How to: Create BIG-IP Next Instance Locally on VMware

Use these instructions to install a new BIG-IP Next Instance virtual machine on your vSphere hypervisor, set the password, and apply a base configuration. When the steps are completed, the BIG-IP Next Instance is ready to be discovered and managed by the BIG-IP Next Central Manager.

Task Overview

        %%{
  init: {
    'theme': 'base',
    'themeVariables': {
      'fontSize': '16px',
      'primaryColor': '#ECECFF',
      'primaryTextColor': '#0083c0',
      'primaryBorderColor': '#9370DB',
      'lineColor': '#000000'
    },
    'flowchart': { 'defaultRenderer': 'elk'}
  }
}%%



graph LR
    PREREQ(<a>Review Prerequisites</a>)
    click PREREQ "./next_install_vmware_setup_script.html#prerequisites"
    DL(<a>Download OVA</a>)
    click DL "./next_install_vmware_setup_script.html#download-ova"
   
    DEPLOY(<a>Deploy OVA</a>)
    click DEPLOY "./next_install_vmware_setup_script.html#deploy-ova"
    CONSOLE(<a>Access<br>BIG-IP<br>Console</a>)
    click CONSOLE "./next_install_vmware_setup_script.html#launch-console-and-change-password"
    SETUP(<a>Run Setup Script</a>)
    click SETUP "./next_install_vmware_setup_script.html#run-the-setup-script"
    ADDCM("Ready to be added to<br>BIG-IP Next Central Manager")
    click ADDCM "./next_install_vmware_setup_script.html#add-instance-to-BIG-IP-Next-Central-Manager"
    

    PREREQ --> DL
    DL --> DEPLOY
    DEPLOY --> CONSOLE
    CONSOLE --> SETUP
    SETUP --> ADDCM

Prerequisites

  • VMware vSphere version 7.x

  • Instance - sizes for deployment: | vCPUs | Memory | | :————— | :————— | | 2 | 8 GB |
    | 4 | 10 GB | | 8 | 16 GB | | 16 | 32 GB |

  • Disk resource: 80GB of disk per BIG-IP Next virtual machine

  • Inputs for the setup script from your network; refer to sections for type inputs

  • Use VLAN names with a maximum of 15 characters

  • Review the appropriate Release Notes

Procedures

Complete the steps below to create a BIG-IP Next using VMware vSphere.

Download OVA

  1. Use your credentials to sign in to my.f5.com

  2. Click the Downloads tile.

  3. Review the End User License Agreement and Program Terms.

  4. Select the I have read and agreed to the terms of the End User License Agreement and Program Terms. checkbox and click Next.

  5. Select BIG-IP_Next in the Group field. The Tell us more about the product you want section is displayed.

  6. Select Virtual Edition in the Product Line field.

  7. Select the latest version in the Product Version field.

  8. Select the latest version name in the Select a product container section.

  9. Select the OVA file in the Select a download file section.

  10. Select the appropriate location in the Download locations field.

  11. Click Download.

  12. Repeat the above steps to download the appropriate checksum files.

  13. Verify the downloaded OVA file using the checksum: Verifying the MD5 checksum for the downloaded F5 software file.

  14. Move the verified OVA file to a desired location.

Deploy OVA

  1. Log in to VMware vSphere.

  2. In the top or left pane, click ACTIONS > Deploy OVF Template.

  3. Locate the previously downloaded OVA file to use to install a VM:

    • Select Local file and then click UPLOAD FILES.

    • Select the OVA file, and click Open.

  4. Click NEXT.

  5. Specify the VM name and select a location. Click NEXT.
    Important: Do not use the plus ( + ) sign in the VM name.

  6. Select a location for the compute resource and click NEXT.

  7. Verify the template details and click NEXT.

  8. Select the storage for the configuration and disk files, and click NEXT.

  9. Select a Destination Network and click NEXT.

  10. If necessary, customize the deployment properties and click NEXT.

Note:

  • Ensure that the default Network Adapter is connected to the management VLAN, serving as the management port for BIG-IP Next Central Manager.

