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

Chase_Abbott · ‎11-Nov-2015

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:

For VMware Fusion or Workstation or ESX/i: BIGIP-16.1.2-0.0.18.ALL-vmware.ova
For Microsoft HyperV: BIGIP-16.1.2-0.0.18.ALL.vhd.zip
KVM RHEL/CentoOS: BIGIP-16.1.2-0.0.18.ALL.qcow2.zip

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.

WeaverJK · ‎12-Nov-2015

Thanks!

Oliver_Stock_22 · ‎12-Nov-2015

Dear, does anyone know a european seller for the BIP-IP VE lab license? CDW seems to be working for the US only. Best regards, Oliver

Oliver_Stock_22 · ‎12-Nov-2015

Dear, does anyone know a european seller for the BIP-IP VE lab license? CDW seems to be working for the US only. Best regards, Oliver

Kevin_Davies_40 · ‎12-Nov-2015

I tell all my students to get one but the come back and say they cannot order then through there resellers. Apparently there is no money to be made so they won't resell them.

Chase_Abbott · ‎13-Nov-2015

@Oliver; I know CDW partners with Kelway in the UK but that may be limited to consulting services. I'll bring up the problem with obtaining these licenses outside of North America. I'll keep this article updated with new online vendors as it's a mission of mine to get everyone a Dev/Lab license.

borisvanes_2426 · ‎19-Jan-2016

any updates?

Chase_Abbott · ‎19-Jan-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.

Yoav_Crombie_25 · ‎25-Apr-2016

Also adding to the question about out of US online purchasing option , as the CDW seems to be only in the US

Colin_Stubbs · ‎25-May-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.

Simon_Waters_13 · ‎25-May-2016

Does it include APM?

Chase_Abbott · ‎25-May-2016

@Simon Waters: It does include a 10 user APM license.

F5Drive_266268 · ‎05-Sep-2016

any way to purchase in Middle East - UAE?

Chase_Abbott · ‎06-Sep-2016

@F5Drive;

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

Matt_Fahrner_82 · ‎19-Sep-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 · ‎19-Sep-2016

The license may need to be reactivated. Check out this Ask Solution.

License activation may be required prior to a software upgrade for the BIG-IP or EM system.

hadighz_293720 · ‎02-Oct-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

Matt_Fahrner_82 · ‎16-Nov-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.

Colin_Stubbs · ‎16-Feb-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.

Chase_Abbott · ‎17-Feb-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.

DoubleM_268889 · ‎27-Mar-2017

+1 for emea resellers issue ....

jay_41195 · ‎23-Jul-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.

Torinketo_32840 · ‎27-Jul-2017

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

Chase_Abbott · ‎07-Aug-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.

MichealRP_61305 · ‎29-Aug-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 · ‎29-Aug-2017

@MichealRP;

A lab license would not be useful for you in this case. They are sold at current versions so if you were to test say an v11.6 to v13 upgrade, the lab license wouldn't be able to be downgraded.

If I was doing the upgrade test, I would use the new VE production license in a test environment, run the upgrade. Once complete I would call support to release the license from that activated VE serial number so I can perform the upgrade in production. I've never heard of anyone having issues releasing the license from the activated serial and the call took about 5 to 10 minutes in my prior experiences.

The above experience you're referencing could have been lag between the internal license where support release the license but the public validation tool wasn't synced up yet? Not sure, but I do know that you absolutely you can reuse the license on another VE once it's released from the previous instances SN in our license database. It's supported and a common practice for test environments.

As an FYI, not sure how BIG-IQ License Manager (free) would ease this up, but I will write up an article on that feature set soon (using BIG-IQ as a license manager for lab systems) and maybe that would help you?

Troy_Murray_196 · ‎09-May-2018

The link to the "CDW BIG-IP Virtual Edition Lab License" takes you to a SKU that was discontinued on February 08, 2018. The new version available for purchase would be https://www.cdw.com/product/BIG-IP-Virtual-Edition-Lab-License-v.-16-license-10-Mbps/4699677?enkwrd=...

Chase_Abbott · ‎10-May-2018

Thanks Troy! I've updated both links.

Andreas_Görlach · ‎14-May-2018

I have to agree with Torinketo.

CDW is a nightmare. I bought a f5 lab license two weeks ago (or at least I thought so). After three days I wondered why nothing is being delivered. So, I asked back to cdwsales who sent me the order confirmation. No answer. Another two days later, I asked again. Again, no answer. Another two days later I wrote to customer relations. Also I used the contact form on the website for sales. No answer. I tried the chat, and after being transferred I just learned that 'there is a problem with the order'. No indication whatsoever about the nature of the order. I was told to contact the sales rep for that order who - suprise! - up to now did not answer.

Overall this is really sad. If it is not possible to order this license, why can't they at least say so and refund the money?

So, please F5 people, could you do something about that?

djeff_375138 · ‎31-Oct-2018

CDW Canada said F5 requires a company name and website when trying to purchase the Lab edition for myself. I don't want support to be linked to a company, as I might not be working for them tomorrow. About three weeks ago I wrote my concern to the sales team, and a second time a week after, with no response from them. Can a person get the lab edition for himself, without having to give a company and website name? And how long should I wait for the sales team to respond back?

