To successfully deploy and run the BIG-IQ™ VE system, the host system must satisfy minimum requirements.

1. In a browser, open the F5 Downloads page (https://downloads.f5.com).
2. Download the F5 VE file package ending with qcow2.zip.
3. Extract the file from the Zip archive and save it where your qcow2 files reside on the Community Xen server.
4. Use VNC to access the Community Xen server, and then convert the qcow2 image to the raw format necessary for Community Xen. You can use the following syntax to convert the image. # qemu-img convert <qcow_file_name>.qcow2 <raw_file_name>.raw
5. Generate a MAC address for the network interface card associated with the management interface.
   Important: Be sure that the MAC address you create starts with the prefix 00:16:3e:.
   To create this address, you can use a tool such as MAC Address Generator (http://www.miniwebtool.com/mac-address-generator/).
6. Use an editor to create a BIG-IP VM definition file that specifies the required parameters for your VM. # vi /etc/xen/<config_file_name>
   Important: The sample configuration file provided here serves only as an example of the kinds of parameters you need to specify for your virtual machine. The actual file that you create will likely contain different parameters and settings.
   name = <config_file_name> maxmem = 4096 memory = 4096 vcpus = 2 builder = "hvm" boot = "c" pae = 1 acpi = 1 apic = 1 hpet = 1 localtime = 0 on_poweroff = "destroy" on_reboot = "restart" on_crash = "restart" sdl = 0 vnc = 1 vncunused = 1 keymap = "en-us" disk = [ "file:/mnt/xen-bender/bigip/<raw_file_name.raw>,hda,w" ] vif = [ "mac=00:16:<mgmt_interface_mac>,bridge=mgmtbr,script=vif-bridge", "mac=00:16:3e:<external_interface_mac>,bridge=ext_bridge,script=vif-bridge", "mac=00:16:3e:<internal_interface_mac>,bridge=int_bridge,script=vif-bridge",] parallel = "none" serial = "pty" #pci = [ '05:10.0', '05:10.1' ]
   Important: The last line of the example configuration file contains an optional entry that specifies the IDs for PCI external and internal network interface cards (NIC). This optional entry is required for SR-IOV support. Naturally, if you use this entry, you omit the external and internal bridges specified in the vif section.
   Once you have perfected and saved your configuration file, you are ready to create the BIG-IP VM,
7. Run the configuration file using an open source tool such as xm. xm create /etc/xen/<config_file_name> The console should indicate a successful start up by displaying something similar to this: Started domain <config_file_name>(id=444).
8. Allow some time for the boot-up process; then, you should be able to connect to the BIG-IQ console. # xm console <config_file_name>