VMware Aria Operations for Networks supports the router and load balancer functionalities of F5 BIG-IP. The features like VM-VM path, high availability, VRFs, Routes, Router Interfaces, Switch Ports, Port Channels, Switch Port metrics, VRF Dashboard, Switch Dashboard, Router dashboard, and Assurance and Verification (Load Balancing and Source Network Address Translation in path search, and intents) are supported. For search on the F5 BIG IP entities, use the query string F5 BIG-IP Data Source. VMware Aria Operations for Networks does not support LLDP neighbors or the neighboring devices in the VM-VM path.

Prerequisites

  • You must verify the following information:

    • The data source and its version is supported in VMware Aria Operations for Networks. For more information, see Supported Products and Versions.
    • The data source follows VMware Ports and Protocols supported in VMware Aria Operations for Networks. For more information, see VMware Ports and Protocols.
  • You must have the following permissions:
    • The Guest role or Read Only permissions with access to all partitions.
    • Access to F5 BIG-IP REST API.
    Note:
    • VMware Aria Operations for Networks does not require root user privilege.
Note: VMware Aria Operations for Networks supports only Local Traffic Module (LTM). Enabling other modules can prevent VMware Aria Operations for Networks to collect data from the device.

Procedure

  1. From the left navigation pane, go to Settings > Accounts and Data Sources.
  2. Click Add Source.
  3. Under Load Balancers, click F5 BIG-IP.
  4. In the Add a New F5 BIG-IP Account or Source page, provide the required information.
    Option Action
    Collector VM Select a collector VM from the drop-down menu.
    IP Address/FQDN Enter the IP address or the FQDN details.
    Username Enter the user name.
    Password Enter the password.
  5. Click Validate.
  6. (Optional) To enable a richer data collection, click the Use SNMP (recommended for richer data collection) check box, and do the following:
    1. From the SNMP Version drop-down menu, select an SNMP version. Depending on which version of SNMP you have selected, do the following:
      Option Action
      2c In the Community String text box, enter a community string.
      3
      1. Enter Username, Context Name.
      2. From the Authentication Type drop-down, select an authentication type and enter the Authentication Password.
      3. From the Privacy Type drop-down, select a privacy type and enter the Privacy Password.
    Note: Ensure that you configure SNMP on the F5 BIG-IP UI console.
    1. Log in to F5.
    2. Navigate to System > SNMP.
    3. Go to SNMP > Agent > Access (v1, v2c).
    4. Enter the community string.
    5. Enter the source IP address.
    6. Select the Read Only access.
    7. Click Finished.
  7. (Optional) In the Nickname text box, enter a nickname.
  8. (Optional) In the Notes text box, add a note if necessary.
  9. Click Submit.

What to do next

Send flow records from F5 to VMware Aria Operations for Networks
Note: To send sFLow data to VMware Aria Operations for Networks, you must follow the recommendations mentioned in https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K15193.
VMware Aria Operations for Networks supports the following features of F5 BIG-IP:
  • Neighbor Discovery (LLDP)
  • VLAN
  • STP (Spanning Tree Protocol ). This feature is supported only in network assurance and verification.
  • Layer 3 Routing (IPv4)
  • Route Domain
  • Virtual Server
  • Load Balance Pool
  • NAT (Network Address Translation). This feature is supported only in network assurance and verification.
  • Partition