Installing the PTF

Important:  If you are upgrading a BIG-IP redundant system, both units must be upgraded. We do not support running different PTF versions on a BIG-IP redundant system.

Apply the PTF to the BIG-IP software, version 4.2 using the following process.  The installation script saves your current configuration.

Important:  If you are upgrading an IP Application Switch or a BIG-IP system that uses a CompactFlash® media drive, use the installation instructions here.

1. Connect to the F5 Networks FTP site (ftp.f5.com).
2. Use FTP in passive mode from the BIG-IP unit to download the file.  To place FTP in passive mode, type pass at the command line before transferring the file. 
3. Download the PTF file, PTF-4.2-8-BSD_OS-4.1.im, from the /crypto/bigip/ptfs/bigip42ptf8/ directory on the FTP site to the /var/tmp/ directory on the target BIG-IP unit.

   To find out how to download software from the F5 FTP site, see Solution 167: Where do I go to download F5 Networks software?

4. Change your directory to /var/tmp/ by typing:
   cd /var/tmp/
5. Type the following command to install this PTF:
   im PTF-4.2-8-BSD_OS-4.1.im
   
   The BIG-IP system automatically reboots once it completes installation.

To upgrade an IP Application Switch or a CompactFlash media drive, use the following process.

1. Create a memory file system, by typing the following:
   mount_mfs -s 200000 /mnt
2. Type the following command:
   cd /mnt
3. Connect to the FTP site (ftp.f5.com).
4. Download the PTF file PTF-4.2-8-BSD_OS-4.1.im from the /crypto/bigip/ptfs/bigip42ptf8/ directory to the /mnt directory.
5. On the BIG-IP unit, run the im upgrade script, using the file name from the previous step as an argument:
   im /mnt/<file name>

   When the im script is finished, the BIG-IP system reboots automatically.

Note:  This procedure provides over 90MB of temporary space on /mnt.  The partition and the im package file are deleted upon rebooting.

Software enhancements and fixes

What's fixed in this PTF

CA-2002-31, Multiple Vulnerabilities in BIND (CR25088, CR24036)
This PTF addresses the security vulnerabilities that are listed in CERT® advisory, CA-2002-31, Multiple Vulnerabilities in BIND. This PTF upgrades the BIND package to version 8.3.4. For more information on the CERT advisory, see http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-2002-31.html.

Mid-stream SSL renegotiations and SSL proxy hang (CR13168)
SSL proxy no longer hangs when it receives mid-stream SSL renegotiations.

SSL accelerator performance issues (CR21034)
SSL accelerator performance no longer drops off when you have more than 1000 concurrent connections.

The Tomcat package and the Java daemon (CR21652, CR23023)
The Tomcat package and the Java daemon (javad) have been removed from the software. The BIG-IP system does not currently use either of these components.

Service check timing (CR21841)
Service checks of a given type are now staggered over time. Previously, service checks tended to cluster, that is, to run at the same time.

Enabling the interface card  (CR22041)
The ifconfig up and bigpipe interface enable commands now properly enable the network interface.

The shutdown process and L7 virtual servers  (CR22055)
The shutdown process no longer stalls if a client sends no request to a layer 7 (L7) virtual server, and just closes the connection.

Proxyd memory leak (CR22065)
When proxyd is configured to insert client certificate HTTP headers, this process no longer causes a memory leak.

Force Active/Force Standby commands and network failover  (CR22093)
The force active and force standby commands now work properly with network failover.

UDP checksums and TFTP packets (CR22113)
In rare instances, the checksums for TFTP packets were incorrect. This problem has been fixed.

Mirroring SSL persistence  (CR22142)
Mirroring SSL persistence no longer causes the BIG-IP system to become unstable.

Proxyd and client certificate format (CR22178)
When proxyd inserts a client certificate into an HTTP request, proxyd now appends a carriage return/line feed (CRLF) and a space to the end of each line in the client certificate.

Network virtual servers  (CR22202)
Creating more than 1024 network virtual servers no longer causes the BIG-IP system to become unstable.

Short-lived rapid connections from the same source IP  (CR22232)
When dealing with short-lived rapid connections from the same source IP address, the BIG-IP system no longer arbitrarily resets some packets.

Transparent VLAN groups  (CR22235)
The BIG-IP system no longer passes broadcast ARP requests through transparent VLAN groups.

Creating an SSL proxy using iControl  (CR22236)
After creating an SSL proxy using iControl, you no longer need to manually restart proxyd in order for the newly created proxy to function properly.

SNMP ifTable  (CR22257)
The SNMP ifTable now correctly lists VLANs.

Upgrade installation (CR22303)
The BIG-IP 4.2 upgrade package no longer adds the following line to the bigip.conf file:
node * monitor use icmp.

Port translation  (CR22320)
Port translation now functions properly for all ports.

SSL proxy redirect rewriting  (CR22379)
HTTP requests with a body but no content-length no longer generate a log message.

Freed memory now released  (CR22674)
Memory freed by a userland process is now released properly.

SNMP traffic no longer passing through a VLAN that has port lockdown enabled (CR22677)
A VLAN configured with port lockdown enabled no longer allows SNMP traffic, when you have not explicitly enabled the SNMP port using the open_snmp_port global setting.

Network failover in active-active mode and failback delay  (CR22715)
When the rebooted BIG-IP unit comes up, the unit that remained active now waits for the amount of time specified by the failback delay setting before it returns connections to its peer unit.

Disabling SNMP and rebooting the controller (CR22762)
When you disable SNMP using the Configuration utility and you reboot the controller, the bigstart script no longer generates a new snmp.conf file.

VLAN mirroring  (CR22976)
VLAN mirroring now forwards resets from IDS (intrusion detection system) devices.

Cookie insert mode with large POSTs  (CR22980)
Cookie insert mode now functions properly with large client POST requests.

