Updated Date: 07/07/2026
Getting Started with BIG-IQ Virtual Edition
BIG-IQ Virtual Edition (VE) is a version of F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management that runs as a on specifically-supported hypervisors. BIG-IQ VE emulates a hardware-based BIG-IQ system running a VE-compatible version of BIG-IQ software.
BIG-IQ VE running on Google Cloud Platform provides a platform that you can use to manage licenses for your BIG-IP devices. For additional information on using BIG-IQ as a license manager, refer to: Deploy BIG-IQ to manage licenses for BIG-IP VE devices on support.f5.com.
The BIG-IQ Virtual Edition (VE) software includes support for a growing list of public and private cloud platforms. For a list of the supported platforms, refer to the BIG-IQ Virtual Edition Supported Platforms matrix.
BIG-IQ VE is compatible with the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) hypervisors. This workflow follows the GCP interface as of March 2022.
Important: This BIG-IQ version only supports the Instance types identified in this guide. Installation attempts on unsupported platforms might not be successful.
The GCP virtual machine guest environment for the BIG-IQ Virtual Edition (VE), at minimum, must include:
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a 64-bit virtual machine instance with at least 4 virtual cores (up to 16 are supported in this release)
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at least 32 GB RAM (64 GB has been tested, F5 recommends at least 2 GB per virtual core)
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1 virtual network adapter card (NIC) (up to 8 are supported)
Important: F5 recommends three or more network adapters for most topologies, but the minimum requirement is one.
Important: If you do not supply at least the minimum virtual configuration limits, it produces unexpected results.
Important: The resources required for a BIG-IQ virtual machine depend to some degree on what you intend to do with it. Refer to Determine the resources required for deploymenton support.f5.com for details.
Important: The following table lists the minimum resources for deploying a BIG-IQ.
| Deployment type | Device Type | CPU | RAM | Disk Space |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| License Manager. | BIG-IQ | 4 | 32 Gb | 120 Gb |