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Planning a BIG-IQ Centralized Management Deployment
Which type of centralized management solution do you want to deploy?
There are two license types for a centralized management solution, one for BIG-IQ device management and one for a data collection device (DCD).
BIG-IQ device management
F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management is a platform that you use as a tool to help you manage BIG-IP devices and all of their services (such as LTM, AFM, ASM, and so forth), from one location. BIG-IQ can manage up to 200 (physical, virtual, or vCMP) BIG-IP devices and handle licensing for up to 5,000 unmanaged devices.
Using BIG-IQ helps you more efficiently manage your BIG-IP devices. That means you and your co-workers don't have to log in to individual BIG-IP systems to get your job done. Instead, you can discover, upgrade, deploy policy changes, manage licenses, and more, from just one place.
From BIG-IQ, you can manage a variety of tasks from software updates to health monitoring, and traffic to security. And because permissions for users ar`e role-based, you can limit access to just a few trusted administrators to minimize downtime and potential security issues. You can also allow users to view or edit only those BIG-IP objects that they need to do their job.
Here's an example of how BIG-IQ can fit into a data center. This topology does not include any data collection devices, so statistical analytics, and event or alert management are not supported.
Centralized Management network topology
Data collection device
A data collection device (DCD) is a specially provisioned BIG-IQ system that you use to manage and store alerts, events, and statistical data from one or more BIG-IP systems. The next diagram illustrates a simplified example of how DCDs add to your BIG-IQ Centralized Management solution.
Centralized Management network topology with DCDs
BIG-IQ Centralized Management documentation set
BIG-IQ Centralized Management documentation set is located on AskF5 at https://support.f5.com. Click the Product Manuals link under Resources, and select BIG-IQ Centralized Management from the product list, and select the appropriate version.
| Title | Use to: |
|---|---|
| F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management Virtual Editions Setup guides | Set up BIG-IQ Virtual Edition (VE) as a guest in a virtual environment using supported hypervisors. |
| Planning and Implementing an F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management Deployment | Plan deployment, license, and set up the BIG-IQ system in your network. |
| F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management: Core Concepts | Find out more about the concepts about the core functionality included with BIG-IQ Centralized Management. |
| F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management DCD Sizing Guide | Determine the resources that are required to handle the data generated by the BIG-IP devices you manage. Requirements vary according to the type and amount of data you generate. |
| F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management: Authentication, Roles, and User Management |
|
| F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management: Monitoring and Reports |
|
| F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management: Device |
|
| F5 BIG-IQ Local Traffic & Network Implementations | Manage:
|
| F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management: Security |
Manage:
|
| F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management: Access |
|
| F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management: Fraud Protection Service | Set up, manage, and monitor alerts for fraud protection. |
| F5 Platform Guide: BIG-IQ 7000 Series | Set up and manage the BIG-IQ 7000 hardware platform. |
| F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management Use Case: Provide Role-Based User Access to an Application | Give role-based user access to a SharePoint application. |
| F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management: Auto-Scale in a VMware Cloud | Start auto-scaling BIG-IP VE devices in a VMware cloud to manage applications. |
| F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management: Auto-Scale in a AWS Cloud | Start auto-scaling BIG-IP VE devices in an AWS cloud to manage applications. |
| BIG-IQ Centralized Management: Monitoring and Managing Application Services | Monitor the health and statistics for your application services. |
| F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management upgrade guides | Upgrade BIG-IQ Centralized Management and BIG-IQ Logging Node to the most recent software version. |
| Release notes | Find information about the current software release, including a list of associated documentation, a summary of new features, enhancements, fixes, known issues, and available workarounds. |
| AskF5 Articles and Tech Notes | Read responses and resolutions to known issues. Tech Notes provide additional configuration instructions and how-to information. |
What elements make up a centralized management solution?
An F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management solution can involve a number of different elements. The topology for these elements depends on your needs, and on whether you include data collection devices (DCDs) in your solution. A typical solution can include the following elements:
- BIG-IQ system(s)
- BIG-IP devices
- Data collection devices (optional)
- Remote storage devices (optional)
BIG-IQ Centralized Management system
Using BIG-IQ Centralized Management, you can centrally manage your BIG-IP devices, performing operations such as backups, licensing, monitoring, and configuration management. And because access to each area of BIG-IQ is role-based, you can limit access to users, thus maximizing work flows while minimizing errors and potential security issues.