CPU resources and proxyd  (CR23019)
The shutdown behavior of closing connections no longer causes proxyd to consume all CPU resources on a BIG-IP unit.

Server-SSL proxy and flushing data to clients   (CR23101)
An SSL proxy configured with server-side SSL enabled no longer delays flushing all data received until the server-side connection is closed.

VLAN groups and ARP requests (CR23237)
When the BIG-IP system is configured with a VLAN group, and the FDB is full (512 MAC addresses on a VLAN), the BIG-IP system now sends an ARP reply to all the interfaces including the interface that it received the ARP request on.

SSL Proxy and large requests (CR23434)
When the SSL proxy is handling many large requests, the client connection no longer hangs.

Setting pool member priorities to zero (CR23464)
You can now set the priority for a pool member to zero.

VLAN groups, MAC masquerading, and redundant systems (CR23593)
When you have a VLAN group and are using MAC masquerading, the nodes on the standby unit no longer are marked down because the standby unit does not receive ARP replies.

Cookie persistence header formatting (CR23596)
When the cookie persistence header is missing a space after the colon (Cookie:), the BIG-IP system no longer drops the packet.

Cookie persist mode, small packets, and the no_http_one_connect variable (CR23612)
When you are using cookie persist mode, and the no_http_one_connect variable is set to yes, the BIG-IP system no longer splits the request when the response fits within one packet.

Windows Terminal Server persistence (CR23628)
Persistence to servers running the Windows Terminal Service no longer fails.

Visibility of loopback traffic (CR23754)
When a proxy is defined for a virtual server that points to a virtual server on the loopback network, and IP forwarding is enabled, you can no longer see loopback traffic on the wire from a BIG-IP system.

STP configuration (CR23822)
A Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) configuration is no longer deleted when the same STP domain is configured on both units.

The self_conn_timeout variable (CR24025)
The bigpipe save command now saves any non-default value assigned to the global variable self_conn_timeout.

SIP Call-ID persistence (CR24236)
The BIG-IP system no longer issues a panic when you define the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Call-ID persistence simple_timeout value.

Restarting the ntpd daemon (CR24260)
The ntpd daemon now starts after you run the bigpipe config sync command.

Rule operators and classes (CR24283)
Using an operator and specifying a class within a rule no longer causes the BIG-IP system to issue a panic.

Stateless traffic handling (CR24614)
The BIG-IP system now correctly handles stateless traffic.

Version of ntpd daemon (CR24620)
The BIG-IP system now includes the correct version of the ntpd daemon.

SOAP portal and incorrect schema type (CR24658)
With respect to the Easysoap toolkit, the SOAP portal no longer returns an empty scheme type for empty arrays.

Apache Tomcat vulnerability (CR24691)
Javascript can no longer be maliciously embedded into a .JSP file request and subsequently inserted into an error message.

Cookie hash persistence mode (CR24853)
When the cookie hash persistence mode cannot find a string match, the BIG-IP system now uses the fallback load balancing mode, rather than continuing to perform the hash.

bigipprovider.cgi application and SEE-IT (CR24859)
When BIG-IP is configured for non-reachable DNS server, the bigipprovider.cgi application now returns results in a timely manner.

Forwarding zero-length IP/UDP packets (CR24929)
If IP forwarding or forwarding for a VLAN group is enabled, the BIG-IP system no longer issues a panic when a UDP packet contains no data.

Switch platforms and STP (CR24992)
Using the halt command to halt the system with Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) enabled and participating in a STP domain no longer creates a bridge loop on the switch platform.

Appearance of memory leak (CR25007)
A memory leak no longer appears when the big3d daemon probes a large number of hosts.

The SSL proxy (CR25014)
When processing data from the loopback interface, proxyd now parses data correctly, and returns complete acks to the client.

Root servers list for BIND (CR25063)
The root servers list file for BIND, root.hints, has been updated to include the most current list of root servers.

False-positive alarms (CR25159)
The config/crontab program no longer issues false-positive alarms.

ldconfig warning message (CR25297)
A ldconfig warning message no longer appears when running the Setup utility for the first time or after configuring DNS.

Enhancements and fixes released in prior PTFs

Version 4.2PTF07

BSDI security vulnerability  (CR16430)
A potential denial of service vulnerability in the C library (libc) of BSDI has been addressed. For information about the vulnerability, see Vulnerability Note VU#808552, Multiple ftpd implementations contain buffer overflows, which is available on the CERT website at http://www.cert.org.

Mirroring connections  (CR22064)
The standby unit no longer reports a lower number of connections than the active unit.

Deleting action commands and files from the /tmp directory on the local system  (CR22109)
There is a new cron job that deletes files and action commands that are older than one day from the /tmp directory.

syslog  (CR22192)
syslogd is now more tolerant of network errors, and now functions correctly after reboot.

No-handler denials  (CR22206)
The BIG-IP system no longer sends resets (RSTs) on no-handler denials.

ICMP traffic through VLAN groups  (CR22207)
When a SNAT is configured through two VLAN groups, ICMP traffic is now handled correctly in all cases.

Resets due to no handler and VIP initiation failures  (CR22213)
Resets (RSTs) due to no handler and VIP initiation failures are now auto-lasthopped.

VU#803539  (CR22222)
Vulnerability #803539, DNS stub resolvers vulnerable to buffer overflow, has been addressed. For more information on this vulnerability see http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/803539.

b load with VLAN groups  (CR22224)
b load no longer fails intermittently with VLAN groups.

CERT Advisory CA-2002-18, OpenSSH Vulnerabilities in Challenge Response Handling  (CR22227)
The OpenSSH software running on the BIG-IP system has been upgraded to version 3.4p1 to address the security vulnerability that is outlined in CERT Advisory CA-2002-18.

SSL proxy with large POSTs  (CR22424)
The SSL proxy no longer prematurely closes client connections on large POSTs.

