Manual Chapter : Deploying BIG-IP Virtual Edition in KVM

Applies To:

Show Versions Show Versions

BIG-IP AAM

  • 13.1.1, 13.1.0

BIG-IP APM

  • 13.1.1, 13.1.0

BIG-IP Analytics

  • 13.1.1, 13.1.0

BIG-IP LTM

  • 13.1.1, 13.1.0

BIG-IP AFM

  • 13.1.1, 13.1.0

BIG-IP PEM

  • 13.1.1, 13.1.0

BIG-IP DNS

  • 13.1.1, 13.1.0

BIG-IP ASM

  • 13.1.1, 13.1.0
Manual Chapter

Deploy BIG-IP VE on KVM

You can create an instance of the BIG-IP® system that runs as a virtual machine on the host system.

Important: Do not change the configuration (CPU, RAM, and network adapters) of the KVM guest environment with settings less powerful than those recommended and described here.
  1. In a browser, open the F5 Downloads page (https://downloads.f5.com) and log in.
  2. On the Downloads Overview page, select Find a Download.
  3. Under Product Line, select BIG-IP v13.x/Virtual Edition.
  4. Under Name, select Virtual-Edition.
  5. If the End User Software License is displayed, read it and then click I Accept.
  6. Download the BIG-IP VE file package ending with qcow2.zip.
  7. Extract the file from the Zip archive and save it where your qcow2 files reside on the KVM server.
  8. Use VNC to access the KVM server, and then start Virt Manager.
  9. Right click localhost (QEMU), and from the popup menu, select New.
    The Create a new virtual machine, Step 1 of 4 dialog box opens.
  10. In the Name field, type a name for the connection.
  11. Select import existing disk image as the method for installing the operating system, and click Forward.
  12. Type the path to the extracted qcow file, or click Browse to navigate to the path location; select the file, and then click the Choose Volume button to fill in the path.
  13. In the OS type setting, select Linux, for the Version setting, select Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, and click Forward.
  14. In the Memory (RAM) field, type the appropriate amount of memory (in megabytes) for your deployment. (For example 4096, for a 4GB deployment) . From the CPUs list, select the number of CPU cores appropriate for your deployment, and click Forward.
  15. Select Customize configuration before install, and click the Advanced options arrow.
  16. Select the network interface adapter that corresponds to your management IP address, and click Finish.
    The Virtual Machine configuration dialog box opens.
  17. Click Add Hardware.
    The Add New Virtual Hardware dialog box opens.
  18. If SR-IOV is not required, select Network.
  19. From the Host device list, select the network interface adapter for your external network, and from the Device model list, select virtio. Then click Finish.
    Do this again for your internal and HA networks.
  20. If SR-IOV is required, select PCI Host Device and then select the PCI device for to the virtual function mapped to your host device's external VLAN. Then click Finish.
    Do this again for your host device's internal VLAN and HA VLAN.
  21. From the left pane, select Disk 1.
  22. Click the Advanced options button.
  23. From the Disk bus list, select Virtio.
  24. From the Storage format list, select qcow2.
  25. Click Apply.
  26. Click Begin Installation.
    Virtual Machine Manager creates the virtual machine just as you configured it.

Use BIG-IP Configuration utility tool to set management IP address

If your network has DHCP, an IP address is automatically assigned to BIG-IP® VE during deployment. You can use this address to access the BIG-IP VE Configuration utility or tmsh command-line utility.

If no IP address was assigned, you can assign one by using the BIG-IP Config utility tool.

  1. Connect to the virtual machine by using the hypervisor's console.
  2. At the login prompt, type root.
  3. At the password prompt, type default.
  4. Type config and press Enter.
    The F5 Management Port Setup screen opens.
  5. Click OK.
  6. Select No and follow the instructions for manually assigning an IP address and netmask for the management port.
You can use a hypervisor generic statement, such as tmsh show sys management-ip to confirm that the management IP address was set properly.
You can now log into the BIG-IP VE Config utility, and license and provision BIG-IP VE.