Applies To:
Show Versions
BIG-IP AAM
- 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
BIG-IP APM
- 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
BIG-IP GTM
- 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
BIG-IP Analytics
- 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
BIG-IP LTM
- 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
BIG-IP AFM
- 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
BIG-IP PEM
- 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
BIG-IP ASM
- 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
What is BIG-IP Virtual Edition?
BIG-IP Virtual Edition (VE) is a version of the BIG-IP system that runs as a virtual machine in specifically-supported hypervisors. BIG-IP VE creates a virtual instance of a hardware-based BIG-IP system running a VE-compatible version of BIG-IP software.
About BIG-IP VE compatibility with Hyper-V hypervisor products
Each time there is a new release of BIG-IP Virtual Edition (VE) software, it includes support for additional hypervisor management products. The Virtual Edition and Supported Hypervisors Matrix on the AskF5 website, http://support.f5.com, details which hypervisors are supported for each release.
About the hypervisor guest definition requirements
The Hyper-V virtual machine guest environment for the BIG-IP Virtual Edition (VE), at minimum, must include:
- 2 x virtual CPUs
- 4 GB RAM
- 3 x virtual network adapters (minimum); more if
configured with the high availability option Important: The number of virtual network adapters per virtual machine definition is determined by the hypervisor.
- 1 x 100 GB IDE disk
- SCSI disk storage; download the image size that provides sufficient space to meet your requirements. An optional secondary disk might also be required as a datastore for specific BIG-IP modules. For information about datastore requirements, refer to the BIG-IP module's documentation.
For production licenses, F5 Networks suggests using the maximum configuration limits for the BIG-IP VE system. For lab editions, required reserves can be less. For each virtual machine, the Hyper-V virtual machine guest environment permits a maximum of 8 network adapters or 1 legacy virtual network adapter as a management port and 8 network adapters as dataplane ports. The legacy network adapter is not supported for the dataplane. For peak performance, F5 recommends using only network adapters.
There are also some maximum configuration limits to consider for deploying a BIG-IP VE virtual machine, such as:
- CPU reservation can be up to 100 percent of the defined virtual machine hardware. For example, if the hypervisor has a 3 GHz core speed, the reservation of a virtual machine with 2 CPUs can be only 6 GHz or less.
- To achieve licensing performance limits, all allocated RAM must be reserved.
- For production environments, virtual disks should be deployed Thick (allocated up front). Thin deployments are acceptable for lab environments.
Disk space guidelines
This table details the capabilities and limitations of the disk space options you can choose.
| Provisioned disk space | Capabilities and Limitations | Special Considerations |
|---|---|---|
| 7 GB | The Local Traffic Manager (LTM) module is supported, but there is no space available for installing LTM upgrades. | Disk space can be increased if you need upgrade LTM, or decide to provision additional modules. |
| 31 GB | The LTM module is supported. There is also sufficient space available for installing LTM upgrades. | Disk space can be increased if you decide to provision additional modules. You can also install another instance of LTM on a separate partition. |
| 104 GB (OS only) or 124 GB (with Datastore) | All modules and combinations are supported. There is also sufficient space available for installing upgrades. | If you plan to use the Acceleration Module (AM) in addition to other modules, you must add a second 20 GB disk in addition to the 104 GB operating system disk used by the other modules. The 20 GB volume serves as a dedicated Datastore for AM. Do not use this volume for any other purpose. If you need additional space, increase the disk space allotted to this VE. For information on configuring the Datastore volume, refer to Disk Management for Datastore published on the AskF5 web site, http://support.f5.com. |
Guest memory guidelines
The general memory requirement recommendation for BIG-IP Virtual Edition (VE) is 2 GB per virtual CPU. Additionally, the following memory guidelines may be helpful in setting expectations, based on which modules are licensed on VE guests.
| Provisioned memory | Supported module combinations | Module specific concerns |
|---|---|---|
| 12 GB or more | All module combinations are fully supported. | N/A |
| 8 GB | Provisioning more than three modules together is not supported. | GTM and Link Controller do not count toward the module-combination limit. |
| More than 4 GB, but less than 8 GB | Provisioning more than three modules together is not supported. (See module-specific concerns relating to AAM.) |
Application Acceleration Manager (AAM) cannot be provisioned with any other module; AAM can only be provisioned as standalone. GTM and Link Controller do not count toward the module-combination limit. |
| 4 GB or less | Provisioning more than two modules together is not supported. | AAM can only be provisioned as dedicated. |
