How to: Upgrade a BIG-IP Next HA instance on VELOS from BIG-IP Next Central Manager with automatic failover

Overview

The BIG-IP Next Central Manager upgrades both active and standby nodes with no intervention using automatic failover method. The upgrade starts in the standby node first so that the active node can continue operations. Once the standby node upgrade is complete, an HA failover is executed to switch from the active node to the standby node in the HA cluster instance and starts the upgrade on the active node.

By default, an upgrade starts with a standby node of a BIG-IP Next HA instance. After the standby node is upgraded, it becomes the active node and the previously active node is automatically upgraded.

If you want to manually failover to upgrade the peer instance, disable the Enable automatic failover option before upgrading.

To upgrade the active node first, click Force Failover to make it the standby node.

Prerequisites

• A VM with BIG-IP Next Central Manager, refer Create BIG-IP Next Central Manager on VMware.

• Configure two tenants from two partitions, one tenant from each partition. Refer to How to: Install BIG-IP Next tenant on VELOS.

• From the MyF5 Downloads, download the appropriate image .tgz file and if required the signature .sig file(s).

• Upload the tenant image in the VELOS where the tenant of the HA lives, refer to the VELOS Systems documentation.

Procedure

Use this procedure to upgrade the active and standby nodes in a VELOS HA cluster from BIG-IP Next Central Manager using the automatic failover method.

1. Log in to BIG-IP Next Central Manager as admin, click the Workspace icon next to the F5 logo, and click Infrastructure. The My Instances page displays.

2. Select the checkbox next to the BIG-IP Next HA instance you want to upgrade.

3. At the top right of the screen, click Actions and select Upgrade.

4. In the Active Node section, in the Chassis Partition IP Address or FQDN field, enter the IP address or FQDN of the VELOS chassis on which the BIG-IP Next instance software image is located.

5. Enter the Username and Password for the VELOS chassis partition.

6. In the Tenant field, type a name for the tenant.

7. In the Standby Node section, in the Chassis Partition IP Address or FQDN field, enter the IP address or FQDN of the VELOS chassis on which the BIG-IP Next instance software image is located.

8. Enter the Username and Password for the VELOS chassis partition.

9. In the Tenant field, type a name for the tenant.

10. In the Image field, type or paste the name of the BIG-IP Next image you uploaded to VELOS.

11. Click the Authenticate & Upgrade button and confirm the upgrade by clicking the Upgrade button on the confirmation message.

Results

BIG-IP Next Central Manager upgrades the software for both active and standby nodes in the BIG-IP Next HA instance.