Tabbara__J1Cirrostratus
Hello Daren,
'F5 releases the updates to the database in the GeoLocationUpdates container on the F5 Downloads site.'
Maybe in this container you will find the .dat file you are searching for.
But based on this article
https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K15042 Howe
It will include only these files
- F5GeoIP.dat
- F5GeoIPv6.dat
- F5GeoIPISP.dat
- F5GeoIPOrg.dat
It seems that F5 does not provide the City2.dat that's why you may need to get directly from the vendor Digital Element that is as mentioned here
https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K12866
Regards
Stanislas_Piro2Cumulonimbus
Hi,
I guess you misunderstand the article.
Geoip feature is not a F5 feature but a OEM database provided by digital elements and which is included in F5 licenses with limited data.
Most f5 customers want country information, so F5 won't pay OEM license to digital elements for all customers for a feature they don't need!
If F5 have to pay full database for only 1% of customers, prices of other 99% licenses would grow up!
ArieAltostratus
Unless this changed fairly recently, the use geo-location database provided by F5 and included on the devices is limited by use. In short, it is not permitted to have the BIG-IPs convey any location-data to another device (e.g. pool members). Thus, the feature can be used only for location-based functionality on the BIG-IP itself.
In addition, the location-database that F5 includes is significantly less granular than the database that can be licensed separately (from F5's partner).