STP  (CR22531)
In an active-standby configuration, when you configure more then nine interfaces in an STP domain and the active unit is rebooted, the standby (rebooted) unit is now able to acquire a root bridge.

VLAN failsafe rebooting  (CR22579)
You can now configure the BIG-IP system to prevent the standby unit from VLAN failsafe rebooting. Use the bigpipe command b internal set standby_failsafe_reboot = 0 to disable VLAN failsafe rebooting. The default is 1, or enabled.

IP Forwarding disabled after upgrade   (CR22636)
IP Forwarding is disabled when you upgrade to BIG-IP 4.2 from 4.0 or 4.1.1

OpenSSL CERT VU#102795 VU#258555 VU#561275 VU#308891 VU#748355   (CR22727)
We have addressed the CERT release on OpenSSL: VU#102795 VU#258555 VU#561275 VU#308891 VU#748355 in this release.

Periodic scans of compact flash media  (CR22780)
The BIG-IP software now performs periodic scans of compact flash media, which allows soft errors in media to be corrected.

Version 4.2PTF06

Memory exhaustion under heavy load with the large packets  (CR17982)
Fixed a problem that could cause memory to be exhausted when the unit is under heavy load of large packets.

Generating keys using the Configuration utility  (CR19239)
The Configuration utility now generates keys/certificates correctly for the SSL proxy.

bigpipe load verify  (CR19551)
Using bigpipe verify mode no longer causes unexpected errors.

SSL proxy under heavy load  (CR20276)
Running an SSL proxy under heavy load for extended periods of time no longer takes up abnormal amounts of system resources.

bigsnmpd  (CR20628)
bigsnmpd no longer becomes unstable when providing data for a large number of pools with a very large number of nodes defined to each pool.

Setup utility error messages  (CR20711)
After you complete the VLAN and networking sections of the Setup utility, you no longer receive harmless config error messages.

Multicast traffic and auto-lasthop  (CR20822)
Auto-lasthop is now disabled for multicast traffic.

X509 Configuration  (CR20947)
If the BIG-IP configuration files are not specified, the default configuration values for X509 data are now set properly.

Occasional problem with SSL Proxy when dumping stats  (CR21065)
The SSL Proxy no longer experiences an occasional floating-point exception error when dumping stats (sending proxyd a SIGUSR1).

SSL proxy redirect  (CR21154)
SSL proxy redirect now functions correctly after a 304 Not Modified Since reply from the server.

Configuration utility  (CR21166)
In an active-active redundant configuration, the SSL proxy is now accessible through the web-based Configuration utility after failover.

poolMemberPriority  (CR21174)
poolMemberPriority can now be set to values other than -1.

Logging for VLAN specific wildcard virtual servers  (CR21204)
The correct IP address is now logged for VLAN specific wildcard virtual servers.

Idle HTTP keep-alive hash  (CR21205)
BIG-IP system performance is no longer adversely affected when keep-alives are enabled and a large number of idle HTTP connections are being used.

FTP listener hash table  (CR21286)
The FTP listener hash table is now VLAN-aware so that FTP connections may pass through the BIG-IP multiple times without SNATs.

VLAN-keyed connection table  (CR21288)
When you establish a connection through a virtual server referencing a forwarding pool, which travels back out through a SNAT, the VLAN-keyed connection table now resolves the connection properly.

HTTP 304 response codes  (CR21308)
HTTP 304 response codes now assume an implicit content length of 0.

Connections through a forwarding virtual server  (CR21310)
The reaper now resets both ends of a connection through a forwarding virtual server.

SSL proxy and pools  (CR21320)
The BIG-IP software no longer allows an SSL proxy to be a member of a pool.

CALL-ID  (CR21338)
Matching of the SIP Call-ID field is no longer case-sensitive.

HTTP redirects  (CR21356)
HTTP redirects now function properly when a client sends an MSS of 0.

bigsnmpd  (CR21369)
bigsnmpd now sends a valid trap OID when it sends a cold start trap.

Connection rebinding  (CR21403)
Connection rebinding with no available nodes no longer causes the BIG-IP system to become unstable.

HTTP header insertion  (CR21435)
HTTP header insertion no longer has buffer boundary check problems.

Mirror-to ports  (CR21635)
When you define a port as a mirror-to port, and then delete the mirror, the port is now restored to its previous state and passes traffic correctly.

Multicast packets  (CR21665)
Internal interfaces on switch appliances are now configured for promiscuous receipt of multicast packets.

SNAT timeout  (CR21671)
The SNAT timeout setting no longer affects virtual server timeout.

Large HTTP requests  (CR21715)
HTTP requests greater than 2K no longer cause the BIG-IP parser to become unstable.

Unconnected ports  (CR21721)
Unconnected fast ethernet ports on a VLAN receiving broadcast frames no longer display incorrect interface statistics.

SSH daemon log messages  (CR21824)
Insufficient resources on some systems no longer prevent the SSH daemon from handling early connections.

Simple persistence  (CR21929)
Simple persistence is now properly disabled by default.

Header insertion  (CR21953)
Header insertion now functions properly with cookie persistence when using rules.

CERT Advisory CA-2002-17, Apache Web Server Chunk Handling Vulnerability
The security vulnerability that is outlined in CERT Advisory CA-2002-17, Apache Web Server Chunk Handling Vulnerability, has been fixed.

CERT Advisory VU#797201 against tcpdump  (CR22049)
We have addressed vulnerabilities detailed in the CERT advisory against tcpdump.

Version 4.2PTF05

Support for the Dell PowerEdge 2650 platform 
This release includes support for the Dell PowerEdge 2650 platform.

Version 4.2PTF04

MAC addresses for VLANs on IP Application Switch  (CR15611)
On the IP Application Switch, VLANs may now use the first member interface's MAC address as the MAC address for the BIG-IP system on that VLAN. This duplicates the functionality on the server appliance.