BIG-IP device
A BIG-IP device runs a number of licensed components designed around application availability, access control, and security solutions. These components run on top of F5 TMOS. This custom operating system is an event driven operating system designed specifically to inspect network and application traffic and make real-time decisions based on the configurations you provide. The BIG-IP software runs on both hardware and virtualized environments.
BIG-IQ data collection device
A data collection device (DCD) is a specially provisioned BIG-IQ system that you use to manage and store alerts, events, and statistical data from one or more BIG-IP systems.
Configuration tasks on the BIG-IP system determine when and how alerts or events are triggered on the client. The alerts or events are sent to a BIG-IQ data collection device, and the BIG-IQ system retrieves them for your analysis. When you opt to collect statistical data from the BIG-IP devices, the DCD periodically (at an interval that you configure) retrieves those statistics from your devices, and then processes and stores that data.
The group of data collection devices and BIG-IQ systems that work together to store and manage your data are referred to as the data collection cluster. The individual data collection devices are generally referred to as nodes.
Remote storage device
The remote storage device is necessary only when your deployment includes a data collection device (DCD) and you plan to store backups of your events, alerts, and statistical data for disaster recovery requirements. Remote storage is also required so that you can retain this data when you upgrade your software.
Network Requirements for a BIG-IQ Centralized Management Deployment
Before you deploy a Centralized Management solution
Before you begin to deploy a BIG-IQ® system, you should complete these preparations.
- Determine the deployment scenario that works best for your needs.
- Create the interfaces, communications, and networks needed to support your deployment scenario
- Configure your network (including switches and firewalls) to permit BIG-IQ network traffic to flow based on the deployment scenario you choose.
- Assemble the passwords, IP addresses, and licensing information needed for the BIG-IQ cluster components.
Things to consider when planning a deployment
To successfully deploy a BIG-IQ® Centralized Management solution, you may need to coordinate with several people in your company.
If you use BIG-IQ virtual editions, you might need to coordinate with the people who manage your virtual environment, so they can provision the virtual machines with the required amount of CPUs, memory, and network interfaces. Further, you’ll need to coordinate with the people who manage the storage for the virtual machines to make sure each virtual machine is provisioned with the necessary storage to support the BIG-IQ environment. You also might need to provide the virtual environment team a copy of the BIG-IQ virtual machine image (available from https://downloads.f5.com), depending how they operate.
If you use BIG-IQ 7000 devices in your network, you need to coordinate with the people who manage the data center where the BIG-IQ devices are housed to make arrangements for the devices to be racked, powered on, and connected to your network.
- IP address allocation for the BIG-IQ nodes, depending on your deployment model.
- Creation of networks, VLANs, and so on dependent on your deployment model.
- Any routing configuration required to ensure traffic passes between the BIG-IQ nodes and the BIG-IP devices.
- Additional networking configuration required to support the BIG-IQ system's operation.
Finally, you may need to coordinate with your network firewall administrators, depending on the network configuration at your company. The BIG-IQ software needs to communicate between BIG-IQ nodes and BIG-IP systems; and, if there are firewalls in the network path, firewall rules probably need to be configured to permit that traffic. For additional detail about required network ports and protocols, refer to Open ports required for data collection device cluster deployment on support.f5.com.
Determining the network configuration needed for your deployment
| What functions does your deployment need to perform? | Which hardware components and networks do you need? | Which deployment type should you choose? |
|---|---|---|
| Manage and configure BIG-IP® devices. For example, take backups, license virtual editions, and configure local traffic and security policies. | Simple management and configuration | All you need is one or more BIG-IQ system and the BIG-IP devices you want to manage. This configuration uses a single management network. |
| Manage and configure BIG-IP devices. Collect and view Local Traffic, DNS, and Device statistical data from the BIG-IP devices. Collect, manage, and view events and alerts from BIG-IP devices provisioned with the APM®, FPS®, or ASM® components. |
You need one or more BIG-IQ systems, data collection devices, and an external storage device. This configuration requires a single management network and an internal BIG-IQ cluster network. | Advanced management and configuration |
| Manage and configure BIG-IP devices. Collect and view Local Traffic, DNS, and Device statistical data from the BIG-IP devices. Collect, manage, and view events and alerts from BIG-IP devices provisioned with the APM, FPS, or ASM components. Separate network traffic to support large, distributed deployments of the F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management solution for improved performance, security, and interactions in multiple data center environments. Or, for disaster recovery capability, you could operate multiple data centers, each with its own set of BIG-IQ systems. (For additional detail, refer to Managing Disaster Recovery Scenarios.) |
You need one or more BIG-IQ systems, data collection devices, and an external storage device. This configuration requires an external network, a management network, and an internal BIG-IQ cluster network. | Large-scale, distributed management and configuration |
Network environment for simple management and configuration
To deploy a simple management and configuration environment, all you need is one or more BIG-IQ systems and the BIG-IP devices that you want to manage. The number of BIG-IQ systems you need depends on how much redundancy your business requires. A second system provides high availability failover capability. You can also add data collection devices (DCDs) to this configuration.
