Forum Discussion

SERGIO_VALENTE's avatar
SERGIO_VALENTE
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Jun 08, 2020

Is BIG-IP VE TRIAL compatible with VMware Workstation 15 ?

This is my experience:

I was using the evaluation version Workstation 10 and BIG-IP VE TRIAL version 13.1.1

I had no issues.

My evaluation period for the Workstation 10 was over - I decided to purchase the license- I was redirected to download latest Workstation 15.

Initially the upgrade went well.... My linux vm worked ... However when I started the BIG-IP i was requested to upgrade my vm...hmmm.

Which I did .

I then started having issues .. the VM was not stable .... also I could no longer ping /communicate over the bridge NIC ( between the local machine and BIG-IP) .. They virtual nic ( hosts) seemed to be ok

 

Contacted Vmware - and started the process to downgrade from Workstation 15 back to Workstation 10.

I can now ping over the bridge local machine and BIG-IP.

 

I have not completed my testing ... BUT ... the configs that I had ( i two instances of BIG-IP) ... no longer works ... VMware gives me an error saying "that the configuration file xxxx.vmx was created by a VMware product that is incompatible with this version of VMware workstation"

 

It looks like when I upgraded to Workstation 15 my config files were modified and now are no longer compatible with lower version 10.... scary !!

 

This is a LAB in environment .. I can always recreate my config.... but what would happen in a Production Environment ???

 

Anyone have any comments to add ???

 

Sergio

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 Reply

  • ​Hi Everyone,

    Thanks to  VMware tech   ( plus I am new to VMware ) .. I was told that in the downgrade procedure I need to use the tab 

     

    Select the virtual machine and select VM > Manage > Change Hardware Compatibility.

    This resolved the issue with Compatiblity of the configuration file - working now.

     

    As for the version of  VMWorkstation compatible with BIG-IP VE 13.1.1 ???

    I found this article on F5

     

    https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K69120675

    Unless I am mistaken ... but the version  BIG-IP VE 13.1.1  is only compatible with VMworkstation 10 ????

     

    Can someone confirm this please ...

     

    Thanks,

    Sergio