Manual Chapter : What disk size tasks should I perform before an upgrade?

Applies To:

  • BIG-IQ Centralized Management

    8.4.0, 8.3.0, 8.2.0, 8.1.0, 8.0.0

Updated Date: 07/07/2026

What disk size tasks should I perform before an upgrade?

Before you upgrade 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 upgrade your software.

Question Comment
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, you need to check whether there is sufficient physical disk space on the VE.
How big are the volumes needed by the software you want to install? Use the F5 script to determine the size requirements from the software image you plan to install.
How big are the volumes on your current BIG-IQ installation? You need to know the volume sizes for your current installation. If any of the volumes have been extended, you must likewise extend the volumes on the installation slot before you upgrade. Otherwise, the install process can result in loss of data.
Do you have an open slot to install the software on? Before you can install new software, you need an open slot.

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 6.0 or later 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 version 8.0.0, you must first download them. Complete the following steps to download these scripts.

  1. Log in to downloads.f5.com.

  2. Navigate to BIG-IQ Centralized Management, look for the BIQ-IQ release you are working with, and click I Accept to accept the EULA.

  3. Click F5_Networks_Disk_Size_Tools.tar.

    After a brief pause, the Download Locations screen opens.

  4. Click a download location to start the download.

  5. When the download completes, extract the contents of the archive.

    Three files will extract:

    • addvol
    • imageplan
    • resizevol

Before you can run these scripts, you need to copy them to the /usr/bin folder of the device you are resizing.

You need to check that there is sufficient physical disk space on the BIG-IQ VE so that you can create new volumes and size them appropriately.

  1. Use SSH to log in to your DCD as root.

  2. Use the pvs command to check how much disk space is available for new slots and volumes.

    [root@bigiq-console-test-large:Active:Standalone] ~ # `pvs`
  PV         VG        Fmt  Attr PSize   PFree
  /dev/sda3  vg-db-sda lvm2 a--  498.50g 446.82g

    The command response tells you how much free disk space is available.

    This device has 446 Gigs of free disk space. That would be more than sufficient for a standard version 5.4 install (30G +5G + 5G + 10G = 50G).

    However, you also must consider how much space your current installation uses. If you have extended the size of the volumes for your current installation, you must consider that as well.

If the amount of disk space available is less than the amount you need so that you can install your software, you must increase the free space before you can proceed. Refer to the hypervisor vendor documentation for the workflow to increase the amount of available disk space on your VE.

To get an email if the BIG-IQ® VE runs low on disk space, you complete three tasks:

  • Specify an SMTP server to send email alerts.
  • Set up email addresses for low disk space alerts.
  • Set up a low disk space alert.

You specify an SMTP server so F5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management can send email to alert specified people when a certain condition happens, such as when an SSL certificate is about to expire.

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

  2. On the left, clickSMTP configuration.

  3. On the SMTP Configuration screen, if there is no mail server set up, click the Add button.

  4. In the Name field, type a name for this SMTP configuration.

  5. In the SMTP Server Host and SMTP Server Port fields, type the SMTP server and TCP port.

    By default, SMTP uses TCP 25.

  6. In the From Email Address field, type the email address from which to send the alert email.

  7. From the Encryption list, select the type of encryption to use for the email.

  8. To require a user name and password, from the Use Auth list, select Yes, and type the required user name and password.

  9. To verify that you can reach the server you configured, click the Test Connection button.

  10. Click the Save & Close button.

You can now specify email recipients and set up the alert conditions that prompt BIG-IQ to send an email when a certain event happens on a managed device.

Before you can set up the BIG-IQ® to email alerts, you need to have set up an SMTP mail server.

You can add a list of email recipients to which BIG-IQ sends notifications for low disk space alerts.

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

  2. On the left, click THIS DEVICE > Email Notification Recipients.

  3. Near the top of the screen, click the Add button.

  4. In the Name and Email Address fields, type the name and email address of the person you want to receive the low disk space alert.

  5. In the Description field, you can type an optional description to help identify this user.

  6. Select the check box next System Alerts.

  7. To add another email recipient, click +.

  8. Click the Save & Close button at the bottom of the screen to save your changes.

You can set up an alert that sends an email to notify you when disk space on the BIG-IQ® VE is low.

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

  2. On the left, click ALERTS & NOTIFICATIONS.

  3. At the top of the screen, click the Settings button.

  4. If the device you are managing is a BIG-IQ, under Disk Usage Alert Conditions, select Enabled next to the BIG-IQ Used disk space is above threshold for a device alert, then specify the Threshold at which you want to be notified.

  5. If the device you are managing is a BIG-IQ, under Disk Usage Alert Conditions, select Enabled next to the Used disk space is above threshold for a DCD alert, then specify the Threshold at which you want to be notified.

  6. Click the Save & Close button.

You need to check that there is sufficient physical disk space on the BIG-IQ VE so that you can create new volumes and size them appropriately.