Status lights  (CR18605)
In an active-active configuration, the annunciator lights now show the correct status (active or standby) on each unit.

VLAN headers for tagged interfaces  (CR18623)
The BIG-IP system no longer inserts random QoS values into 802.1Q VLAN headers.

Extra characters in log file  (CR18879)
When UDP port * is enabled and UDP timeout is set to 0 (zero), extra characters are no longer entered in the log file.

RADIUS_pinger  (CR19271)
The RADIUS_pinger no longer intermittently marks nodes down.

Dell 2650 ESM-4 support  (CR19325) (CR20100) (CR21178) (CR21179) (CR21183) (CR21208) (CR21221) (CR21222)
The BIG-IP system now supports the Dell 2650 platform.

bigip.conf file  (CR19361)
A large bigip.conf file now loads more quickly when aliasing is used for node monitors.

IMAP_pinger default folder  (CR20043)
If you do not specify an IMAP_pinger folder when defining a monitor based on the IMAP_monitor, the default folder "INBOX" is used.

SNMP with wildcard virtual servers  (CR20125)
The snmpwalk command now returns the correct values for virtual servers when a wildcard virtual server is defined.

Support for iControl v2.1  (CR20178)
This version supports iControl v2.1.

Apache+Mod_SSL on BIG-IP has a buffer overflow  (CR20196)
We have addressed security issues regarding an Apache+Mod_SSL buffer overflow. For more information see http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/bugtraq/2002-02/0313.html.

Windows Terminal Server (WTS) persistence  (CR20241)
This release includes an updated version of the BIG-IP Windows Terminal Server (WTS) persistence feature. WTS persistence provides an efficient way of load balancing traffic to and maintaining persistent connections between Windows clients and servers that are running Microsoft's Terminal Services service. When BIG-IP WTS persistence is enabled, a Windows .NET Enterprise server participating in session sharing can redirect a mis-targeted connection to the BIG-IP virtual server, instead of to another server directly. This ability to redirect connections to the BIG-IP allows the BIG-IP to assume responsibility for redirecting connections to the appropriate servers when necessary. Also, when WTS persistence is enabled on a BIG-IP and the servers in the pool participate in session sharing, the BIG-IP load balances a Terminal Services connection according to the way the user has configured the BIG-IP for load balancing. Thus, the use of Windows .NET Enterprise servers and session sharing, combined with the BIG-IP WTS persistence feature, provides more sophisticated load balancing and more reliable reconnection when servers become disconnected. For more information about this feature, see the technical note Configuring BIG-IP Windows Terminal Server Persistence .

The big3d agent and TCP  (CR20244)
TCP now functions properly with the big3d agent on the IP Application Switch.

Obsolete VLAN commands  (CR20254)
Using obsolete VLAN commands no longer causes errors when loading.

Default TCP timeout for SNATs  (CR20270)
Loading a SNAT with a default TCP timeout no longer cause errors.

Active FTP port collision resolution  (CR20417)
Active FTP port collision resolution through a SNAT now functions correctly.

Unsuccessful login reporting for SSH, RSH, RCP, and FTP  (CR20435)
Previously the BIG-IP system recorded unsuccessful login attempts for Telnet only. The /var/log/secure file now shows unsuccessful login attempts for SSH, RSH ,RCP, and FTP.

Setting port 0 timeout  (CR20469)
You can now set the port 0 timeout without causing SNAT connections to be reaped with that timeout.

bigip.conf entries  (CR20483)
Extra entries are no longer logged in the bigip.conf file.

VLAN limits  (CR20486)
The maximum number of VLANs is now set correctly for the IP Application Switch.

Setup utility  (CR20543)
The Setup utility no longer adds deleted ICMP monitors.

Any-IP through SNAT initiation failure  (CR20559)
With any_ip_through_snat disabled, when an any-IP packet originates from a member of a SNAT, the BIG-IP system now attempts to use IP forwarding for the packet instead of rejecting it.

HTTP chunking interprets carriage-return/line-feed (CRLF) when straddling packet boundary  (CR20564)
The BIG-IP system now correctly interprets carriage-return/line-feed (CRLF) when it is split across two packets.

Sequence numbers on out of order packets  (CR20567)
When in layer 7 (L7) forwarding mode, the BIG-IP software now checks to make sure that packets from the server are in the correct order before adjusting the sequence numbers.

Dynamic Ratio  (CR20580)
Dynamic Ratio now functions correctly.

IM now accepts the + character  (CR20595)
The IM now accepts the + character in file names for configuration installation.

Late-binding connections through fast path  (CR20598)
The BIG-IP system now properly closes late-binding connections that go through fast path.

Node limits  (CR20661)
Node limits are now enforced even if there is a short time between connections.

SNAT automap with OneConnect  (CR20710)
You can now use SNAT automap with OneConnect without slowing performance.

Display address names for long host names  (CR20712)
bigpipe no longer creates errors when displaying long host names.

proxyd  (CR20718)
proxyd no longer sets its exit code incorrectly when daemonizing.

proxyd HTTP parsing  (CR20722) (CR20726)
proxyd HTTP parsing now uses normal amounts of system resources.

TOS values on delayed binding connections  (CR20733)
The BIG-IP system no longer sets illegal TOS values on delayed binding connections.

Reserved keywords list  (CR20747)
The word "cache" is now one of the reserved keywords in the Configuration utility. For more information about the reserved keywords, see the list of reserved keywords.

Setup utility  (CR20752)
When you re-run the Setup utility and change your original configuration, all configuration data is rewritten properly.

Class strings is 64 bytes or longer  (CR20772)
bigpipe no longer creates errors when a class string is 64 bytes or longer.

Occasional hang on reboot at 'syncing disks...'  (CR20778)
The BIG-IP system no longer occasionally hangs when rebooted or halted during a period of file system activity.

