Deploying BIG-IP F5
While this section focuses on the details of using Proxmox as a hypervisor to install EVE-NG, I will cover VMware ESXi 8 in a separate lab. I covered ESXi 6.5 but not since the Broadcom acquisition of VMware.
The free community edition EVE-NG ISO image is used for this lab. Also deploying the BIGIP F5 Local Traffic Management (LTM) appliance is used in this network topology. The installation of both Proxmox and EVE-NG can be found at Proxmox EVE-NG installation.
Now we are ready to create a VIP to access the BIGIP F5 LTM appliance. The topology is as follows:
We will start with the nodes.
1) Local traffic > Nodes > Create
Repeat > Server2
Repeat > Server3
Then instead of repeating again, select Finished.
2) With these 3 nodes, the Node List is follows. The node colors are red indicates they are unavailable/down. They turn green once online available/up.
The monitoring status indicators are shown above.
3) Create Vlans | Network > VLANS > VLAN List > Create
– Inside associating with interface E1.1 untagged (non trunk)
– Outside associating with interface E1.2 untagged (non trunk)
Vlan List
4) Self-IP | Network > Self-IP > Create
– Internal_IP | 10.1.2.100/24 | Inside | Allow Default
– External_IP | 172.16.2.145/24 | Outside | Allow Default
Self-IP List
5) Created Pool | Local Traffic > Pools > Pool List > Create
– Add 1st node from drop down (from Node List)
– Add 2nd node from drop down (repeat)
– Add 3rd node from drop down (repeat)
– Do not repeat, just finish once done!
5a) Pools -> Pool List > server_pool > /Common/http (update) **
Create VIP | Virtual Server > Create
From the Default Pool drop down, select sever_pool and update…the VIP status will go green.
Now, on the remote client machine, open browser with VIP IP address http://172.16.2.145.
– Duplicate tab twice
– Refresh second tab (press F5)
– Refresh third tab (press F5)
Now watch how each subsequent server is hit.
Now from > Node > Local Traffic, the round-robin node statistics can be viewed:
