Add F5 BIG-IP

vRealize Network Insight 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 and Router dashboard are supported. For search on the F5 BIG IP entities, use the query string F5 BIG-IP Data Source. vRealize Network Insight does not support LLDP neighbors or the neighboring devices in the VM-VM path.

To add F5 BIG-IP as a data source:

Prerequisites

• The user must have:
  • the Guest role or Read Only permissions with access to all partitions.
  • access to REST API.
  • access to TMSH terminal access.
• Enable SSH on the device.
  Note:

  • Use root or the Administrator role privilege for changing the SSHD configuration.
  • Do not use the root user privilege while adding F5 BIG-IP data source in vRealize Network Insight .
  • Root user does not have HTTP access. The root user privilege is used for the administrative purpose.
  • To model the F5 device on Network Map, the SSH account must have one of the following roles:
    • Resource Administrator
    • Auditor
    • Administrator
• Enable password authentication for SSH as follows:

  [root@bigip:Active] config # tmsh
  root@bigip(Active)(/Common)(tmos)# edit sys sshd
  ## Adding the following configuration ##
  modify sshd {
     include ”
     ChallengeResponseAuthentication no
     PasswordAuthentication yes”
     }
  ################################
  Save changes? (y/n/e) y
  root@bigip(Active)(/Common)(tmos)#
  root@bigip(Active)(/Common)(tmos)# save sys config
  
  root@bigip(Active)(/Common)(tmos)# show running-config sys sshd
  sys sshd {
     include ”
     ChallengeResponseAuthentication no
     PasswordAuthentication yes”
  }

Procedure

1. On the Settings page, click Accounts and Data Sources.
2. Click Add Source.
3. Under Routers & Switches select F5 BIG-IP.
4. Provide the following information:

   Properties	Description
   Collector(Proxy) VM	Select the proxy VM from the drop-down menu.
   IP Address/FQDN	Enter the IP Address or the FQDN details.
   Username	Enter the user name you want to use for this data source.
   Password	Enter the password.

5. After entering the information in the text boxes, click Validate.
6. If you enable SNMP for the data collection, select SNMP Version.
   1. If you select 2c, then enter the associated community string.
   2. If you select 3, then enter the following:
      • Username
      • Context Name
      • Authentication Type
   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 > Acess (v1,v2c).
   4. Enter the community string.
   5. Enter the source IP address.
   6. Select the Read Only access.
   7. Click Finished.
7. Provide the Nickname and Notes as required. Click Submit.