Use BIG-IQ as a License Manager for BIG-IP Subscription and Enterprise License Agreement Programs

Deploy and License BIG-IQ as a License Manager

Overview: Using BIG-IQ as a license manager

You can deploy BIG-IQ solely to manage licenses for BIG-IP devices. When you use BIG-IQ in this way you can assign, revoke, or change BIG-IP license subscriptions option as well as create BIG-IP license usage reports to submit to F5 for billing purposes.

What platforms does BIG-IQ license manager run on?

BIG-IQ Virtual Edition (VE) is a version of the BIG-IQ system that runs as a virtual machine in specifically-supported hypervisors. BIG-IQ VE emulates a hardware-based BIG-IQ system running a VE-compatible version of BIG-IQ software.

To manage your BIG-IP devices using BIG-IQ Centralized Management, you deploy a BIG-IQ system and then configure it to meet your business needs.

To deploy a BIG-IQ system, you need to:

• Prepare your network environment and architecture (refer to Planning a BIG-IQ Centralized Management Deployment in Planning a BIG-IQ Centralized Management Deployment on support.f5.com for details).

• Install and configure the BIG-IQ VE platform you plan to use to run the BIG-IQ system. The platform can either be a physical device or a virtual device. To use a physical device, you need a BIG-IQ 7000 series device. To use a virtual device, the solution you choose depends on the environment you choose. Use the platform-specific guide appropriate to complete the BIG-IQ VE installation. All of these guides are posted on support.f5.com.

  If you choose this platform:	Refer to this guide for installation details:
  BIG-IQ 7000 Series	Platform Guide: BIG-IQ 7000 Series
  Amazon Web Services	F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management 6.x and Amazon Web Services: Setup
  Citrix XenServer:	F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management 6.x and Citrix XenServer: Setup
  KVM	F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management 6.x and Linux KVM: Setup
  Microsoft Azure	F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management 6.x and Microsoft Azure: Setup
  Microsoft Hyper-V	F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management 6.x and Microsoft Hyper-V: Setup
  VMware ESXi	F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management 6.x and VMware ESXi: Setup
  Xen Project	F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management 6.x and Linux Xen Project: Setup

  Note: Hypervisor guest definition requirements vary depending on the platform you choose. These requirements are detailed in the setup guide for each platform.

• Deploy and configure the number of BIG-IQ systems dictated by whether your architecture requires HA or multiple data centers.

• License and configure the BIG-IQ system.

How do I start using BIG-IQ as a license manager?

After you download the software image from the F5 Downloads site and start BIG-IQ in your virtual environment, you can license the system using the base registration key provided by F5. The base registration key is a character string the F5 license server uses to provide BIG-IQ a license to access the licensing features for your subscription or ELA program.

Setup BIG-IQ as a licensing manager

Follow these steps to set up BIG-IQ as a licensing manager for unmanaged BIG-IP devices.

1. Use a browser to log in to BIG-IQ by typing https://*<management\_IP\_address>*, where <management_IP_address> is the address you specified for device management.

   The first time you log in to the BIG-IQ, you use admin for the Username and Password; but then you must change the admin password.

2. Change the default admin password.

   1. For Current Password, type admin.

   2. Type a new password in the New Password and Re-type New Password fields.

   3. Click Save. BIG-IQ changes the admin password and then displays the initial log in page.

   4. Login to the BIG-IQ user interface using your new password.

   Important: When you change the admin password as part of an initial login, BIG-IQ also resets the root password to match it. During initial setup, you can change them both again.

3. Select Skip License and click the Next button.

4. Type a Passphrase that satisfies the requirements specified on screen, and then type the same phrase for Confirm Passphrase, and then click the Next button.

   BIG-IQ uses the passphrase to generate a master key, which BIG-IQ uses to communicate with other BIG-IQ systems in your configuration.

   • It’s important to keep track of the passphrase for the master key, because you cannot recover it if you lose it. You can change the master key at any time only if this BIG-IQ is not part of a BIG-IQ high availability or DCD configuration from the System > THIS DEVICE > General Properties screen.
   • You must have the passphrase used to generate the master key before you can change the master key.
   • Finally, when you backup and restore a BIG-IQ, the master key is backed up with the rest of the data, and you cannot restore that data onto a BIG-IQ that has a different master key, so without that key you will be unable to have this BIG-IQ and it’s data in an HA or DCD configuration. Important: If you are setting up a Microsoft Azure VE, and you type an entry in any of the fields, you will not be able to continue successfully. The only way to proceed is to leave all of the fields empty and click the Next button at the bottom of the screen. This allows the system to use the first-time access credentials you specified previously.

5. For System Personality, select BIG-IQ License Manager and click the Next button.

6. After you review the details, click Launch and then click Restart to confirm.

You can now start managing licenses for BIG-IP devices.