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

Overview

This procedure describes on how to upgrade your BIG-IP Next High Availability (HA) instance on a Virtual Edition (VE) using the BIG-IP Next Central Manager with manual failover.

Prerequisites

Authenticate with the BIG-IP Next Central Manager API. For details refer to How to: Authenticate with the BIG-IP Next Central Manager API.

  1. After the standby node upgrade is complete, select the BIG-IP Next HA instance in the Mode column. This will open the HA Parameters panel for that specific instance.

  2. Click the Force Failover button next to HA Nodes.. A confirmation popup displays.

  3. Click the Yes, Failover button. The failover process icon displays.

  4. After the failover process is complete, select the checkbox next to the BIG-IP Next HA instance that you want to upgrade.

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

  6. For the Standby Node, click the Upgrade button next to the software version.

  7. Click the Select File buttons and select the .tgz and .sig files from the dropdowns.

  8. Click the Upgrade button and confirm the upgrade by clicking the Upgrade button on the confirmation message.

Result

After the upgrade process, the BIG-IP Next instance displays with the new version on the My Instances page.

If you plan to backup your instance files, you need to delete the large image files on the BIG-IP Next instance. See How to: Back up managed BIG-IP Next instances to BIG-IP Next Central Manager’s local drive instantly or on a schedule for more information.

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:::{tab-item} Central Manager API

To upgrade Instance using Central Manager APIs:

  1. Get Instance details by sending a GET request to /spaces/default/instances endpoint. Identify the ID of the instance that you want to upgrade.

    GET https://{{CM_IP}}/api/v1/spaces/default/instances?filter=address eq '{{bigip_next_mgmt_ip}}'

  2. The VE BIG-IP Next upgrade requires an “image file” and “signature file”. Both files must be downloaded from F5 site and uploaded individually to the instance. When you upload the files they are uploaded to both the nodes (Active and Standby). Therefore, this step should only be executed once per file.

    Use the *POST request to upload both the files simultaneously by sending a POST request to /spaces/default/instances/{remote-Big-IP-Next-ID}/proxy-file-upload: endpoint using instance_id of the instance you want to upgrade.

    POST https://{{CM_IP}}/api/v1/spaces/default/instances/{{remote-Big-IP-Next-ID}}/proxy-file-upload:

    For the API form data, use the following example, modifying the values as required.

    file_name

    File

    bigip-next-signature-bundle.tgz.512.sig

    name

    Text

    <signature_filename>

    description

    Text

    big-ip next upgrade signature file

    *Note: The image file and signature file name ends with ‘.tgz’ and ‘.tgz.512.sig’ respectively.

  3. Get the uploaded files by sending the GET request to the /device/v1/proxy/{{remote-Big-IP-Next-ID}}?path=/files endpoint using instance_id of the instance you want to upgrade. The image name and signature name is returned in the response.

    GET https://https://{{CM_IP}}/api/device/v1/proxy/{{remote-Big-IP-Next-ID}}?path=/files

  4. Initiate the instance upgrade by sending the POST request to the /spaces/default/instances/{{remote-Big-IP-Next-ID}}/upgrade endpoint using instance_id of the instance you want to upgrade.

    POST https://{{CM_IP}}/api/v1/spaces/default/instances/{{remote-Big-IP-Next-ID}}/upgrade

    For the request payload, use the following example, modifying the values as required.

    {
    "upgrade_type": "ve_autofailover",
    "image_name": "<bigip_next_image_filename>",
    "signature_name": "<bigip_next_signature_filename>"
}

  5. Get the status for instance upgrade task by sending the GET request to the /spaces/default/instances/upgrade-tasks/{{bigip-next-upgrade-task-id}} endpoint.

    GET https://{{CM_IP}}/api/v1/spaces/default/instances/upgrade-tasks/{{bigip-next-upgrade-task-id}}

  6. In the response, when the state indicates wait for user input, accept the fingerprint to trust the certificate. Accept the fingerprint by sending a PATCH request to the /spaces/default/instances/upgrade-tasks/{{bigip-next-upgrade-task-id}} endpoint to generate new certificates.

    PATCH https://{{CM_IP}}/api/v1/spaces/default/instances/upgrade-tasks/{{bigip-next-upgrade-task-id}}

    For the request payload, use the following example, modifying the values as required.

    {
    "is_user_accepted_untrusted_cert": true
}

    The standby node is upgraded.

  7. For HA instance, initiate the manual failover by sending a POST request to the /spaces/default/instances/<instance_id>/ha/failover endpoint.

    POST https://{{CM_IP}}/api/v1/spaces/default/instances/<instance_id>/ha/failover

    This will swap the active and standby nodes. Repeat the instance upgrade step (step 5) to upgrade the current standby node.

Result

After the upgrade process, the BIG-IP Next instance displays with the new version on the My Instances page.

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