Manual Chapter :
Setting Up an Azure Cloud Environment
Applies To:
Show Versions
BIG-IQ Centralized Management
8.3.0,
8.2.0,
8.1.0,
8.0.0,
7.1.0
Setting Up an Azure Cloud Environment
Add
Azure
cloud and environment details
BIG-IQ needs the credentials and parameters for your
Azure
cloud provider and cloud environment so that it can communicate with the
BIG-IP devices it manages in your service scaling group. Also, if you choose
to bring your own license (BYOL) for the devices in this SSG, you need to
activate a pool of BYOL licenses, and then provide details about the license
server when you configure the cloud environment.
Specify credentials required to connect to an Azure cloud
You create a new Azure cloud provider to tell BIG-IQ how to connect to your Azure
environment.
At the top of the screen, click
Applications
then, on the left, click
ENVIRONMENTS
Cloud Providers
.
Click
Create
.
The New Cloud Provider screen opens.
Type a
Name
and optional
Description
for the cloud provider you are creating, to help identify it
when you want to use it later.
From the
Provider Type
list, select
Azure
.
The screen refreshes, and displays
settings (under Provider Details) that you use to specify your Azure
credentials.
Type or paste in the
Tenant ID
,
Client ID
, and
Service Principal Secret
for your Azure
environment.
Click
Test
to confirm that the account details that you just provided are
correct.
The system checks with the Azure
interface to confirm that the credentials and account details you provided are valid, and
then fills in the
Subscription
ID
that Azure uses to track all of the metrics for the account associated
with these credentials.
Click
Save
& Close
.
The system creates the new provider, which is now
ready to be used in a cloud environment.
Before you can create a
service scaling group, you need to specify the cloud environment details. But if you are going
to use a license pool instead of the Azure marketplace licensing option, you need to activate
a pool of licenses before you can define your cloud environment.
Activate a pool of BYOL licenses
Before you can activate a BYOL license, you need to purchase it from
F5 Networks. Once you complete your purchase, you get your base registration key,
typically in the form of an email.
If you
use the
Azure
marketplace licensing
option, skip this task.
When you choose the BYOL license option, you need to activate a pool
of licenses that the BIG-IQ can use for the new BIG-IP VE devices that the service
scaling group (SSG) creates in the cloud. You can use this procedure to automatically
contact the F5 license server for activation.
You can use this BIG-IQ as your license server,
or you can use another BIG-IQ as your license server, as long as it is running BIG-IQ
version 5.4.0 or later.
At the top of the screen, click
Devices
.
On the left, click
LICENSE MANAGEMENT
Licenses
.
Click the
Add License
button.
In the
License Name
field, type a name to identify this license.
In the
Base Registration Key
field, type or paste the registration key, and into the
Add-on Keys
field, type or paste any associated add-on keys.
For the
Activation Method
setting, select
Automatic
.
Click the
Activate
button at the bottom of the screen.
Review the user legal agreement and if you agree, select the
I have read and agree to the terms of this license
check box.
When the activation status displays as
Active
, you can use this pool of licenses
in the cloud environment.
Configure your Azure cloud environment on BIG-IQ
You create a cloud environment that describes the
details of the Azure virtual network in which you want to create BIG-IP VE devices from
BIG-IQ.
At the top of the screen, click
Applications
then, on the left, click
ENVIRONMENTS
Cloud Environments
.
Click
Create
.
The New Cloud Environment screen opens.
Leave the
Device Template
option as
None
.
You'll be specifying device configuration
details when you configure the BIG-IP VE device through the onboarding
process.
From the
Cloud Provider
list, select
the name of the Azure provider you want to use for this environment.
The screen displays the Azure Properties
settings.
From the
Location
list, select the
region in which this private cloud you created for this environment
resides.
For
License Type
, select
Utility
.
From your cloud provider marketplace,
you'll need to select
F5 BIG-IP
Virtual Edition - GOOD (PAYG)
.
For
Services To Deploy
, select the F5 service you want to use for
this environment.
The Local Traffic and Application
Visibility Reporting modules are selected by default. This is the minimum viable
configuration for an SSG.
For
Instance Type
, select the Azure instance type that provides the
resources needed for this environment.
For
Restricted Source Address
, using the CIDR format, specify the
addresses that you want to be able to access the environment.
For example
12.12.0.0/16
.
Only addresses that match
your entry will have access (IP addresses that use
12.12.xxx.xxx
in the example
above).
For
VNet Name
, select the VNet name that you created in your Azure
environment.
For
Management Subnet
, select the management address you created in
your Azure environment.
When BIG-IQ deploys a BIG-IP
device to an SSG, the device is provisioned with a single network interface. Only
devices with a single network interface are supported in an SSG.
