System requirements¶
Supported host-node CPU architecture¶
To install F5 BIG-IP Cloud-Native Edition, the architecture of host-node (as opposed to DPU-node) CPUs must be x86-64 (sometimes referred to as AMD64). Both Intel and AMD host-node CPUs with this architecture are supported.
Minimum number of worker nodes¶
Your cluster must have at least three worker nodes so there are enough F5 Distributed Session State Management (dSSM) database replicas.
Supported NICs for SR-IOV (x86-64)¶
For x86-64 hosts, when SR-IOV is used as the Multus delegated CNI, the following NICs are supported. When SR-IOV is not used, most NICs are supported, but for optimal performance SR-IOV is recommended.
Note
When using OpenShift, you must ensure that your version of OpenShift supports SR-IOV for a given NIC.
NIC |
PF PCI ID |
Linux driver |
Min. kernel version |
Min. NIC firmware version |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Intel XXV710 |
8086:154c |
i40e |
5.14.0‑284.52.1.el9_2 |
9.1 |
Intel E810 |
8086:1889 |
ice |
5.14.0-570.131.1.el9_6 |
4.4 |
Mellanox ConnectX‑5 |
15b3:1018 |
mlx5_core |
4.18.0‑372.58.1.el8_6 |
16.32.3004 |
Mellanox ConnectX‑6 Dx |
15b3:101f |
mlx5_core |
5.14.0‑284.52.1.el9_2 |
22.41.1000 |
Mellanox ConnectX‑7 |
15b3:1021 |
mlx5_core |
5.14.0‑427.97.1.el9_4 |
28.47.1026 |
Mellanox ConnectX-8 |
15b3:1023 |
mlx5_core |
5.14.0‑427.97.1.el9_4 |
40.47.1088 |
Broadcom BCM57414 |
14e4:16d7 |
bnxt_en |
5.14.0‑427.97.1.el9_4 |
227.0.135.0/pkg 227.1.115.0 |
Broadcom BCM57508 |
14e4:1750 |
bnxt_en |
5.14.0‑427.97.1.el9_4 |
226.0.145.1/pkg 226.1.107.1 |
Additional system requirements¶
For additional system requirements, see one of the following:
Next steps¶
To continue preparing your cluster, go to Configure the nodes in your cluster.