4/25/2017 AskF5|ManualChapter:IntroductiontothevCMPSystem

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What is vCMP?
VirtualClusteredMultiprocessing(vCMP)isafeatureoftheBIGIPsystemthatallowsyoutoprovisionand
managemultiple,hostedinstancesoftheBIGIPsoftwareonasinglehardwareplatform.AvCMPhypervisor
allocatesadedicatedamountofCPU,memory,andstoragetoeachBIGIPinstance.AsavCMPsystem
administrator,youcancreateBIGIPinstancesandthendelegatethemanagementoftheBIGIPsoftwarewithin
eachinstancetoindividualadministrators.

AkeypartofthevCMPsystemisitsbuiltinflexibleresourceallocationfeature.Withflexibleresourceallocation,
youcaninstructthehypervisortoallocateadifferentamountofresource,intheformofcores,toeachBIGIP
instance,accordingtotheparticularneedsofthatinstance.Eachcorethatthehypervisorallocatescontainsa
fixedportionofsystemCPUandmemory.

Furthermore,wheneveryouaddbladestotheVIPRIONcluster,properlyconfiguredBIGIPinstancescantake
advantageofthoseadditionalCPUandmemoryresourceswithouttrafficinterruption.

Atahighlevel,thevCMPsystemincludestwomaincomponents:

vCMPhost
ThevCMPhostisthesystemwidehypervisorthatmakesitpossibleforyoutocreateandviewBIGIPinstances,
knownasguests.ThroughthevCMPhost,youcanalsoperformtaskssuchascreatingtrunksandVLANs,and
managingguestproperties.Foreachguest,thevCMPhostallocatessystemresources,suchasCPUand
memory,accordingtotheparticularresourceneedsoftheguest.
vCMPguests
AvCMPguestisaninstanceoftheBIGIPsoftwarethatyoucreateonthevCMPsystemforthepurposeof
provisioningoneormoreBIGIPmodulestoprocessapplicationtraffic.AguestconsistsofaTMOSinstance,plus
oneormoreBIGIPmodules.EachguesthasitsownshareofhardwareresourcesthatthevCMPhostallocates
totheguest,aswellasitsownmanagementIPaddresses,selfIPaddresses,virtualservers,andsoon.Inthis
way,eachguesteffectivelyfunctionsasitsownmultibladeVIPRIONcluster,configuredtoreceiveandprocess
applicationtrafficwithnoknowledgeofotherguestsonthesystem.Furthermore,eachguestcanuseTMOS
featuressuchasroutedomainsandadministrativepartitionstocreateitsownmultitenantconfiguration.Each
guestrequiresitsownguestadministratortoprovision,configure,andmanageBIGIPmoduleswithintheguest.
Themaximumnumberofgueststhatafullypopulatedchassiscansupportvariesbychassisandbladeplatform.

ThisillustrationshowsabasicvCMPsystemwithahostandfourguests.Notethateachguesthasadifferentset
ofmodulesprovisioned,dependingontheguest'sparticulartrafficrequirements.

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4/25/2017 AskF5|ManualChapter:IntroductiontothevCMPSystem

ExampleofafourguestvCMPsystem

Other vCMP system components

Inadditiontothehostandguests,thevCMPsystemincludesthesecomponents:

Virtualmachine
Avirtualmachine(VM)isaninstanceofaguestthatresidesonaslotandfunctionsasamemberoftheguest's
virtualcluster.Thisillustrationshowsasystemwithguests,eachwithoneormoreVMs.

GuestVMsasclustermembers

Virtualdisk
AvirtualdiskistheportionofdiskspaceonaslotthatthesystemallocatestoaguestVM.Forexample,ifaguest
spansthreeslots,thesystemcreatesthreevirtualdisksforthatguest,oneforeachbladeonwhichtheguestis
provisioned.Eachvirtualdiskisimplementedasanimagefilewithan.imgextension,suchasguest_A.img.
Virtualslot
Avirtualslotistheportionofaslotthatthehosthasallocatedtoaspecificguest.
Core
Acoreisaportionofablade'sCPUandmemorythatthevCMPhostallocatestoaguest.TheamountofCPUand
memorythatacoreprovidesvariesbybladeplatform.

Network isolation
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4/25/2017 AskF5|ManualChapter:IntroductiontothevCMPSystem

ThevCMPsystemseparatesthedataplanenetworkfromthemanagementnetwork.Thatis,thehostoperates
withthehardwareswitchfabrictocontroltheguestdataplanetraffic.Eachslotinthechassishasitsownnetwork
interfacefordataplanetrafficthatisseparatefromthemanagementnetwork.Thisseparationofthedataplane
networkfromthemanagementnetworkprovidestruemultitenancybyensuringthattrafficforaguestremains
separatefromallotherguesttrafficonthesystem.

