Manual Chapter : Software Installation and Upgrade Overview

Applies To:

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F5OS-A

  • 1.1.1, 1.1.0
Manual Chapter

Software Installation and Upgrade Overview

Software installation and upgrade for F5OS on
rSeries
platforms

F5
rSeries
platforms are powerful systems that are designed specifically for application delivery performance and scalability.
rSeries
introduces a new platform layer called
F5OS
. Your
rSeries
system comes with a default version of
F5OS
software pre-installed. To use new features and software fixes, you will want to periodically upgrade the software on your system.

F5OS software image layers

There are
two
layers of
F5OS
software images for
rSeries
systems.
System layer
This is the base software (Base OS) for the system. It is subdivided into operating system (OS) and platform services components.
Tenant layer
Tenants are guest systems running software on the system (for example, a
BIG-IP
system).
F5
provides different tenant images for different uses.

Installation and upgrade types

There are four types of
F5OS
software installation/upgrades for
rSeries
systems.
Full system release
Contains everything needed for the platform layer for a system.
Full component release
Contains the full installation for a specific platform layer, including both host and service components.
Partial component release
Contains sub-components of a specific platform layer (host.os or services.img). Partial component releases contain all containers for that release.
Patch/Hotfix release
Contains a subset of services/container packages specific for a component (specific os patches or service containers).

Appliance mode

The
rSeries
system can be run in
appliance mode
. Appliance mode adds a layer of security by allowing users access only to the system command line interface (CLI) and removing user access to root and the Bash shell. When enabled, the root user cannot log in to the device by any means, including from the serial console.
For greater security, it is highly recommended that you configure the system to run in appliance mode.
For more information on configuring appliance mode, see
F5 rSeries Systems: Administration and Configuration
in the
F5OS
Knowledge Center at support.f5.com.