Deploying F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition on VMware Fusion

To deploy BIG-IP Virtual Edition on your workstation, VMware provides two great solutions:

• VMware Fusion Pro for OSX
• VMware Workstation Pro

For this guide, we’ll use Fusion Pro 8 (v11 functions the same) due to it’s good network management abilities; for the non-Pro version refer to Jason Rahm’s article on setting up networking.  Using the BIG-IP Virtual Edition, you can setup a development environment for most BIG-IP software solutions, including but not limited to LTM, APM Lite, ASM, AFM, and BIG-IP DNS. For more team oriented test or dev environments, you should probably install those to more robust infrastructure everyone has access too.

Installation Instructions

• Installing and configuring VMware Fusion Pro
  • Installing additional VMware networking
  • Downloading the F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition
  • Importing BIG-IP VE to VMware Fusion
• F5 BIG-IP Configuration
  • Configuring the Management Interface
  • Obtaining an F5 BIG-IP Developer Edition License
  • Configuring External and Internal Networks on BIG-IP VE
  • Accessing BIG-IP VE GUI and Completing Setup and Licensing
• Configure BIG-IP System Settings
• Additional Information

 

Installing and configuring VMware Fusion Pro

• Follow this link to purchase and download VMware Fusion Pro
• Install VMware and take advantage of their Getting Started Guide if unfamiliar with the product

Installing additional VMware networking

1. Start VMware Fusion Pro, and select the menu VMware Fusion > Preferences
2. Click the Network icon
3. Click the lock icon to authenticate and create additional networks
4. Click the + icon 3 times to create vmnet2, vmnet3, and vmnet4 
5. Select vmnet2 and configure the following network:
   • Leave Allow virtual machines on this network to connect to external networks (using NAT) cleared
   • Leave the Connect the host Mac to this network selected
   • Leave Provide addresses on this network via DHCP selected
   • In the Subnet IP field, enter 10.128.1.0
   • In the Subnet mask field, enter 255.255.255.0
   • 
6. Select vmnet3 and configure the following network:
   • Select the Allow virtual machines on this network to connect to external networks (using NAT) to allow your BIG-IP VE to reach the internet
   • Leave the Connect the host Mac to this network selected
   • Leave Provide addresses on this network via DHCP selected
   • In the Subnet IP field, enter 10.128.10.0
   • In the Subnet mask field, enter 255.255.255.0
   • 
7. Select vmnet4 and configure the following network:
   • Leave Allow virtual machines on this network to connect to external networks (using NAT)
   • Clear the Connect the host Mac to this network to prevent the system from having direct access to the internal network
   • Leave Provide addresses on this network via DHCP selected
   • In the Subnet IP field, enter 10.128.20.0
   • In the Subnet mask field, enter 255.255.255.0
   • 
8. Click Apply and close the window

 

Downloading the F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition

1. Navigate and login at https://downloads.f5.com, if you do not have a support login, register here.
2. Click Find a Download, select BIG-IP v12.x / Virtual Edition, and click Virtual-Edition again.
3. Read the License Agreement and click I Accept  (it’s a fantastic read)
4. Select the BIGIP-currentversion.ALL-scsi.ova file, with the description Image file set for VMware ESX/i Server
5. Choose the nearest download location

 

Importing BIG-IP Virtual Edition Image

1. From VMware Fusion, navigate to File > Import
2. Click Choose File
3. Select the BIGIP-13.0.0.3.0.1679.ALL-scsi.ova image file from your download location and click Open
4. Click Continue
5. Name the new virtual machine whatever you want using common sense, for our example we’ll use BIGIP_v13_lab 
6. Click Accept
7. After the import completes, click Finish, and Customize Settings
8. Click Processors & Memory and adjust memory to provide the following:
   • If System = 8GB, set VM memory to 4096
   • If System = 16GB, set VM memory to 8192
   • If System = 24GB+, set VM memory to 12416
9. Click Show All
10. Click Network Adapter, and click vmnet2
11. Click Show All, then click Network Adapter 2, select vmnet3
12. Click Show All, then click Network Adapter 3, select vmnet4
13. Click Show All, then click Network Adapter 4, and uncheck the Connect Network Adapter to disable
14. Close the Settings window

 