Java on BIG-IP  (CR20797)
Running a scanner against the BIG-IP system no longer causes the Java process to reach 99% CPU utilization.

FQDN and bigpipe virtual commands  (CR20859)
Specifying a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) in a bigpipe virtual command no longer causes bigpipe to become unstable.

Network with hard-wired failover  (CR20864)
The active unit no longer goes into standby mode after its peer reboots.

proxyd under heavy load  (CR20880)
proxyd and TPS connection limits now function properly under heavy connection load.

VLAN/loopback information  (CR20886)
The ifTable now includes VLAN and loopback information.

SSL Persistence  (CR20995)
SSL Persistence now functions correctly.

gated OSPF routing protocol  (CR20997)
The gated OSPF routing protocol now works with multiple IP addresses on the same IP network.

Server-side SSL proxy  (CR21029)
Server-side SSL proxy no longer attempts to resume SSL sessions to servers when cache size is set to zero.

Outbound load balancing  (CR21050)
When you use the default gateway pool for outbound load balancing, outbound requests are no longer routed out of the wrong interface.

OpenSSL  (CR21073)
OpenSSL now uses the correct default path for the configuration files.

Deleting routes  (CR21095)
Deleting routes no longer causes the BIG-IP system to become unstable when using VLAN-keyed connections.

Wild card virtual servers on VLANs  (CR21107)
Using VLAN-based wild card virtual servers no longer exhausts system resources.

Keep-alives  (CR21112)
The BIG-IP system no longer assumes keep-alives are on when a client makes a POST request.

Simple persistence with default mask  (CR21117)
Simple persistence with a default mask, no longer sends connections to the same node.

Nodes with connection limits  (CR21133)
Nodes with connection limits specified, listed after a disabled node in the configuration file, are no longer incorrectly disabled.

Interfaces MIB  (CR21137)
The interfaces MIB no longer takes up abnormal amounts of system resources.

SSL To Server has been optimized  (CR21151)
Large amounts of data through a re-encrypting SSL proxy no longer cause proxyd to become unstable.

Broadcom BCM570x driver  (CR20990, CR21155, CR21184)
The BIG-IP system now supports the Broadcom BCM570x family of Gigabit Ethernet NICs.

Additional requests on keep-alive connections  (CR21197)
When a client makes an additional HTTP request on a keepalive connection, the BIG-IP software now parses the new request to determine the HTTP version of the additional request.

Gateway failsafe  (CR21198)
When you configure a node and an ICMP monitor with the same IP address as the default gateway and gateway failsafe is armed, the BIG-IP system now correctly updates both the gateway failsafe and the node status.

Error message when you reboot  (CR21215)
Upon rebooting, the BIG-IP system no longer displays an error message at the login prompt.

bigsnmp daemon on BIG-IP version 4.2 with PTF02 installed  (CR21254)
On a stand-alone BIG-IP version 4.2 with PTF02 installed, keeping the BIG-IP system in an idle state for long periods of time no longer causes bigsnmp daemon to become unstable.

Version 4.2PTF03

Link down on standby failover feature  (CR20821)
The link-down-on-standby failover feature now works properly on the IP application Switch when auto-negotiation is disabled.

L7 with large requests   (CR20875) (CR20885)
The BIG-IP system now works properly with L7 features and large requests.

Version 4.2PTF02

Shell-interpreted characters in monitors
Monitors can now pass shell-interpreted characters, such as &, <, and >, in parameters.

Port mirroring on the IP Application Switch  (CR18435)
Ports not configured in a VLAN are now mirrored on the IP Application Switch.

T/TCP session pass through to L4 virtual servers  (CR18792)
This version supports T/TCP session initiation to layer 4 (L4) virtual servers. If a session times out without a 4-way close, it is removed from the connection table without sending a TCP reset (RST).

VLAN-keyed connections feature  (CR19388)
The BIG-IP system now supports VLAN-keyed connections. VLAN-keyed connections are used when traffic for the same connection must pass through the BIG-IP system several times, on multiple pairs of VLANs (or in different VLAN groups). This feature has several applications, including but not limited to, firewall sandwiches where there is only one set of BIG-IP units and both sides of the firewall sandwich are connected to the units. The VLAN-keyed connections feature is enabled by default. To disable this feature use the following bigpipe command:
b internal set honor_vlans = 0

Sequence number tracking  (CR19393)
Out of order packets sent to a delayed binding virtual server no longer cause sequence number tracking to become out of sync.

TCP 4-way close  (CR19591)
TCP 4-way close is now properly detected in all cases when packets are dropped or sent out of order by an upstream device.

Resets from a virtual server to a proxy  (CR19667)
A reset from a virtual server due to a denial (such as port not enabled) now has last hop routing support. This means a RST from a virtual server to a proxy will go through the proxy instead of from the external interface to the client.

iControl messages through ITCMSystemService  (CR19714)
Intermittent problems using the iControl ITCMSystem interfaces no longer cause instability.

iControl  (CR19809)
iControl SOAP mappings for IP address parameters are now correct.

iControl user access  (CR19892)
iControl user access is now consistent for BIG-IP CORBA and SOAP portals.

proxyd: 90%+ CPU utilization  (CR19896)
There are no longer issues with proxyd and high CPU utilization.

Insert cookie mode  (CR19930)
Insert cookie mode in certain circumstances no longer causes the BIG-IP system to become unstable.

iControl LocalLB::Pool  (CR19967)
iControl LocalLB::Pool can now query the persistence table.

OneConnect state engine  (CR20010)
The OneConnect state engine no longer incorrectly changes states when chunking.

Setup utility  (CR20127)
The Setup utility now only writes VLANs that have associated interfaces to the bigip_base.conf file.

get_router_address  (CR20137)
The iControl get_router_address command can now return all strings.

iControl SOAP interface  (CR20237)
iControl can now connect to the SOAP interface on a shared address.

