Applies To:
Show VersionsBIG-IP AFM
- 11.5.3
Summary:
This release note documents the version 11.5.3 release of BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM).
Contents:
- Platform support
- Configuration utility browser support
- User documentation for this release
- New features introduced in 11.5.3
- Supported high availability configurations for Advanced Firewall Manager
- Installation overview
- Fixes in 11.5.3
- Contacting F5 Networks
- Legal notices
Platform support
This version of the software is supported on the following platforms:
Platform name | Platform ID |
---|---|
BIG-IP 1600 | C102 |
BIG-IP 3600 | C103 |
BIG-IP 3900 | C106 |
BIG-IP 6900 | D104 |
BIG-IP 8900 | D106 |
BIG-IP 8950 | D107 |
BIG-IP 11000 | E101 |
BIG-IP 11050 | E102 |
BIG-IP 2000s, BIG-IP 2200s | C112 |
BIG-IP 4000s, BIG-IP 4200v | C113 |
BIG-IP 5000s, 5050s, 5200v, 5250v | C109 |
BIG-IP 7000s, 7050s, 7055, 7200v, 7250v, 7255 | D110 |
BIG-IP 10000s, 10050s, 10055, 10200v, 10250v, 10255 | D113 |
VIPRION B2100 Blade | A109 |
VIPRION B2150 Blade | A113 |
VIPRION B2250 Blade | A112 |
VIPRION B4100, B4100N Blade | A100, A105 |
VIPRION B4200, B4200N Blade | A107, A111 |
VIPRION B4300, B4340N Blade | A108, A110 |
VIPRION C2200 Chassis | D114 |
VIPRION C2400 Chassis | F100 |
VIPRION C4400, C4400N Chassis | J100, J101 |
VIPRION C4480, C4480N Chassis | J102, J103 |
VIPRION C4800, C4800N Chassis | S100, S101 |
Virtual Edition (VE) | Z100 |
vCMP Guest | Z101 |
These platforms support various licensable combinations of product modules. This section provides general guidelines for module support.
Most of the support guidelines relate to memory. The following list applies for all memory levels:
- vCMP supported platforms
- VIPRION B2100, B2150, B2250, B4200, B4300, B4340N
- BIG-IP 5200v, 7200v, 10200v
Memory: 12 GB or more
All licensable module-combinations may be run on platforms with 12 GB or more of memory, and on VE and vCMP guests provisioned with 12 GB or more of memory. Note that this does not mean that all modules may be simultaneously provisioned on all platforms with 12 GB or more of memory. The BIG-IP license for the platform determines which combination of modules are available for provisioning.
Memory: 8 GB
The following guidelines apply to the BIG-IP 2000s, 2200s, 3900, 6900 platforms, to the VIPRION B4100 and B4100N platforms, and to VE guests configured with 8 GB of memory. (A vCMP guest provisioned with 8 GB of memory has less than 8 GB of memory actually available and thus does not fit in this category.)
- No more than three modules should be provisioned together.
- On the 2000s and 2200s, Application Acceleration Manager (AAM) can be provisioned with only one other module.
Memory: Less than 8 GB and more than 4 GB
The following guidelines apply to platforms, and to VE and vCMP guests provisioned with less than 8 GB and more than 4 GB of memory. (A vCMP guest provisioned with 8 GB of memory has less than 8 GB of memory actually available and thus fits in this category.)
- No more than three modules (not including AAM) should be provisioned together.
- Application Acceleration Manager (AAM) cannot be provisioned with any other module; AAM can only be provisioned standalone.
- Analytics (AVR) counts towards the two module-combination limit (for platforms with less than 6.25 GB of memory).
Memory: 4 GB or less
The following guidelines apply to the BIG-IP 1600 and 3600 platforms, and to VE and vCMP guests provisioned with 4 GB or less of memory.
- No more than two modules may be configured together.
- AAM should not be provisioned, except as Dedicated.
vCMP memory provisioning calculations
The amount of memory provisioned to a vCMP guest is calculated using the following formula: (platform_memory- 3 GB) x (cpus_assigned_to_guest/ total_cpus).
As an example, for the B2100 with two guests, provisioned memory calculates as: (16-3) x (2/4) ~= 6.5 GB.
Configuration utility browser support
The BIG-IP Configuration Utility supports these browsers and versions:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.x, 11.x
- Mozilla Firefox 27.x
- Google Chrome 32.x
User documentation for this release
For a comprehensive list of documentation that is relevant to this release, refer to the BIG-IP AFM / VE 11.5.3 Documentation page.
New features introduced in 11.5.3
There are no new features in Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) 11.5.3.
AFM introduced several new features with release 11.5.0.
IP intelligence whitelists and blacklists
This release introduces robust enhancements to the IP intelligence system that include the ability to blacklist or whitelist IP addresses. IP addresses that are blacklisted or whitelisted can be assigned to pre-existing or user-defined blacklist classes (called categories in tmsh), and firewall actions can be applied based on those categories. Advanced Firewall Manager can be configured to query dynamic lists of blacklist or whitelist addresses, called feeds, and update the configuration accordingly.
Nested address lists and port lists
Address lists can contain combinations of single IP addresses, IP address ranges, geographic locations, and other address lists. Port lists can contain single ports, port ranges, and other port lists.
