Overview of the BIG-IP F5 LTM Basic Setup Utility – Initial Configuration

Platform: https://racks.uninets.com

Lab Name: F5 LTM

Access full Palo Alto lab guide here: F5 LTM Workbook

Instructor-led Training – https://www.uninets.com/

This post will give you detailed overview of how to setup “Initial Configuration of BIG-IP F5 LTM”

Task

• Undemanding the basic architecture of f5 Accessing the f5 through ssh

• Configure BIGIP-1 with hostname as “BIGIP-1”, and Configure BIGIP-1 with IP address on interface Eth0 as 172.16.10.1/24 and default gateway as 172.16.10.11 and also verify it.

Explanation

Big ip 11050 platform

Front view

1. Management port :
2. USB ports
3. Console port
4. Serial (hard-wired) failover port
5. SFP+ ports
6. LCD display
7. LCD control buttons
8. Indicator LEDs

Big ip F5 is an network device that mainly manages and load balances the traffic for networking equipment such as servers, routers and firewalls. We generally deploy it to increase the reliability in our network. The BIG-IP system uses the following two network connection entry points:

• TMM switch interfaces

• Management interface (MGMT)

Either the Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM) switch interfaces or the MGMT interface can provide administrative access to the BIG-IP system. However, F5 recommends that you use the management port.The TMM switch ports are the interfaces that the BIG-IP system uses to send and receive load-balanced traffic.

The system uses the MGMT interface to perform system management functions. The MGMT interface is intended for administrative traffic and cannot be used for load-balanced traffic.By default eth0 is is the management port of f5 device having and pre-configured ip address of 192.168.1.245/24

Configuration

Login to BGIP-1 (ip- 192.168.1.245) via ssh Open software putty. Select ssh as shown below:

In the hostname or ip address field type the ip address of bigip-1 192.168.1.245 And click on open.

Use credentials login as “ROOT” and password “DEFAULT”

Change the hostname of bigip1 from default to BIGIP-1

Verify and Change the default ip address of management port eth0 of bigip1 By default the eth0 has the preconfigured management ip address of 192.168.1.245/24. we can verify and change it by two method

bigip-1:

Changing the management ip address;

Following window will appear and take the cursor to ok it will turn green and the press enter

After pressing enter the following window will occur: take the cursor to ok by using arrow key and press enter when the ok turns green Now following window will appear:

Now change the ip address from 192.168.1.245 to 172.16.10.1 and take the cursor to ok and press enter as shown

Now window will occur that will ask to configure netmask or subnet mask if want to change You can change but in this example we want to keep the mask same so just press enter on ok

Now it will ask create the default route or you can say the default gateway: Press enter on yes

now another window will open that will ask you to give the ip address of default-gateway

take the cursor to the ip and change it to 172.16.10.11 and press enter on ok.

another window will occur that will ask to save the setting or the changes you have made. Press enter on yes.

Note: Now you have successfully change the default management ip address, subnet mask and default-gateway of bigip-1.At this time you will lose the connectivity because you have change the management ip address through which you are accessing. And again, we have to take the ssh via new management ip address of the big-ip 1 that is 172.16.10.1

Again, it will ask for the username and password use the same values as earlier username –root and password as default

Verification:

Changing the ip address using tmsh-Go into the tmshell by typing tmsh-

Note: while changing the management-ip via tmsh as above a following error message willcome and that is because dhcp is enable and it will ask you to disable the dhcp first.

ERROR:

01071635:3: /Common/management-ip: Conflicting configuration. Management-ip can’t be deleted manually while DHCP is enabled. Within tmsh run ‘modify sys global-settings mgmt-dhcp disabled’ before manually changing the management-ip.

Disabling the dhcp service on bigip-2 via following command

now it will accept the ip address without any error message