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Getting Started with BIG-IQ Virtual Edition
What is BIG-IQ Virtual Edition?
BIG-IQ Virtual Edition (VE) is a version of F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management that runs as a virtual machine on specifically-supported hypervisors. BIG-IQ VE emulates a hardware-based BIG-IQ system running a VE-compatible version of BIG-IQ software.
BIG-IQ VE compatibility with Microsoft Hyper-V
Each time there is a new release of BIG-IQ Virtual Edition (VE) software, it includes support for additional public and private cloud products. The Virtual Edition and Supported Hypervisors Matrix on the AskF5 website, support.f5.com , details which hypervisors are supported for each release.
Hypervisor guest definition requirements
The Hyper-V Manager virtual machine guest environment for the BIG-IQ Virtual Edition (VE), at minimum, must include:
- 4 virtual CPUs
- 16 GB RAM Important: When you provision the amount of RAM allocated to the virtual machine, it must match the amount of reserve RAM.
- 1 virtual network adapter
- At least 95 GB disk
There are also some maximum configuration limits to consider for deploying a BIG-IQ 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 optimum performance limits, all allocated RAM must be reserved, and virtual disks should be deployed Thick (allocated up front).
Determine the resources required for deployment
CPU, RAM, and disk space requirements are determined by the following factors.
- Are you deploying a BIG-IQ system or a data collection device (DCD)?
- If you are deploying a DCD, how much storage do you need? Refer to the for guidance.
- How much performance do you need?
Usually, the extra storage space is for DCDs. However, there are also situations in which BIG-IQ systems can use the extra space. For example, you might want to store a large number of UCS backups. Or, your business needs might require you to store multiple versions of the BIG-IQ software so you can upgrade back and forth between BIG-IQ versions.
| Deployment type | CPUs | RAM | Disk Space |
|---|---|---|---|
| BIG-IQ system | 4 or 8 See When do I need extra resources? |
16, 32, or 64 GB See When do I need extra resources? |
Generally, 95 GB; or if extra space is needed, 500 GB. |
| Data collection device | 4 | 16 GB |
Initially, 500 GB. |
| Higher performance and scale | 8 | 32 or 64 GB | VE disk space can be extended further as needed. |
When do I need extra resources?
When the BIG-IQ system you deploy manages a number of devices that exceeds specified thresholds, F5 recommends that you use 8 CPUs and either 32 or 64 GB of RAM. These thresholds vary depending on which modules are licensed on the devices that the BIG-IQ manages and where the devices are deployed.
The following table lists thresholds for each BIG-IP module that impacts the amount of RAM that a BIG-IQ requires. For example, if the BIG-IQ manages more than 32 devices provisioned with the Access module, you should use 32 GB instead of 16.
| A BIG-IQ managing devices... | Needs 32 GB to manage more than: |
|---|---|
| provisioned with Access | 32 devices |
| provisioned with ADC | 80 devices |
| provisioned with ASM | 40 devices |
| provisioned with DNS | 100 devices |
| provisioned with FPS | 50 devices |
| deployed in a VMware service scaling group | 100 devices |
| deployed in an AWS or Azure service scaling group | 50 devices |