Thefollowingillustrationshowstheseparationofthedataplanenetworkfromthemanagementnetwork.

Isolationofthedata

planenetworkfromthemanagementnetwork

About vCMP system administration

AdministeringavCMPsystemrequirestwodistincttypesofadministrators:avCMPhostadministratorwho
managesthehosttocreatetrunksandVLANs,createguests,andallocateresourcestothoseguests,anda
vCMPguestadministratorwhoprovisionsandconfiguresBIGIPmoduleswithinaspecificguest.

OnavCMPsystem,theadministrativeuseraccounts,roles,andassociatedaccesscontrolmechanismsofa
vCMPhostareseparatefromthoseoftheguests.Thispreventsauserfromaccessingthehostorotherguests
onthesystem,therebyensuringtheseparationofadministrativetasksacrossthevCMPdeployment.

AfteryouinitiallysetupthevCMPhost,youwillhaveastandalone,multitenantvCMPsystemwithsomenumber
ofguestsdefined.AguestadministratorwillthenbereadytoprovisionandconfiguretheBIGIPmoduleswithina
guesttoprocessapplicationtraffic.

Optionally,ifthehostadministratorhassetupasecondsystemwithequivalentguests,aguestadministratorcan
configurehighavailabilityforanytwoequivalentguests.

Supported BIG-IP system versions

OnavCMPsystem,thehostandtheguestscanrunanycombinationofBIGIP11.xsoftware.Forexample,ina
threeguestconfiguration,thehostcanrunversion11.2.1,whileguestsrun11.2.0,11.3.0,and11.4.1.Withthis
typeofversionsupport,youcanrunmultipleversionsoftheBIGIPsoftwaresimultaneouslyfortesting,migration
staging,orenvironmentconsolidation.

AnexceptiontothisistheB4300bladeplatform,whichrequiresthehostandgueststorunversion11.2orhigher.
ForinformationonthespecifichostguestcombinationsthatvCMPsupports,seethevCMPhostandsupported
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4/25/2017 AskF5|ManualChapter:IntroductiontothevCMPSystem
ForinformationonthespecifichostguestcombinationsthatvCMPsupports,seethevCMPhostandsupported
guestversionmatrixontheAskF5KnowledgeBaseathttp://support.f5.com.

BIG-IP license considerations for vCMP

TheBIGIPsystemlicenseauthorizesyoutoprovisionthevCMPfeatureandcreateguestswithoneormoreBIG
IPsystemmodulesprovisioned.Notethefollowingconsiderations:

EachguestinheritsthelicenseofthevCMPhost.
ThehostlicensemustincludeallBIGIPmodulesthataretobeprovisionedacrossallguestinstances.
ExamplesofBIGIPmodulesareBIGIPLocalTrafficManagerandBIGIPGlobalTrafficManager.
Thelicenseallowsyoutodeploythemaximumnumberofgueststhatthespecificbladeplatformallows.

YouactivatetheBIGIPsystemlicensewhenyouinitiallysetupthevCMPhost.

vCMP provisioning

ToenablethevCMPfeature,youperformtwolevelsofprovisioning.First,youprovisionthevCMPfeatureasa
whole.Whenyoudothis,theBIGIPsystem,bydefault,dedicatesmostofthediskspacetorunningthevCMP
feature,andintheprocess,createsthehostportionofthevCMPsystem.Second,onceyouhaveconfiguredthe
hosttocreatetheguests,eachguestadministratorlogsintotherelevantguestandprovisionstherequiredBIGIP
modules.Inthisway,eachguestcanrunadifferentcombinationofmodules.Forexample,oneguestcanrunBIG
IPLocalTrafficManager(LTM)only,whileasecondguestcanrunLTMandBIGIPASM.

Important:OnceyouprovisionthevCMPfeature,youcannotprovisionanyBIGIPmodules,suchasBIGIPLTM,
onthevCMPhost.Moreover,ifanyBIGIPmodulesarealreadyprovisionedonthesystembeforeyouprovision
thevCMPfeature,thosemodulesaredeprovisionedwhenyouprovisionthevCMPfeature.This,inturn,
interruptsanyapplicationtrafficcurrentlybeingprocessed.
Note:Thereserveddiskspaceprotectsagainstanypossibleresizingofthefilesystem.

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