Sending packets on GVRP/GMRP  (CR20242)
Sending GVRP/GMRP packets no longer causes a multicast storm.

iControl  (CR20243)
iControl ITCMSystem::enable_ntpd and get_ntpd_status commands now use bigstart.

Fallback host names without quotes  (CR20266)
bigpipe now handles fallback host names correctly in all circumstances.

Allocating strings for internal VLAN names and checkd  (CR20272)
checkd no longer exhausts system resources.

iQuery over UDP  (CR20287)
When you are using iQuery over UDP, messages are now routed over the correct interface and have the correct source address.

SSL-to-Server with late binding connections  (CR20408)
SSL-to-Server now functions correctly with late-binding connections.

FTP port collision resolution through a SNAT  (CR20417)
Active FTP port collision resolution through a SNAT now functions correctly.

VLAN groups can now be configured to bridge at L2  (CR20467)
The BIG-IP system now supports transparent L2 forwarding. For more information on configuring this feature, see Layer 2 forwarding transparency in the Optional configuration changes section of this PTF note.

Standby unit  (CR20502)
The standby unit no longer attempts L2 or L3 forwarding.

L2 proxy ARP forwarding exclusion list  (CR20647)
In order to prevent the active unit from forwarding ARP requests for the standby unit (or other hosts to which proxy ARP forwarding is not desired), you can now define a proxy ARP exclusion list. To configure this feature, you can define a proxy_arp_exclude class, and add any self-IPs on the standby and active units to it. The BIG-IP units do not forward ARP requests to or from the hosts defined in this class.
For example, to create a proxy_arp_exclude class use the following syntax:
b class proxy_arp_exclude { host <self IP 1> host <self IP 2> ... host <self IP N> }

VLAN group active/standby pair  (CR20648)
When a BIG-IP unit in a VLAN group switches from active to standby mode, it now drops the links on its interfaces. This is so that any connected switches will recognize that all MAC addresses received through proxy ARP are on the currently active BIG-IP unit, not on the standby. This feature can be configured with a new BIG-IP internal variable standby_link_down_time. This value specifies how long a unit that just went into standby mode should keep all of its links down. The value is in tenths of a second, so a value of 50 would be equivalent to 5 seconds. The default is 0, which disables the feature.
For example, to enable this feature and set the variable standby_link_down_time to 50 use following syntax:
b internal set standby_link_down_time = 50

Version 4.2PTF01

SSL Proxy: Improved traffic throttling  (CR20229)
The SSL Proxy is now much more efficient at handling the scenario when the bandwidth between the client and the proxy is significantly less than the bandwidth from the proxy to the server. This is done by limiting the server-to-proxy bandwidth to the bandwidth of the proxy-to-client.

Akamaizer Proxy performance  (CR20167)
Performance of the akamaizer proxy has been improved.

BIG-IP now sends a TCP RST when no routes are available   (CR20114)
The BIG-IP system now sends a reset (RST) when auto-lasthop is enabled and no route is available. This enhances the performance of clients that do not resend TCP packets.

SSL Proxy: 100% CPU utilization freezes existing connections   (CR19966)
We improved the way the SSL proxy handles prematurely disconnected clients.

Broadcast pings originating from the BIG-IP  (CR19901)
The BIG-IP system is not adversely affected by broadcast pings originating from itself.

Required configuration changes

List of reserved keywords

With this version of the BIG-IP software, there is a list of keywords that are reserved.  You cannot use any words in the list when you create configurations from either the web-based Configuration utility or the command line. For more information about the reserved keywords, see the list of reserved keywords.

Optional configuration changes

Layer 2 forwarding transparency

In previous releases, VLAN groups have been a hybrid of layer 2 (L2) proxy ARP with layer 3 (L3) forwarding. In this release, you can configure pure L2 operation for VLAN groups. To configure this, you can set the internal variable transparent_vlangroups to one of the following three values:

      0 (default) - traditional proxy ARP with L3 forwarding
      1 - L2 forwarding with locally unique bit toggled in ARP response across the VLANs
      2 - L2 forwarding with original MAC address of remote system preserved across VLANs
For more information on configuring this feature, see solution brief 1541 at tech.f5.com.

Wildcard forwarding virtual server

If you are currently using IP forwarding for BIG-IP version 4.0 and higher, we strongly recommend that you use a wildcard forwarding virtual server instead of, or in addition to, IP forwarding. With the additional features in BIG-IP 4.x, using a wildcard forwarding virtual server is faster than using IP forwarding. A wildcard forwarding virtual server also allows you to get statistics on the exact amount of traffic flowing through the system.

If you want to configure a wildcard forwarding virtual server to handle IP forwarded traffic, use the following procedure on your 4.x system. You can perform this procedure on-the-fly without causing any interruption of service.

1. To set up timeouts type the following commands:
   bigpipe service 0 tcp enable
   bigpipe service 0 timeout tcp 30
   bigpipe service 0 udp enable
   bigpipe service 0 timeout udp 30
2. Set up a wildcard forwarding virtual server by typing the following command:
   bigpipe virtual 0.0.0.0:0 forward
3. If you want to allow protocols other than TCP and UDP through the forwarding virtual server, use the following command. The default timeout is 15 seconds.
   bigpipe virtual 0.0.0.0 any_ip enable
   
   If you want to change the default timeout for this setting, use this syntax:
   bigpipe virtual 0.0.0.0 any_ip timeout <seconds>
   
   For example, if you want to change the default timeout to 5 seconds, type this command:
   bigpipe virtual 0.0.0.0 any_ip timeout 5
4. To save your new configuration, type:
   bigpipe save

For more information on wildcard forwarding virtual servers, see the BIG-IP Solutions Guide.