The simple management and configuration uses a single management network. The BIG-IQ system uses traffic on the management network to do these things:
- Enable bidirectional traffic between the BIG-IQ systems and the BIG-IP devices.
- Enable traffic between the BIG-IQ systems. If you use a secondary high availability BIG-IQ system, this traffic keeps the state information synchronized.
- Provide access the BIG-IQ user interface. You can also use it to access the BIG-IQ system using SSH if you need to use the command line interface.
This figure illustrates the network topology required for a simple management and configuration deployment and includes the optional DCDs needed for analytics or alert and event monitoring.
Centralized Management network topology
Use the form to record the IP address for each device in the BIG-IQ deployment.
| Device type | Management IP address(es) |
|---|---|
| Primary BIG-IQ system | |
| Secondary BIG-IQ system | |
| BIG-IP devices |
Network environment for advanced management and configuration
To deploy the advanced management and configuration environment, you need BIG-IQ systems, data collection devices (DCDs), and an optional external storage device for backing up alert, event, and statistical data. The optimal topology for this configuration uses a single management network and a DCD cluster network.
The BIG-IQ system uses traffic on the management network to do these things:
- Enable bidirectional traffic between the BIG-IQ systems and the BIG-IP devices.
- Enable traffic between the BIG-IQ systems. If you use a secondary high availability BIG-IQ system, this traffic keeps the state information synchronized.
- Provide access to the BIG-IQ user interface. You can also use it to access the BIG-IQ system using SSH if you need to run manual commands.
This figure illustrates the optimal network topology for an advanced management and configuration deployment.
Centralized management and enhanced monitoring network topology
Use the form to record the IP addresses for the devices in the BIG-IQ deployment.
| Device type | Management IP addresses | DCD cluster IP addresses |
|---|---|---|
| Primary BIG-IQ system | ||
| Secondary BIG-IQ system | ||
| Data collection device management IP addresses | ||
| BIG-IP devices | ||
| Remote storage device |
Network environment for large-scale, distributed management and configuration
To deploy a large-scale, distributed management and configuration environment, you need BIG-IQ systems, data collection devices, and an optional external storage device for backing up alert, event, and statistical data. This configuration needs an internal network, a management network, and a DCD cluster network.
The BIG-IQ system uses traffic on the management network to do these things:
- Enable traffic between the BIG-IQ systems. If you use a secondary high availability BIG-IQ system, this traffic keeps the state information synchronized.
- Provide access to the BIG-IQ user interface. You can also use it to access the BIG-IQ system using SSH if you need to run manual commands.
The internal network is used to route bidirectional traffic between the BIG-IQ Centralized Management cluster and the BIG-IP devices.
This figure illustrates the network topology required for this deployment.
Centralized
management, enhanced monitoring, and improved performance network topology
Use the form to record the IP addresses for the devices in the BIG-IQ deployment.
| Device type | Management IP addresses | DCD cluster network IP addresses | Internal network IP addresses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary BIG-IQ system | |||
| Secondary BIG-IQ system | |||
| Data collection device management IP addresses | |||
| BIG-IP devices | |||
| Remote storage device |
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 |
Open ports required for BIG-IQ system deployment
The BIG-IQ system and data collection device require bidirectional communication with the devices in your network to successfully manage them. The ports described in the table must be open to allow for this required two-way communication. You might have to contact a firewall- or network administrator to verify that these ports are open, or to have them opened if they are not.
