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mark_r_199323's avatar
mark_r_199323
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Apr 27, 2015

Use LineRate in Dev environment in Parallels

Hi, I am working in an environment that uses an F5 load balancer in production, and would like something that is software based that I can set up in my dev environment (currently all actual workstations are iMac machines, and web servers are IIS in guest OS (guest OS is Windows Server) therefore I would like to install an appliance on the same Mac that hosts all our Parallels VM’s, and have the load balancer forward requests to VM’s.

 

Any recommendations? I’ve already tried converting LineRite package using VMWare OVFTool, but results in a bad VMX image that will no import it into parallels (dies at boot prompt so assume something disk related.

 

Any help appreciated.

 

Thanks, Mark.

 

linerate
  • Johnny_Schmidt_'s avatar
    Johnny_Schmidt_
    Historic F5 Account
    Apr 27, 2015

    Hi Mark, sorry to hear you had trouble when trying to use LineRate. I think the problem is likely the hardware interfaces that Parallels presents are not supported by the LineRate system's included hardware drivers. Unfortunately as you can see from the documentation under installation (http://docs.lineratesystems.com/093Release_2.5/100Getting_Started_Guide/120Installing_Proxy) hypervisor support currently includes VMWare and KVM.

     

    It may still be possible to get LineRate running within Parallels, however it wouldn't exactly be a supported environment. You may want to experiment with specific network adapter settings.

     

    If possible, you might try installing via the ISO image instead of the OVA, in case something odd is happening with the OVFTool conversion.

     

    I wish I had more experience using Parallels so that I could be more helpful. On the support team, we all use VMWare on our local systems for running LineRate test environments (and KVM and ESXi in the labs). Additional virtualization technology support is planned for future releases, but as of version 2.5.x we haven't provided all of the guarantees for seamless support of LineRate in Parallels.

     

    If you do get a chance to mess with the VM settings and get LineRate running, definitely let us know what you did!

     

  • Johnny_Schmidt_'s avatar
    Johnny_Schmidt_
    Historic F5 Account
    Apr 27, 2015

    If you go to downloads.f5.com you can navigate to LineRate under the list of products, and find the file:

     

    LROS-2.5.1-R-x64.iso.gz

     

    direct link: https://downloads.f5.com/esd/serveDownload.jsp?path=/linerate/appproxy/2.5.1/english/lros-2.5.1/&sw=Linerate&pro=AppProxy&ver=2.5.1&container=LROS-2.5.1&file=LROS-2.5.1-R-x64.iso.gz

     

    The direct link will probably redirect you to request login credentials (for a free F5 account), and also ask for agreement of EULA.

     

    You can simply decompress the file with gunzip on a POSIX platform (OSX, Linux, etc) or use a third party decompressor on Windows.

     

  • Mark_Terrel_119's avatar
    Mark_Terrel_119
    Historic F5 Account
    Apr 29, 2015

    Hi Mark,

     

    As Johnny says, we don't officially support Parallels, so I wouldn't suggest you use LineRate in a Parallels production environment. But if you're only looking to use LineRate in a dev environment, I think you should be able to try it out.

     

    I've played around with LineRate in Parallels 10 on my Mac a few times. Here's what I did to get up and running:

     

    • Create a new VM. Select install from image file (ISO).
    • Parallels won't auto detect the OS type. So select FreeBSD.
    • Check "Customize settings before installation"
    • Name your new VM.
    • Under the Hardware tab:
      • Give it at least 2 CPUS and 2 GB of memory
      • Make sure the disk is at least 3 GB, but I'd suggest more space to give you some more room for upgrades & rollback.
      • Intel PRO/1000 Network card (VirtIO might work)
      • Click the '+' icon and add a serial port (IMPORTANT!)
    • Boot the system from virtual DVD. The installer will start. For more info on using the installer, see the docs.
    • Once you've done the install, disconnect the DVD drive so you boot from disk, not from DVD.
    • The system should come up and DHCP an IP address and default gateway. Confirm with show interfaces and show ip route.

    From there, the Getting Started Guide should be able to help you out. But don't be afraid to reach out if you have more issues. And give us feedback on what works or doesn't work for you!

     

    • Thomas_McGonagl's avatar
      Thomas_McGonagl
      Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
      Mar 25, 2016
      Following along with linerate on a mac and virtualbox. One issue, I ran into was trying to gunzip LROS-2.5.1-R-x64.iso.gz. Reported that it wasn't a gzip file. I did a file on the iso, and it was just an iso. Renamed the LROS-2.5.1-R-x64.iso.gz LROS-2.5.1-R-x64.iso and it worked just fine.
  • Johnny_Schmidt_'s avatar
    Johnny_Schmidt_
    Historic F5 Account
    May 29, 2015

    Hi Mark and Mark :)

     

    So today I went and decided to install LineRate on VirtualBox, and it turns out Mark T's guide also works there. The serial port is the trick, but in the VirtualBox case the OVA image fails to start due to VirtualBox not recognizing the scsi controller specified in the OVF spec within the OVA.

     

    My installation from ISO worked without issue, although I had some issues licensing once the install was complete and the system was running. I'll look in to this and see if I can find out why.