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  3. Upgrading BIG-IQ with a Data Collection Device Cluster
Manual Chapter : Upgrading BIG-IQ with a Data Collection Device Cluster

Applies To:

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BIG-IQ Centralized Management

  • 8.2.0, 8.1.0
Manual Chapter

Upgrading BIG-IQ with a Data Collection Device Cluster

Upgrade the active BIG-IQ and Data Collection Device Cluster

Before upgrading the primary BIG-IQ system and data collection device (DCD) cluster, you must have completed the upgrade preparation.
You upgrade BIG-IQ and the devices in your DCD cluster to the latest version from the primary BIG-IQ system.
Depending on your system setup, the update process can take several hours. During this time system services, including data collection, will become temporarily unavailable. It is important that you not interrupt the installation process by restarting services or the server.
  1. Log in to the primary BIG-IQ system.
  2. At the top of the screen, click
    System
    .
  3. On the left, click
    SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT
    Installations
     button.
  4. On the left, click
    Upgrade
    .
    A popup screen notifies you that you are about to upgrade this BIG-IQ system and all of the devices in the associated DCD cluster. Click
    Continue
     to proceed.
  5. For the Upgrade Process, make sure
    Regular Upgrade
     is selected.
    The
    Rolling Upgrade
     (minimal downtime) option is not available to BIG-IQ systems running version 7.1.x or earlier.
  6. From the
    Software Image
     list, select the image you want to install.
  7. Decide which cluster members you want to back up as part of this upgrade.
    • To back up the BIG-IQ device, select
      Back up the BIG-IQ system before upgrade
      .
    • To back up the DCD devices in your cluster, select
      Back up the Data Collection Device cluster before upgrade
      .
  8. By default,
    Snapshot the Data Collection Device cluster before upgrade
     is selected. F5 recommends to de-select this option, as it is not required for backing up data.
    During the upgrade process, the system automatically creates a new partition to store the data until it can be integrated following the device update. Creating a snapshot is optional and will add time to the upgrade process.
    If you would like to save a snapshot externally, the system needs a remote storage location. For more information, refer to
    Define external storage snapshots location
     in the
    Planning a Centralized Management and Visibility Deployment
     guide on
    support.askf5.com
    .
  9. Under Devices, for each listed BIG-IP device and DCD, specify the
    Target Volume
     list, select the volume you want to install the image on for each device in the cluster.
    You can either choose an existing (inactive) volume, or create a new volume. If the
    Target Volume
     list is empty, the machine you are upgrading does not have a second volume available for you to install the upgrade. You must create one to proceed.
    • To install to an existing volume, select
      Target Volume
      , then click
      Select
      , and select the volume for the upgrade.
    • To install to a new volume, select
      New Volume
      , and type the new volume name.
  10. Click the
    Install
     button.
    This action begins the device upgrade process. During this time, it is important that you not interrupt the installation process by restarting services or the server.
    A confirmation dialog box opens. Wait while the DCD cluster upgrade process completes. Depending on your configuration and the number of devices you are managing, this could take approximately 45-60 minutes per device. When the BIG-IQ primary device upgrades, it becomes briefly inaccessible (time varies depending on your system). When you can log in to the BIG-IQ again, the device upgrade process is complete.
    In the event that the system is unavailable for longer than 60 minutes, or the upgrade fails, generate a qkview and report the issue at
    support.f5.com
     .
  11. Log in to BIG-IQ when the primary device upgrade is complete and system displays the log in screen.
    The device upgrade is complete, but post-upgrade processes can take several hours to complete, depending on your system setup.
  12. Confirm that the upgrade completed successfully.
    1. At the top of the screen, click
      System
      .
    2. On the left click
      SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT
      Installations
      .
    3. Under Last Upgrade, click the name of the just completed upgrade to open the properties screen.
    4. On the properties screen for the upgrade, under General Properties, note the
      Status
      . If there is a green icon and the words
      Successfully completed the upgrade
       appear, then the upgrade is complete and successful.
Even though you can log in to this BIG-IQ system after the software is installed, the system continues the post-upgrade process, which includes re-indexing in the background. The time required for re-indexing varies, depending on the size of your system configuration. If you perform any searches on objects and historical statistics data during re-indexing, BIG-IQ might not return the expected results. During this time, you can continue with the rest of the upgrade process.
During the period of re-indexing, do not restart the BIG-IQ system until you confirm a successful upgrade.

Upload the BIG-IQ software image to the standby BIG-IQ

Before you can upload the software image to the standby BIG-IQ, you must have first downloaded it from the F5 Downloads site.
You upload the BIG-IQ version software image to the standby BIG-IQ system to make it available for this upgrade.
  1. At the top of the screen, click
    System
    .
  2. On the left, click
    SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT
    IMAGES
    .
  3. Click
    Upload Image
     button.
  4. Click
    Choose File
     button navigate to the downloaded image files, and click the
    Open
    .
  5. Click
    Upload
     button.
    The screen refreshes to display the progress of the upload.

Upgrade the standby BIG-IQ

Before you can upgrade the standby BIG-IQ system, you must have uploaded the software to it.
The active BIG-IQ is upgraded automatically, directly after the devices in the DCD cluster are finished upgrading, but you have to manually upgrade the standby BIG-IQ system.
Use the following command only in very specific circumstances, such as this one, since it clears the majority of a BIG-IQ system's configuration. Before you run the command, be sure you are on the standby BIG-IQ system. This command removes all stored data. If you run this command from the active BIG-IQ system, you'll permanently lose all of your saved data.
  1. Log in to the standby BIG-IQ system's command line as
    root
     and type the following command:
    /usr/bin/clear-rest-storage
    .
    While this step is not required, it clears the database storage on the system so the upgrade goes more quickly. After you upgrade both peer systems and re-establish the HA pair, the peer BIG-IQ will synchronize its database with this BIG-IQ system and repopulate the database.
  2. Log in to the system that you are going to establish as the standby BIG-IQ system's user interface.
  3. At the top of the screen, click
    System
    .
  4. On the left click
    SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT
    Software Installations
    .
  5. Click
    Upgrade
    .
  6. For the Software Image, select the image you want to install.
  7. From the
    Target Volume
     list, select the volume you want to install the image on.
    You can either choose an existing (inactive) volume, or create a new volume. If the
    Target Volume
     list is empty, the machine you are upgrading does not have a second volume available for you to install the upgrade. You must create one to proceed.
    • To install to an existing volume, select
      Target Volume
       and select the volume for the upgrade.
    • To install to a new volume, select
      New Volume
      , and type the new volume name.
  8. To back up the BIG-IQ device, select
    Backup the BIG-IQ System before upgrade
    .
  9. Click
    Install
     at the bottom of the screen.
Wait while the BIG-IQ standby device upgrade process completes. During this time, it is important that you not interrupt the installation process by restarting services or the server. When the BIG-IQ upgrades, it becomes inaccessible briefly. When you can log in to the BIG-IQ again, the process is complete.
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