How to Make F5 Basic ASM Lab.

First I will give you background what all you need to do then I will
show you practically that what all needs to be done to get your ASM
Lab work.

Required Software
I used virtual machines to set up and configure the BIG-IP and the auction site. You can
use whatever hypervisor you want, but for the purposes of this article, I'll show you how
it's done using VMware workstation. So, here's the list of software you will need to make
all this happen:

 VMware Workstation (free trial available here). I'm using a Windows PC, but you
can use Linux if you want.
 BIG-IP Virtual Edition (make sure you have the ASM module).
 The PHP Auction Site VMware files (Redhat version available here) and (Debian
version available here).

Caveat: This article assumes you already have a licensed and configured BIG-IP
system, so I will just focus on the PHPAuction side of things. If you don't have the BIG-IP
Virtual Edition, contact your sales rep and ask for a copy. Also, if you need help
licensing and configuring the BIG-IP Virtual Edition, check out these solutions on AskF5:

 Licensing the BIG-IP system: http://support.f5.com/kb/en-

us/solutions/public/7000/700/sol7752.html?sr=32111581
 BIG-IP Virtual Edition Setup Guide for VMware: http://support.f5.com/kb/en-
us/products/big-ip_ltm/manuals/product/bigip-ve-setup-vmware-11-4-0.html

Virtual Network Configuration

Before loading up the PHP Auction site, you need to complete the following steps to
configure the VMware Workstation Virtual Network Editor (shown in the picture below). If
you have already set up your BIG-IP Virtual Edition, you may have already stepped
through this configuration. If that's the case, you will want to make sure the settings for
your VMnets are the same as the settings shown below.
  Delete any existing VMnets EXCEPT for VMnet0
 Click the "Add Network" button, and add VMnet1, VMnet2, and VMnet3

VMnet0 Settings
Since you kept the VMnet0 settings, you don't have to do anything else with that one.
Here's a quick screenshot of the VMnet0 settings:
VMnet1 Settings
After you confirm the VMnet0 settings, select VMnet1 (this net will act as the out of band
management) and configure it as follows:

 Select the Host-only (connect VMs internally in a private network) option

 Select the "Connect a host virtual adapter to this network" checkbox
 Clear the "Use local DHCP service to distribute IP address to VMs" checkbox
 For the Subnet IP, enter 10.10.0.0 and for the Subnet mask enter 255.255.255.0
VMnet2 Settings
After you confirm the VMnet1 settings, select VMnet2 (this will act as the external VLAN
for access to 0.0.0.0) and configure it as follows:

 Select the "NAT (shared host’s IP address with VMs)" option

 Select the "Connect a host virtual adapter to this network" checkbox
 Clear the "Use local DHCP service to distribute IP address to VMs" checkbox
 For the Subnet IP, enter 10.10.10.0 and for the Subnet mask enter 255.255.255.0
 Click the "NAT Settings" button
o For the Gateway IP enter 10.10.10.1 and then click OK.
VMnet3 Settings
After you configure the VMnet2 settings, select VMnet3 (this will act as the internal
VLAN where the server image exists) and configure it as follows:

 Host-only (connect VMs internally in a private network) option selected

 Connect a host virtual adapter to this network checkbox cleared
 Use local DHCP service to distribute IP address to VMs checkbox cleared
 For the Subnet IP enter 10.1.20.0 and for the Subnet mask enter 255.255.255.0
 Ensure that the “Connect a host virtual adapter to this network” checkbox
is cleared. This prevents your local workstation from having direct access to this
network. This will avoid asymmetric routing issues and also allows you to
demonstrate secure remote access and full proxy features.
This concludes the network setup for VMware. Now you can install the PHP Auction
virtual machine...

Install the PHP Auction Image

In VMware Workstation, select File >> Open and choose the "Open Virtual Machine
Format" PHP Auction file (this will be a .ovf file).

After you import the virtual machine (you may have to accept a few license agreements,
etc), then you move on to configuring the virtual machine network settings. The following
screenshot shows the settings for the PHP Auction virtual machine. You will need to
customize the three Network Adapters to the settings shown in the picture below (you
will use the three custom VMnets you just created), but you shouldn't need to configure
anything else on this screen.
After the virtual machine imports correctly, you can power it on and let it boot up. When
the boot up completes, you will see the following login screen:
The login is "root" and the password is "default". So, go ahead and login and then you
can leave it alone...you won't need to touch it again.

Configure the BIG-IP

Now it's time to make sure the BIG-IP is set up correctly to protect the traffic flowing
to/from the auction site. First, create a pool (I called it "auction_pool" but you can call it
whatever you want) with node address 10.1.20.150 and service port 80. This pool only
has one member. The following screenshot shows you the details for the auction pool.
Next, you create the virtual server. I called it "auction_vs" but you can call it whatever
you want...just don't call me Shirley. The IP address for the virtual server is 10.10.10.35,
and I chose service port 80.Keep in mind that if you choose port 443, you should create
an SSL client profile and configure the appropriate certificate and key combo for the
profile. The following screenshot shows the details of the virtual server configuration.

The Final Touches

OK...now that the BIG-IP is all set up and the PHP Auction virtual machine is running,
you should be able to access the auction site from your browser of choice. One other
optional thing you can do is add the virtual server IP address of the auction site to the
"hosts" file in WIndows. You should be able to locate this file at: C: >> Windows >>
System32 >> drivers >> etc. You can add the IP address to the file and then provide a
host name for the auction site...the example below shows the name
"auction.f5demo.com" but, again, you can choose something different if you want.
So, the final check is to make sure all this works. Notice that the "auction.f5demo.com"
worked as expected. You can also use the IP address "10.10.10.35" if you want.
I hope this information is helpful. Feel free to comment and/or ask questions as needed.
Also, be sure to check out the articles that dig deeper into the configurations and
capabilities of the ASM!