  1. Use SSH to log in to your DCD as root.

  2. Use the pvs command to check how much disk space is available for new slots and volumes.

    [root@bigiq-console-test-large:Active:Standalone] ~ # `pvs`
  PV         VG        Fmt  Attr PSize   PFree
  /dev/sda3  vg-db-sda lvm2 a--  498.50g 446.82g

    The command response tells you how much free disk space is available.

    This device has 446 Gigs of free disk space. That would be more than sufficient for a standard version 5.4 install (30G +5G + 5G + 10G = 50G).

    However, you also must consider how much space your current installation uses. If you have extended the size of the volumes for your current installation, you must consider that as well.

If the amount of disk space available is less than the amount you need so that you can install your software, you must increase the free space before you can proceed. Refer to the hypervisor vendor documentation for the workflow to increase the amount of available disk space on your VE.

Before you check the required disk volume size:

  • Upload the BIG-IQ software to the BIG-IQ you are upgrading.
  • Confirm that the imageplanscript is on the BIG-IQ you plan to upgrade.This script is located in the /usr/bin folder. Because this folder is already in your path definition, you can initiate this script directly.

The var partition must be at least 2.5 times larger than it needed to be for earlier BIG-IQ version. When you upgrade BIG-IQ, you can use the size requirements from the software image you plan to install so you can be confident that your disk volume sizes are sufficient before you upgrade your BIG-IQ.

  1. From the command line, use SSH to log in (as root) to the BIG-IQ you are going to upgrade.

  2. Copy the software image to the /shared/images folder on the BIG-IQ you plan to upgrade by typing the following command:

    # `cp <big-iq-software-image>.iso /shared/images/<big-iq-software-image>.iso`

    BIG-IQ returns output reflecting the sizing requirements for this upgrade.

    Important: If you are running the Web Application Security service, and are upgrading from BIG-IQ version 7.1, or earlier: Improvements to signature management requires additional disk storage per policy. Each Web Application Security policy managed by BIG-IQ requires an additional 20MB in /var file. To add storage, see Increase the size of a disk volume.

Now you know the size requirements for the image you plan to install.

The slot you upgrade to must have volumes that are at least as big as those on the slot that your software is currently installed. This is especially significant if you decided to extend one of the volumes on your current installation. So if your /var volume is extended to 30G, you must have at least that much space on the new slot before you install software. Otherwise, the install process can result in loss of data.

  1. Use SSH to log in (as root) on the BIG-IQ you plan to upgrade.

  2. Use the tmsh command show sys software to check the volume sizes of the existing installation.

    
    [root@bigiq-test:Active:Standalone] config # `tmsh show sys software`

----------------------------------------------------
Sys::Software Status
Volume  Product  Version     Build  Active    Status
----------------------------------------------------
HD1.1    BIG-IQ    7.1.0  0.0.1511     yes  complete

[root@bigiq-test:Active:Standalone] config # 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--- 31457280.00k
  set.1.root    vg-db-sda -wi-ao---   450560.00k

    The system response shows you the volume sizes of your current installation. The key volumes with their sizes are listed below:

    • /config (.5G)
    • /usr(3.5G)
    • /var (30G)
    • /root (.5G)

Before you can use this workflow to create new installation volumes, you need the addvol script on the BIG-IQ device you want to create the volumes on.

  • On a BIG-IQ system or DCD with version 6.0 or later 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 version 8.0.0, you must first download them. For details on downloading this script, refer to Downloading disk size tools on support.f5.com.

If you are planning to upgrade a BIG-IQ VE, you can use the addvol script to create new volumes on the BIG-IQ VE that are sized correctly for the version you plan to install.

  1. Download the image file that you plan to install from downloads.f5.com.

  2. Use SSH to log in (as root) to the device you plan to upgrade, and copy the image file to the /shared/images folder.

  3. Use the addvol script to create the file systems defined in the image plan for the software you plan to install.

    The script creates the correctly sized volume, but does not install any software. In this example, the image file for BIG-IQ version 7.1.0 is used.

    
# `./addvol HD1.2 /shared/images/BIG-IQ-7.1.0.0.0.1511.iso`
create volume HD1.2 for image /shared/images/BIG-IQ-7.1.0.0.0.1511.iso
product BIG-IQ version 7.1.0 build 0.0.1511 (BIGIQ530) selected
Creating new location sda, 2...
info: zero sblock for member device; /dev/vg-db-sda/set.2.root
info: zero sblock for member device; /dev/vg-db-sda/set.2._usr
info: zero sblock for member device; /dev/vg-db-sda/set.2._config
info: zero sblock for member device; /dev/vg-db-sda/set.2._var
[root@bigiq-test:Active:Standalone] ~ # 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---- 10485760.00k
  set.2.root    vg-db-sda -wi-a----   450560.00k

    The script reads the image plan and creates new volumes for /config, /usr, /var, and /root based on the requirements defined in the plan.

