What are F5 Access and BIG-IP Edge Clients?
tl;dr - F5 Access and BIG-IP Edge are VPN clients that connect to APM access policies for L3 network connectivity. Building on the DevCentral Basics article What is BIG-IP APM, a few questions remain. How do mobile clients access web application resources? How can I easily turn on and off VPN connectivity? The question distill down to connectivity options for clients connecting to BIG-IP APM infrastructure. Users are limited to using web client connectivity which may not always be a preferred or allowed option. F5 provides several client-based options for connectivity to BIG-IP APM. F5 Access When used in conjunction withBIG-IP APM access policies, F5 Access provides traditional L3 VPN connectivity to your corporate resources. F5 Access is supported on Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, iOS, and Android. Currently the client features does not have parity across the different operating systems for various reasons. For a complete supported version matrix please see the F5 Apps Compatibility Matrix. F5 Edge Client As of version 3.0 the F5 Edge Client is renamed to the above F5 Access client. Prior to the 3.0 version, F5'sEdge Client was the preferred client solution for L3 VPN access. This client is still supported through BIG-IP version 13 but will be eventually deprecated as the F5 Access client matures into full feature compliancy. F5 Edge Portal We previously discussed BIG-IP APM's Web Portal gateway, allowing policy-based granular access to web applications directly instead of requiring full VPN. The F5 Edge Portal offers a client version of the Web Portal for easier mobile access to web portal applications. The F5 Edge Portal will not continue support into iOS 11 or Android 8. Please the EOL plans:F5 BIG-IP Edge Portal - End of Support and End of Availability Announcement. As the BIG-IP APM product evolves and customer security requirements and requests changes, we'll continue to keep updating our client functionality to anticipate those requirements. The F5 Access client is the future of BIG-IP client connectivity for those who don't wish to use the web client offered with BIG-IP APM. We'll keep you updated here and through AskF5, our authoritative support resource. Please check out the below links for more information on F5 client functionality, supportability, and how to configure your client access policies. As always, please let us know any content you would like to see expanded. Happy Networking! On DevCentral: F5 BIG-IP Edge Portal - End of Support and End of Availability Announcement F5 Access for Your Chromebook F5 Access for Windows 10/Windows 10 Mobile Now Available On F5.com: F5 Apps Compatibility Matrix F5 Access & BIG-IP Edge Apps Documentation University.f5.com - Search for F5 Access AND/OR Edge (requires F5 Support login)
Windows 10 Support (including F5 BIG-IP Edge Client) Available With Certain BIG-IP APM Versions
This isthelatestinformation available from F5 regarding MicrosoftWindows 10 support (including F5 BIG-IP Edge Client) with certain BIG-IP APM versions. Microsoft Windows 10 support is available for certain BIG-IP APM versions. This entry replaces the original AskF5 solution (SOL16626) on support.f5.com F5 currently supports Microsoft Window 10 for the following versions: BIG-IP 12.0.0(seeF5 BIG-IP APM Client Compatibility Matrix for 12.0.0) Note: Support for Windows 10 has been added in BIG-IP 12.0.0 HF1 and later. For more information about BIG-IP hotfixes, please refer toSOL13123: Managing BIG-IP product hotfixes (11.x - 12.x). BIG-IP 11.6.0 (see F5 BIG-IP Client Compatibility Matrix for 11.6.0) Note: Support for Windows 10 has been added in BIG-IP 11.6.0 HF6 and later. For more information about BIG-IP hotfixes, refer toSOL13123: Managing BIG-IP product hotfixes (11.x - 12.x). BIG-IP 11.5.3 (see F5 BIG-IP APM Client Compatibility Matrix for 11.5.3) Note: Support for Windows 10 has been added in BIG-IP 11.5.3 HF2 and later. For more information about BIG-IP hotfixes, please refer toSOL13123: Managing BIG-IP product hotfixes (11.x - 12.x). Previously, in the original AskF5 solution (SOL16626), it was stated that F5 planned to support Windows 10 withBIG-IP 11.4.1. However, as many customers have been able to upgrade to newer versions of BIG-IP, and because F5customersshouldbenefit substantially from stability improvements in