Less than 60 seconds lab setup
Today I'll share with you my less than 60 seconds lab setup which I use for testing basic stuff. It's an AS3 declaration that will setup two virtuals, the first virtual that accepts any http traffic on port 80 and forwards it to a second virtual that will respond 200 OK to any HTTP request. The lab can easily be extended to add a https virtual. Purpose of this setup I use this configuration for many scenarios. With this setup I can test different profiles, TLS configurations (requires small adjustments), AWAF rules and iRules attached to the first virtual server without the requirement to setup any backend application. Deploying this AS3 declaration takes less than 20 seconds and I have a basic lab environment ready. Prerequisites In order to use this config, you must have AS3 installed on your BIG-IP. If you have not worked with AS3 yet and you are new to automation, I recommend you to start with Visual Studio Code and install The F5 Extension. From The F5 Extension you can connect your BIG-IP and install the AS3 extension and deploy the declaration. Furthermore: if you have not with AS3 yet - you're damn late to the party! My AS3 declaration The full declaration is available on GitHub, let's just look at the iRules. The iRules are the important part of this lab config. Don't get confused that you won't see the iRule code in the AS3 declaration. It's there, but it's base64 encoded. Forwarding iRule The iRule attached to the first virtual just forwards to the second virtual. Don't get confused by the path /simple_testing/responder_service/. AS3 works with Partitions, so called tenants. Therefore I must reference the second virtual with the name of its partition and application. when HTTP_REQUEST { virtual /simple_testing/responder_service/service_http_200 } HTTP Responder iRule The second iRule is attached to the second virtual server. It will just return a HTML page that says 200 OK to any request. when HTTP_REQUEST { HTTP::respond 200 content { <html> <head> <title>BIG-IP</title> </head> <body> 200 OK </body> </html> } } Deployment As said above, for starting with this you don't need anything but a BIG-IP and Visual Studio Code. After installing the F5 Extension you can connect (using the + symbol) to your BIG-IP from VS Code. After connecting you can install the AS3 extension on your BIG-IP. And then you are ready to deploy the AS3 declaration linked above. The deployment will take less than 60 seconds. Once the deployment is done, you will have a Partition called on your BIG-IP. There you will find the two virtual servers. The website is nothing special... What's next? In the next couple of days, I will share with you a simple website I made with the help of ChatGPT. It can run on any webserver, NGINX, Apache, IIS... The website has 4 flavors (red, blue, green and yellow) and I use it for testing LTM use-cases like persistence, priority groups, http profiles, SNAT, etc. This will be my less than 600 seconds lab.Office Hours - Let's do some home lab stuff!
The week between Christmas and New Year's here in the US is often a little slow. Ok, a lot slow. I always like to work this week because it allows me to clean my "work" house: trying to salvage my inbox, organizing files, shredding docs. It also affords me some time to plan and strategize for the new year, and to work on some projects that are hard to fit in during normal weeks. One of those projects will be to give my home lab some much-needed attention. If you are in the same boat and just need a dedicated block of time, why don't you join me and we can do a community dojo office hours and chat while we make progress on our labs, and share what we're struggling with, what we're excited about, and just enjoy a little community time? Come late and/or leave early; just come! Details Date: Dec 28th, 2023 Time: 9am - 12pm PST Link: https://f5networks.zoom.us/j/9056331793?pwd=S3pKRUc4NWwvSUpaQXBaZms0VENSQT09How to Get a F5 Trial or Lab License
One of the questions we get asked a lot in the DevCentral Community is, ‘How to I get a #Trial or #Lab #License?’ There are a few easy ways to test f5 services. First, you can go to the f5.com/trials page. There, you can select various options to meet your needs. Simply click on the Get the free trial button, enter the pertinent info and off you go. Out in the Cloud, you can get a free, full featured 30-day trial as well as access to F5 premium support on AWS, Azure, GCP and Alibaba. If you need a perpetual, single use Lab license to do your own testing, learning, practicing, you can purchase a Lab License for around $100 or so depending on where you go. CDW: https://www.cdw.com/product/big-ip-virtual-edition-lab-license-v.-18.x-license-10-mbps/5623506
LAB installation.
