Applies To:
Show Versions
BIG-IQ Device
- 4.2.0
BIG-IQ Security
- 4.2.0
Summary:
This release note documents version 4.2.0 of BIG-IQ Device.
Contents:
- Product description
- Supported platform
- Screen resolution requirement
- Browser support
- User documentation for this release
- Software installation
- Features
- Known issues
- Removing BIG-IQ system services from a BIG-IP device
- Contacting F5 Networks
- Legal notices
Product description
As a network administrator, you can use BIG-IQ Device to centrally manage multiple physical and virtual BIG-IP devices. This management includes license management, software image installation, backing up and restoring UCS files, and backing up and restoring specific configuration files to one or more BIG-IP devices. BIG-IQ Device also helps you with device inventory tasks by keeping you apprised of every detail about you managed devices.
Screen resolution requirement
To properly display, the BIG-IQ system requires that your screen resolution is set to 1280x1024 or higher.
Browser support
BIG-IQ Device supports the following browsers and versions:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer version 9 and later
- Mozilla Firefox version 18.x and later
- Google Chrome version 18.x and later
User documentation for this release
For a comprehensive list of documentation that is relevant to this release, refer to the BIG-IQ 4.2.0 Documentation page.
Software installation
For procedures about specifying network options and performing initial configuration, refer to the BIG-IQ System: Licensing and Initial Configuration guide.
Features
Device inventory management
You can view detailed data about the managed devices in your network. Information includes associated IP addresses, platform type, license details, software version, and so forth. In addition to viewing this information, you can also export it to a CSV file and edit the data as required to create reports for asset management.UCS file backup and restoration
The configuration details of managed devices (including BIG-IQ Device itself) are contained in a compressed user configuration set (UCS) file. The UCS file contains all of the information required to restore a device's configuration. You can use BIG-IQ Device to create a backup of the UCS file for each device in your network, on a regular basis, so that you always have a copy of a configuration. The UCS file backup provides your network with added stability in the event that a system needs to be restored. In the event of a system failure or a requirement to roll back to a previous configuration, you can easily restore a backed up UCS file without having to recreate all of a device’s contentSSL certificate monitoring
Each BIG-IP device in your network contains SSL certificates. SSL certificates have a set expiry date, and do not automatically renew. Using BIG-IQ Device, you can centrally monitor the expiration dates for SSL certificates for all your managed devices, ensuring that traffic is not interrupted to your applications.
Software image and configuration file deployment
Using BIG-IQ Device to centrally manage the devices in your network means that you can deploy software images and configurations without having to log in to each individual BIG-IP device. You have a centralized view into the health of the BIG-IP devices, and if you see that a managed device has failed, but do not have the time to perform extensive troubleshooting, you have the option to immediately reformat the hard drive of the failed device and reload a stored configuration.
Active-active support for BIG-IQ Device
You can ensure that you always have access to managed BIG-IP devices by installing two BIG-IQ Device systems with an active-active, high availability (HA) configuration. Any configuration change that occurs on one BIG-IQ system is immediately synchronized with its peer device. If a BIG-IQ system in an active-active HA configuration fails, the peer BIG-IQ system takes over the BIG-IQ device management that was previously done by the original device.Amazon EC2 templates
You can use Amazon EC2 templates to easily provide users with access to EC2 cloud resources. The template provides two services. First, you can use it to identify a specific set of resources, much like a virtual container, and second, it provides integration with EC2 cloud services.Device health and performance monitoring
Centrally managing the BIG-IP devices with BIG-IQ Device provides you with the opportunity to easily assess the health and performance of your network.
Licensing pools
You can manage resource usage in a dynamic application environment through the use of license pools. Each license pool is limited to a specific number of licenses. After you perform the initial license activation, BIG-IQ Device automatically grants and revokes licenses for the BIG-IP virtual edition systems as resource demands change. This gives you the flexibility to license devices only as needed, keeping your operating costs fixed. You can also use different license pools for different applications, allowing for flexible provisioning options.