F5 BIG-IP Configuration

Configuring the Management Interface

1. Click your BIG-IP VE Image from the Virtual Machine Library, then click Start Up
2. After the BIG-IP VE powers up, you’ll be presented with the localhost login screen
3. Log in to the BIG-IP system using the following default credentials
   • localhost login: root
   • Password: default
4. At the CLI prompt, type: config
5. Press Enter to activate the OK option
6. Use the Tab key to activate the No option, then press Enter
7. Edit the IP Address to 10.128.1.145, then press Tab to activate the OK option, and press Enter
8. Ensure the Netmask is 255.255.255.0, then press Tab to activate the OK option, and press Enter
9. Press Enter to activate the Yes option to create a default route for the management port
10. Edit the Management Route to 10.128.1.1, then press the Tab to activate the OK option, and press Enter
11. Press the Enter key to activate the Yes option to accept the settings

Obtaining an F5 BIG-IP Developer Edition License

1. Refer to How to get a F5 BIG-IP VE Developer Lab License to purchase your Developer License.

Configuring External and Internal Networks on BIG-IP VE

1. Open a terminal window, and type: ssh root@10.128.1.145
2. Use the following Password:  default
3. Copy or manually enter the following TMSH commands to your SSH session.  You can copy and past all the lines simultaneously

tmsh create net vlan external interfaces add { 1.1 { untagged } }
tmsh create net vlan internal interfaces add { 1.2 { untagged } }
tmsh create net self 10.128.10.240 address 10.128.10.240/24 vlan external
tmsh create net self 10.128.20.240 address 10.128.20.240/24 vlan internal
tmsh create net route Default_Gateway network 0.0.0.0/0 gw 10.128.10.1
tmsh save sys config
exit

Accessing BIG-IP VE GUI and Completing Setup and Licensing

1. Open a web browser and access https://10.128.1.145
2. Log into the BIG-IP VE using the following credentials:
   • Username: admin
   • Password: admin
3. On the Welcome Page click Next
4. On the License page click Activate
5. Open the email from F5 Networks with your Developer License Registration Key and copy the Registration Key text
6. In the Setup Utility, in the Base Registration Key field, past the registration key text
7. For Activation Method, select Manual, and click Next
8. Select and copy all of the dossier text to your clipboard
9. Select Click here to access F5 Licensing Server
10. On the Activate F5 Product page, paste the dossier text in the field, then click Next
11. Select to accept the legal agreement, then click Next
12. Select and copy all of the license key text to your clipboard
13. On the Setup Utility > License page, paste the license key text into the Step 3: License field, then click Next
14. After the configuration changes complete, log into the BIG-IP VE system using the previous credentials
15. On the Resource Provisioning page leave Local Traffic (LTM) as the only provisioned module and click Next
16. On the Device Certificates page click Next
17. On the Platform page, configure the Host Name, Root Account, and Admin Account to your desired settings, then click Next
18. You’ll be prompted to log out and back into the BIG-IP VE.  Do it.
19. Under Standard Network Configuration, click Next
20. Clear the Display configuration synchronization options checkbox, then click Next
21. On the Internal Network Configuration page, review the settings, then click Next
22. On the External network Configuration page, review the settings, then click Finished to complete the Setup Utility.

Configure BIG-IP System Settings

1. Open the System > Preferences page, and update the following settings, then click Update
2. Records Per Screen: 30
3. Start Screen: Statistics
4. Idle Time Before Automatic Logout: 100000 seconds
5. Security Banner Text:  Welcome to the F5 BIG-IP VE Lab Environment (or whatever you want this to say)
6. Open the System > Configuration > Device > DNS page
7. For DNS Lookup Server List, enter 8.8.8.8, and then click Add (you can use whatever DNS resolver you want here)
8. Select 10.128.1.1, then click Delete, and click Update
9. Open the Local Traffic > Nodes > Default Monitor page
10. Click ICMP, and click << to move it to the Active list, then click Update

 

Additional Information

• Using the 10.128.x.0/24 is intended only for ease of use and not a requirement.  If you have alternate requirements, please replace our examples
• This guide builds a sufficient external and internal network the BIG-IP can use for proxy architecture testing and is intended for development purposes only
• If you opted not to purchase the Pro version of Fusion, you can still setup advanced networking.  For more on this please see: VMware Fusion Custom Networking for BIG-IP VE Lab
• This guide is developed for VMware Fusion Pro on OSX.  If you run VMware Workstation, setup is the same, only the UX and configuration locations change.