BIG-IP platform considerations

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
  • VIPRION B4300 blade in the C4480(J102) and C4800(S100)
  • VIPRION B4450 blade in the C4480(J102) and C4800(S100)
  • BIG-IP 5200v, 5250v, 7200v, 7250v, 10200v, 10250v, 10350v, 12250v
  • BIG-IP i5800, i7800, i10800, i11800, i15800

• PEM and CGNAT supported platforms
  • VIPRION B2100, B2150, B2250, B4300, B4340N, B4450N
  • BIG-IP 5x00v(s), 7x00v(s), 10x00v(s)
  • PEM for BIG-IP iSeries: i5800, i7800, i10800, i11800, i15800
  • CGNAT for BIG-IP iSeries: i2x00, i4x00, i5x00,i7x00,i10x00,i11x00,i15x00
  • BIG-IP Virtual Edition (VE) (Not including Amazon Web Service Virtual Edition) (3 GB, 10 GB production and combination lab models)
  • PEM may be provisioned on the VIPRION B2100, but it is not recommended for production, only for evaluation. Use the B4300/B4340N or another blade instead.
  • PEM is not supported on vCMP guests.
  • PEM is not supported on 8 GB platforms.

• BIG-IP 800 and i850 platform support
  • The BIG-IP 800 and i850 platforms support Local Traffic Manager (LTM) only, and no other modules.

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, 6900 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) and Application Visibility and Reporting (AVR) can be provisioned with only one other module.
• To use Access Policy Manager (APM) and Secure Web Gateway (SWG) modules together on platforms with exactly 8 GB of memory, Local Traffic Manager (LTM) provisioning must be set to None.

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.) Beginning in v14.x, 8 GB of memory is the very bare minimum to get three modules provisioned, suitable for a lab environment or very light production traffic, especially with a memory intensive module such as AVR.

• No more than three modules (not including AAM or AVR) 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 (VE and vCMP only)

The following guidelines apply 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.
• ASM should not be provisioned, except as Dedicated

VIPRION and vCMP caching and deduplication requirements

Application Acceleration Manager (AAM) supports the following functionality when configuring vCMP and VIPRION platforms.

• AAM does not support disk-based caching functionality on vCMP platforms. AAM requires memory-based caching when configuring it to run on vCMP platforms.
• AAM supports disk-based caching functionality on VIPRION chassis or blades.
• AAM does not support deduplication functionality on vCMP platforms, or VIPRION chassis or blades.

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.

VE considerations

This version of the software is supported in the following configurations. For a list of VE hypervisor support, see the Virtual Edition and Supported Hypervisors Matrix.

Memory: 12 GB or more

All licensable module-combinations may be run on BIG-IP Virtual Edition (VE) guests provisioned with 12 GB or more of memory.

Memory: 8 GB

The following guidelines apply to VE guests configured with 8 GB of memory.

• No more than three modules should be provisioned together.

Memory: Less than 8 GB and more than 4 GB

The following guidelines apply to VE guests provisioned with less than 8 GB and more than 4 GB of memory.

• 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.

Memory: 4 GB or less

The following guidelines apply to VE 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.
• ASM should not be provisioned, except as Dedicated

No new features

There are no new features in this release.

Sample installation command

The following command installs version 13.0.0 to volume 3 of the main hard drive.

tmsh install sys software image BIGIP-13.0.0.0.0.1645.iso volume HD1.3

Upgrading from version 11.x or later

When you upgrade from version 12.x or later, you use the Software Management screens in the Configuration utility to complete these steps. To open the Software Management screens, in the navigation pane of the Configuration utility, expand System, and click Software Management. For information about using the Software Management screens, see the online help.

Upgrading from versions earlier than 12.x

You cannot roll forward a configuration directly to this version from BIG-IP version 11.x or earlier. You must be running version 12.x (or later) software. For details about upgrading from earlier versions, see the release notes for the associated release.

Automatic firmware upgrades

If this version includes new firmware for your specific hardware platform, after you install and activate this version, the system might reboot additional times to perform all necessary firmware upgrades.

