What BIG-IQ setup does this upgrade process
support?
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.
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.
What happens during a BIG-IQ upgrade
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.
BIG-IQ pre-upgrade checklist
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.
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.
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.
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.
Tasks to complete before you start the upgrade process
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.
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:
#
cd
/shared/scripts/preUpgradeChecks
#
./preUpgradeCheck
This script verifies the following for BIG-IQ:
Disk assessment and partition size.
Health checks
Licensing verification.
CPU and memory assessment.
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.
Summary of tasks to upgrade BIG-IQ to the latest version
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.
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.
