Last updated on: January 19 2023.

F5OS-A 1.0.0 - Upgrade the System¶

Feature Overview¶

F5OS (Velocity family software) in rSeries products is comprised of appliance software which includes a base operating system and a service software. This is in addition to the BIG-IP tenant software whose version needs to be managed. The VELOS product manual will contain the official upgrade procedure, and it will override any conflicting information contained in this Technical Reference Material page. This Technical Reference Material page will also provide technical details related to the upgrade system for F5OS.

Feature deeper overview¶

ISO vs OS vs Service version¶

When upgrading the Appliance you have the ability to specify ISO version or OS version and Service version.

TL;DR: ISO version = OS version + Service version

Type	Description	Extension	Approximate Size	Example file name
ISO version	OS +Service software, in one .iso file	.iso	5.3GB	F5OS-A-1.0.0-XXXX.[R5R10
OS version	OS (Linux) software	.os	1.5GB	F5OS-A-1.0.0-XXXX.[R5R10
Service version	Service software	.img	3.9GB	F5OS-A-1.0.0-XXXX.[R5R10

ISO version is mutually exclusive with OS version and Service version. In other words, you can specify ISO version, or you can specify OS + Service version, but you can’t do both.

What is in the OS and Service packages? What is the difference?¶

The information in the following tables was extracted from build artifacts named MANIFEST.controller andMANIFEST.partition. It is subject to change. The following are only a summary, so you can become familiar with the difference between the OS package and the Service package.

Appliance
OS

Docker, Ansible
kubevirt-velos - it’s unknown what this package is and why it is in the OS software and not the Service software
Flannel | | Service | * Appliance GUI
Kubevirt
Openshift
Multus
F5-produced software, e.g. qkview, platform specific packages, lcd package, the web server, confd
tcpdump |

Configuration back-up and restore¶

To back up a configuration, you back up the config database on the active System Controller. Run the following command in confd while in config mode:

(config)# system database config-backup name <name>.backup  

The .backup extension is not required. The output file is an XML ASCII file.

The config backup file is located at **/var/F5/system/configs/on the appliance OS. If you are logged in to confd as admin, the file path is “configs/":

confd location of the configuration files

appliance-1# file list path configs/
Possible completions:
database-20211111.backup database-20211115.backup
appliance-1# file list path configs/

To restore a backed-up configuration, run the following command in confd while in config mode:

(config)# system database config-restore name <name>.backup

Optional: From confd, you can export the configuration backup to a remote location.

(config)# file export local-file configs/<name>.backup remote-host <remote_host_name_or_ip> remote-file <remote_path> username <username> password
Value for 'password' (<string>): ******
result File transfer is initiated.

Bare-metal installation instructions: System Controller¶

This section summarizes what’s in the product manual.

Obtain the ISO version for the Appliance. This is available on F5’s downloads site. It is approximately 5.4GB in size. For information on how to download an iso from F5 Downloads, seeK32951451: Downloading BIG-IP ISO updates directly to BIG-IP via curl
Log into the System Controller using the serial console
Mount the ISO file: mount <iso_image> /mnt
Run a script on the mounted image to copy it to the USB thumbdrive: sh -x /mnt/usb.sh
Reboot the appliance
Intercept the boot at the bios screen by pressing the ‘b’ key. (You must be logged in via serial console to do this)
Choose the “Install F5OS” option. Install will occur automatically
Reboot the appliance

Installation instructions: (BIG-IP) tenant¶

BIG-IP is loaded on theappliance directly.

Secure copy the BIG-IP KVM image to the partition’s management IP address:

scp <bigip_file_name>.zip.bundle admin@<appliance_mgmt_ip>:IMAGES/

Verify the image is imported by logging into the partition’s CLI and running the**show image**command, the status should read “replicated”.

This BIG-IP tenant imageactually gets placed on the appliance file system at/var/F5/system/IMAGES

GUI Screen Shots¶

Appliance images:

The GUI for the system controller images.

The menu item is in System Settings.
The F5OS and Service versions are displayed.
You can select a new version from this screen. “Bundled” means the ISO version. “Unbundled” means you wish to specify only the OS version or the Service version.

Log directories¶

/var is preserved during the Appliance upgrades. This means that /var/log, /var/F5, /var/shared are all preserved.

Licensing, Provisioning, and other Requirements¶

There are no licensing requirements to perform upgrades.
Upgrading the system will disrupt network traffic to the entire chassis.

Possible problems¶

I don’t know what triggers this, but a new (or old) software image might be stuck at the “in queue” importing state. According toK58134586it can also get stuck in the Verifying state.

vanquish-01# show system image
                                 IN
VERSION OS   STATUS  DATE        USE
---------------------------------------
1.0.1-14867  ready   2022-02-23  true

VERSION                          IN
SERVICE      STATUS  DATE        USE
---------------------------------------
1.0.1-14867  ready   2022-02-23  true

                                   IN
VERSION ISO  STATUS    DATE        USE
------------------------------------------
1.0.1-14867  ready     2022-02-23  false
1.0.0-9194   in queue              false  <===== never leaves 'in queue'

Resolution: re-import the image.

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