Applies To:
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BIG-IP PEM
- 11.5.2
Summary:
This release note documents the version 11.5.2 release of BIG-IP Policy Enforcement Manager (PEM).
Contents:
- Supported platforms
- Configuration utility browser support
- User documentation for this release
- Fixes in 11.5.2
- Fixes in 11.5.1
- Fixes in 11.5.0
- New in 11.5.2
- New in 11.5.1
- New in 11.5.0
- Supported high availability configuration for Policy Enforcement Manager
- Installation overview
- Known issues
- Contacting F5 Networks
- Legal notices
Supported platforms
This version of the software is supported on the following platforms:
| Platform name | Platform ID |
|---|---|
| BIG-IP 5000s, 5050s, 5200v, 5250v | C109 |
| BIG-IP 7000s, 7050s, 7200v, 7250v | D110 |
| BIG-IP 12250v (requires 11.6.0 HF2) | D111 |
| BIG-IP 10350N (requires 11.6.0 HF2) | D112 |
| BIG-IP 10000s, 10050s, 10200v, 10250v | D113 |
| VIPRION B2100 Blade (for evaluation only) | A109 |
| VIPRION B2150 Blade | A113 |
| VIPRION B2250 Blade | A112 |
| VIPRION B4200, B4200N Blade (for evaluation only) | A107, A111 |
| VIPRION B4300, B4340N Blade | A108, A110 |
| VIPRION C2200 Chassis | D114 |
| VIPRION C2400 Chassis | F100 |
| VIPRION C4400, C4400N Chassis | J100, J101 |
| VIPRION C4480, C4480N Chassis | J102, J103 |
| VIPRION C4800, C4800N Chassis | S100, S101 |
| Virtual Edition (VE) | Z100 |
These platforms support various licensable combinations of product modules. This section provides general guidelines for module support.
Most of the support guidelines relate to memory. The following list applies for all memory levels:
- PEM supported platforms
- VIPRION B2100, B2150, B2250, B4300, B4340N
- BIG-IP 5x00v(s), 7x00v(s), 10x00v(s)
- BIG-IP Virtual Edition (VE) (Not including Amazon Web Service Virtual Edition) (3 GB, 10 GB production and combination lab models)
- PEM may be provisioned on the VIPRION B4200, but it is not recommended for production, only for evaluation. PEM may be provisioned on the VIPRION B2100, but it is not recommended for production, only for evaluation. Use the B4300 or B4340N instead.
Memory: 12 GB or more
All licensable module-combinations may be run on platforms with 12 GB or more of memory, and on VE guests provisioned with 12 GB or more of memory. Note that this does not mean that all modules may be simultaneously provisioned on all platforms with 12 GB or more of memory. The BIG-IP license for the platform determines which combination of modules are available for provisioning.
Memory: 8 GB
The following guidelines apply to the BIG-IP 2000s, 2200s, 3900, 6900 platforms, to the VIPRION B4100 and B4100N platforms, and to VE guests configured with 8 GB of memory.
- No more than three modules should be provisioned together.
- On the 2000s and 2200s, Application Acceleration Manager (AAM) can be provisioned with only one other module.
Memory: Less than 8 GB and more than 4 GB
The following guidelines apply to platforms, and to VE guests provisioned with less than 8 GB and more than 4 GB of memory.
- No more than three modules (not including AAM) should be provisioned together.
- Application Acceleration Manager (AAM) cannot be provisioned with any other module; AAM can only be provisioned standalone.
- Analytics (AVR) counts towards the two module-combination limit (for platforms with less than 6.25 GB of memory).
Memory: 4 GB or less
The following guidelines apply to the BIG-IP 1600 and 3600 platforms, and to VE guests provisioned with 4 GB or less of memory.
- No more than two modules may be configured together.
Configuration utility browser support
The BIG-IP Configuration Utility supports these browsers and versions:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.x, 11.x
- Mozilla Firefox 27.x
- Google Chrome 32.x
User documentation for this release
For a comprehensive list of documentation that is relevant to this release, refer to the BIG-IP PEM / VE11.5.2 Documentation page.
