Manual Chapter :
What factors should I consider before
installing BIG-IQ software?
Applies To:
Show Versions
BIG-IQ Centralized Management
- 7.1.0, 7.0.0
What factors should I consider before
installing BIG-IQ software?
Before you install a
BIG-IQ® system you should make sure of a couple things
about the virtual disk on which your BIG-IQ system resides, so that all goes as planned when
you install your software.
Questions to ask before you
install
Do you have enough disk space on the BIG-IQ VE to install the BIG-IQ
software? | Before you create new slots and size them appropriately, check whether there is
sufficient physical disk space on the VE. For details on evaluating your free disk
space, refer to What disk size tasks should I perform before an
upgrade?
on support.f5.com . |
How big are the volumes needed by the software you want to install? | The two base BIG-IQ VE sizes that you can install yield a physical disk space
of either 95 or 500 GB. However, it you plan to use more than 95 GB of that disk
space, you need to allocate that space to the volumes you plan to use. |
Determining the correct volume sizes for
your new BIG-IQ installation
When you install
BIG-IQ® VE, you need to know how big the volumes
should
be to handle the amount of data you intend to store. The volume size
requirements can vary significantly, depending on how you use the BIG-IQ system.
If you are installing a BIG-IQ
system,
the volume sizes you need
also
depend on how you plan to manage your
BIG-IP® devices and how many you plan to manage.
- The/varvolume is used to store BIG-IQ local databases. In a typical system managing 600 BIG-IP devices, you can expect about 20 GB total disk space used. This size can vary greatly depending on the services discovered and type of objects being managed. Snapshots are stored in this volume, so if you schedule a lot of snapshots, your requirements will increase. For our scale testing, we found that 50GB was sufficient. If you schedule a large number of snapshots, that need could increase to 100GB.
- The/sharedvolume is used to store the backups; both for the BIG-IP devices you manage and the BIG-IQ itself. Larger amounts of disk space can be needed here, depending on how many devices you manage, how often they are backed up, and how many of these backups you opt to retain. You can specify how many backups you want to keep for each managed device. The storage auto-purges older backups if that number is exceeded. This feature can help prevent you from accidentally exhausting the available disk space. For our scale testing, we found that 300GB was sufficient for managing 600 BIG-IP devices. 100GB was sufficient for managing 200 BIG-IP devices or less. To err on the side of caution, 300GB is a good guideline.
If you are installing a DCD, the volume sizes you need depend on the number of BIG-IP devices
you are collecting data
for, as
well as the number of DCDs in your cluster. Refer to the
F5 BIG-IQ Centralized
Management DCD Sizing Guide
for additional detail.Download disk size tools
F5 has created several scripts that
are useful if you need to resize your disk volumes as part of the upgrade process. On a
BIG-IQ® system or DCD with version 5.4.0 installed, these
scripts are available in the
/usr/bin
folder. Because this folder
is already in your path definition, you can use these scripts directly. To use these
scripts with BIG-IQ systems or DCDs running versions prior to version 5.4.0, you must
first download them. - Log in todownloads.f5.com.
- Navigate to BIG-IQ Centralized Management, v5.4.0, and clickI Acceptto accept the EULA.
- ClickF5_Networks_Disk_Size_Tools.zip.After a brief pause, the Download Locations screen opens.
- Click a download location to start the download.
- When the download completes, unzip the file.Three files will extract to the folder you designate:
- addvol
- imageplan
- resizevol
Before you can run these scripts, you need to copy them to the device you are
resizing.
Create correctly sized volumes
Before you create correctly sized volumes you need to:
- Download theresizevolscript fromF5.downloads.com. For details on downloading this script, refer toDownloading disk size toolsonsupport.f5.com.
- Know the volume names that you want to extend, and the size that you want to extend them to.
If you need to increase the volume size of a disk volume, you can use the
resizevol
script. - Use SSH to log in to your DCD asroot.
- Use theresizevolscript to increase size of the volume on the new installation slot to the required size.The volume sizes required depend on a number of factors. SeeWhat volume sizes should I use?onsupport.f5.comfor details.Here is an example of theresizevolscript being used to resize the/varvolume to 30 GB.#./resizevol /var 30000000Requested size 30000000k is less than current size 30003200.00k on /dev/vg-db-sda/set.1._var, skipping Resizing logical volumes. OK (y/n)? y Requested size 30000000k is less than current size 30003200.00k, skipping e2fsck 1.41.12 (17-May-2010) Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes Pass 2: Checking directory structure Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity Pass 4: Checking reference counts Pass 5: Checking group summary information set.2./var: 11/655360 files (0.0% non-contiguous), 79696/2621440 blocks Rounding size to boundary between physical extents: 28.61 GiB Extending logical volume set.2._var to 28.61 GiB Logical volume set.2._var successfully resized resize2fs 1.41.12 (17-May-2010) Resizing the filesystem on /dev/vg-db-sda/set.2._var to 7500800 (4k) blocks. The filesystem on /dev/vg-db-sda/set.2._var is now 7500800 blocks long. # lvs --unit=k LV VG Attr LSize Pool Origin Data% Move Log Cpy%Sync Convert dat.log.1 vg-db-sda -wi-ao--- 7168000.00k dat.maint.1 vg-db-sda -wi-a---- 307200.00k dat.share.1 vg-db-sda -wi-ao--- 10240000.00k dat.swapvol.1 vg-db-sda -wi-ao--- 1048576.00k set.1._config vg-db-sda -wi-ao--- 503808.00k set.1._usr vg-db-sda -wi-ao--- 3452928.00k set.1._var vg-db-sda -wi-ao--- 30003200.00k set.1.root vg-db-sda -wi-ao--- 450560.00k set.2._config vg-db-sda -wi-a---- 3321856.00k set.2._usr vg-db-sda -wi-a---- 3452928.00k set.2._var vg-db-sda -wi-a---- 30003200.00k set.2.root vg-db-sda -wi-a---- 450560.00kThe script extends the size of the volume you identify (/varin this example) to the size you enter (30GB in this example).
