Updated Date: 04/22/2026
Software Installation and Upgrade Overview
F5 VELOS platforms are a modular (chassis and blade) form factor, designed to meet the needs of large enterprise networking environments that require the ability to scale and process a large volume of increasing application workloads.
F5 VELOS platforms are powerful systems that are designed specifically for application delivery performance and scalability.
VELOS introduces a new platform layer called F5OS, which is made up of a system controller component and a chassis partition component. Your VELOS 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.
There are three layers of F5OS software images for VELOS systems.
This software runs on the system controllers only. It is subdivided into operating system (OS) and platform services components.
This software does not run exclusively on the blades; it runs on the controllers as well. It is subdivided into operating system (os) and platform services components.
Tenants are guest systems running software on the system (for example, a BIG-IP system). F5 provides different tenant images for different uses.
There are four types of F5OS software installation/upgrades for VELOS systems.
Contains everything needed for the platform layer (that is, the system controllers and the chassis partitions) for a system.
Contains the full installation for a specific platform layer(controller.iso and partition.iso), including both host and service components.
Contains sub-components of a specific platform layer (host.os or services.img). Partial component releases contain all containers for that release.
Contains a subset of services/container packages specific for a component (specific os patches or service containers).
The VELOS 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.
Note: For greater security, it is highly recommended that you configure the system controllers and chassis partitionsto run in appliance mode.
For more information on configuring appliance mode, see VELOS Systems: Administration and Configuration****F5 rSeries Systems: Administration and Configuration in the F5OS Knowledge Center at support.f5.com/csp/knowledge-center/software/F5OS.
The VELOS system controllers include a built-in image server/PXE server that stores imported software images. You use this server when you update a system controller or blade using PXE boot. This enables you to install an upgrade to a system controller or blade when those components either do not have an image or need to have software completely re-installed.
You can display a list of available images on the system from the CLI.
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Log in to the command line interface (CLI) of the system controller or chassis partition using an account with admin access.
When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.
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Display a list of available images.
show image [ [ partition | controller ] [state [ controllers controller <*sys-controller-num*> ] ] [ iso | os | service ]]In this example, you show a list of all ISO images on system controller 1:
syscon-1-active# show image controller state controllers controller 1 iso VERSION ISO IN CONTROLLER CONTROLLER STATUS DATE USE --------------------------------------------------- 1.6.0-7890 1 ready 2022-12-01 false
You can see which image is currently running on the system controllers from the CLI.
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Log in to the command line interface (CLI) of the system controller or chassis partition using an account with admin access.
When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.
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View the currently-running image on system controllers.
You can use the optional arguments to limit the output of the command to software on a specific system controller (that is, controller 1 or 2). In a properly-functioning chassis, both controllers will have the same images running on them. You can also limit the output to image components (that is, iso, os, or services versions).
show system image stateA summary similar to this example displays:
syscon-1-active# show system image state controllers SERVICE ISO INSTALL NUMBER OS VERSION VERSION VERSION STATUS -------------------------------------------------- 2 1.6.0-7890 1.6.0-7890 - noneAvailable options for the INSTALL STATUS column are:
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none |
An upgrade installation has not yet been performed. |
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pending |
An upgrade was initiated, and the system controller is waiting to start the installation. |
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in-progress |
The system controller is in the process of updating to the new versions. |
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in-progress-firmware |
The system controller has updated to the new software version, and core system controller firmware in installing. |
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success |
The system controller has installed and is running the new versions. |
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failed |
The system controller failed to install the new software version and should be running the original versions. |
You can see which image is currently running on the chassis partitions from the CLI.
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Log in to the command line interface (CLI) of the system controller using an account with admin access.
When you log in to the system, you are in user (operational) mode.
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View the image currently running on chassis partitions.
This command sequence displays, for every image type (ISO, OS, and Service), the chassis partitions with which the image is referenced.
show running-config partitions partition <*partition-name*>In this example, you show which images are currently running on a chassis partition named “abc”:
syscon-1-active# show running-config partitions partition abc partitions partition abc config enabled config os-version 1.6.0-7890 config service-version 1.6.0-7890 config pxe-server internal config mgmt-ip ipv4 address 192.0.2.100 config mgmt-ip ipv4 prefix-length 20 config mgmt-ip ipv4 gateway 192.0.2.254