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lengua_7650's avatar
lengua_7650
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Jun 10, 2014

Configure F5 BIG-IP VE 11.5 with Vmare 5.2

We have some existing F5 BIG-IP VE devices that we needed more RAM and CPU's for. Changing the current settings was not an option so building new ones was the way I was instructed to go. However I am pretty lost when it comes to configuring these things from scratch. I've deployed the virtual machines (VMWare 5.2) and I can get on the web admin for the F5's. I contacted tech support who re-associated my registration key so I can license the new units. From the web admin i can't even seem to get the license request to go out. I am so lost on these F5's. Can anyone give me some information on how to configure these? I have heard there is an iRule or iApp that can be used specifically for VMWare. I would like to build these using that. Can anyone guide me? I'm a big believer in F5 but without any training, these have been absolutely frustrating. My BIG-IP untis are the Virtual Editions and version 11.5.0 Build 0.0.221 Final. We have VMWare 5.2. There was an F5 setup guide that was very helpful in Delpoying the Virutal edition but didn't provide any information on what to do once the unit was deployed. Help, please.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

application delivery
deployment
design
devops
iApps
iRules
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  • Patrik_Jonsson's avatar
    Patrik_Jonsson
    Icon for MVP rankMVP
    Jun 10, 2014

    Hi!

    From what I can read from your question, you have problems activating them?

    The license activation process can be a pain in the a**, and takes several minutes unless you have dns configured and allow the F5 to contact F5's public activation servers.

    Jie has come up with a good work around in this thread:

    https://devcentral.f5.com/questions/activating-license

    Basically login to the console (SSH) and the the WebUI at the same time, activate the licence in the WebUI, as usual and the issue this command over the console:

    killall find-activate.pl

    The default user and password for console access is "root" and "default".

    After that you'll want to give the new device the same hostname as the old one and apply a backup from the old one.

    /Patrik

  • Seth_81884's avatar
    Seth_81884
    Historic F5 Account
    Jun 11, 2014

    Reading thru the post it sounds like the management IP does not have a valid default gateway configured.

     

    Making sure you have changed the passwords for both the default 'root' and 'admin' accounts is probably a good idea at this point.

     

    Using your vSphere client, log into the guest using the console tab and launch the configuration utility. [root@localhost:LICENSE EXPIRED:Standalone] config config

     

    Are the values for: IP Address, Netmask and Default Route, correct for your environment?

     

    If so, automatic activation 'should' work, assuming its not being block somewhere else downstream. You can get a bit more detail to a possible cause by using the SOAPLicenseClient from the cli. In the following example, there is no default gateway set.

     

    [root@localhost:LICENSE EXPIRED:Standalone] config SOAPLicenseClient --basekey sdfsdfsdfsdfsdf --verbose

     

    ***Error: Cannot determine IP for license server.

     

    If for some reason you cannot give the BIG-IP access to the F5 activation servers, you could follow the manual license activation method.

     

    From the licensing view in the GUI, under Activation Method, select "Manual", click next and follow the steps provided.

     

    You can access the licensing page from https://f5.com/support

     

    Hope this was helpful.