Software distribution jobs¶

Overview¶

Software distribution jobs copy software images from the F5 Insight platform to target instances to prepare for installation and software activation.

Stage images ahead of the window — Push images to target instances before the maintenance window, to decrease upgrade time.
Space-aware targeting — F5 Insight checks free space per instance and flags or skips instances that do not have sufficient space.
Flexible execution — Distribute serially or in parallel batches to balance speed against load.

Go to the Manage section in the left toolbar and select Automation.
Select Jobs.
Select Add Job.
Select Software Distribution.
Enter a Job Name. Use a helpful name that indicates the target instances or types and the software version, build, etc.
Enter a Description (optional).
Select the target instances, optionally using the search functionality.
Select the software image(s) to distribute.
Select Check Instances. F5 Insight then checks the target instances for sufficient free space:
- Instances with insufficient space are shown.
- Instances with sufficient space show as ready to proceed without issue.
Select Re-check Instances if an administrator has cleared additional disk space (outside of the F5 Insight product) so that a previously blocked instance can be included.
Configure the distribution execution mode, either Serial (Rolling Execution) or Parallel (Batch Execution):
- With Serial, the software is distributed to one instance at a time.
- With Parallel, define the Batch Size (how many instances are sent the files at a time).
To save the job and run it later, select Save.
To run the job immediately, select Execute Job and confirm in the modal window that is displayed.
When you select Execute Job, F5 Insight shows a confirmation window. Optionally, enter a Change Request tracking # that will persist with the job execution details. Select Execute Job to start the distribution.

View job execution progress by clicking the Yes in the Executing column.
View current or previous job executions by clicking on the digit in the Executions column for the Job you wish to view.
Each job displays status: Enabled, Disabled, or Executing. The Executions column shows the number of times the job has run.

For more detailed software distribution log messages, SSH to the F5 Insight host and check /opt/f5insight/logs/provisioning.log.

The following capabilities are not included in the initial release:

Other file types — Distributing other components, such as GeoIP databases, IP reputation databases, etc., is out of scope for the initial release.

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