Setting Up Your Own BIG-IP ASM and PHP Auction Site for Testing

For those interested in exploring the capabilities of the BIG-IP ASM, creating a hands-on lab environment can be a great way to dive deeper into its features. In this guide, we’ll outline the steps to set up a testing environment using a BIG-IP ASM and a PHP Auction site. By the end, you’ll have a working setup to test policy building, parameter management, and other ASM functionalities.

What You’ll Need

To set up this lab, you’ll need the following:

1. A hypervisor, such as VMware Workstation, to run the virtual machines.

2. BIG-IP Virtual Edition with the ASM module enabled.

3. A pre-built PHP Auction site in the form of VMware files.

   
   

   The Google Drive folder that has all the download files is here:  https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B4xC7Uw8ziLER3RqZXZWTFZTcW8?resourcekey=0-shweDpAzbgSyDTAkHqy-iw&usp=sharing
   

Note: This guide assumes you already have a licensed and configured BIG-IP Virtual Edition. Ensure that it is properly set up before proceeding with the auction site configuration. 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

To create the necessary connections between the BIG-IP system and the PHP Auction site, you’ll first need to configure the virtual network in VMware Workstation.

Steps:

1. Open the Virtual Network Editor in VMware Workstation.
   

   

2. Delete any existing virtual networks (VMnets) except for VMnet0.

3. Add three new VMnets: VMnet1, VMnet2, and VMnet3.

VMnet Configuration Details:

• VMnet0

  • Default settings (bridged mode).
    

    

• VMnet1

  • Host-only network for out-of-band management.

  • Subnet: 10.128.1.0

  • Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
    

    

• VMnet2

  • NAT network for external traffic.

  • Subnet: 10.128.10.0

  • Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

  • Gateway IP: 10.128.10.1
    

    

• VMnet3

  • Host-only network for internal VLAN where the server image exists.

  • Subnet: 10.128.20.0

  • Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
    

    

Installing the PHP Auction Virtual Machine

1. Import the PHP Auction virtual machine file into VMware Workstation. This file is usually in the .ovf format.
   

   

1. Once imported, configure the virtual machine’s network adapters to match the VMnets created earlier:

   • Adapter 1: VMnet1

   • Adapter 2: VMnet2

   • Adapter 3: VMnet3

2. Power on the virtual machine and log in with the default credentials (e.g., root as username and default as the password).
   

   

Configuring the BIG-IP ASM

1. Create a Pool:

   • Add a pool for the PHP Auction site. Use 10.128.20.150 as the node address and 80 as the service port.

2. Create a Virtual Server:

   • Configure a virtual server with the IP address 10.128.10.35.

   • Use port 443 for SSL testing (or 80 if SSL is not required). If using SSL, set up a client SSL profile with the appropriate certificate and key.
     

     

Final Touches

To make accessing the auction site more convenient, you can modify your system’s hosts file. Add an entry to map the virtual server’s IP address to a custom hostname, such as auction.local.

Example entry in the hosts file:

10.128.10.35   auction.local

Once this is complete, you should be able to access the auction site by entering auction.local or the virtual server’s IP address (10.128.10.35) in your browser.

Start Exploring

With everything set up, you now have a fully functional lab environment to test the BIG-IP ASM. Experiment with different configurations, policy settings, and features to get hands-on experience with the system