Not able to access BIG IP using external Self IP Address

Question

Hello Everyone,&nbsp;I am new to F5 world and am in the process of setting up my F5 lab. I have been able to set it up but couldn't access it using the external Self IP Address. I can however ping the default gateway from my lab PC but could not access the BIG IP external IP Address. I am able to access it using the Management IP Address of 10.1.1.245 though, any help on this will be highly appreciated.&nbsp;I am using VMWare Workstation Pro 15.5.2 and the version of BIG IP is 14.1.0-0.0.116. Below are the IPconfig details on my lab PC. I am trying to ping 10.1.10.240 which is the BIG IP external self IP Address and it is failing&nbsp;*********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************&nbsp;C:\Users\external_user&gt;ipconfig&nbsp;Windows IP Configuration&nbsp;&nbsp;Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Connection-specific DNS Suffix&nbsp;. :&nbsp;&nbsp;Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::34fe:d569:9a5b:77df%17&nbsp;&nbsp;IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.1.199&nbsp;&nbsp;Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0&nbsp;&nbsp;Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :&nbsp;Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Connection-specific DNS Suffix&nbsp;. :&nbsp;&nbsp;IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : fd00:1::2&nbsp;&nbsp;Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::9cda:114f:1c2c:f3d9%11&nbsp;&nbsp;IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.10.199&nbsp;&nbsp;Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0&nbsp;&nbsp;Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :10.1.10.2&nbsp;Tunnel adapter isatap.{999F364A-3BBC-4951-9262-9D93BE7D8CED}:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected&nbsp;&nbsp;Connection-specific DNS Suffix&nbsp;. :&nbsp;Tunnel adapter isatap.{8B0664DD-B343-4692-A3F6-B87F14C5B5FB}:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected&nbsp;&nbsp;Connection-specific DNS Suffix&nbsp;. :&nbsp;C:\Users\external_user&gt;ping 10.1.10.2&nbsp;Pinging 10.1.10.2 with 32 bytes of data:Reply from 10.1.10.2: bytes=32 time&lt;1ms TTL=128Reply from 10.1.10.2: bytes=32 time&lt;1ms TTL=128Reply from 10.1.10.2: bytes=32 time=20ms TTL=128Reply from 10.1.10.2: bytes=32 time&lt;1ms TTL=128&nbsp;Ping statistics for 10.1.10.2:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 20ms, Average = 5ms&nbsp;C:\Users\external_user&gt;ping 10.1.10.240&nbsp;Pinging 10.1.10.240 with 32 bytes of data:Reply from 10.1.10.199: Destination host unreachable.Reply from 10.1.10.199: Destination host unreachable.Reply from 10.1.10.199: Destination host unreachable.Reply from 10.1.10.199: Destination host unreachable.&nbsp;Ping statistics for 10.1.10.240:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),&nbsp;C:\Users\external_user&gt;&nbsp;

kevin_davies · Answer

First up, download the latest OVA version of BIG-IP. I've found the VE version of v14 to be buggy as hell.

Secondly do you have dual LAN connections on your machine? I notice dual Local Area Connections. If so then VMNet2 is the same as the address space on Local Area Connection so it will never route correctly. If you want to use the same network intenal as external to the machine you have to change the VMNet2 interface type to bridged.

If you want it to stay as NAT then change VMNet2 to 10.1.30.0/24 and the SelfIP address something in that network. You should then be able to access the F5 on its external Self-IP address from the local machine. When you are coming from outside the machine, eg somewhere on the network then it will be Local Area Connection address on whatever port you forward to the F5's Self IP address. (you dont have any port forwards setup at the moment on that NAT interface)

Lastly, some VE's have a really nasty habit of swapping interface order. So interface 1.1 on the BIGIP is not the second interface in VMware as it should be. Once you have the BIG-IP running, check the MAC address under interfaces is the same MAC address under the second assigned Vmware interface. Check all the data interfaces MAC's match the interfaces in Vmware in the same order. (https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K12149)

forrest_field · Answer

Thanks for your reply Kevin. Sorry for being noob here but I didn't understand below paragraph:

"I notice dual Local Area Connections. If so then VMNet2 is the same as the address space on Local Area Connection so it will never route correctly. If you want to use the same network intenal as external to the machine you have to change the VMNet2 interface type to bridged

If you want it to stay as NAT then change VMNet2 to 10.1.30.0/24 and the SelfIP address something in that network. You should then be able to access the F5 on its external Self-IP address from the local machine. When you are coming from outside the machine, eg somewhere on the network then it will be Local Area Connection address on whatever port you forward to the F5's Self IP address. (you dont have any port forwards setup at the moment on that NAT interface)."

Below is how I have setup my lab environment:

I have installed VMware workstation on my laptop. Inside that VMware workstation, I have installed my BIGIP VM and my Windows 7 VM. On my VMware workstation, I have defined below three networks:

10.1.1.0/24 - Management network

10.1.10.0/24 - External Network, type set to NAT with Default Gateway of 10.1.10.2

10.1.2.0/24 - Internal Network

Now since 10.1.1.0/24 and 10.1.10.0/24 networks are being checked for the option "Connect a host virtual Adpater to this network" hence that had also created two networks VMnet 1 and VMnet 2 on my physical laptop with IP address of 10.1.1.150 and 10.1.10.150 respectively.

On my virtual Windows 7 installed on VMware workstation, I also have two networks Local Area Connection and Local Area Connection 2 with IP address of 10.1.10.199 and 10.1.1.199 respectively.

Now with above setup and configuration, what exactly you want me to do that should resolve this connectivity problem.

Your help is much appreciated.

forrest_field · Answer

hello David, the issue got resolved after installing version 15.1 for BIG IP. Thanks for your help&nbsp;

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Not able to access BIG IP using external Self IP Address

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