Chase_Abbott · ‎01-Nov-2018

Hi djeff;

I'm sorry the sales team is incommunicado. Can you copy what you sent to the sales team and send it to us (DevCentral) via the contact form? We'll track down what the issue is there. The company name is there for the support contract but I agree, shouldn't be required. Are you able to use your name as company info "djeff personal copy co." or something?

djeff_375138 · ‎01-Nov-2018

Chase, CDW said F5 requires a company name and website; meaning it's up to F5 to accept it or not. I'll reach out CDW again and see if your suggestion will work. I'll keep you posted. And thanks for the quick response.

Chase_Abbott · ‎05-Nov-2018

Hrm. I created a new account on CDW and stated "personal" use. I just bought the lab edition and the company name was optional on the US site. Order went through no issues. Lemme see what I can screw around with on the Canada site.

Chase_Abbott · ‎05-Nov-2018

Created a new account at CDW Canada and Company name is optional during checkout if my account I listed as "Personal Use".

djeff_375138 · ‎06-Nov-2018

THIS IS THE PART I TRIED TO ORDER: Mfg. Part: F5-BIG-VE-LAB-V16 UNSPSC: 43233204

THIS IS CDW CONFIRMING I'M USING PERSONAL ACCOUNT AND F5 CANCELLED THE ORDER: You’re already set up under consumer, that’s not the issue. From what I’m understanding, this license is only for businesses. They have already cancelled back this order, I’m not sure where to go from here.

Chase, if you process the order, you would go through the same hurdles as I. From CDW perspective, it's F5 that is making the calls. Where do I go from there, cause I can't reach the sales team?

Chase_Abbott · ‎06-Nov-2018

I've reached out to our CDW team to find out what's going on. I used an alternate account for the CDW US to make my purchase and I haven't been rejected so we'll see what we can find out.

I suggest we take this offline so we can discuss order specifics. Please use the https://devcentral.f5.com/contact to hit up my team and I can continue this conversation. The contact form goes to my team only so only DC admins (5 of us) will review the content.

ehinkle_104407 · ‎11-Dec-2018

Are they going to make Big-IQ available as well?

Colin_Stubbs · ‎17-Dec-2018

You can already order a lab license for BIG-IQ, SKU should be F5-BIQ-VE-LAB or similar, there's SKU's to add additional device management capacity, e.g. F5-ADD-BIQ-LAB-25

Sjoerd_Krol_340 · ‎14-Jan-2019

I can't order them via cdw....both Canada and US are blocking Europeans I guess.... Any other easy way to obtain a lab license?

Chase_Abbott · ‎23-Jan-2019

@Sjoerd_Krol. Easy? No. For non North American end users, purchasing through a partner is the only method currently available. Do you have a partner you currently work with?

Hendry_Chandra · ‎22-May-2019

Response on the 2 CDW Links above:

Access Denied

You do not have permission to access the site on this server.

Reference#:18.94070572.1558592844.2bd5034d

Time: May 23 2019 06:27:25

Access Denied

You do not have permission to access the site on this server.

Reference#:18.9f070572.1558592845.24a1ec9a

Time: May 23 2019 06:27:26

Perhaps this article is not related/valid anymore? But it was just released?

The DevCentral Team (F5 Networks) published this new Knowledge.

May 14, 2019 at 7:40 PM

Thanks

Stephan_Schwar1 · ‎23-May-2019

I receive the same error, for a couple of months already.

The CDW website used to be available, I'm guessing it might be some GeoIP blocklist (at least I'm unable to access the site from various Dutch ISP's).

Our F5 vendor doesn't sell these licenses, since they tell us the effort it takes, costs them money.

It shouldn't be so hard to acquire these licenses.

Chase_Abbott · ‎28-May-2019

Hey Kees;

You still have magic for non-US users in this regards?

KeesvandenBos · ‎28-May-2019

Hey Chase,

Yes I do.

Cheers,

Kees

Stephan_Schwar1 · ‎08-Jun-2019

I'd still like to know how non-US users can obtain a LAB license.

Kind regards,

Stephan Schwarz

KeesvandenBos · ‎10-Jun-2019

drop me an email at kees@kees4ip.nl and we can try to work out the details.

Cheers,

Kees

Marcos · ‎03-Jul-2019

The links are not working, the server is saying that I don't have permission.

Chase_Abbott · ‎03-Jul-2019

It seems CDW now blocks non-North American countries from even viewing the links now. This is a new and very uncustomer-centric attitude and I've raised this issue up within F5 to find out why CDW is doing this. Especially since it's trivial to bypass with VPN or TOR-based browsing.

Marcos · ‎03-Jul-2019

this license support v13 and v12 ?

Chase_Abbott · ‎03-Jul-2019

The current Developer Lab license does support the latest releases yes, including v14. If you have access to a vendor in your area, you can request and purchase this license from them directly.

mat_barrie · ‎29-Oct-2019

Is it actually possible to buy this license in the APAC region? All the listed VARs on the F5 website for our region are not actually resellers (they're MSPs) or they just plain literally don't exist. All the distributors won't touch you unless you're a partner, which you can't do unless you're a large company or have existing distributor relationships (chicken and the egg). It seems to me that the lab edition is literally the most useless offer in the history of useless offers because you can't actually buy it.