Introduction

With F5 BIG-IP APM, you may provide AirWatch mobile users unmatched secure remote access, performance, and availability. This module guides you through the configuration details required to integrate F5 BIG-IP APM with AirWatch. The steps are a series of recommended practices to follow in order to build an integrated solution. As with any system deployment, the steps are examples and the deployed environment may not exactly match these examples.

1. What to Expect

After completing this guide, you will be able to:

  • Use the F5 BIG-IP APM as an AirWatch access gateway.
  • Use the iOS BIG-IP Edge Client for Per-App VPN access with iOS 7 or later.
  • Authenticate AirWatch MDM users via the BIG-IP APM.
  • Initiate on-demand VPN tunnels by domain query.
  • Use BIG-IP APM as a Microsoft Active Sync Proxy for Android and iOS email synchronization.
  • Manage AirWatch MDM devices through the BIG-IP APM access gateway.

2. Requirements

This section covers various requirements for implementing in your own environment. These include prerequisites, product licensing, software, and/or hardware requirements. All prerequisites will be provided for use during this module.

Prerequisites:

This solution utilizes the following ancillary infrastructure:

  • An authentication server
  • An email server
  • An application server
  • An NTP time server
  • Globally Routable IP addresses
  • Mobile device(s) with network access (iOS and Android devices only)
  • Internet access
  • Administrator login credentials
  • SSL Certificate and Key (please reference F5 solution article SOL14499 for how to create a certificate authority and client certificates)

AirWatch

  • AirWatch service subscription required.

F5 BIG-IP

  • Either a physical or a virtual instance of BIG-IP is required.
  • This guide is based on BIG-IP software release 11.5.0.
  • This solution relies on F5 Access Policy Manager (APM) and requires an APM software license.