Fixes in 11.5.1
| ID number | Description |
|---|---|
| 432950 | The BIG-IP GUI and QoS model uses uplink, downlink, total terminology which corresponds to input, output and total terms respectively, defined by RFC 4006. |
Fixes in 11.5.0
| ID number | Description |
|---|---|
| 403154 | When updating signatures,/classification_base.conf is now manually updated from the tmsh. |
| 404047 | The BIG-IP system comes with a publisher called local-db-publisher. This publisher can now be used as hsl endpoint for reporting. |
| 406311 | Wait for 2 or more flows for the connection to not reset while dropping. After that, the user will not see any resets on that specific connection. |
| 408153 | Now, diameter messages (CCR and RAA messages) generated by the BIG-IP system, have the P bit (proxy-able) set. |
| 419729 | The auto-sync works for syncing the custom-created SPM (PEM) profiles with PEM policies. |
| 422993 | PEM is now listed as a module and can be provisioned in platform B4340N. |
| 425821 | No crash occurs when invalid classification ID is skipped. |
New in 11.5.0
Gy Support and Quota Management
This release provides support for quota management and prepaid charging per subscriber, or application with PEM and communication with the OCS in the mobile network using the 3GPP Gy interface. This is a license-based feature.
Dynamic Service Chaining
- The ability to add/skip different VAS endpoints through policy-based, forwarding endpoint selection.
- Perform header insertion/removal per leg of the VAS chain depending on the policy.
- The ability to include a sideband VAS in the service chain using ICAP as the protocol (multiple ICAP sideband connection per service chain).
Classify IP protocols
This feature includes support for several non-TCP/non-UDP protocols like IPsec, GRE, IPinIP, ICMP and SCTP. When upgrading from a previous release, the virtual server for all protocols does not include the IPOther profile.
Steering on Response
This feature supports the ability to analyse the response message and apply steering policy action for the flow, or for transaction when the policy decision cannot be made based on only the request message, and it requires both the request and response messages.
Statistics and Debuggability
This feature adds improvements to the debuggability, health monitoring, and troubleshooting features in previous releases. This release includes subscriber-level stats, more Gx stats, Gy stats, RADIUS stats, and HSL stats. Statistics for specific subscribers is available for detailed troubleshooting to show flows, classification results, policy, and action.
Transactional Classification and Policy Enforcement
URL Categorization
This feature provides the ability to enforce policies configured as part of the subscriber profile based on the URL category type. The URL categorization is obtained by querying an internal repository. Also, the URL categorization is transaction-aware and is a licensed feature.
Supported high availability configuration for Policy Enforcement Manager
Policy Enforcement Manager is supported in an active-standby and active-active configuration with two BIG-IP systems only.
Installation overview
This document covers very basic steps for installing the software. You can find complete, step-by-step installation and upgrade instructions in BIG-IP Systems: Upgrading Active-Standby Systems and BIG-IP Systems: Upgrading Active-Active Systems, and we strongly recommend that you reference these documents to ensure successful completion of the installation process.
Installation checklist
Before you begin:
- Use BIG-IP iHealth to verify your configuration file. For more information, see SOL12878: Generating BIG-IP diagnostic data using the qkview utility (10.x - 11.x).
- Update/reactivate your system license, if needed, to ensure that you have a valid service check date.
- Ensure that your system is running version 10.1.0 or later and is using the volumes formatting scheme.
- Download the .iso file (if needed) from F5 Downloads to /shared/images on the source for the operation. (If you need to create this directory, use the exact name /shared/images.)
- Configure a management port.
- Set the console and system baud rate to 19200, if it is not already.
- Log on as an administrator using the management port of the system you want to upgrade.
- Boot into an installation location other than the target for the installation.
- Save the user configuration set (UCS) in the /var/local/ucs directory on the source installation location, and copy the UCS file to a safe place on another device.
- Log on to the standby unit, and only upgrade the active unit after the standby upgrade is satisfactory.
- Turn off mirroring.
- If you are running Application Acceleration Manager, set provisioning to Minimum.
- If you are running Policy Enforcement Manager, set provisioning to Nominal.
- If you are running Advanced Firewall Manager, set provisioning to Nominal.
Installing the software
| Installation method | Command |
|---|---|
| Install to existing volume, migrate source configuration to destination | tmsh install sys software image [image name] volume [volume name] |
| Install from the browser-based Configuration utility | Use the Software Management screens in a web browser. |
Sample installation command
The following command installs version 11.2.0 to volume 3 of the main hard drive.
tmsh install sys software image BIGIP-11.2.0.2446.0.iso volume HD1.3
Post-installation tasks
This document covers very basic steps for installing the software. You can find complete, step-by-step installation and upgrade instructions in BIG-IP Systems: Upgrading Active-Standby Systems and BIG-IP Systems: Upgrading Active-Active Systems, and we strongly recommend that you reference these documents to ensure successful completion of the installation process.
- Ensure the system rebooted to the new installation location.
- Use BIG-IP iHealth to verify your configuration file. For more information, see SOL12878: Generating BIG-IP diagnostic data using the qkview utility (10.x - 11.x).
- Log on to the browser-based Configuration utility.
