Applies To:
Show Versions
BIG-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
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 virtualizes a hardware-based BIG-IP system running a VE-compatible version of BIG-IP software.
About BIG-IP VE compatibility with vCloud Director 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 vCloud Director virtual machine guest environment for the BIG-IP Virtual Edition (VE), at minimum, must include:
- 2 x virtual CPUs
- 4 GB RAM
- 1 x VMXNET3 virtual network adapter or Flexible virtual network adapter (for management)
- 1 x virtual VMXNET3 virtual network adapter (three are configured in the default deployment for dataplane network access)
- 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 vCloud Director virtual machine guest environment permits a maximum of 10 virtual network adapters (either 10 VMXNET3 with 1 management + 9 dataplane or 1 Flexible management + 9 VMXNET3 dataplane).
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
The size of the image that you choose to download determines both the number of slots and the number and type of modules that are supported on the VE instance.
| Allocated disk space | Supported module combinations | Module specific concerns |
|---|---|---|
| 7 GB | LTM only on a single slot | You cannot install upgrades or hotfixes to this version. |
| 31 GB | LTM only on two slots. | This option can be extended and upgraded with new versions and hot fix updates. It does not allow installing any modules besides LTM, GTM, or LTM + GTM. |
| 100 GB | Supports all modules. Two slots are supported with potential room to install a third. |
This option can be extended and upgraded with new versions and hot fix updates. It allows installing any combination of other modules supported by the current version of BIG-IP VE software. |
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. |
