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Manual Chapter : Deploying BIG-IQ Virtual Edition

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BIG-IQ Centralized Management

  • 4.6.0
Manual Chapter
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Deploying BIG-IQ Virtual Edition

About VE Hyper-V deployment

To deploy the BIG-IQ® Virtual Edition (VE) system on Hyper-V, you perform these tasks:

  • Verify the host machine requirements.
  • Deploy a BIG-IQ® system as a virtual machine.
  • Deploy a BIG-IP® system.
  • 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 Virtual Edition and Supported Hypervisors Matrix, published on the AskF5™ web site, http://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)
Important: The hypervisor CPU must meet the following requirements:
  • 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.

Deploying the BIG-IQ VE virtual machine

The first steps in deploying BIG-IQ® VE are to open the Zip file and extract the virtual hard drive (VHD) file, and save it to the server running with the Hyper-V® role enabled. Next, you configure the virtual machine using Hyper-V Manager and the Settings window.

Important: Do not modify the configuration of the Hyper-V guest environment with settings less powerful than the ones recommended in this document. This includes the settings for the CPU, RAM, and network adapters. Doing so might produce unexpected results.
  1. In a browser, open the F5 Downloads page (https://downloads.f5.com).
  2. Download the BIG-IQ BIG-IQ v4.x/Virtual Edition file package.
    There are two options to choose from.
    Option Description
    Large: the file name ends in .LARGE - vhd.zip The large option creates a 500GB disk footprint at installation. This choice supports larger log files required for data analytics.
    Normal: the file name ends in .vhd.zip The standard option creates a 55GB disk footprint at installation. This choice should be the normal working BIG-IQ installation unless data analytics functionality is required.
  3. Extract the file from the Zip archive and save it where your VHD files reside on the Hyper-V server.
  4. Start Hyper-V Manager, log in to the Hyper-V server, and from the Actions pane, click New > Virtual Machine .
    The New Virtual Machine Wizard opens.
  5. In the Name field, type a name for the F5 VE virtual machine, such as: smith_f5_ve and click Next.
  6. In the Memory field, type 4096 and click Next.
    Tip: To increase performance, you can specify a value up to 8192.
  7. For the Connection setting, select Management and click Next.
  8. Map the source network HA to the name of a high-availability network in your inventory.
    An example of a destination high-availability network is HA.
  9. Select the Use an existing virtual hard disk check box, browse to the location where you saved your VHD file, select the file, open it, and click Next.
  10. In the Summary page, review your settings and click Finish.
    The New Virtual Machine Wizard closes, and the new F5 VE shows in the Virtual Machines list.
  11. From the Virtual Machines list, select the new F5 VE.
    The name of the F5 VE appears in the bottom half of the Actions pane.
  12. In the lower half of the Actions pane, click Settings.
    The Settings window for the selected F5 VE opens.
  13. From the Hardware list, select Processor, and then change the Number of logical processors to 2, and increase the Virtual machine reserve (percentage) to 100.
  14. Click Add Hardware, select Network Adapter and click Add. Repeat this for a total of three adapters (or four, for a high-availability configuration).
    1. Click the second Network Adapter, and then from the Network list select External.
    2. Click the third Network Adapter, and then from the Network list select Internal.
    3. If the F5 VE will be used in a high-availability configuration, click the fourth Network Adapter, and then from the Network list select HA.
  15. In the Management area, click Automatic Stop Action and select Shut down the guest operating system.
    This setting ensures that the F5 VE virtual machine restarts with all previously-configured virtual hardware, and at the current system time.
  16. Click OK to save your changes and close the Settings window.

Powering on the virtual machine

You must power on the virtual machine before you can begin assigning IP addresses.
  1. Open the Hyper-V® Manager client.
  2. Select the virtual machine that you want to power on.
  3. From the Action menu, choose Start.
    The status icon changes to indicate that the virtual machine is on. The virtual machine boots and becomes ready for configuration.

Assigning a management IP address to a virtual machine

The virtual machine needs an IP address assigned to its virtual management port.
Tip: The default configuration for new deployments and installations is for DHCP to acquire the management port IP address.
  1. In the Hyper-V Manager, locate and highlight the virtual machine to which you want to assign the management IP address.
  2. In the Actions pane, choose Connect.
    The console window for opens. After a few seconds, a login prompt appears.
  3. At the login prompt, type root.
  4. At the password prompt, type default.
  5. Type config and press Enter.
    The F5 Management Port Setup screen opens.
  6. Click OK.
  7. If you want DHCP to automatically assign an address for the management port, select Yes. Otherwise, select No and follow the instructions for manually assigning an IP address and netmask for the management port.
Tip: F5 Networks® highly recommends that you specify a default route for the virtual management port, but it is not required for operation of the virtual machine.
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