- Run the Setup utility.
- Provision the modules.
- Convert any bigpipe scripts to tmsh. (Version 11.x does not support the bigpipe utility.)
Installation tips
- The upgrade process installs the software on the inactive installation location that you specify. This process usually takes between three minutes and seven minutes. During the upgrade process, you see messages posted on the screen. For example, you might see a prompt asking whether to upgrade the End User Diagnostics (EUD), depending on the version you have installed. To upgrade the EUD, type yes, otherwise, type no.
- You can check the status of an active installation operation by running the command watch tmsh show sys software, which runs the show sys software command every two seconds. Pressing Ctrl + C stops the watch feature.
- If installation fails, you can view the log file. The system stores the installation log file as /var/log/liveinstall.log.
Known issues
| ID number | Description |
|---|---|
| 397397 | When multiple static subscriber information is loaded from a .csv file, the subscriber information is lost if enter or CRLF is not entered at the end of each record line. To workaround this issue, press the Enter key or insert the CRLF character at the end of each row in the .csv file. |
| 398416 | In this release, volume threshold is supported. However, time threshold does not qualify for Gx reporting as it is not specified in the standard. To workaround this issue, do not use time threshold. |
| 398922 | Only a single instance of the diameter-endpoint profile is supported in this release: the system-supplied default gx-endpoint profile. As a result, diameter-endpoint profiles cannot be created or deleted in the GUI or in tmsh. |
| 399119 | If a policy rule matched with flow filters drop or redirect the traffic, that traffic will not match other policy rules that use classification filters. |
| 400372 | The protocol msn_video is used by MSN Messenger for video conversations and is supported for MSN Messenger 8 and earlier. |
| 400893 | The .csv file for uploading static subscribers has multiple lines with Mac end-of-line. To work around this issue, convert the file into WIN file format and upload from the GUI or tmsh. This resolves the issue. |
| 403374 | On rare occasions, when a policy is installed with 15 rules and reporting is configured on them, only 14 of the reports are generated when multiple flows (traffic) are sent matching all of them. Maximum usage reports per subscriber is supported. |
| 406311 | If gate status disabled action is enforced while using profile FastL4, the client will see unwanted connection resets. To work around this issue, set the srDB using the db var tmm.pem.srdb.entry.step to 240. |
| 406349 | If the dynamic_spm_bwc_policy is not created, dynamic PCC rules are not applied. To work around this issue, ensure that the dynamic_spm_bwc_policy is configured with proper parameters prior to getting dynamic PCC rules from the PCRF. |
| 409201 | If you change the SPM (PEM) profile of a virtual during a certain flow, the flow will not get policy reevaluation. Instead, only new flows will be using the new policies that are attached to the profile. |
| 410763 | If the monitoring key is longer than 1053 characters, an error message is issued. To work around this issue, use monitoring keys fewer than 1053 characters. |
| 417139 | Modifying Session state through iRules may cause issues over Gx. To work around this issue, do not modify the session state if session is active. |
| 427429 | No statistics are available for troubleshooting with the new "show pem irule" stats command. |
| 427844 | Any tunneling traffic such IPsec, GRE, and IPIP cannot be steered by the BIG-IP system to a different endpoint. This is because the traffic is encapsulated and targets only the destination endpoint. |
| 428178 | All IP addresses that are identified as frequent are not stored in the database, and thus are not categorized. |
| 428420 | Some IP addresses are categorized as unknown on the BIG-IP system, even though they are categorized in the cloud database of webroot. |
| 430344 | A URL categorization limitation is that a small set of URLs are categorized as unknown on the BIG-IP system, even though they may get categorized in the cloud database of webroot. |
| 435596 | The CEC hitless upgrade does not sync files between active-standby setup, using device group. To work around this issue, change standby to active to do CEC hitless upgrade. |
| 438549 | If you turn on the SNAT pool or SNAT Automap on IPOther virtual, no traffic passes through in most cases. In some cases, the traffic passes but the out stats (packets and bytes) is zero. To workaround this, do not turn on SNAT pool or SNAT Automap on IPOther virtual that processes IPsec traffic. |
Contacting F5 Networks
| Phone: | (206) 272-6888 |
| Fax: | (206) 272-6802 |
| Web: | http://support.f5.com |
| Email: | support@f5.com |
For additional information, please visit http://www.f5.com.
Additional resources
You can find additional support resources and technical documentation through a variety of sources.
- The F5 Networks Technical Support web site: http://www.f5.com/support/
- The AskF5 web site: http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us.html
- The F5 DevCentral web site: http://devcentral.f5.com/
- AskF5 TechNews
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