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Manual Chapter : Device Resource Management

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BIG-IQ Device

  • 4.4.0
Manual Chapter
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About device discovery and management

You use BIG-IQ Device to centrally manage resources located on BIG-IP devices in your local network, in a public cloud like Amazon EC2, or in a combination of both.

The first step to managing devices is making BIG-IQ Device aware of them through the discovery process. To discover a device, you provide BIG-IQ Device the device IP address, user name, and password. Alternatively, you can upload a CSV file to discover a large number of devices. When you discover a device you place it into a group. These groups help you organize devices with similar features, like those in a particular department or running a certain software version.

After you discover devices, you can view and export inventory details about those devices for easy asset management.

Discovering devices

After you license and perform the initial configuration for the BIG-IQ system, you can discover BIG-IP devices running version 11.3 or later. For proper communication, you must configure each F5 device you want to manage with a route to the BIG-IQ system. If you do not specify the required network communication route between the devices, then device discovery fails.

Discovering BIG-IP devices is the first step to managing them.
  1. Log in to BIG-IQ Device with the administrator user name and password.
  2. Hover over the Devices header, click the + icon when it appears, and then select Discover Device.
  3. For devices on the same subnet as the BIG-IQ system, in the IP Address field, specify the IP address of the device:
    • For devices in your local network, or located on an OpenStack or VMware cloud device, type the device's internal self IP address.
    • For devices located on Amazon EC2 cloud, type the device's external self IP address.
    You cannot discover a BIG-IP device using its management IP address.
  4. In the Admin User Name and Admin Password fields, type the administrator user name and password for the managed device.
  5. Select the Auto Update Framework check box to direct the BIG-IQ system to perform any required REST framework updates on the BIG-IP device. For the BIG-IQ system to properly manage a BIG-IP device, the BIG-IP device must be running the most recent REST framework. If you do not select the Auto Update Framework check box before you click the Add button, a message displays prompting you do update the framework or cancel the task.
  6. Click the Add button.
BIG-IQ System populates the properties of the device that you added, and displays the device in the Devices panel.

Discovering a large group of devices

After you license and perform the initial configuration for the BIG-IQ system, you can discover BIG-IP devices running version 11.3 or later. For proper communication, you must configure each F5 device you want to manage with a route to the BIG-IQ system. If you do not specify the required network communication route between the devices, then device discovery fails.

Before you discover a large group of devices, you must save the information in a .csv file in one of the following formats:

  • [address],[userName],[password],[automaticFrameworkUpdate?],[rootUser],[rootPassword], for example: 192.168.2.xxx,admin,password,true,root,password Use this option if you want BIG-IQ Device to automatically update the framework required to manage the devices.
  • [address],[userName],[password], for example: 192.168.2.xxx,admin,password
If you have a large number of devices to discover, discovering them in a group saves you a significant amount of time, because you are not required to provide the device identification details for each individual device. Instead, you can upload a CSV file that contains the IP address, user name, and password for the devices you want to discover.
  1. Log in to BIG-IQ Device with your administrator user name and password.
  2. At the top of the screen, click Provisioning.
  3. Hover over the Devices header, and when the + icon appears, select Import Devices.
  4. From the Group Name list select the group to which you want to add the imported devices.
  5. Click the Choose File button and select the CSV file to which you exported the device list. Alternatively, you can navigate to the CSV file on your computer and drag and drop it to the Import Devices screen.
  6. Click the Discover button to complete the discovery process. If there was a format error for the data in the .csv file, discovery fails and BIG-IQ Device returns an error.
BIG-IQ System populates the properties of the device that you added, and displays the device in the Devices panel.

Discovering and upgrading legacy devices

After you license and perform the initial configuration for the BIG-IQ system, you can discover BIG-IP devices running version 11.3 or later. For proper communication, you must configure each F5 device you want to manage with a route to the BIG-IQ system. If you do not specify the required network communication route between the devices, then device discovery fails.