Before you can increase the size of the disk volumes on your BIG-IQ VE:

  • You need the resizevol script on the BIG-IQ VE on which you want to increase the size of the disk volumes.
    • On a BIG-IQ system or DCD with version 6.0 or later 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 version 8.0.0, you must first download them. For details on downloading this script, refer to Downloading disk size tools on support.f5.com.
  • You need to 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 on your installation slot so that you can install without losing any data, you can use the resizevol script.

  1. Use SSH to log in (as root) to the device you plan to upgrade.

  2. Shut down BIG-IQ by typing: shutdown -h now

  3. Provision the disk space you need for the BIG-IQ VE system.

  4. Start up the BIG-IQ VE guest instance.

    For information about disk starting a guest instance, refer to the documentation from your hypervisor or cloud vendor.

  5. Use the resizevol script to increase the size of the volumes for the new installation slot to the required size.

    The volume sizes required depend on these two factors:

    • The volume sizes required by the software you want to install. For details, see Check the volume sizes required by the software you want to install on support.f5.com.
    • The volume sizes your current installation uses. For details, see Check the volume sizes on your current BIG-IQ installation on support.f5.com. Here is an example of the resizevol script being used to resize the /var volume to 30 Gb.
    
# `./resizevol /var 30000000`
Requested 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----   450560.00k

    The script extends the size of the volume you specify (/varin this example) to be the size you want (30Gb in this example).

  6. Save the configuration changes by typing: tmsh save /sys config

  7. Restart BIG-IQ by typing: reboot

  8. When the BIG-IQ restarts, use SSH to log in (as root). Verify the directory was successfully extended to the size you specified by typing the tmsh command: tmsh show /sys disk directory

    Note: For more information about extending the disk space on a BIG-IQ, refer to K30902515.

Now that the volumes are correctly sized, you can proceed with the installation.

To install new software, you need an open slot. You can use a bash command to determine whether your BIG-IQ has any open slots.

  1. Use SSH to log in, as root, to the device you are upgrading.

  2. Use the lvs command to determine how many slots there are on your BIG-IQ.

    
# `lvs --unit=k`
  LV            VG        Attr      LSize        Pool Origin Data%  Move Log Cpy%Sync Convert
  dat.log.1     vg-db-sda -wi-ao---  8388608.00k
  dat.maint.1   vg-db-sda -wi-a----   307200.00k
  dat.share.1   vg-db-sda -wi-ao--- 33554432.00k
  dat.swapvol.1 vg-db-sda -wi-ao---  1048576.00k
  set.1._config vg-db-sda -wi-a----   503808.00k
  set.1._usr    vg-db-sda -wi-a----  3452928.00k
  set.1._var    vg-db-sda -wi-a---- 10485760.00k
  set.1.root    vg-db-sda -wi-a----   450560.00k
  set.2._config vg-db-sda -wi-ao---  3481600.00k
  set.2._usr    vg-db-sda -wi-ao---  3584000.00k
  set.2._var    vg-db-sda -wi-ao--- 16003072.00k
  set.2.root    vg-db-sda -wi-ao---   512000.00k
  set.3._config vg-db-sda -wi-a----  3321856.00k
  set.3._usr    vg-db-sda -wi-a----  3452928.00k
  set.3._var    vg-db-sda -wi-a---- 10485760.00k
  set.3.root    vg-db-sda -wi-a----   450560.00k

    Each instance of set.n represents a slot on the VE. So in this example, the VE has three installation slots (set.1, set.2, and set.3).

If the BIG-IQ VE has only one slot, then you need to add a new slot when you install the upgrade.

Before you can install a BIG-IQ device to a new slot, you must have:

  • Downloaded the software image from F5.downloads.com.
  • Correctly sized the volumes on the slot you plan to install the new version on.

This task explains how to use a tmsh command to install BIG-IQ software to a new volume as part of the upgrade process command. The process performs these steps:

  • Creates a UCS backup from the current system and saves it in the /shared folder.
  • Installs a new BIG-IQ image on a new slot.
  • When the new image is installed on the new slot, it copies that data was saved in /shared into the new database running on the new slot.

  1. Use SSH to log in to your BIG-IQ as root.

  2. Use the tmsh install command to upgrade your software.

    Note: The following example uses the create-volume parameter so the process creates a new slot and then begins installing the software on it.

    
# tmsh install sys software image  BIG-IQ-7.1.0-0.0.1511.iso create-volume volume HD1.2

    The process upgrades your BIG-IQ system and restores the data from the current version.

  3. After the installation is complete, you can use the tmsh show sys software command to check to see that the upgrade was successful and that the /var file system is the correct size (30M).

    
# tmsh show sys software

----------------------------------------------------
Sys::Software Status
Volume  Product  Version     Build  Active    Status
----------------------------------------------------
HD1.1    BIG-IQ    6.1.0  0.0.1224     yes  complete
HD1.2    BIG-IQ    7.1.0  0.0.1511      no  complete

# 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----   450560.00k