Manual Chapter : Upgrading BIG-IQ Overview

Applies To:

  • BIG-IQ Centralized Management

    7.1.0

Updated Date: 07/07/2026

Upgrading BIG-IQ Overview

This process supporting upgrading BIG-IQ version 6.0.0 through 7.0.0. This process details an upgrade of a system configuration without a data collection device (DCD) cluster.

Note: If your BIG-IQ is not currently running one of these versions, or includes a DCD, refer to the supported upgrade paths section in the release notes for this BIG-IQ version.

This example represents a BIG-IQ in a high availability configuration. During the upgrade, the BIG-IQ suspends BIG-IP device management. This can result in a downtime of services. The amount of downtime depends on the size of your system’s setup. BIG-IQ services resume when the active BIG-IQ is upgraded and restarted.

To ensure that your upgrade goes smoothly, F5 recommends that you perform a few system checks. Perform this test at least a day or so before you upgrade in case you discover any issues that take longer than expected to resolve. Going through this list ahead of time gives you a chance to resolve any issues before the clock is ticking on your upgrade window.

  • Verify that you have completed the pre-upgrade tasks. These are detailed in the article Tasks to complete before you start the upgrade process on support.f5.com.)

  • Verify that your statistics are prepared for migration to the upgraded system. For more information, see Prepare statistics for upgrade.

  • Verify that the software version of the BIG-IP devices managed by the BIG-IQ you are updating are at or beyond the minimum supported version. (For details on how to do this, refer to the AskF5 article K34133507 on support.f5.com.)

  • Depending on the version of BIG-IQ software you are upgrading from, the connectivity requirements for your BIG-IQ system may be different in the version you are upgrading to. Refer to K15612 on support.f5.com to confirm that the ports you need are configured correctly.

  • If you plan to gather performance Analytics data for the BIG-IP devices managed by the BIG-IQ you are updating confirm that the managed devices are at or beyond version 13.1.1, and provisioned with the AVR service.

  • If you have custom settings for the DCD statistics data collection retention or aggregation, these custom settings are not automatically retained over the upgrade process. Save your data retention and aggregation settings before you begin the upgrade, so you can manually enter your custom settings, once your upgrade is complete. See System > BIG-IQ DATA COLLECTION > BIG-IQ Data Collection Cluster > CONFIGURATION > Statistics Data Collection.

  • Check that you have sufficient disk space for the upgrade. For version 7.1.0, the minimum disk space requirement increased by 10%. When you calculate the extra amount of space required for this update, make sure to consider:

    • the amount of space your current installation consumes
    • the space needed for the upgrade
    • an additional 10% to meet this new requirement. Note: If the var partition for any of the devices in your cluster was extended before you upgraded, you must extend the var partition for that device before the upgrade can succeed.

    Note: For version 7.1.0 and later, the var partition needs to be at least 2.5 times larger than it needed to be for earlier BIG-IQ versions.

    (For details on how to check the size of the var partition on your system, refer to Check the volume sizes on your current BIG-IQ installation and Check the volume sizes required by the software you want to install in F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management Disk Space Management on support.f5.com. For details on how to extend a disk volume, refer to Resizing VE Disk Volume Workflows in F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management Disk Space Management on support.f5.com).

  • Verify that your BIG-IQ VE has sufficient memory and CPUs for the configuration that you plan to deploy. (For details on how to do this, refer to Determine the resources required for deployment in Planning and Implementing a BIG-IQ Centralized Management Deployment on support.f5.com).

  • Examine the health of the devices you plan to upgrade. Make sure to inspect the BIG-IQ primary and secondary devices as well as each DCD in the cluster. (For details on how to do this, refer to Check the health of devices in a DCD cluster in Planning and Implementing a BIG-IQ Centralized Management Deployment on support.f5.com).

  • Re-activate the licenses on the devices you plan to upgrade to make sure that the service contract date is up to date. Make sure to do this for the BIG-IQ primary and secondary devices, as well as each DCD in the cluster. (For details on how to do this, refer to the F5 Knowledge Center article K15365 on support.f5.com).