Upgrade warnings and notes

The Application Security Manager supports .ucs files from versions 10.1.0 and later of the Application Security Manager. Additionally, you may import policies exported from versions 10.1.0 and later of the Application Security Manager.

Warning: With the introduction of the Local Traffic Policies feature in BIG-IP version 11.4.0, HTTP Class iRule events and commands are no longer available. If you plan to upgrade to 11.4.0 or later, and your configuration contains an iRule that uses an HTTP class iRule event or command, please read K14381: HTTP Class iRule events and commands are no longer available in BIG-IP 11.4.0 and later.

Warning: Local Traffic Policies do not support regular expressions for matching. While the upgrade process is able to migrate simple glob expressions, manual administrator intervention is required in order to ensure that the policies are properly configured. If you plan to upgrade to 11.4.0 or later, and your configuration contains regular expressions or glob expressions, please read K14409: The HTTP Class profile is no longer available in BIG-IP 11.4.0 and later.

Important: The system creates its internal cookie in versions 10.2.4 and later (including all versions of 11.x) differently than in versions prior to 10.2.4. As a result, while upgrading your system from a version prior to 10.2.4 to version 10.2.4 or later, the system will produce the Modified ASM Cookie violation for existing browser sessions. If the security policy has the Modified ASM Cookie violation enabled and set to block traffic when this violation occurs, after upgrading to version 10.2.4 or later, the system will block traffic to the web application. However, since the TS cookie is a session cookie, the system will block traffic only until the browser session ends (the end-user restarts the browser). To prevent the security policy from blocking traffic until the end-user’s browser is restarted, before upgrading to version 10.2.4 or later, we recommend you disable the security policy from blocking the Modified ASM Cookie violation, upgrade, and wait long enough to allow all users to restart their browsers (two weeks are expected to be enough). After enabling the violation, we recommend you monitor the logs. If the Modified ASM Cookie violation appears, consider disabling the violation again for a longer period of time, or communicate to the users to restart their browsers.

Exporting Logs

Layer 7

In version 11.4.0, local traffic policies replace HTTP Classes. When you create an ASM security policy, the system automatically creates a default Layer 7 local traffic policy. Note the following changes that occur to your system after upgrading from a version prior to 11.4.0:

• A Layer 7 local traffic policy is created and the HTTP class is removed. If the HTTP Class name is different than the name of the security policy, upon upgrade, the system changes the name of the security policy to the name of the HTTP Class.
• Security policies are now in folders (partitioned) like pools and virtual servers. Upon upgrade, the system places security policies in the folder to which the HTTP Class belonged. The system places security policies that were inactive in the /Common folder.
• iRules that use HTTP Class do not work here. Users must manually change the HTTP Class part of the iRule to Policy after the upgrade.

ASM cookie security

As a result of changes made to the signing of ASM cookies, performing a clean upgrade may result in cookie violations and blocked traffic. To prevent these, F5 recommends that you perform the following actions before upgrading:

• Disable the modified domain cookie violation, and re-enable it only after at least 24 hours have passed.
• If you do not have a wildcard cookie, before the upgrade add an ASM allowed cookie to the security policy, with the name TS*.
• Have all clients restart their browsers.

After upgrading, users must synchronize their Cookie Protection settings in the following cases:

• Systems that share traffic but are NOT in the same device group
• Systems from different versions that share traffic, even if they are in the same device group

Cookie signature validation

After upgrading, the system performs the following:

• Turns on staging for all Allowed cookies
• Applies signature checks on existing Allowed cookies
• Adds a * wildcard Allowed cookie even if the user did not have on previously Upgrading to version 11.3.0 or later

Web scraping

There was a check box for enabling web scraping that was removed in version 11.3.0.

• When you upgrade from versions 11.0.0 through 11.2.x, if the check box is enabled, the new Bot Detection setting has the option Alarm and Block enabled. If the check box is not enabled, the value is Off.
• When you upgrade from versions prior to 11.0.0 (where there was no enable flag), the Bot Detection setting is based on the blocking check boxes for web scraping:
  • If the global Block check box is enabled, the value is Alarm and Block.
  • If the global Block check box is disabled, and the global Alarm check box is enabled, the value is Alarm.
  • If both Alarm and Block check boxes are disabled, the value is Off.

