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  5. BIG-IQ System Introduction
Manual Chapter : BIG-IQ System Introduction

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BIG-IQ Centralized Management

  • 5.3.0
Manual Chapter
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About BIG-IQ Centralized Management

F5® BIG-IQ® Centralized Management is a tool that helps you manage BIG-IP devices, and all of their services (such as LTM, AFM, ASM and so forth), from one location. That means you and your co-workers don't have to log in to individual BIG-IP systems to get your job done. From BIG-IQ, you can manage a variety of tasks from licensing to health monitoring and traffic to security. And because access to each area of BIG-IQ is role based, you can limit access to users to maximize work flows while minimizing errors and potential security issues.

How do I navigate the BIG-IQ user interface and find what I need quickly?

F5® BIG-IQ® Centralized Management includes navigation and search tools and customization features to help you complete your tasks efficiently and find objects easily.
Note: What you see as a user in the BIG-IQ user interface depends on the privileges assigned to your user role. For example, a user logged in as an administrator sees the content for all managed devices, while a security administrator might see only objects associated with security.
  • Global search, related content, and preview pane

    BIG-IQ has a robust and interactive global search feature that allows you to easily find a specific content and related content. From any screen, you can click the magnifying glass icon in the upper-right corner of the screen and type a search string. Search results are grouped by content type. From the results, you can click an object's row and a preview displays in a panel. Clicking a link takes you directly to the content's properties screen in BIG-IQ.

    Flexible access to objects and configuration options

    For some objects, you can view and edit settings that are located in other places in the user interface, without having to stop what you're doing and navigate to another part of BIG-IQ. For example, you could be editing a firewall policy and find an address list in the toolbox that you want to look at. Right there, you can click the address to access the details, and then view or edit it as you want.

    You can also configure some types of objects from different places in BIG-IQ, depending on what your user role is or what work flow you're in. For example, you can create an access group from the Configuration area of BIG-IQ, as well as from the Devices area. This makes it convenient for you to access during other tasks you're doing in different areas of BIG-IQ.

  • Filters

    For each screen that contains a list, you can use a context-sensitive filter to search on a term, and then narrow your search further to view only those items that are relevant to you at the moment. For example, say you wanted to see local traffic and network audit logs. You can use the search on local traffic, and further refine what is displayed by filtering again on network audit logs.

  • Customization and sorting

    You can customize the columns that display in each screen that has a list, hiding any information that isn't important to you, as well as rearrange the order the columns display. This helps you to focus on only those attributes that are relevant to you. You can also sort on most columns in the list.

Find content and access associated objects from any screen (global search)

BIG-IQ® Centralized Management makes it easy for you to perform a search for specific details of your configuration across all your managed devices. From the content that is returned, you can access everything associated with that content, regardless of where it is on BIG-IQ. For example, if you search on a specific self-IP address, the results give you access to other content related to that self-IP address. We call this global search. This powerful feature gives you quick access to specific content and insight to how it relates to different areas of your managed devices.

It's important to note that the content BIG-IQ returns for a search is specific to your user role privileges. For example, if your user role doesn't have privileges for content associated with security, content specific only to security does not display.

  1. On any screen, click the magnifying glass in the upper right corner.
    The global search popup screen opens.
  2. Into the search field, type all or part of a term you want to search for.
  3. If you want to narrow the search results, click the arrow next to the search field to select search tools.
    Option Description
    Contains Opens the search up to any content that contains the search term.
    Include ranges (IP Address & Port) Returns a wider range of IP addresses and port numbers that match formats representing numeric ranges.
    Exact Match Returns only content that exactly matches the search term.
    Search only Narrows the content returned to include only a specific kind of object.
  4. Press the Enter key.
    The screen refreshes to display content associated with your search term, organized by type.
  5. To view a list of related content for a specific search result, click a row, and click the Show button.
  6. To navigate directly to a specific screen associated with content, click the content.
  7. To return back to the search results, click the magnifying glass.
  8. To clear a search, click the X in the search field of the popup screen.

Customize how your object lists display

Only after you discover devices and their associated objects, can you view the devices and the related objects in object lists on various screens.
If you need to see only certain information about a list of objects and/or information displayed in a certain way, you can customize the way the screen lists content.
  1. Navigate to a screen that contains a list of objects.
    For example, Devices > SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT > Software Images .
  2. To limit the number of columns you want to view, click the gear icon on the far right of the screen and deselect the columns you don't want displayed.
  3. To customize the order in which the columns display, click the name of the column, drag it to, and drop it in another location.
  4. To sort a list in ascending or descending order, hover next to the column name and click the up or down arrow.

Filter an object list

For each screen that contains an object list, you can narrow the list to display only specific items, phrases, or numbers. This helps you easily navigate long lists and find what you need quickly.
  1. Navigate to a screen that contains a list of objects.
    For example, Devices > BIG-IP DEVICES .
  2. In the Filter text box, type a term, phrase, or number.
    By default, BIG-IQ uses this filter on anything that matches any field on the screen, so this can be a partial term, phrase or number. For example, if you wanted to see only objects that contained the number 191, you'd type 191.
    To limit the filter to a specific object type, click the down arrow next to the search field and select the type of object you're looking for. To require the term match exactly, select Exact from the list.
    The screen refreshes to display only those items that include or exactly match the term you used for a filter. The filter you used displays at the top of the list.
  3. To further limit the results displayed, type another term in the Filter field, selecting options from the filter menu as you did before.
  4. To remove a filter, at the top of the list, click the X next to a filter.

Set preferences for BIG-IQ user interface

Only after you license and finish the initial setup for BIG-IQ® Centralized Management, can you specify a few preferences for the user interface.
Setting user preferences customizes your view into BIG-IQ.
Note: The navigation objects and screens you see depend on your user role.
  1. At the top of the screen, click System.
  2. On the left, click USER PREFERENCES.
    The System User Preferences screen opens.
  3. Click the Edit button.
  4. In the Idle Timeout field, type the maximum number of minutes of inactivity you want BIG-IQ to allow before it logs you out of the system.
    To keep your system and network secure, BIG-IQ logs you out of the system once it reaches the time you specify.
  5. From the Default View list, select the area you want BIG-IQ to display when you initially log in to the system.
  6. Click the Save & Close button at the bottom of the screen.
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