Geolocation for source or destination addresses
Firewall rules can use geolocation addresses, such as country, region, and state codes, in source or destination addresses.
Stale, redundant, and overlapping rules detection
You can more easily check for and remove stale rules that either have never been hit, or are hit infrequently. You can also see rules that are redundant or overlap other rules.
DoS white list
You can specify addresses to exclude from denial-of-service (DoS) detection, by adding them to a DoS whitelist.
DoS sweep and flood detection
You can configure thresholds for DoS sweep and flood attack protection from the DoS device configuration.
Maximized Enterprise Application Delivery Value
To make it easier and more affordable to get the Software Defined Application Services capabilities all organizations need, F5 introduces three software bundle offerings: Good, Better, and Best.- Good
- Provides intelligent local traffic management for increased operational efficiency and peak network performance of applications.
- Better
- Good plus enhanced network security, global server load balancing, and advanced application delivery optimization.
- Best
- Better plus advanced access management and total application security. Delivers the ultimate in security, performance, and availability for your applications and network.
Supported high availability configurations for Advanced Firewall Manager
Advanced Firewall Manager is supported in both active-standby and active-active configurations with BIG-IP systems.
Installation overview
- Upgrade from 11.x configurations: BIG-IP Systems: Upgrading 11.x Software
- Upgrade from 10.x Active-Standby configurations: BIG-IP Systems: Upgrading Active-Standby Systems
- Upgrade from 10.x Active-Active configurations: BIG-IP Systems: Upgrading Active-Active Systems
Installation checklist
Before you begin:
- Use BIG-IP iHealth to verify your configuration file. For more information, see SOL12878: Generating BIG-IP diagnostic data using the qkview utility (10.x - 11.x).
- Update/reactivate your system license, if needed, to ensure that you have a valid service check date.
- Ensure that your system is running version 10.1.0 or later and is using the volumes formatting scheme.
- Download the .iso file (if needed) from F5 Downloads to /shared/images on the source for the operation. (If you need to create this directory, use the exact name /shared/images.)
- Configure a management port.
- Set the console and system baud rate to 19200, if it is not already.
- Log on as an administrator using the management port of the system you want to upgrade.
- Boot into an installation location other than the target for the installation.
- Save the user configuration set (UCS) in the /var/local/ucs directory on the source installation location, and copy the UCS file to a safe place on another device.
- Log on to the standby unit, and only upgrade the active unit after the standby upgrade is satisfactory.
- Turn off mirroring.
- If you are running Application Acceleration Manager, set provisioning to Minimum.
- If you are running Policy Enforcement Manager, set provisioning to Nominal.
- If you are running Advanced Firewall Manager, set provisioning to Nominal.
Installing the software
Installation method | Command |
---|---|
Install to existing volume, migrate source configuration to destination | tmsh install sys software image [image name] volume [volume name] |
Install from the browser-based Configuration utility | Use the Software Management screens in a web browser. |
Sample installation command
The following command installs version 11.2.0 to volume 3 of the main hard drive.
tmsh install sys software image BIGIP-11.2.0.2446.0.iso volume HD1.3
Post-installation tasks
- Upgrade from 11.x configurations: BIG-IP Systems: Upgrading 11.x Software
- Upgrade from 10.x Active-Standby configurations: BIG-IP Systems: Upgrading Active-Standby Systems
- Upgrade from 10.x Active-Active configurations: BIG-IP Systems: Upgrading Active-Active Systems
- Ensure the system rebooted to the new installation location.
- Use BIG-IP iHealth to verify your configuration file. For more information, see SOL12878: Generating BIG-IP diagnostic data using the qkview utility (10.x - 11.x).
- Log on to the browser-based Configuration utility.
- Run the Setup utility.
- Provision the modules.
- Convert any bigpipe scripts to tmsh. (Version 11.x does not support the bigpipe utility.)
Installation tips
- The upgrade process installs the software on the inactive installation location that you specify. This process usually takes between three minutes and seven minutes. During the upgrade process, you see messages posted on the screen. For example, you might see a prompt asking whether to upgrade the End User Diagnostics (EUD), depending on the version you have installed. To upgrade the EUD, type yes, otherwise, type no.
- You can check the status of an active installation operation by running the command watch tmsh show sys software, which runs the show sys software command every two seconds. Pressing Ctrl + C stops the watch feature.
- If installation fails, you can view the log file. The system stores the installation log file as /var/log/liveinstall.log.
Fixes in 11.5.3
This release contains the following fixes.
ID number | Description |
---|---|
ID 478470 | AFM Online Help has been updated to reflect a change in behavior. Prior to 11.4.0 the DoS Detection Threshold Percentage function would drop packets if an attack was detected. This was regarded as unintuitive when there was a separate rate-limit configuration element that customers could use to drop traffic when an attack was detected. |
Contacting F5 Networks
Phone: | (206) 272-6888 |
Fax: | (206) 272-6802 |
Web: | http://support.f5.com |
Email: | support@f5.com |
For additional information, please visit http://www.f5.com.
Additional resources
You can find additional support resources and technical documentation through a variety of sources.
- The F5 Networks Technical Support web site: http://www.f5.com/support/
- The AskF5 web site: http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us.html
- The F5 DevCentral web site: http://devcentral.f5.com/
- AskF5 TechNews
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