BIG-IP 11.5 and 12.0.0, which are within F5’sMajor Release/Long Term Stability Release model, F5 will not be providing additional support for Windows 10 with BIG-IP APM 11.4.1, as previously stated. Additionally, F5 will be enabling the following as regards Windows 10: Windows 10 Browser Support The Windows Internet Explorer browser included in the Windows 10 release is supported. The BIG-IP APM system does not currently support the Microsoft Edge (Spartan) browser. Inbox F5 VPN Client Windows 8.1 includes a built-in VPN client for BIG-IP APM (Inbox F5 VPN Client). For Windows 10, the VPN client for the BIG-IP system will be available for download from the Windows Store. Please note that the name of the app may also change. Windows Protected Workspace The Windows Protected Workspace feature of BIG-IP APM is not currently supported on Windows 10. Client side checks Certain client-side security checks (such as Patch Management and Windows Health Agent) are no longer supported on Windows 10. Depending on how you use these checks with BIG-IP APM, these Windows 10 client checks may fail. For information about adding Windows 10 clients to BIG-IP APM, please refer toSOL16874: Adding a new device type detection to an access policy.F5 BIG-IP Edge Client Now Supported in Apple macOS Sierra and iOS 10
F5 BIG-IP Edge Client and other F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) client features are now supported in Apple macOS Sierra (10.12) as of Tuesday, September 20, 2016 – the same day as the macOS Sierra was released! AND, BIG-IP Edge Client also supports Apple iOS 10 as of September 13, 2016 – the same day as it was released! Compatibility matrices for BIG-IP versions – only for those versions that still have active Software Development support – have been updated for support for both iOS 10 and macOS Sierra. The EPSEC release for macOS Sierra (release 450) is targeted for availability by thisFriday, September 23, 2016. macOS Sierra related known issues – some issues were found which might affect some BIG-IP Edge Client and BIG-IP APM customers. Thosechanges are: When usedwithJava 8, Java RDP freezes after using Caps Lock, Alt, Shift or Ctrl keys(611478). This issue will need to be addressed by Oracle. “Internal error” messages have been seen when using app tunnel on Safari 10 (611327) BIG-IP Edge Client customizations are not applied on macOS Sierra (611669). F5 will issue Engineering Hotfixes to address this issue inthe short term if there are customer support requests (CSRs). iOS 10 related changes – some behavior changes were also discovered with iOS 10 that customers may wish to know that relate to BIG-IP Edge Client and VPN use: When a user uses a per-app VPN configuration, that VPN connection is usually indicated with a VPN icon on the device status bar (at the top of the screen). In iOS 10, when an application that uses the per app VPN tunnel is not in the foreground, the VPN icon is not displayed on the status bar. In addition, when Safari is in the foreground and uses the per-app tunnel, the VPN icon is not displayed. This is a change in the OS, and not on Edge Client. Note: The behavior has not changed for a full device VPN initiated by On-Demand VPN or if the user manually uses Edge Client to establish a VPN connection. For these configurations, the VPN icon is always displayed when the VPN connection is active, as long as the connection has not been disconnected. iOS 10 known issues – the following are identified issues on iOS 10 that may affect the BIG-IP Edge Client, depending on the use case: •Previous settings from the Client Proxy Autoconfig Script are used and not refreshed until Safari is restarted (612997) •BIG-IP Edge Client fails to establish a layer 3 connection when layer 4 per-app VPN is already established. The following error is displayed: "Server unreachable. Please check your network connectivity and server address” (611923) The above behavior changes are due to changes in macOS or iOS 10 and not due to Edge Client changes. An AskF5 solution withthisinformation and more specifics on the issue, additional minor issues, and possible workarounds forcustomers should be available shortly. For further information on currently supported versions of BIG-IP software, please see the following article: SOL8986: F5 software life cycle policy https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/8000/900/sol8986.html and the F5 Access and Edge Apps Compatibility Matrix.F5 BIG-IP Edge Client Now Supported in Apple macOS Sierra and iOS 10
