Manual Chapter :
Understanding the Upgrade of BIG-IQ with a Data Collection Device Cluster
Applies To:
Show Versions
BIG-IQ Centralized Management
- 8.0.0
Understanding the Upgrade of BIG-IQ with a Data Collection Device Cluster
Upgrading BIG-IQ with a data collection device cluster
What BIG-IQ setup does
this upgrade process support?
The following upgrade process supports upgrading BIG-IQ versions 6.0.0 through 7.1.0 with a data
collection device cluster. If your system is not
currently running one of these versions or does not
include a data collection device cluster, refer to Supported upgrade paths.
What happens during a BIG-IQ
upgrade?
This example represents a BIG-IQ
high-availability (HA) configuration with a BIG-IQ data collection device (DCD) cluster. Remove the standby BIG-IQ, upgrade the primary BIG-IQ, upgrade the BIG-IQ DCD cluster, and then re-add the standby BIG-IQ. During this upgrade: 
- Access to BIG-IQ is temporarily unavailable when the Primary BIG-IQ devices upgrades. The primary BIG-IQ upgrades after DCD upgrades are complete.
- BIG-IQ suspends management for all managed BIG-IP devices.
- Data collection from the managed BIG-IP devices is suspended, and resumes only after all devices in the DCD cluster are upgraded and restarted.
Downtime for statistics collection
The upgrade process to 8.0 does not support an upgrade path with minimal downtime (rolling upgrade). This means that statistics collection is suspended until all DCDs in the cluster complete the upgrade.
What happens during a BIG-IQ and data collection device cluster
upgrade?
The upgrade process can take up to several hours
depending on how many BIG-IP devices you are managing. During the device upgrade process, statistics collection is suspended until the DCDs are back in service.
From the primary BIG-IQ, the automatic upgrade process performs the
following sequence of tasks:
- Breaks the high availability relationship with the secondary BIG-IQ (if present).
- Upgrades the devices in the data collection device (DCD) cluster. The process starts by checking the statistics retention policy for the cluster and checking that the DCD cluster is healthy. Then, for each device in the DCD cluster:
- Confirms disk space is sufficient for the upgrade.
- Stops snapshot creation.
- Deactivates data collection services for the DCD.
- Upgrades the DCD to the latest version.
- Access to statistics data becomes temporarily unavailable during the DCD device upgrade process.If the/varpartition for any of the devices in your cluster was extended before you upgraded, you must extend the/varpartition for that device before the upgrade will proceed. For details on extending a disk volume, refer toResizing VE Disk Volume Workflowsin theF5 BIG-IQ Centralized Management Disk Space Managementguide onsupport.f5.com.
- Confirms that the DCD is back in service.
- Reactivates data collection services.
- Upgrades the primary BIG-IQ. After the data collection devices have all been upgraded, the primary BIG-IQ is automatically upgraded.
- During the upgrade of the primary BIG-IQ device, the system provides a log of the initial launch status, which allows you monitor device upgrade.
- Once the initial launch is complete, the system becomes temporarily unavailable for up to 60 minutes (see image below).
- The upgrade is complete when the screen displays the system log in page.In the event that the system does not become available within 60 minutes, or the upgrade fails, generate a qkview and report the issue atsupport.f5.com.
- During the post upgrade process, you are able to log into the system, upgrade secondary BIG-IQ device (if applicable), and navigate though all system screens.
- Data collection services are restored.
- Historical statistics data may not become fully available for several hours, depending on your system's volume of statistics.