Known issues
| Issue | Description | Workaround (if available) |
|---|---|---|
| 441274 | The elasticity settings and pool license features introduced in this release do not support BIG-IP versions 11.4.1 and older. | |
| 441052 | If two BIG-IQ systems in an active-standby high availability pair attempt to simultaneously manage the same BIG-IP device, only the BIG-IQ system that is the first to establish trust with the BIG-IP device can communicate with it. The peer BIG-IQ system will display SEVERE messages in its restjavad.0.log for the BIG-IP device. | |
| 441049 | If you restart the BIG-IQ system, health statistics no longer display for the Device panel. | To recover and display the health statistics, re-discover managed BIG-IP devices. |
| 440948 | If you start manually activating a license pool and the process is interrupted (either by closing or navigating away from the screen), BIG-IQ Device saves the license pool in a partially complete state. To change the license pool's name, you must complete the license pool activation process, or delete the incomplete pool and start again. | |
| 440842 | The time displayed in the pool licensing is in UTC, not local time. | Refer to the BIG-IQ System: Initial Setup and Configuration guide for instructions about setting the local time for the BIG-IQ system. |
| 440531 | If a query times out, the BIG-IQ user interface may become unresponsive. | To work around this issue, refresh your browser. |
| 440333 | If you delete a BIG-IQ peer from a high availability active-active pair, then add back the same BIG-IQ system, data between the devices no longer synchronized. | After you delete a BIG-IQ system from a high availability active-active pair, create a BIG-IQ system UCS backup for disaster recovery. Then reset the system to factory settings by typing the following command on that device: bigstart stop restjavad && rm -rf /var/config/rest && bigstart start restjavad You can add it back to a high availability pair and they will properly synchronize. |
| 439026 | The BIG-IQ system cannot search for addresses within a subnet. Queries for addresses contained within a subnet do not return complete results. | When searching for IPv6 addresses, you must specify explicit address ranges as a substitute for CIDR notation. |
| 437741 | If you have not configured an internal VLAN and an associated self IP address on the BIG-IQ system or a managed BIG-IP device, you receive the following message (logged to the BIG-IP restjavad.0.log) every minute for each system and device. [8100/shared/identified-devices IdentifiedDevicesWorker][failed] java.net.ProtocolException: Status code:401 | You must configure an internal VLAN and self IP address for the BIG-IQ system and all managed devices. |
| 434930 | You cannot use a host name to add a device. | When you discover a new device, you must use its IP address. |
| 431398 | When booting the BIG-IQ system, it may display the following warning in the console or logs: SKIPPING unix_config_httpd: /defaults/config/templates/xui.tmpl doesn't exist!!! This message is benign and has no impact on the BIG-IQ system's functionality. | You can safely ignore this benign error message. |
| 428071 | When you install the required BIG-IQ system components on BIG-IP devices running on a VIPRION system with more than one blade, the components load only on the primary blade. | To install the required components on the remaining blades, for each blade, run the update_bigip.sh script then disable the blade through TMUI. After you run the script on all blades, re-enable them through TMUI. |
| 428383 | When you filter on a number or phrase when searching for a particular device, BIG-IQ Device may return unexpected results. This occurs because BIG-IQ Device filters on all fields, not just those displayed in the Devices panel. |
Removing BIG-IQ system services from a BIG-IP device
Contacting F5 Networks
| Phone: | (206) 272-6888 |
| Fax: | (206) 272-6802 |
| Web: | http://support.f5.com |
| Email: | support@f5.com |
For additional information, please visit http://www.f5.com.
Additional resources
You can find additional support resources and technical documentation through a variety of sources.
- The F5 Networks Technical Support web site: http://www.f5.com/support/
- The AskF5 web site: http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us.html
- The F5 DevCentral web site: http://devcentral.f5.com/
- AskF5 TechNews
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