Brute Force

In versions prior to 11.3.0, if the Dynamic Brute Force Protection Operation Mode was Blocking, and the security policy’s Enforcement Mode was Transparent, the system blocked brute force attacks. In order to keep functionality after upgrading, the system continues to block brute force attacks if you upgrade to versions 11.3.0 or later, under these circumstances. However, in versions 11.3.0 and later, the functionality changed so that if the security policy’s Enforcement Mode is Transparent, so the system does not block brute force attacks even if the Dynamic Brute Force Protection Operation Mode setting is Alarm and Block (previously Blocking).

In version 13.1 the session-based and dynamic brute force protections are discontinued and replaced with source-based brute force protection. When upgrading:

• Source-based mitigation will be set to Alarm and CAPTCHA for Username, Device IP and Source ID.
• Dynamic mitigation will be set to Alarm and CAPTCHA.
• Client Side Integrity Bypass Mitigation will be set to Alarm and CAPTCHA.
• CAPTCHA Bypass Mitigation will be set to Alarm and CAPTCHA.
• Detection and prevention duration will be derived from previous values.
• Enforcement of both the source-based and distributed brute force protections depends on the Blocking settings of the Brute Force: Maximum login attempts are exceeded violation.
• The Learning flag for Brute Force: Maximum login attempts are exceeded violation is discontinued.
• The Unlimited value for Prevention Duration is discontinued.

DoS profiles

In versions 11.3.0 and later, DoS profiles are assigned to virtual servers. Previously, they were assigned to security policies.

• Upon upgrading DoS Profiles from versions prior to 11.3.0, all active security policies have their DoS settings migrated and assigned to the virtual server associated with the HTTP Class. If a virtual server had more than one HTTP Class assigned to it, it inherits the settings of the last in the list.
• If you have a disabled DoS profile in a version prior to 11.3.0, and upgrade, after the upgrade the system automatically assigns the DoS profile to a virtual server. As a result, even though the system does not perform DoS protection, it still collects statistics, which impacts the system’s performance. To work around this issue, if you have a disabled DoS profile assigned to a virtual server, to improve system performance you should remove its association from the virtual server. (ID 405211)
• We do not support exporting and importing DoS profiles.

Logging Profiles

In versions 11.3.0 and later, logging profiles are assigned to virtual servers. Previously, they were assigned to security policies. Upon upgrading logging profiles from versions prior to 11.3.0, all active security policies have their logging profile settings migrated and assigned to the virtual server associated with the HTTP Class. If a virtual server had more than one HTTP Class assigned to it, it inherits the settings of the last in the list.

XFF configuration (ID 405312)

In versions prior to 11.3.0, DoS profiles used the Trust XFF setting that was a security policy setting. The Trust XFF setting was renamed Accept XFF, and moved from a security policy property to a property of the HTTP profile. If you upgrade a DoS profile and a security policy with the Trust XFF setting enabled, after the upgrade, the new XFF configuration setting is disabled. If you want the DoS profile to continue trusting XFF, navigate to Local Traffic > Profiles > Services > HTTP > Properties screen, and enable the Accept XFF setting.

IP address whitelist

In version 11.2 we unified various whitelists for Policy Builder trusted IP addresses, and anomaly whitelists (DoS Attack Prevention, Brute Force Attack Prevention, and Web Scraping Detection) into a single list. When you upgrade, these separate lists are unified to a single whitelist (called the IP Address Exceptions List).

Security policy status after UCS installation

After you install a .ucs (user configuration set) file that was exported from version 10.1.0 or later, the system does not automatically apply changes that you made, but did not apply, to the security policies. The system enforces the web application according to the settings of the last set active security policy. However, the system preserves any changes to the current edited security policy, and marks the security policy as modified [M] if the changes have not been applied.

Running Application Security Manager on a vCMP system

If you are running Application Security Manager on a vCMP system: For best performance, F5 recommends configuring remote logging to store ASM logs remotely on Syslog servers rather than locally.