F5 BIG-IP Edge Client and other F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) client features are now supported in Apple macOS Sierra (10.12) as of Tuesday, September 20, 2016 – the same day as the macOS Sierra was released! AND, BIG-IP Edge Client also supports Apple iOS 10 as of September 13, 2016 – the same day as it was released! Compatibility matrices for BIG-IP versions – only for those versions that still have active Software Development support – have been updated for support for both iOS 10 and macOS Sierra. The EPSEC release for macOS Sierra (release 450) is targeted for availability by thisFriday, September 23, 2016. macOS Sierra related known issues – some issues were found which might affect some BIG-IP Edge Client and BIG-IP APM customers. Thosechanges are: When usedwithJava 8, Java RDP freezes after using Caps Lock, Alt, Shift or Ctrl keys(611478). This issue will need to be addressed by Oracle. “Internal error” messages have been seen when using app tunnel on Safari 10 (611327) BIG-IP Edge Client customizations are not applied on macOS Sierra (611669). F5 will issue Engineering Hotfixes to address this issue inthe short term if there are customer support requests (CSRs). iOS 10 related changes – some behavior changes were also discovered with iOS 10 that customers may wish to know that relate to BIG-IP Edge Client and VPN use: When a user uses a per-app VPN configuration, that VPN connection is usually indicated with a VPN icon on the device status bar (at the top of the screen). In iOS 10, when an application that uses the per app VPN tunnel is not in the foreground, the VPN icon is not displayed on the status bar. In addition, when Safari is in the foreground and uses the per-app tunnel, the VPN icon is not displayed. This is a change in the OS, and not on Edge Client. Note: The behavior has not changed for a full device VPN initiated by On-Demand VPN or if the user manually uses Edge Client to establish a VPN connection. For these configurations, the VPN icon is always displayed when the VPN connection is active, as long as the connection has not been disconnected. iOS 10 known issues – the following are identified issues on iOS 10 that may affect the BIG-IP Edge Client, depending on the use case: •Previous settings from the Client Proxy Autoconfig Script are used and not refreshed until Safari is restarted (612997) •BIG-IP Edge Client fails to establish a layer 3 connection when layer 4 per-app VPN is already established. The following error is displayed: "Server unreachable. Please check your network connectivity and server address” (611923) The above behavior changes are due to changes in macOS or iOS 10 and not due to Edge Client changes. An AskF5 solution withthisinformation and more specifics on the issue, additional minor issues, and possible workarounds forcustomers should be available shortly. For further information on currently supported versions of BIG-IP software, please see the following article: SOL8986: F5 software life cycle policy https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/8000/900/sol8986.html and the F5 Access and Edge Apps Compatibility Matrix.F5 BIG-IP Edge Client for iOS version 2.0.9 Now Available
F5 recently released F5 BIG-IP Edge Client for iOS, version 2.0.9 on the Apple App Store. The release of the F5 Edge Client for iOS, version 2.0.9 delivers various fixesand workarounds that address customer issues, along with other security related fixes. The main issues F5 Edge Client for iOS, version 2.0.9 addresses pertain to problems encountered by customers using iOS App Configurations with MDM solutions and Edge Client for iOS; in these instances, the Edge Client had been crashing or only made visible the background of the Edge Client for iOS app. The BIG-IP versions that currently support F5 Edge Client for iOS, version 2.0.9 may be found in the BIG-IP Edge Client Compatibility Matrix. The release notes for F5 Edge Client for iOS, version 2.0.9 are also available. Should there be any additions or modifications to the F5 Edge Client for iOS, version 2.0.9, F5 will communicate those as soon as possible. Please contact F5 Support with any questions or comments regarding F5 Edge Client for iOS, version 2.0.9.
