Forum Discussion

TTF888_160708's avatar
TTF888_160708
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Jun 24, 2014

How do I configure an F5 LTM VE Lab on my Laptop and drive traffic to it to generate logs?

I have successfully installed the F5 LTM VE Lab on VMWare Fusion 6, but I'm unclear how to configure it so that I can drive traffic through it from my browser (I am open to driving traffic in other ways, such as using blitz.io) with a macro.

 

I'm unclear on the details of setting up the underlying network to do so.

 

I have the configuration worksheet, but I'm not clear how to define the IPs and VLAN groups to achieve this objective:

 

http://support.f5.com/content/kb/en-us/products/big-ip_ltm/manuals/product/configuration_worksheet/_jcr_content/pdfAttach/download/file.res/Configuration_Worksheet_-_BIG-IP_Local_Traffic_Manager.pdf

 

application delivery
cloud
configuration
deployment
LTM
virtualization
vmware

32 Replies

Sort By
Show More
  • Patrik_Jonsson's avatar
    Patrik_Jonsson
    Icon for MVP rankMVP
    Jun 25, 2014

    Ok, that's great.

    So now you have the following on the LTM:

    VLAN: External
IP: 192.168.77.2 
Mac: 0:C:29:8c:a7:95

VLAN: Internal
IP: 192.168.96.2
Mac: 0:C:29:8c:a7:9f

    That means the vmware interfaces should be configured like this:

    • Interface 3 (Mac: 00:0C:29:8C:A7:95) should be placed in VMNet1
    • Interface 4 (Mac: 00:0C:29:8C:A7:9F) should be placed in VMNet8

    If you've configured it like this you should now be able to ping 192.168.77.2 and 192.168.96.1 from your Macintosh.

    /Patrik

  • Kevin_Davies_40's avatar
    Kevin_Davies_40
    Icon for Nacreous rankNacreous
    Jun 28, 2014

    `Ok in the latest VMware Fusion this has became a LOT easier.

     

    1. Start up VMware fusion then goto preferences -> networking.
    2. Unlock the padlock at the bottom to make changes
    3. Remove the tick against require auth to enter promiscuous mode
    4. Add four new interfaces. Where it says auto generated specify your own subnets like 192.168.86.0 (I believe it requires VMware Fusion Professional to do this from the GUI)
    5. Make sure each interface has "Connect the host MAC to this network checked."
    6. Any network that requires external access should have the NAT option but only one interface on a VM can have this feature.
    7. Apply and save.
    8. Download the BIGIP 11.5.1 Virtual Edition OVA for VMware
    9. Now open the OVA with VMware but do not start it.
    10. Assign the four new interfaces to your VM.
    11. Inside the VM they will be mgmt(eth0), 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 in that order
    12. Start the VM, when you get the login prompt it should be ready to configure.
    13. In about two minutes you should be able to access the GUI on https://x.x.x.128 address of the first network adapter you assigned to the VM.
    • Kevin_Davies_40's avatar
      Kevin_Davies_40
      Icon for Nacreous rankNacreous
      Jun 28, 2014
      Note: I just performed this procedure now with 11.5.1 so I documented it.
    • Patrik_Jonsson's avatar
      Patrik_Jonsson
      Icon for MVP rankMVP
      Jun 28, 2014
      He got it working but this is great info for people stumbling across this thread seeking the same answers. /Patrik
    • Kevin_Davies_40's avatar
      Kevin_Davies_40
      Icon for Nacreous rankNacreous
      Jun 28, 2014
      If you tick NAT on the first interface you can use automatic licensing when your laptop has internet access. The DHCP assigns both default route and DNS settings to the BIGIP on boot so it can reach license.f5.com directly. As a general note the your laptop will have an address of .1 on each interface. If NAT is ticked you can route to the Internet through .2 for each network . I usually assign .10 as the self IP on my data interfaces and then my Virtual servers start at .11. Because the Mac has a built in webserver I use that for testing. Configuration is defined in /etc/apache2/httpd.conf. The webserver files can be found in /Library/WebServer/Documents. Start with sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist. Just be mindful this listens on all interfaces so you define pool members as x.x.x.1:80 to reach your test web pages. Where x.x.x is the network of the interface you defined as internal facing.