  • Confirm the zone configuration of the DCDs that you plan to upgrade and for the devices managed by the BIG-IQ systems you plan to upgrade. If a device is configured to be in a zone that does not have DCDs in it, statistics for that device will not be collected after the upgrade.

    Note: If the BIG-IQ system you are upgrading includes multiple zones, then in addition to the three DCD minimum, there must also be at least two DCDs in each zone before you can perform a rolling upgrade procedure.

    • To view the zone configuration for a DCD, navigate to System > BIG-IQ DATA COLLECTION > BIG-IQ Data Collection Devices and note the zone.
    • To view the zone configuration for a device, navigate to Devices, click the name of the device, then click STATISTICS COLLECTION and note the zone.

Before upgrading F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management, complete these tasks.

Tasks

Additional information

Download the latest BIG-IQ software image and Pre-upgrade Check tool from the F5 Downloads site.

Important: To ensure that the pre-upgrade script runs correctly, make sure you always download the latest version of the tool from downloads.f5.com.

Prepare your statistics for the upgrade process

See Prepare statistics for upgrade. If your BIG-IQ CM is in an HA pair, ensure that this process is completed on each node.

Run the pre-upgrade check script on the primary BIG-IQ by typing the following commands: 1. #cd /shared/scripts/preUpgradeChecks 2. # ./preUpgradeCheck

This script verifies the following for BIG-IQ:- Disk assessment and partition size.

  • Health checks
  • Licensing verification.
  • CPU and memory assessment.

Note: For additional detail about this script, refer to the AskF5 article K15988343 on support.f5.com.

Depending on the version of BIG-IQ software you are upgrading from, the connectivity requirements for your system may be different in the version you are upgrading to. Refer to the AskF5 Knowledge Center article K15612: Connectivity requirements for the BIG-IQ system on support.f5.com to confirm that the ports you need are configured correctly.

Additional information on network connectivity requirements is available in the Planning and Implementing a BIG-IQ Deployment on support.f5.com

Deploy any staged configuration changes to your managed BIG-IP devices.

When addressing configuration conflicts for each BIG-IP device, F5 recommends you use BIG-IP to override the configuration settings stored on BIG-IQ.

Decide which disk volume you want to install the BIG-IQ software on. You must have at least two volumes to upgrade BIG-IQ.

If you don’t have two volumes, you can add the second volume as part of the upgrade.

If you are currently using a self-IP address for device discovery, make a note of that IP address.

You’ll need to enter that IP address when you perform setup after you upgrade and reboot the BIG-IQ system.

Upgrade all managed BIG-IP devices to version 12.1 or later.

For you to manage BIG-IP devices from BIG-IQ Centralized Management, the BIG-IP devices must be running version 12.1 or later.

Run the following command to view all daemons running on the BIG-IQ, and their status: admin@(ip-10-1-1-4)(cfg-sync Standalone)(Active)(/Common)(tmos)# show /sys service.

Make a note of the daemons running on BIG-IQ and their status. After the upgrade, verify that all daemons are running as expected.

Important: The upgrade process can take up to several hours depending on how many BIG-IP devices you are managing.

To upgrade F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management, perform these procedures. Upgrading BIG-IQ to the most recent version requires that you update its configuration to incorporate new features that have been introduced. It’s a good idea to set aside at least several hours to complete this process.

Note: It is important that you follow these tasks in the order stated.

Upgrading BIG-IQ systems in a high availability configuration

  • Remove standby BIG-IQ from active BIG-IQ.
  • Upgrade the primary BIG-IQ.
  • Upload the BIG-IQ software image to the standby BIG-IQ and upgrade it.

Complete the post-upgrade process

  • Add the secondary BIG-IQ to the active BIG-IQ to re-establish the HA configuration.
  • Upgrade the BIG-IP framework on your managed devices.
  • Rediscover your BIG-IP devices, and re-import their services.
  • If you have a VMware service scaling group configured, you’ll need to re-install the vCenter host root certificate on BIG-IQ.