Archive for F5 Load Balancer

Setting up an F5 Load Balancer v12

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Instructions

  • On the F5 website, click trial license and download your software and request a license to be emailed to you (F5 BIG-VE-LAB-LIC)

https://f5.com/products/trials/product-trials

F5a

  • Download the installer (ESXi Server)

F5b

  • Open vCenter and select File > Deploy OVF Template

F5c

  • Accept License agreement
  • Put in a name

F5dPNG

  • Check the resources

f55PNG

  • Choose the storage

f56PNG

  • Choose disk formatting options

f57PNG

  • Check network mappings
  • Management and Internal need to be on different networks so my machines will sit on the F5 network. I’m not worried about the oher 2 networks for now as I will use the management and the Internal only

F5e

  • Check details
  • Click Finish

F5f

  • Power on the appliance
  • Put in root as the username and default as the password
  • Type config and the following screen will open

vRAD133

  • Say No to automatically configured address
  • Put in your IP address, Subnet Mask and Gateway
  • You should now be able to log into the interface on https://youripaddress

vRAD134

  • The username is admin and the password is admin

vRAD135

  • You will need to activate the license which will have been emailed to you

vRAD136

  • Accept the license agreement

vRAD137

  • You should now see the below screen which shows you current resource reservations, License status and disk provisioning figures

vRAD138

  • Click Next and you will now see your device certificates screen

Screen Shot 2016-07-07 at 10.45.49

  • You will now be on the General properties screen
  • Add in your Hostname in FQDN format, Timezone and change the Root and Admin account password and any other details which require changing

Screen Shot 2016-07-07 at 10.49.55

  • It will ask you to Log out and in again
  • When you log back in you will be presented with a network screen
  • Click Next

F5g

  • Click Next on the page below

F5h

  • On the VLANs page put in a self IP, and subnet mask this needs to be an address on your internal network, in my case the F5 network
  • Put in a floating IP address on the same network
  • In Internal VAN configuration, select the 1.0 VLAN interface and select untagged and click Add

F5i

  • Interface 1.0 is the Management interface that was initialized during the deployment of the OVA and configured earlier in this document.
  • As mentioned earlier for the purpose of this document we will be utilizing only the Internal (Interface 1.1) Interface for load balancing
  • The Internal Interface or Interface 1.1 corresponds to Network Adapter 2 of our F5 appliance
  • You are now on the External Network Configuration screen
  • In External Network Configuration, Choose Select existing VLAN and select Internal
  • In External VLAN configuration delete anything in interfaces then add 1.2 as untagged

F5k

  • On the High Availability screen do the same as the above and Select existing VLAN as Internal
  • On the High Availability VLAN Configuration screen, delete the interface in interfaces and choose 1.3 and untagged and add

F5l

  • Add in the NTP Configuration. I just pointed to my domain controller.

F5m

  • Make sure the correct DNS Lookup Servers and DNS search Domain have been added.

vRAD143

  • Click Next, Next, Next until you get to the Finished screen

F5o

  • You will now be on the default F5 page and ready to set up load balancing

Setting up VMware vCenter PSCs with an F5 Load Balancer

Please see the below link to see the F5 in action 🙂

vSphere 6 Platform Services Controller HA Setups – High Availability with an F5 Load Balancer

Useful Links

http://kaloferov.com/blog/configuring-vrealize-automation-load-balancing-using-f5-big-ip/

http://networkjutsu.com/f5-big-ip-ltm-ve-home-lab/

https://downloads.f5.com/esd/ecc.sv?sw=BIG-IP&pro=big-ip_v11.x&ver=11.6.0&container=Virtual-Edition