Discovering BIG-IP devices is the first step to managing them. Use this procedure to discover and upgrade BIG-IP devices running a version prior to 11.5.
  1. Log in to BIG-IQ Device with the administrator user name and password.
  2. Hover over the Devices header, click the + icon when it appears, and then select Upgrade Legacy Device.
  3. For devices on the same subnet as the BIG-IQ system, in the IP Address field, specify the IP address of the device:
    • For devices in your local network, or located on an OpenStack or VMware cloud device, type the device's internal self IP address.
    • For devices located on Amazon EC2 cloud, type the device's external self IP address.
    You cannot discover a BIG-IP device using its management IP address.
  4. In the Admin User Name and Admin Password fields, type the administrator user name and password for the managed device.
  5. From the Software Version list, select the software version to which you want to upgrade and click the Upgrade button.
BIG-IQ System populates the properties of the device that you upgraded, and displays the device in the Devices panel.

Viewing and exporting device inventory details

You can view detailed data about the managed devices in your network. Information includes associated IP addresses, platform type, license details, software version, and so forth. In addition to viewing this information, you can also export it to a CSV file and edit the data as required to create reports for asset management.

  1. Log in to BIG-IQ Device with your administrator user name and password.
  2. At the top of the screen, click Configuration.
  3. In the Devices panel, click the gear icon next to the device group you want to view, and then click Inventory. The panel expands to display device details.
  4. To export the data to a CSV file, click the Export button. You can modify the report as required in Microsoft Excel.

About static and dynamic device groups

To help you manage a large number of BIG-IP devices, you can organize them into groups. You can create two different types of device groups:

  • Static group
  • Dynamic group

A static group contains a specific set of devices. You may want to create a static group for devices hosting certain applications, in a certain geographical location, or running specific version of BIG-IP software. In contrast, a dynamic group is essentially a saved query on against a static group. For example, if you create a static group that contained all of your managed BIG-IP devices and you wanted to view only those devices running a specific version of software, you would create a dynamic group with that parameter.

If you delete a managed BIG-IP device from the static group, that change reflects in the dynamic group when you view it.

Creating static group of managed devices

You must license and discover devices before you can place BIG-IP devices into a group.

To help you manage a large number of devices, you can organize them into groups. For example, you could group devices by applications, geographical location, or department.

  1. Log in to BIG-IQ Device with your administrator user name and password.
  2. At the top of the screen, click Configuration.
  3. Hover over the Devices header, click the + icon when it appears, and then click New Group.
  4. In the Group Name field, type a name for the BIG-IQ system to identify this group. You cannot change this identifier once you create this group. The name must contain only alphanumerics, underscores, and dashes. Do not include a space in the group name.
  5. In the Display Name field, type the name you want to use to identify this group. This name is displayed in the Devices panel. You can change this name at any time, after you save this group.
  6. In the Description field, type a description for this group. For example, BIG-IP devices located in Seattle. You can change this name at any time, after you save this group.
  7. For the Group Type setting, select Static Group.
  8. From the Parent Group list, select the source for the group you are creating.
  9. Click the Save button.
The associated managed devices now display in the Device panel, within the group you created. If you a saved filter on specific devices within this group, you can create a dynamic group.

Creating a dynamic group of managed devices

You must license, discover devices, and create a static group before you can create a dynamic group.

To filter a static group on specific parameters, you can create a dynamic group. For example, if you have a static group for all devices located in a particular city, you might want to view only those running a specific version of software.

  1. Log in to BIG-IQ Device with your administrator user name and password.
  2. At the top of the screen, click Configuration.
  3. Hover over the Devices header, click the + icon when it appears, and then click New Group.
  4. In the Group Name field, type a name for the BIG-IQ system to identify this group. You cannot change this identifier once you create this group. The name must contain only alphanumerics, underscores, and dashes. Do not include a space in the group name.
  5. In the Display Name field, type the name you want to use to identify this group. This name is displayed in the Devices panel. You can change this name at any time, after you save this group.
  6. In the Description field, type a description for this group. For example, BIG-IP devices located in Seattle. You can change this name at any time, after you save this group.
  7. For the Group Type setting, select Dynamic Group.
  8. For the Source Group setting, select the static group on which you want to query for results.
  9. In the Search Filter field, type a term on which you want to filter the group. You can filter on a single term or, if you want to filter on more than one parameter, use the standard Open Data Protocol (OData) format.
  10. Click the Save button.
This dynamic group displays in the Device panel as a child of the associated static group.
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