Manual Chapter : Preparing to Upgrade Devices in Your DCD Cluster and the BIG-IQ with Minimal Downtime

Applies To:

  • BIG-IQ Centralized Management

    7.0.0

Updated Date: 07/07/2026

Preparing to Upgrade Devices in Your DCD Cluster and the BIG-IQ with Minimal Downtime

Downloading a software image from F5 Networks is the first step to making it available to install on the BIG-IQ system.

Important:

The BIG-IQ disk space compatibility check is not supported for BIG-IQ hotfix images. To avoid errors, download a standard BIG-IQ .iso image.

  1. Log in to the F5 Downloads site, downloads.f5.com.

  2. Click the Find a Download button.

  3. Click the name of the product line.

  4. Click the product name, Centralized Management.

  5. Click the version number you want to download.

  6. Read the End User Software License agreement and click the I Accept button if you agree with the terms.

  7. Click the BIG-IQ version <version number>``.iso file name that you want to download.

  8. Click the name of the closest geographical location to you.

    The software image downloads to your local system.

The software image is now available for you to upload to BIG-IQ to make it available for this upgrade.

Before you can upload the software image to the BIG-IQ system, you must have first downloaded it from the F5 Downloads site, downloads.f5.com.

You upload the BIG-IQ version software image to the primary BIG-IQ system to make it available for this upgrade.

  1. At the top of the screen, click System.

  2. On the left click Software Management > IMAGES.

  3. Click the Upload Image button.

  4. Click the Choose File button and go to the location to which you downloaded the image, and click the Open button to upload it to BIG-IQ.

Before you start the upgrade process, confirm that your managed BIG-IP devices can send alerts or events to more than one device in the Data Collection Device cluster so that when a particular device in the Data Collection Device cluster is being upgraded, data automatically routes to another device in the Data Collection Device cluster.

  1. Review the data routing configuration for all of the managed BIG-IP devices that send data to your DCD cluster. If you find a BIG-IP device that is configured to send data to only one device in a DCD cluster, change that configuration before proceeding. Refer to the BIG-IP device documentation on support.f5.com for details on how to configure the BIG-IP device for DCD cluster routing.

  2. Review the monitoring configuration for all of the managed BIG-IP devices that send data to your DCD cluster. Make sure that each BIG-IP device is configured to send data to an alternate device in the DCD cluster if another device goes offline. If you find a BIG-IP device that is not configured with appropriate monitors, change that configuration before proceeding. Refer to the BIG-IP device documentation on support.f5.com for details on how to configure BIG-IP monitors correctly.