Changing the default log levels for the web server (CR21656, CR21746)

When you install this PTF, the IM package overwrites the web server configuration file httpd.conf. The web server log level and SSL web server log level are reset to new default settings. The web server log level controls how much information about general web requests is logged. The SSL log level (ssl_log_level) applies only to SSL-enabled web servers, and controls how much information about SSL transactions is logged. The default log level for the web server is set to emerg. The default SSL log level is set to none. If you want to change these default log levels, you can use the command line interface to manually configure this setting. For a list of valid webserver log levels and SSL web server log levels, see the tables below.
Use the following set of steps to change the default log levels for the webserver.

1. To manually configure the web server log level, use one or both of the following commands:
   
   • To configure the logging level for standard messages, type:
     bigpipe db set Common.Bigip.Webserver.log_level = <level>
   • To configure the logging level for SSL messages, type:
     bigpipe db set Common.Bigip.Webserver.ssl_log_level = <level>
2. After you designate a log level, activate your changes by typing the following command:
   /usr/sbin/first_time/tweak_httpd

You have the additional option of specifying whether you want every access to the web server to be logged. The default setting is 0, or disabled.
Configure access logging for the web server using the following process:

1. To enable or disable access logging, use one of the following commands:
   • To enable access logging for the web server, type this command:
     bigpipe db set Common.Bigip.Webserver.log_access = 1
   • To disable access logging for the web server, type this command:
     bigpipe db set Common.Bigip.Webserver.log_access = 0
2. Activate your changes by typing the following command:
   /usr/sbin/first_time/tweak_httpd

The following table contains a list of valid log levels for standard messages.

Level	Description	Example
none	No logging is written
emerg	Emergencies - system is unusable	"Child cannot open lock file. Exiting"
alert	Action must be taken immediately	"getpwuid: couldn't determine user name from uid"
crit	Critical Conditions	"socket: Failed to get a socket, exiting child"
error	Error conditions	"Premature end of script headers"
warn	Warning conditions	"child process 1234 did not exit, sending another SIGHUP"
notice	Normal but significant condition	"httpd: caught SIGBUS, attempting to dump core in ..."
info	Informational	"Server seems busy, (you may need to increase StartServers, or Min/MaxSpareServers)..."
debug	Debug-level messages	"Opening config file ..."

The following table contains a list of valid log levels for SSL messages.

Level	Description
none	No dedicated SSL logging is written, but messages of level error are written to the general Apache error log file.
error	Logs messages of the error type only that is, messages that show fatal situations (processing is usually stopped).
warn	Logs warning messages, which show non-fatal problems (processing is usually continued).
info	Logs informational messages, which show major processing steps.
trace	Logs trace messages, messages which show minor processing steps.
debug	Logs debugging messages, which show development and low-level I/O information.

Known Issues

The following items are known issues in the current release.

Host names and SNMP trapsink messages  (CR19769)
The host name provided in the SNMP trap messages may contain the host name of the system, rather than the host name that is routable in DNS.

Setting active-active mode using the web-based Configuration utility  (CR19794)
With network failover enabled, you cannot use the Configuration utility to configure active-active mode. When you have network failover enabled, use the command line interface to set active-active mode.

Error message  (CR19813)
When you reboot, in certain circumstances you may receive the error message wd0: lost interrupt. This message is only a warning, and does not affect the operation of the BIG-IP unit.

Memory exhaustion side-effects  (CR20496)
In certain circumstances, proxyd and other userland processes may not respond when memory is exhausted.

Loading the previous configuration after upgrade  (CR20616)
In some cases, after you upgrade to PTF-04, the previous configuration is not loaded automatically. If this happens, you should load your configuration by typing /sbin/sod

Update snmptrap configuration file  (CR21363)
When upgrading a previously upgraded 4.1.1 system, the /etc/snmptrap.conf file is not updated properly, which may cause some SNMP traps to fail. The /etc/snmptrap.conf.example file contains a listing of trap messages that are available.

SNMP checktrap  (CR21701)
When the port for the node that is being marked up or down is any, the checktrap function may not correctly identify it.

Failover on SSL accelerator hardware failure  (CR21728)
The SSL proxy silently ignores the Configuration utility and command line interface configuration options for this feature, and observes only the corresponding, deprecated bigdb key.

Windows uploads  (CR22043)
Delayed ACK packets may throttle Windows uploads to 40K per second.

Force Active/Force Standby incorrect with Network Failover  (CR22093)
Performing force active/force standby commands can result in the force standby box being and staying active while the force master box remains standby.

iControl: Pool::get_persist_mode_cookie_mode  (CR22126)
iControl Pool::get_persist_mode_cookie_mode may return the incorrect result.

Failover when the nCipher card fails  (CR22172)
The BIG-IP system does not currently support failover if the nCipher card fails.

Error messages for proxyd and NameSurfer in the BIG-IP log  (CR22195)
When you reboot or run config from the command line, the BIG-IP log file may report that proxyd and namesurfer exited abnormally. These log messages are benign warnings and do not indicate a serious error.

Fail-safe log messages  (CR22290)
Fixed fail-safe log messages use default internal VLAN names instead of the user-configured VLAN names.

Resetting the base configuration before you run the Setup utility causes fatal errors at the Configure Interfaces step  (CR22331)
When you reset the base configuration (with the command, bigpipe base reset), and then run the Setup utility (by typing setup), the BIG-IP system experiences fatal errors when you get to the Configure Interfaces step in the utility. To avoid the errors, do not reset the base configuration before you run the Setup utility.

Node state changes in the bigip.conf file  (CR22345)
If you use either the Configuration utility or the command line interface to configure a node to a force down state, this information may not be saved to the bigip.conf file.

FIPS hardserver  (CR22389)
More than 120 concurrent connections may cause the FIPS hardserver to become unstable.

Illegal attempts statistics  (CR22472)
Illegal attempts statistics do not display in the Configuration utility. Illegal attempts display correctly in the bigip log file.