| Source IP Address | Destination IP Address | Destination Port | Protocol | Is port Configurable? | Is the Protocol Configurable? | Purpose | Connection Origination |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Management IP address or internal self IP address of the
BIG-IQ console and the data collection device. *See table notes 1 and 2. |
Management IP address or internal self IP address of the
BIG-IQ console and the data collection device. *See table notes 1 and 3. |
28015 (Must be available to the DCDs) 29015 (Must be available to the peer) |
TCP | Yes | No | Port 28015 is the API connection point and 29015 is used for cluster support. | From BIG-IQ console to DCDs. No DCD to DCD connectivity is required for these ports. The primary and secondary BIG-IQ systems must be able to connect through these ports. |
| Management IP address or external self IP address of the
BIG-IQ console. *See table note 1. |
Management IP address or self IP address of the BIG-IP
device. *See table note 1. |
443 (SSL) 22 (SSH) *See table note 4. |
TCP | No | No | Device-level discovery, device configuration changes, and device operations (backup, licensing, and so on), health checking, and some statistics (For example, Access or ADC object status). | From BIG-IQ console to BIG-IP devices. |
| Management IP address or external self IP address of the
BIG-IQ data collection device. *See table notes 1 and 2. |
Management IP address or self IP address of the BIG-IP
device. *See table note 1. |
443 (SSL) | TCP | No | No | Statistics collection for Local Traffic, Device, and DNS objects. | From BIG-IQ data collection devices to BIG-IP devices. |
| Management IP address or internal self IP address of the
BIG-IQ console. *See table note 1. |
Management IP address or internal self IP address of the
BIG-IQ console. *See table note 1. |
443 (SSL) | TCP | No | No | BIG-IQ cluster synchronization and cluster maintenance. |
From the active BIG-IQ console to the standby BIG-IQ console. From the BIG-IQ standby console to the BIG-IQ active console. |
| Management IP address or internal self IP address of the
active BIG-IQ console. *See table note 1. |
Management IP address or internal self IP address of the
standby BIG-IQ console. *See table note 1. |
27017 | TCP | No | No | BIG-IQ high availability cluster data replication. |
From the active BIG-IQ console to the standby BIG-IQ console. From the BIG-IQ standby console to the BIG-IQ active console. |
| Management IP address or internal self IP address of the
BIG-IQ console and the data collection device. *See table notes 1 and 2. |
Management IP address or internal self IP address of the
BIG-IQ console and the data collection device. *See table notes 1 and 3. |
9300 | TCP | Yes | No | Internal node-to-node communication to maintain data consistency and replication across clusters when data collection nodes are used. | Full Mesh That is, all BIG-IQ console and data collection devices can originate a connection for this purpose. |
| Management IP address or self IP address of the BIG-IP
device. *See table note 1. |
Management IP address or self IP address of the BIG-IQ
data collection device. *See table notes 1 and 3. |
8514 | TCP | No | No | Logging profile communication for Web Application Security. This traffic uses the syslog protocol documented in RFC 5424. | From BIG-IP devices to BIG-IQ data collection devices. When you have multiple data collection devices, you need to make sure data can pass to all devices in the cluster. |
| Management IP address or self IP address of the BIG-IP
device. *See table note 1. |
Management IP address or self IP address of the BIG-IQ
data collection device. *See table notes 1 and 3. |
8008 | TCP | No | No | Logging profile communication for Fraud Protection Service, this traffic uses the syslog protocol documented in RFC 5424. | From BIG-IP devices to BIG-IQ data collection devices. When you have multiple data collection devices, you need to make sure data can pass to all devices in the cluster. |
| Management IP address or self IP address of the BIG-IP device. | Management IP address or self IP address of the BIG-IQ
data collection device. *See table notes 1 and 3. |
9997 | TCP | No | No | For access to events; this traffic uses the syslog protocol documented in RFC 5424. | From BIG-IP devices to BIG-IQ data collection devices. When you have multiple data collection devices, you need to make sure data can pass to all devices in the cluster. |
| Client IP address | BIG-IQ Management IP address or self IP address for all BIG-IQ instances in the cluster. |
443 (SSL) 22 (SSH) |
TCP | No | No | For management access to BIG-IQ GUI or API (port 443) or shell access to BIG-IQ (port 22) | From the client workstation to the BIG-IQ device. |
Daemons running on BIG-IQ
Before you upgrade BIG-IQ Centralized Management, it's important to take inventory of the status of the running daemons. Then after you upgrade, you can verify that they're in the same state, and make any necessary modifications. To view the daemons, type the following command: admin@(ip-10-1-1-4)(cfg-sync Standalone)(Active)(/Common)(tmos)# show /sys service .
