For more information regarding the security incident at F5, the actions we are taking to address it, and our ongoing efforts to protect our customers, click here.

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

(applies to BIG-IP TMOS Edition)


To assist operational teams 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, and you are in either Canada or the US 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, log into my.f5.com (separate login from DevCentral), navigate down to the Downloads card under the Support Resources section of the page.  Select BIG-IP from the product group family and then the current version of BIG-IP. 

You will be presented with a list of options, at the bottom, select the Virtual-Edition option that has the following descriptions:

  • For VMware Fusion or Workstation or ESX/i: Image fileset for VMware ESX/i Server
  • For Microsoft HyperV: Image fileset for Microsoft Hyper-V
  • KVM RHEL/CentoOS:  Image file set for KVM Red Hat Enterprise Linux/CentOS

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 for development or 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 Mar 12, 2025
Version 4.0
101
application delivery
BIG-IP
deployment
devops
virtualization
WAWMART

152 Comments

Show More
  • Matt_Fahrner_82's avatar
    Matt_Fahrner_82
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Sep 19, 2016

    I have a lab edition that I purchased in November of last year. It has the same part number as what is being sold on CDW today (F5-BIG-VE-LAB-V13), however when I try to use BIGIP 12.1 I get:

     

    Sep 19 09:18:21 localhost err ql[21932]: 01180006:3: Software version not covered by service agreement service check date 20151102 version date 20160318.

     

    It looks like based on this:

     

    https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/7000/700/sol7727.html

     

    The latest version I can use is BIGIP 12.0. My colleague has the same problem.

     

    I've validated and the license is still under "warrantee" - does anyone know what one needs to do to be able to use 12.1.x?

     

    Thanks.

     

  • Chase_Abbott's avatar
    Chase_Abbott
    Icon for Admin rankAdmin
    Sep 06, 2016

    @F5Drive;

     

    For customers or curious individuals, you'll need to contact an F5 Partner who can resell the Lab license.

     

  • Colin_Stubbs's avatar
    Colin_Stubbs
    Icon for Altostratus rankAltostratus
    May 25, 2016

    UPDATE 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.

     

    WAS For any Australian or New Zealand F5'ers who're trying to get lab licenses, don't want to order in USD and/or finding that the big name AU partners don't care about handling small sales like these for individuals, email sales@equatetechnologies.com.au and we'll help organise lab licenses for you. Can handle locally in AUD or NZD. Cost price.

     

    • privatenet7's avatar
      privatenet7
      Icon for Altostratus rankAltostratus
      Jul 04, 2025

      Awesome mate. I love your work and passionate about F5.

  • Yoav_Crombie_25's avatar
    Yoav_Crombie_25
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Apr 25, 2016
    Also adding to the question about out of US online purchasing option , as the CDW seems to be only in the US
  • Chase_Abbott's avatar
    Chase_Abbott
    Icon for Admin rankAdmin
    Jan 19, 2016
    @ borisvanes; Not yet; there's a large amount of export compliance work involved we have to adhere to so it's going to take some time. But the good thing is the issue has a wider audience and we all agree improvements are needed.