VLAN group with MAC masquerading  (CR22558)
When you configure a VLAN group with MAC masquerading, nodes can go down on standby.

Cookie persistence may not work when Cookie: is missing a space after the colon  (CR22651)
When the BIG-IP system receives a request with the space missing after the colon in the cookie header (Cookie:), the cookie may be missed and persistence is broken.

snmpwalk: memberEntry and wildcard virtual servers  (CR22671)
snmpwalk: memberEntry is not returning values for wildcard virtual servers. To see the values for the other virtual servers in the table, use the snmpget command.

Setup utility may fail when the system’s broadcast address is not compatible with the system’s IP address/netmask  (CR22675)
When you configure the system's IP address and netmask, and you change the broadcast address so that it does not match the IP address/netmask combination, the Setup utility may experience fatal errors when you enter a default route. To avoid this error, we recommend that you accept the default broadcast address.

proxy_arp_exclusion  (CR22695)
The proxy_arp_exclusion class may not be available on all versions of the BIG-IP system.

SNMP nodesAddr  (CR22704)
The SNMP nodesAddr object displays an empty string which adversely affects the ability of the RLX plugin to recognize pool membership.

SMTP, POP3 and NNTP monitors  (CR22815)
SMTP, POP3 and NNTP monitors may not use the port number supplied.

Disabled nodes and erroneous log messages  (CR22880)
When you disable a connection on the Node Properties screen in the Configuration utility, and sessions are still enabled, the following messages are written to the /var/log/bigd file:
kernel: Node Enabled
kernel: Node Enabled Note that this message is incorrect, and the node is actually disabled.

Invalid domain names  (CR22895)
The fallback host in pools does not accept domain names that begin with a digit instead of an alpha character, for example, abc.123.net.

proxyd logging  (CR23076)
Currently, if proxyd exits when loading due to an incorrect key/certificate combination, it does not generate any log messages.

Running the config command with no self IP addresses  (CR23112)
If you run the config command from the command line without having any self IP addresses configured, the command does not function properly. If there are no self IP addresses configured on the BIG-IP system, you must add a self IP address before running the config command.

MAC masquerading and VLAN failsafe on the failover interface (CR24926)
When the active unit detects no traffic on the VLAN (for example, the cable is unplugged) it fails over to the peer unit. When the active unit fails over and reboots, the unit does not send a gratuitous ARP when it comes back up. Therefore, the firewall does not know that the failover interface has a new MAC address.

Broadcom chip asserts on reboot if the Broadcom chip is in bad state (CR24958)
On an IP Application Switch, if the Broadcom chip is in a bad state, and you reboot the switch, the Broadcom issues an assert which causes an unstable system.

Virtual server sending packets on even though TCP checksums are incorrect (CR24982)
The BIG-IP system does not validate checksums of packets destined through a virtual server, even if those packets are processed by BIG-IP system itself, for example, when using rules.

TCP SYN packet to self IP that matches TIME_WAIT connection is mishandled (CR24991)
If the BIG-IP system receives a TCP SYN packet for a self IP that matches an old connection that is in TIME_WAIT (same source and destination address and port), the old connection gets deleted and a new connection is created.

Making configuration changes using the Configuration utility and proxyd (CR25084)
When you make changes to the BIG-IP system using the browser-based Configuration utility, the BIG-IP system does not properly restart proxyd. You need to restart proxyd after you have completed your changes, by typing proxyd from the command line.

Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) does not work properly if the BIG-IP Application Switch is the only active STP in the network (CR25128)
If the BIG-IP Application Switch is the only STP-enabled entity in the network, parallel ports go to a forwarding state because the switch ignores its returning BPDU frames. This leaves the network open to bridge loops. To avoid this situation, we recommend that you disable STP if you only have one BIG-IP Application Switch in your network.

After upgrading the system, the kernel cannot find the root device (CR25142)
In rare instances, after you install the upgrade im package, the system kernel cannot find the root device. Should this occur, you can work around this issue by editing the boot.defaults file. In the file, add 3 (three) spaces after sd0d.

Connection rebinding inoperable when pool members have different priorities (CR25165)
If you have a pool configured whose member nodes have different priorities, and you have enabled connection rebinding, when a node with a higher priority fails, connection rebinding does not occur.

HTTP parsing engine functionality for proxyd (CR25170)
Occasionally, HTTP parsing engine for proxyd sometimes holds onto data received from a server and does not process it immediately. Alternately, the parsing engine may forward data prematurely, before the proxy has received the entire data packet.

VLAN groups do not forward non-IP traffic (CR25174)
If you have a VLAN group configured, and the system receives non-IP traffic, the VLAN group does not forward the traffic and drops the packets.

Large client requests, cookie persistence, and proxy performance (CR25195)
When you have cookie persistence enabled, and the BIG-IP system receives a large request from a client, such as a POST request with a lot of data, the proxy performance degrades and the proxy may truncate the packet.

Debug messages from the nCipher driver (CR25265)
The nCipher driver is outputting debug messages, for example, nfp_ioctl: about to call read with read outstanding. The messages are benign and can be ignored.

Tagged VLANs and STP functionality on the BIG-IP 5000 (CR25269)
Spanning Tree Protcol (STP) functionality is not compatible with tagged VLANs. If you have a tagged VLAN, and your network is configured such that there is a bridging loop, you may experience a broadcast storm. Note that this issue does not occur with untagged VLANs.

HTTP header inserts and proxies (CR25289)
If header insertion is enabled in the proxy, and the proxy receives only the HTTP command as the first SSL record, the proxy assumes that the entire header has been sent, inserts its headers, and terminates the HTTP header block.

Extra warning messages in the command line Setup utility (CR25292)
When you select the A option (Configure all services) in the command line Setup utility, you may see warning messages on some of the steps. The messages are benign and can be ignored.