How to get a F5 BIG-IP VE Developer Lab License

Jer,

I understand your frustration.

This should be as easy as putting 3 lab licenses in your cart at CDW and making the purchase. Then, CDW contacts F5. F5 fulfills the order by providing the license keys to CDW. CDW then delivers the keys to you. Not the best method, but relatively straight forward.

I haven't seen any "18" option. I would simply buy the 16 and go from there. The versioning shouldn't matter. It's a lab license and you then have access to a wide range of versions to work with (I recall seeing a range from 9-11 when I bought my lab licenses). Certain versions were not available, like the latest at the time, so it was a little frustrating, but several versions were available for use with the license.

Another route - although this may be a pain too - is to reach out to a vendor that supplies licenses to the U.S. Government. For example, my Lab Renewals are done through World Wide Technologies.

Best wishes,

John

(and, just after writing this, I see an e-mail that said you did just that.... good luck!)

If you search for "f5 lab" (no quotes), and order the list from least expensive, you'll see (16) and two (18)s. These all seem to be the same bs, though perhaps (16) is the secret door. The fact is that I just guessed at which was the right one, choosing (18) a couple months back, and neither CDW nor F5 had any clue about how to fix the situation. Perhaps you're right about (16), but it's a crapshoot in my opinion. I'm going to try to acquire these through my fed rep unless that ultimately doesn't pan out. The rep and I are hoping he can get internal traction to try to get attention focused at F5 on the CDW problem.

i tried using another vendor shi dot com and they rejected my order b/c i wasnt a registered business...

i don't think a govt supplier could help in this either...

cdw dragged their feet for over a month... saying something about putting in a quote or whatever... i wound up cancelling as i already have two of the 16.x licenses. wanted to get an 18.x which they show "IN STOCK"

f5 18 lab

i kept getting these unhelpful responses from CDW team:

On Thu, Mar x 2020 Josseline Romero Hernandez <CustomerRelations@cdw.com> wrote:

Good Afternoon,

Thank you for contacting CDW Customer Relations. we apologies for the inconvenience regarding order # 1xxxxx. This order is on hold and requires the sales team to further assist. you can reach them at 800-800-4239 opt 2.

Please let us know if you have any questions or if we can further assist.

Kind Regards,

Josseline Romero

Customer Relations

CDW Inc.

Phone: 800-800-4239 option 2

 EXACTLY what happened to me, even after I escalated it in their sales and customer service departments!

Here is what the CDW product list looks like. These do not resemble the titles that existed 4 years ago, which did not have parenthesis on the versions. Again, my impression is that F5 thinks these are upgrades while CDW thinks they are full licenses, and neither company wants to fix this problem when the root cause is discovered. At least, that's what happed with version (18). If anyone buys a (16) license at this point and succeeds in obtaining it, please post your experience here. I will try again later, if I can't get mine through my fed rep.

can we get some help here? i'm not trying to trash f5, in fact just the opposite...

i want to get my hands on a couple 18x lab licenses so i can test / learn / certify / promote f5 products.

i love my 16.x ve labs, and want to get the latest version so i can learn the new functionallity.

f5 has always made quality products, and the support is one of the best in the business!

please make the lab editions easier to obtain so we can continue to learn and expand the customer base of f5!

-drew

When i asked CDW about 18, they were told by F5 that it not exist yet. I was also told 16 also did not exist and only 15 existed, though I got no help getting the license for 15. When I visited VE downloads, I only saw 15 and earlier only.

UPDATE:

Good evening.

My F5 Sales Engineer responded even though he is on vacation. He handed off to the Engineer. The Engineer engaged the F5 Public sector sales group. Someone from that group sent me and e-mail and we had a phone conversation moments ago. Wow! Talk about good customer service!

Okay - so here's the bad part. While F5 is great at many things, handing their Lab licenses and sales of those licenses to the general public (apparently called the Private sector, not "public" as seems logical to me) is Not one of those things.

To be clear, it was the F5 Public sector sales group that reached out to me. They handle sales to government entities, not companies or private citizens.

I explained the situation to this person. He understands the situation. He said he would reach back to F5 and see what they can come up with.

If you work for a government entity (are military, Civilian, or Contractor) and would like assistance, there's no guarantee this group that reached out to me tonight will be able to assist, but if you choose to send me your name and e-mail address, I will pass that information along and request that they reach out to you. The individual I spoke with tonight did not want to post anything here himself at this time and did not want to make promises he couldn't keep.

I did receive a quite tonight however and can verify that this is the current listing for the current lab license:

Part No.: F5-BIG-VE-LAB-V18

Description: BIG-IP Virtual Edition: Lab License (LTM, DNS,

AFM, ASM, AWF, APM, CGN, SSLO, Routing,

SDN, Crypto Offload, Ext-HSM, Adv, Protocols,

10 Mbps, v12.1.x - v18.x)

F5 Networks, Inc. - F5-BIG-VE-LAB-V18

The price quoted to me (for Public sector and from this specific company) was less than $95. When I purchased my lab licenses four years ago, the price was $115 or so. I would expect to pay about $120 or more if a private citizen.

And the Service Agreement is:

Part No.: F5-SVC-BIG-PRESW218

Description: BIG-IP Service: Premium CAT SW218

F5 Networks, Inc. - F5-SVC-BIG-PRE-SW218

The price quoted to me (for Public sector and from this specific company) was less than $17 for 1 Year.

At least I kicked the ball over to F5 and they acknowledged the concern.

Best Wishes,

John K. Weaver

CISSP, CISM, CISA, CCNP, CCNA-Security, F5-CA, MCSE-Security, MCITP-EA/SA/VA (2008), VCP-DCV 2019 (v6.5), VCP6-NV (v6.2), VCP5-DCV (v5.5), Security+CE  

Where are you seeing downloads for 16-18? These are not listed on the site.

Jer - who are you addressing?

I have not been on the F5 web site since they moved to v13.

I am not sure what web site you are looking at (no URL showing).

I received a Quote from F5. That's the information I passed along.

Starting a D&D game now so I have to go. Catch you guys and gals later.

JKW