Got all the bits up and running, but when I try and access the LAMP server on 10.1.10.20 as per the instructions, I dont get the images, as I would expect, I get ... It works! This is the default web page for this server. The web server software is running but no content has been added, yet. What have I missed?License Revocation Limits?
I am planning to use some permanent lab licensed in a dynamic deployment environment. This means when the current session is finished I will tear down the infra and use revoke /sys license for the license key. So it can be used on next deployment. This plan heavily depends on the fact there is no limits to license revocation. Is anyone aware of restrictions on revocation and reuse of lab licenses?
Lab Guide: How To Build Your Own F5 Lab Environment
Introduction There are numerous of reasons why you should set up your own lab environment. Perhaps you are new to F5 or you might be studying for one of their exams. You might even want to evaluate one of their products. Setting up a lab environment is not always straight forward and currently there aren’t that many guides out there that starts from scratch. That is why I have put together this guide in order to assist you with building your first lab environment. This lab will be installed on your local computer using free for non-commercial use applications. The download components are hosted on https://www.f5books.eu which is an organization I’m running together with Steven Iveson. If you run into any problems using this guide or you find any errors, please comment below or contact me at philip.jonsson@f5books.eu. Together we can keep this document updated. :) The Lab Architecture So, what are we building? It’s pretty simple yet covers all our needs. These are the computing components; A Linux client running Lubuntu, allowing the use of CLI and GUI based tools and software such as ping, PuTTY (SSH), Filezilla (FTP) and a web browser. A BIG-IP VE running version 13.1.1 A Linux server running the Tomcat Apache web server, configured with five virtual hosts, listening on different IP addresses and TCP ports. We’ll be using these networks; Management - used for configuring the BIG-IP. External - the client-side network connecting the Linux client and BIG-IP; this will be a private (internal) network. Internal - the server-side network connecting the BIG-IP and Linux server; this will be another private (internal) network Client NAT – In order to gain Internet access on the client, we have assigned an interface that operates in NAT mode. Using that interface, we can download additional applications and also assist when we license our BIG-IP through the manual method. Here’s a diagram to help you visualize the end state: The full guide is located at the following download mirrors: Google Drive Dropbox Microsoft OneDrive I hope you find this guide helpful! :)
Lab license for physical gear?
Hello, I have a possibility to buy two F5 units (3600s) for my lab, but without any license or software installed. My question is: can I purchase a lab license, or is a lab license limited only for virtual edition? if option 1 is possible, where can I find a price for a license and which version will I get (10, 11 or 12)? Can I upgrade/downgrade the version as many times as I wish? if option 1 is NOT possible, how can I get the license (minimal price, can be throughput limited - no problem as it will never be used in production, just for lab purposes) and what will be the price? Thank you.
LAB problem: BIG-IP VE + VMware Workstation + Ubuntu
Hi! I am trying to set up a lab to prepare for my 201 exam. This is my setup: OS: Ubuntu 14.10, 64 bit Processor: Intel Core I5-4570 CPU@3.20Ghz x4 Hypervisor: VMWare Workstation 12.1.0 BIG-IP VE: 11.3.0.39.0-scsi If I'am trying to start big-ip ve in VM workstation as a "guest operating system" == Other 64-bit (default setting), VMware workstation shows an error with message: "This virtual machine is configured for 64-bit guest operating systems. However, 64-bit operation is not possible.This host supports Intel VT-x, but Intel VT-x is disabled.Intel VT-x might be disabled if it has been disabled in the BIOS/firmware settings or the host has not been power-cycled since changing this setting.(1) Verify that the BIOS/firmware settings enable Intel VT-x and disable 'trusted execution.'(2) Power-cycle the host if either of these BIOS/firmware settings have been changed.(3) Power-cycle the host if you have not done so since installing VMware Workstation.(4) Update the host's BIOS/firmware to the latest version.For more detailed information, see http://vmware.com/info?id=152." When I try with "guest operating system" option set as "Other", VM Wrokstationd loads GRUB and shows message: "This kernel requires an x86-64 CPU, but only detected an i686 CPU. Unable to boot - please use a Kernel appropriate for your CPU" Please advise how to handle this problem.
