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

(applies to BIG-IP TMOS Edition)


To assist DevOps teams improve their development for the BIG-IP platform, F5 offers a low cost

developer lab license. This license can be purchased from your authorized F5 vendor.  If you do not have an F5 vendor, you can purchase a lab license online:

 

Once completed, the order is sent to F5 for fulfillment and your license will be delivered shortly after via e-mail.  F5 is investigating ways to improve this process.

To download the BIG-IP Virtual Edition, please log into downloads.f5.com (separate login from DevCentral), and navigate to your appropriate virtual edition, example:

Note: There are also 1 Slot versions of the above images where a 2nd boot partition is not needed for in-place upgrades. These images include _1SLOT- to the image name instead of ALL.

The below guides will help get you started with F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition to develop for VMWare Fusion, AWS, Azure, VMware, or Microsoft Hyper-V.  These guides follow standard practices for installing in production environments and performance recommendations change based on lower use/non-critical needs fo Dev/Lab environments.  Similar to driving a tank, use your best judgement.

 

Note:  F5 Support maintains authoritative Azure, AWS, Hyper-V, and ESX/vCloud installation documentation.  VMware Fusion is not an official F5-supported hypervisor so DevCentral publishes the Fusion guide with the help of our Field Systems Engineering teams.
Updated May 14, 2024
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  • MichealRP_61305's avatar
    MichealRP_61305
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Aug 29, 2017

    I was looking to obtain a lab license to validate software updates and such, but from what I can tell, if I were to purchase this, it would be locked into a specific version. To me, this defeats the purpose of having a lab to begin with. If I'm mistaken, I apologize, but from comments such as "currently, I can not reuse the license on another ova version" and "Talking to F5 support while they could reactivate it for 12.0, they couldn't for 12.1." I'm hesitant to start the process of getting one just to find out that it's locked to a specific version once purchased.

     

  • Chase_Abbott's avatar
    Chase_Abbott
    Icon for Employee rankEmployee
    Aug 07, 2017

    @Torinketo;

     

    I agree with you 100%. DevCentral is working on raising this issue through our management and I forwarded this on to my superiors for example.

     

  • Torinketo_32840's avatar
    Torinketo_32840
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Jul 27, 2017

    Purchasing a license through CDW was a nightmare. Please consider a better alternative, this doesn't make sense.

     

  • jay_41195's avatar
    jay_41195
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Jul 23, 2017

    I am still not able to buy Lab edition, why is it this difficult? Why create a product for the purpose of LAB with a cost but not have it available, I cant find any Australian re-sellers that will sell it.

     

  • Chase_Abbott's avatar
    Chase_Abbott
    Icon for Employee rankEmployee
    Feb 17, 2017

    @Colin Stubbs;

     

    I agree 100% with you and this bothers many of us at F5 who find out people cannot get dev/lab licenses easily. I've raised your comment to my mgmt team as further evidence that this process is very broken.

     

  • Colin_Stubbs's avatar
    Colin_Stubbs
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Feb 17, 2017

    Apologies all; due to the way in which F5 insists on selling... e.g. a ~$100 product in the same way as they sell a ~$1,000,000.00 product... offering lab licenses to the general public is no longer viable for Equate or the distributor we have to use to fulfill the order. It costs too much in terms of staff time to handle.

     

    I strongly suggest you contact F5 directly, via any AM/SE's etc that you have access to, and ask them when F5 will jump forward to the year 2017 and provide a portal which will accept credit card payment in multiple currencies; in order to automate the very simple process of providing a generated registration key for an entirely digitally delivered product that's desired globally.

     

  • Matt_Fahrner_82's avatar
    Matt_Fahrner_82
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Nov 16, 2016

    Note that I did try "reactivation" and that didn't work. Talking to F5 support while they could reactivate it for 12.0, they couldn't for 12.1. I am contacting our sales to find out more.

     

  • hadighz_293720's avatar
    hadighz_293720
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Oct 02, 2016

    Hi Matt, I'm having the same problem. I contacted support and they accepted to release the license so I can use it once again. but couple of hours later, i checked the registration key using the license validation tool (https://secure.f5.com/validate/validate.jsp) and it returned locked status for the license. currently, I can not reuse the license on another ova version. please let me know if you have found any solution. Thanks