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

Hi all;

Sorry I haven't been able to get back to you sooner. Here's the scoop on licensing:

The lab licenses are designed to allow upgrades for several versions. That version is baked into the internal SKU as you've seen. There are several different lab functions for different sectors so the SKU defines what features are available and through what versions, including future versions.

F5-BIG-VE-LAB-V18: This is a BIG-IP Virtual Edition Lab License that will work through version 18 when it's released in the future. I am running this license on my v15 BIG-IP Lab. I won't have to relicense when I upgrade.

What you're all running into and what I've brought up several times with CDW and F5 internally is that should NOT be the title of the purchasable license to consumers. As this thread clearly illustrates, it confuses everyone when you see a future version date as the sellable item. It also really doesn't help when they have two versions on there without an explanation. I know the older v15, v16 licenses are designed to work back to a specific version (if you were running v11 and wanted to test upgrades for example).

The second issue here is how is an emailed license can be "out of stock". That even happened to me and I have no idea the back end rationalization.

I will escalate this thread up as another case of legacy sales methods failing a digital purchasing model. F5 does know this is a huge issue and we have several "things" being worked on to fix it.

But the short is: Call CDW and ask where the order is. I did create a personal secret shopper account and was able to get the order through once I gave them a physical shipping address (even though it's an emailed license) and they had to create a secondary charge of $15ish USD for a support contract to go with the license, something not listed/itemized on their site.

But it did end up going through and I do know that another community member used that info and got their license same week.

What other questions related to this fun subject do you need answering? 😁