  • Configure at least one additional Network Adapter to attach to the traffic VLAN(s). *Additional Network Adapters can be utilized to establish a typical two-arm configuration.

  1. Review the selections and click FINISH.

Launch console and change password

  1. Navigate to the virtual machine.

  2. Click the Start button at the top of the screen, then wait for the virtual machine to start.

  3. Open the console for the VM.

  4. For both login and Password, type admin.
    Welcome to Ubuntu… displays.

Run the setup script

Use the setup script to configure management networking in a static IP address environment and also assist in creating data plane networking configuration.

Help text for the script:

This setup script will help you initially configure the basic network settings for this instance.

Please answer the questions below. A default value for each parameter is indicated within the brackets. Example inputs are included within parentheses.

  1. At the prompt, type setup.

  2. Specify the required input,

    Network with DHCP

    • Hostname:

    • Primary NTP server address (i.e. 0.pool.ntp.org) (optional):

    • Alternate NTP server address (i.e. 1.pool.ntp.org) (optional):

    Network with a management IP address (No DHCP)

    • Hostname:

    • Management IP Address & Network Mask [192.168.1.245/24]:

    • Management Network Default Gateway [192.168.1.1]:

    • Primary DNS nameserver (i.e. 192.168.1.2):

    • Alternate DNS nameserver (i.e. 192.168.1.3) (optional):

    • Primary NTP server address (i.e. 0.pool.ntp.org) (optional):

    • Alternate NTP server address (i.e. 1.pool.ntp.org) (optional):

    Configure Data Plane Networking

    After configuring management networking, configure data plane networking.

    Important

    • Use VLAN names with a maximum of only 15 characters; if longer, traffic originating from the debug sidecar will not work correctly and can cause issues when troubleshooting.

    • VLAN1 name (external) (optional)

      • VLAN1 interface [1.1]

      • VLAN1 self IPv4 [10.0.0.1/24]

    • VLAN2 name (internal) (optional)

      • VLAN2 interface [1.2]

      • VLAN2 self IPv4 [172.16.0.1/24]

    • Configure Static Route? (Y/n) [N]

      • Data-Plane Route [0.0.0.0/0]

      • Data-Plane Route Gateway [10.0.0.254]

      • Data-Plane Interface [1.1]

    Admin Password

    There is a prompt to set an admin password used by both the API and Linux console. SSH access to the admin account is blocked in the SSH server configuration.

    • Please enter a new password for the ‘admin’ user:

    • Please confirm the new password for the ‘admin’ user:

    Note: The password must be a minimum of 15 characters and contain mixed-case letters, numbers, and special characters from the set !@#$%^&*()”””)

    Summary

    The Summary provides an opportunity to review the inputs. There is also the setup command with additional CLI arguments for running the setup script again or on another host (for example, set up a secondary instance).

    Sample output

      Summary
   -------

   Hostname: bigipnext1
   Management Network Already Configured: False
   Management IP Address: 192.168.1.245/24
   Management Gateway: 192.168.1.1
   DNS Servers: 192.168.1.1
   NTP Servers: 0.pool.ntp.org

    This confirmation message is displayed,
    Would you like to complete configuration with these parameters (Y/n) [N]: –> type Y.

    The script runs. It may take several minutes to complete.

    Sample output

    ...
[info] Setting hostname to bigipnext1...
[info] Waiting for BIG-IP Next API to be ready.  This can take up to 5 minutes ...
[info] Setting admin password
[info] Getting login token
[info] Waiting for all services to be ready
[info] Sending initial onboarding request
[info] Sending data plane route request
[info] Setup completed successfully.

Add instance to BIG-IP Next Central Manager

Installation is now complete and the new instance is now ready to be added to BIG-IP Next Central Manager.

How to: Add a locally-onboarded BIG-IP Next instance to BIG-IP Next Central Manager