Applies To:
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Deploying BIG-IQ Virtual Edition
Microsoft Hyper-V deployment overview
- Verify that the host machine requirements are satisfied.
- Deploy a BIG-IQ system as a virtual machine.
- Deploy the BIG-IP systems you intend to manage.
- After you have deployed the virtual machines, log in to the BIG-IQ VE system and run the Setup utility. Using the Setup utility, you perform basic network configuration tasks, such as assigning VLANs to interfaces.
- Configure secure communication between the BIG-IQ system and the BIG-IP device.
Host machine requirements and recommendations
To successfully deploy and run the BIG-IQ VE system, the host system must satisfy minimum requirements.
The host system must include these elements:
- Microsoft Windows Server with the Hyper-V role enabled. The BIG-IQ Virtual Edition and Supported Hypervisors Matrix, published on the AskF5 web site, support.f5.com identifies the versions that are supported.
- Connection to a common NTP source (this is especially important for each host in a redundant system configuration).
- Use a 64-bit architecture.
- Have support for virtualization (AMD-V or Intel VT-x) enabled.
- Support a one-to-one thread-to-defined virtual CPU ratio, or (on single-threading architectures) support at least one core per defined virtual CPU.
- Intel processors must be from the Core (or newer) workstation or server family of CPUs.
Deploy a BIG-IQ VE virtual machine in Microsoft Hyper-V
The first steps in deploying BIG-IQ VE are to download and open the Zip file, extract the virtual hard drive (VHD) file, and then save it to a server running with the Hyper-V role enabled. Next, you configure the virtual machine using Hyper-V Manager and the Settings window.
Power on the BIG-IQ VE virtual machine for the first time
After the system completes the initialization process, two built-in user accounts are enabled that provide you with the access you need to complete initial configuration and setup:
- The root account provides initial user access to command shells. You can use a local console connection, or you can use SSH. This account also provides access to the F5 Configuration utility. The initial root account password is default.
- The admin account provides initial user access through the web interface. The initial admin account password is admin.
Set up the management network on the BIG-IQ virtual machine
If your network has DHCP, an IP address is automatically assigned to BIG-IQ VE during deployment. You can use this address to access the BIG-IQ VE user interface or tmsh command-line utility.
If no IP address was assigned, you can assign one by using the Configuration utility.
You can use the shell command tmsh list sys management-ip to confirm that the management IP address has been properly assigned.