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Manual Chapter : Installing a BIG-IP System Without Changing the IP Network

Applies To:

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BIG-IP APM

  • 17.0.0

BIG-IP Link Controller

  • 17.0.0

BIG-IP Analytics

  • 17.0.0

BIG-IP LTM

  • 17.0.0

BIG-IP PEM

  • 17.0.0

BIG-IP AFM

  • 17.0.0

BIG-IP DNS

  • 17.0.0

BIG-IP ASM

  • 17.0.0
Manual Chapter

Installing a BIG-IP System Without Changing the IP Network

Overview: Installing a BIG-IP system without changing the IP network

A combination of several features of the BIG-IPsystem makes it possible for you to place a BIG-IP system in a network without changing the existing IP network. The following illustration shows the data center topology before you add the BIG-IP system. The data center has one LAN, with one IP network,
10.0.0.0
. The data center has one router to the Internet, two web servers, and a back-end mail server.
Data center example before adding a BIG-IP system
Data center example before adding a BIG-IP system
The existing data center structure does not support load balancing or high availability. The following illustration shows an example of the data center topology after you add the BIG-IP system.
Data center example after adding a BIG-IP system
Data center example after adding a BIG-IP system

Removing the self IP addresses from the default VLANs

Remove the self IP addresses from the individual VLANs. After you create the VLAN group, you will create another self IP address for the VLAN group for routing purposes. The individual VLANs no longer need their own self IP addresses.
  1. On the Main tab, click
    Network
    Self IPs
    .
  2. Select the check box for each IP address and VLAN that you want to delete.
  3. Click
    Delete
    .
  4. Click
    Delete
    .
The self IP address is removed from the Self IP list.

Creating a VLAN group

VLAN groups consolidate Layer 2 traffic from two or more separate VLANs.
  1. On the Main tab, click
    Network
    VLANs
    VLAN Groups
    .
    The VLAN Groups list screen opens.
  2. From the VLAN Groups menu, choose List.
  3. Click
    Create
    .
    The New VLAN Group screen opens.
  4. In the General Properties area, in the
    VLAN Group
     field, type a unique name for the VLAN group.
  5. For the
    VLANs
     setting, from the
    Available
     field select the
    internal
     and
    external
     VLAN names, and click
    <<
     to move the VLAN names to the
    Members
     field.
  6. Click
    Finished
    .

Creating a self IP for a VLAN group

Before you create a self IP address, ensure that you have created at least one VLAN or VLAN group.
A self IP address enables the BIG-IP system and other devices on the network to route application traffic through the associated VLAN or VLAN group.
  1. On the Main tab, click
    Network
    Self IPs
    .
  2. Click
    Create
    .
    The New Self IP screen opens.
  3. In the
    IP Address
     field, type a self IP address for the VLAN group. In the example shown, this IP address is
    10.0.0.6
    .
  4. In the
    Netmask
     field, type the network mask for the specified IP address.
    For example, you can type
    255.255.255.0
    .
  5. From the
    VLAN/Tunnel
     list, select the name of the VLAN group you previously created.
  6. From the
    Port Lockdown
     list, select
    Allow Default
    .
  7. Click
    Finished
    .
    The screen refreshes, and displays the new self IP address.
The BIG-IP system can send and receive traffic through the specified VLAN or VLAN group.

Creating a pool of web servers

You can a create pool of web servers that you group together to receive and process traffic, to efficiently distribute the load on your server resources.
  1. On the Main tab, click
    Local Traffic
    Pools
    .
    The Pool List screen opens.
  2. Click
    Create
    .
    The New Pool screen opens.
  3. In the
    Name
     field, type a unique name for the pool.
  4. In the Resources area of the screen, use the
    New Members
     setting to add the pool members. In our example, pool members are
    10.0.0.3:80
     and
    10.0.0.4:80
    .
  5. Click
    Finished
    .
The load balancing pool appears in the Pools list.

Creating a virtual server

A virtual server represents a destination IP address for application traffic.
  1. On the Main tab, click
    Local Traffic
    Virtual Servers
    .
    The Virtual Server List screen opens.
  2. Click
    Create
    .
    The New Virtual Server screen opens.
  3. In the
    Name
     field, type a unique name for the virtual server.
  4. In the
    Destination Address/Mask
     field:
    • If you want to specify a single IP address, confirm that the
      Host
       button is selected, and type the IP address in CIDR format.
    • If you want to specify multiple IP addresses, select the
      Address List
       button, and confirm that the address list that you previously created appears in the box.
    The supported format is address/prefix, where the prefix length is in bits. For example, an IPv4 address/prefix is
    10.0.0.1
     or
    10.0.0.0/24
    , and an IPv6 address/prefix is
    ffe1::0020/64
     or
    2001:ed8:77b5:2:10:10:100:42/64
    . When you use an IPv4 address without specifying a prefix, the BIG-IP system automatically uses a
    /32
     prefix.
    The IP address or addresses for this field must be on the same subnet as the external self-IP address.
  5. From the
    Service Port
     list, select
    *All Ports
    .
  6. In the Resources area of the screen, from the
    Default Pool
     list, select the relevant pool name.
You now have a destination IP address on the BIG-IP system for application traffic.
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