Manual Chapter :
Introduction to self IP addresses
Applies To:
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BIG-IP AAM
- 15.1.9, 15.1.8, 15.1.7, 15.1.6, 15.1.5, 15.1.4, 15.1.3, 15.1.2, 15.1.1, 15.1.0, 15.0.1, 15.0.0, 14.1.5, 14.1.4, 14.1.3, 14.1.2, 14.1.0
BIG-IP APM
- 17.1.1, 17.1.0, 17.0.0, 16.1.4, 16.1.3, 16.1.2, 16.1.1, 16.1.0, 16.0.1, 16.0.0, 15.1.9, 15.1.8, 15.1.7, 15.1.6, 15.1.5, 15.1.4, 15.1.3, 15.1.2, 15.1.1, 15.1.0, 15.0.1, 15.0.0, 14.1.5, 14.1.4, 14.1.3, 14.1.2, 14.1.0
BIG-IP Analytics
- 17.1.1, 17.1.0, 17.0.0, 16.1.4, 16.1.3, 16.1.2, 16.1.1, 16.1.0, 16.0.1, 16.0.0, 15.1.9, 15.1.8, 15.1.7, 15.1.6, 15.1.5, 15.1.4, 15.1.3, 15.1.2, 15.1.1, 15.1.0, 15.0.1, 15.0.0, 14.1.5, 14.1.4, 14.1.3, 14.1.2, 14.1.0
BIG-IP Link Controller
- 17.1.1, 17.1.0, 17.0.0, 16.1.4, 16.1.3, 16.1.2, 16.1.1, 16.1.0, 16.0.1, 16.0.0, 15.1.9, 15.1.8, 15.1.7, 15.1.6, 15.1.5, 15.1.4, 15.1.3, 15.1.2, 15.1.1, 15.1.0, 15.0.1, 15.0.0, 14.1.5, 14.1.4, 14.1.3, 14.1.2, 14.1.0
BIG-IP LTM
- 17.1.1, 17.1.0, 17.0.0, 16.1.4, 16.1.3, 16.1.2, 16.1.1, 16.1.0, 16.0.1, 16.0.0, 15.1.9, 15.1.8, 15.1.7, 15.1.6, 15.1.5, 15.1.4, 15.1.3, 15.1.2, 15.1.1, 15.1.0, 15.0.1, 15.0.0, 14.1.5, 14.1.4, 14.1.3, 14.1.2, 14.1.0
BIG-IP PEM
- 17.1.1, 17.1.0, 17.0.0, 16.1.4, 16.1.3, 16.1.2, 16.1.1, 16.1.0, 16.0.1, 16.0.0, 15.1.9, 15.1.8, 15.1.7, 15.1.6, 15.1.5, 15.1.4, 15.1.3, 15.1.2, 15.1.1, 15.1.0, 15.0.1, 15.0.0, 14.1.5, 14.1.4, 14.1.3, 14.1.2, 14.1.0
BIG-IP AFM
- 17.1.1, 17.1.0, 17.0.0, 16.1.4, 16.1.3, 16.1.2, 16.1.1, 16.1.0, 16.0.1, 16.0.0, 15.1.9, 15.1.8, 15.1.7, 15.1.6, 15.1.5, 15.1.4, 15.1.3, 15.1.2, 15.1.1, 15.1.0, 15.0.1, 15.0.0, 14.1.5, 14.1.4, 14.1.3, 14.1.2, 14.1.0
BIG-IP DNS
- 17.1.1, 17.1.0, 17.0.0, 16.1.4, 16.1.3, 16.1.2, 16.1.1, 16.1.0, 16.0.1, 16.0.0, 15.1.9, 15.1.8, 15.1.7, 15.1.6, 15.1.5, 15.1.4, 15.1.3, 15.1.2, 15.1.1, 15.1.0, 15.0.1, 15.0.0, 14.1.5, 14.1.4, 14.1.3, 14.1.2, 14.1.0
BIG-IP ASM
- 17.1.1, 17.1.0, 17.0.0, 16.1.4, 16.1.3, 16.1.2, 16.1.1, 16.1.0, 16.0.1, 16.0.0, 15.1.9, 15.1.8, 15.1.7, 15.1.6, 15.1.5, 15.1.4, 15.1.3, 15.1.2, 15.1.1, 15.1.0, 15.0.1, 15.0.0, 14.1.5, 14.1.4, 14.1.3, 14.1.2, 14.1.0
Introduction to self IP addresses
A
self IP address
is an IP address on the BIG-IP® system that you associate with a VLAN, to access hosts in that VLAN. By virtue of its netmask, a self IP address represents an address space
, that is, a range of IP addresses spanning the hosts in the VLAN, rather than a single host address. You can associate self IP addresses not only with VLANs, but also with VLAN groups.Self IP addresses serve two purposes:
- First, when sending a message to a destination server, the BIG-IP system uses the self IP addresses of its VLANs to determine the specific VLAN in which a destination server resides. For example, if VLAN internal has a self IP address of10.10.10.100, with a netmask of255.255.255.0, and the destination server’s IP address is10.10.10.20(with a netmask of255.255.255.255), the BIG-IP system recognizes that the server’s IP address falls within the range of VLAN internal’s self IP address, and therefore sends the message to that VLAN. More specifically, the BIG-IP system sends the message to the interface that you assigned to that VLAN. If more than one interface is assigned to the VLAN, the BIG-IP system takes additional steps to determine the correct interface, such as checking the Layer2 forwarding table.
- Second, a self IP address can serve as the default route for each destination server in the corresponding VLAN. In this case, the self IP address of a VLAN appears as the destination IP address in the packet header when the server sends a response to the BIG-IP system.
You normally assign self IP addresses to a VLAN when you initially run the Setup utility on a BIG-IP system. More specifically, you assign one static self IP address and one floating self IP address to each of the default VLANs (internal and external). Later, using the BIG-IP Configuration utility, you can create self IP addresses for other VLANs that you create.
Self IP addresses reside in administrative partitions/folders and are associated with traffic
groups. The self IP addresses that you create when you run the Setup utility reside in partition
Common (that is folder
/Common
).
