Applies To:
Show VersionsBIG-IP AAM
- 11.5.9, 11.5.8, 11.5.7, 11.5.6, 11.5.5, 11.5.4, 11.5.3, 11.5.2, 11.5.1
BIG-IP APM
- 11.5.9, 11.5.8, 11.5.7, 11.5.6, 11.5.5, 11.5.4, 11.5.3, 11.5.2, 11.5.1
BIG-IP GTM
- 11.5.9, 11.5.8, 11.5.7, 11.5.6, 11.5.5, 11.5.4, 11.5.3, 11.5.2, 11.5.1
BIG-IP Analytics
- 11.5.9, 11.5.8, 11.5.7, 11.5.6, 11.5.5, 11.5.4, 11.5.3, 11.5.2, 11.5.1
BIG-IP LTM
- 11.5.9, 11.5.8, 11.5.7, 11.5.6, 11.5.5, 11.5.4, 11.5.3, 11.5.2, 11.5.1
BIG-IP AFM
- 11.5.9, 11.5.8, 11.5.7, 11.5.6, 11.5.5, 11.5.4, 11.5.3, 11.5.2, 11.5.1
BIG-IP PEM
- 11.5.9, 11.5.8, 11.5.7, 11.5.6, 11.5.5, 11.5.4, 11.5.3, 11.5.2, 11.5.1
BIG-IP ASM
- 11.5.9, 11.5.8, 11.5.7, 11.5.6, 11.5.5, 11.5.4, 11.5.3, 11.5.2, 11.5.1
Host machine requirements and recommendations
To successfully deploy and run the BIG-IP VE system, the host system must satisfy minimum requirements.
The host system must include:
- XenServer. The Virtual Edition and Supported Hypervisors Matrix, published on the AskF5 web site, http://support.f5.com identifies the versions that are supported for each release, as well as which versions provide support for SR-IOV and TSO.
- Connection to a common NTP source (this is especially important for each host in a redundant system configuration)
- Use 64-bit architecture.
- Have support for virtualization (AMD-V or Intel VT-x) enabled.
- Support a one-to-one thread-to-defined virtual CPU ratio, or (on single-threading architectures) support at least one core per defined virtual CPU.
- If you use an Intel processor, it must be from the Core (or newer) workstation or server family of CPUs.
SSL encryption processing on your VE will be faster if your host CPU supports the Advanced Encryption Standard New Instruction (AES-NI). Contact your CPU vendor for details on which CPUs provide AES-NI support.
The hypervisor memory requirement depends on the number of licensed TMM cores. The table describes these requirements.
Number of Cores | Memory Required |
---|---|
1 | 2 Gb |
2 | 4 Gb |
4 | 8 Gb |
8 | 16 Gb |
About BIG-IP VE XenServer deployment
To deploy the BIG-IP Virtual Edition (VE) system on Citrix® XenServer®, you need to perform these tasks:
- Verify the host machine requirements.
- Deploy an instance of the BIG-IP system as a virtual machine on a host system.
- Power on the BIG-IP VE virtual machine.
- Assign a management IP address to the BIG-IP VE virtual machine.
After you complete these tasks, you can log in to the BIG-IP VE system and run the Setup utility. Using the Setup utility, you can perform basic network configuration tasks, such as assigning VLANs to interfaces.
Deploying the BIG-IP VE virtual machine
The first step in deploying BIG-IP Virtual Edition (VE) is to download the OVA file to your local system. Next, you can run the Deploy OVF Template wizard from within the XenServer XenCenter client. Follow the steps in this procedure to create an instance of the BIG-IP system that runs as a virtual machine on the host system.
Powering on the virtual machine
There are two default accounts used for initial configuration and setup:
- The root account provides access locally, or using SSH, or using the F5 Configuration utility. The root account password is default.
- The admin account provides access through the web interface. The admin account password is admin.
You should change passwords for both accounts before bringing a system into production.