Manual Chapter : Upgrading BIG-IQ with a Data Collection Device from Version 6.0 and later with Minimal Downtime

Applies To:

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BIG-IQ Centralized Management

  • 7.1.0
Manual Chapter

Upgrading BIG-IQ with a Data Collection Device from Version 6.0 and later with Minimal Downtime

What is a minimal downtime upgrade?

The minimal downtime upgrade process (also referred to as
rolling upgrade
) significantly reduces the amount of time your system is offline while you are upgrading to the latest version. The degree to which your BIG-IQ system and DCD cluster can maintain complete online function during upgrade depends on which BIG-IP services you manage, and what kind of data you collect.
  • Operators using the BIG-IQ system to review alerts and events might notice slightly slower performance during the upgrade. Data might take a bit longer to refresh, and searches might take a little more time to run.
  • You should not lose any ASM events or FPS alerts during the upgrade.
  • You should maintain almost all of your AFM events during the upgrade.
  • Statistics data is not collected during the upgrade.
  • There is a brief downtime (approximately 5 seconds) when the primary BIG-IQ system is upgraded.
  • There is another short downtime (less than a minute) when the secondary BIG-IQ is paired with the primary BIG-IQ.

Upgrading BIG-IQ version 6.0 and later with a data collection device cluster to version
7.1.0
with minimal downtime

What BIG-IQ setup does this upgrade process support?

The following upgrade supports upgrading BIG-IQ versions 6.x and 7.0 with a data collection cluster with at least three devices.
If your BIG-IQ is not currently running version 6.x or 7.0 and does not include a data collection device cluster with three or more devices, refer to the supported upgrade paths section in the release notes for this BIG-IQ version.

What happens during a BIG-IQ upgrade to version
7.1.0
?

This figure represents BIG-IQ in a high-availability (HA) configuration with a data collection device (DCD) cluster. The DCD cluster continues to collect data until you start the upgrade process. Data collection for all BIG-IP devices resumes only after all devices in the DCD cluster are upgraded and restarted. For this example, there are three data collection devices: one has already completed the upgrade to version 7.0, one is undergoing an upgrade to version 7.0, and one is collecting data as version 6.0.x.
This upgrade procedure with minimal downtime supports BIG-IQ configuration that include a minimum of three data collection devices. However, 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

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:
  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.
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.

Prepare statistics for upgrade

Before you begin the upgrade process, use the following steps to prevent statistics migration errors. This procedure is done to ensure that all statistics stored on your pre-upgrade version are properly migrated over the course of the upgrade. To do so, you must modify the active and standby machines of the BIG-IQ CM. If you do not complete this task, there is a possibility that your statistics will not be migrated to your upgraded version.
You must complete this entire process for both the active and standby machines of BIG-IQ CM.
  1. Log into the BIG-IQ command line
  2. Use a text editor to create the following customized startup script in the file
    /config/startup_analytics_upgrade_change.sh
    .
  3. Add the following lines to the file
    #!/bin/bash es_client_file="/var/config/appiq/upgrade/es_client.py" upgrade_analytics_data_5_6_file="/var/config/appiq/upgrade/upgrade_analytics_data_5_6.py" appiq_version=`grep -P -o "Version: [\w.]+" /VERSION|cut -d ':' -s -f2|tr -d '[:space:]'` appiq_product=`grep -P -o "Product: [\w.-]+" /VERSION|cut -d ':' -s -f2|tr -d '[:space:]'` timeout_perl_cmd="perl -p -i -e 's/(timeout=)14400/\${1}144000/g'" reindex_tries_cmd="perl -p -i -e 's/(\s+.*reindex\(.*tries = )10(.*)/\${1}1\${2}/g'" reindex_no_delete_tries_cmd="perl -p -i -e 's/(\s+.*reindex_no_delete\(.*tries = )10(.*)/\${1}1\${2}/g'" function log() { ###log error messages### [ ! "$1" ] && return 0 /bin/echo -e "[$(/bin/date +%m/%d/%y\ %H:%M:%S.%2N)] - $1" >> /var/log/upgrade_analytics_data.log } if [ $appiq_product != "BIG-IQ" ]; then log "not \"BIG-IQ\" product, (found: $appiq_product)! exiting..." exit 99 fi if [ $appiq_version != "7.1.0" ]; then log "not \"7.1.0\" version, (found: $appiq_version)! exiting..." exit 99 fi log "Modifying \"$es_client_file\" file" if [ -f $es_client_file ]; then $(eval "$timeout_perl_cmd $es_client_file") $(eval "$reindex_tries_cmd $es_client_file") $(eval "$reindex_no_delete_tries_cmd $es_client_file") log "\"$es_client_file\" file has been modified!" else log "file \"$es_client_file\" doesn't exist...skipping parsing!" fi log "Modifying \"$upgrade_analytics_data_5_6_file\" file" if [ -f $upgrade_analytics_data_5_6_file ]; then $(eval "$timeout_perl_cmd $upgrade_analytics_data_5_6_file") log "\"$upgrade_analytics_data_5_6_file\" file has been modified!" else log "file \"$upgrade_analytics_data_5_6_file\" doesn't exist...skipping parsing!" fi
  4. Save your changes to
    /config/startup_analytics_upgrade_change.sh
    and exit the text editor
  5. Enable executable mode for the
    /config/startup_analytics_upgrade_change.sh
    file, and type the following command:
    chmod +x /config/startup_analytics_upgrade_change.sh
  6. Change permissions on
    /config/startup
    file to allow modifications by typing the following command:
    chmod +w /config/startup
  7. Using a text editor, edit the
    /config/startup
    file, and append the following line to the end of the file:
    /config/startup_analytics_upgrade_change.sh &
    The ampersand symbol (&) at the end of the line is required.
  8. Save changes to
    /config/startup
    and exit the text editor.
Once you have completed your pre-upgrade task list, you can proceed to the upgrade process. Depending on the volume of statistics in your pre-upgrade system, the migration process to your upgraded system can vary from one hour to four days.
Following the upgrade to version 7.1, you can verify the statistics migration by checking the log file
/var/log/upgrade_analytics_data.log
of the active BIG-IQ CM. The end of the log should include the text:
REINDEX statistics completed successfully

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.

Check pre-upgrade AS3 version

If the version of AS3 software that is running on the BIG-IQ you are upgrading is newer than the AS3 software version that installs with the upgrade, then you need to note that AS3 version before you upgrade, so you can restore it as part of the post upgrade process.
Steps for determining the pre-upgrade AS3 version are available in the F5 knowledge base article K54909607. Please refer to this article if you are upgrading a BIG-IQ for which a newer version of AS3 software has been installed.

Summary of tasks to upgrade a BIG-IQ system with data collection devices with minimal downtime

The upgrade process can take up to several hours depending on how many BIG-IP devices you are managing.
The rolling upgrade process consists of the following phases, where each phase includes a series of tasks.
Preparing for an upgrade:
  • Download the BIG-IQ software image from the F5 Downloads site.
  • Upload the BIG-IQ software image to BIG-IQ.
  • Confirm alerts and events can be sent to an alternative device in the data collection device cluster.
Upgrade the BIG-IQ systems and data collection devices to the latest version:
  • Upgrade the primary BIG-IQ and the data collection devices to the latest version.
  • Upload the software image to the secondary BIG-IQ system.
  • Manually upgrade the secondary BIG-IQ system.
Complete post-upgrade process
  • Add the secondary BIG-IQ system back to the primary BIG-IQ system.
  • Re-discover devices and re-import services.
  • If you plan to deploy applications to a VMware cloud environment, install the vCenter host root certificate on BIG-IQ.