| Daemon | Example of status |
|---|---|
| admd | down, Not provisioned |
| alertd | run (pid 6579) 22 hours |
| apmd | down, Not provisioned |
| asm | down, Not provisioned |
| autodosd | down, Not provisioned |
| avrd | down, Not provisioned |
| bigd | run (pid 5338) 22 hours |
| bigiqsnmpd | run (pid 5035) 22 hours |
| captured | down, Not provisioned |
| cbrd | run (pid 6117) 22 hours |
| chmand | run (pid 5678) 22 hours |
| clusterd | down, not required |
| csyncd | run (pid 5038) 22 hours |
| datasyncd | down, Not provisioned |
| dnscached | down, Not provisioned |
| dosl7d | down, Not provisioned |
| dosl7d_attack_monitor | down, Not provisioned |
| dwbld | down, Not provisioned |
| elasticsearch | run (pid 5041) 22 hours |
| errdefsd | run (pid 6112) 22 hours |
| eventd | run (pid 5043) 22 hours |
| evrouted | run (pid 6583) 22 hours |
| f5_update_checker | down, No action required |
| fpuserd | down, Not provisioned |
| fslogd | down, Not provisioned |
| grafana | run (pid 6107) 22 hours |
| gtmd | down, Not provisioned |
| guiserver | run (pid 6105) 22 hours |
| gunicorn | run (pid 6587) 22 hours |
| hwpd | down 22 hours, normally up |
| icontrolportald | run (pid 5337) 22 hours |
| iprepd | run (pid 6113) 22 hours |
| istatsd | run (pid 6109) 22 hours |
| lacpd | down, not required |
| lind | run (pid 6116) 22 hours |
| mcpd | run (pid 6110) 22 hours |
| merged | run (pid 6938) 22 hours |
| mgmt_acld | down, Not provisioned |
| monpd | run (pid 6578) 22 hours |
| named | run (pid 4855) 22 hours |
| nokiasnmpd | down, not enabled |
| ntlmconnpool | run (pid 6111) 22 hours |
| pabnagd | down, Not logging node |
| pccd | down, Not provisioned |
| pgadmind | run (pid 7310) 22 hours |
| pkcs11d | down, not required |
| restjavad | run (pid 4853) 22 hours |
| rethinkdb | run (pid 15058) 21 hours, 1 start |
| scriptd | run (pid 5344) 22 hours |
| sdmd | down, sdmd is not provisioned |
| searchd | run (pid 5343) 22 hours |
| sflow_agent | run (pid 6937) 22 hours |
| shmmapd | down, Not provisioned |
| snmpd | run (pid 5674) 22 hours |
| sod | run (pid 4810) 22 hours |
| statsd | run (pid 5336) 22 hours |
| syscalld | run (pid 6939) 22 hours |
| tamd | run (pid 5679) 22 hours |
| tmipsecd | run (pid 5341) 22 hours |
| tmm | run (pid 6581) 22 hours |
| tmrouted | run (pid 6581) 22 hours |
| tokumond | run (pid 7311) 22 hours |
| tokumx | run (pid 6580) 22 hours |
| webd | run (pid 6941) 22 hours |
| wr_urldbd | down, Not provisioned |
| zrd | down, Not provisioned |
| zxfrd | run (pid 5034) 22 hours |
Passwords required for BIG-IQ system deployment
To install and configure a BIG-IQ system or data collection device (DCD) cluster, you use the default passwords for all of the devices. For DCD clusters, if you intend to schedule regular snapshots of your logging data (as recommended), you need root access credentials for the machine on which you plan to store these snapshots.
| User Name | Default Password | Access Rights/Role |
|---|---|---|
| admin | admin | This user type can access all aspects of the BIG-IQ system from the system's user interface. |
| root | default | This user has access to all aspects of the BIG-IQ system from the system's console command line. |
Licenses required for BIG-IQ system deployment
To install and configure a BIG-IQ system or data collection device cluster, you need a license for each device.
