Release notes

Release notes for F5 Insight 1.2.1, the on-premises observability and operational strategy solution for F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform.

Version 1.2.1 | July 2026

Product F5 Insight
Version 1.2.1
Release date July 2026
Deployment model On-premises / self-hosted
Document revision 1.2.1

About this release

F5 Insight 1.2.1 introduces AI-powered fleet management, enhanced security controls, and flexible deployment options. Key additions include the AI Assistant with LLM Insights, an AI Audit Console for compliance, F5 Insight Lite Mode for lightweight telemetry forwarding, and fleet-wide software updates and patching for BIG-IP TMOS.

System requirements

Host platform

Component Requirement
Operating system F5-supported image
Architecture x86_64 (AMD64)
CPU Minimum 12 vCPUs
Memory Minimum 16 GB RAM
Storage 650 GB overall single volume storage. 100 GB for OS; 50 GB for backup and restore; 500 GB minimum for default telemetry retention policy
Hypervisor images QCOW and OVA

Managed BIG-IP devices

Component Requirement
BIG-IP version 17.5.x
Modules Local Traffic Manager (LTM) required; DNS, Advanced Web Application Firewall (AWAF), Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM), Access Policy Manager (APM), Carrier-Grade NAT (CGNAT), and SSL Orchestrator (SSLO) supported
Management access iControl REST API enabled; HTTPS reachable from F5 Insight host
Telemetry iRule High-speed logging (HSL) enabled; syslog reachable from collector listener

Highlighted features

  1. AI Audit Console

    Full audit logging for every AI Assistant interaction, with PII masking, CSV export, and dead letter queue reliability.

  2. AI Assistant and LLM Insights

    Natural language query interface for BIG-IP configurations, logs, and device statistics. Supports OpenAI, Anthropic, and local LLM providers. Includes persistent chat history with automatic summarization and PDF export.

  3. Backup and Restore

    Secure, AES-256 encrypted backup and restore with full and config backup types. Supports NFS/SMB network storage, scheduled backups, safe and fast restore modes, component-level restore, and appliance migration.

  4. F5 Insight Lite Mode

    Lightweight deployment mode that forwards telemetry directly to F5 AI Data Fabric (AIDF) without local storage. Supports cloud-init provisioning, telemetry type selection, optional device onboarding, and upgrade to Full mode.

  5. Disaster Recovery upgrade

    Guidance for upgrading F5 Insight in active/standby disaster recovery deployments, including DR-aware upgrade ordering (standby first, then primary).

  6. External Authentication and RBAC

    Authenticate users via corporate LDAP or SAML identity providers (Open LDAP, Ping, Okta). Three predefined roles (Admin, Operator, Viewer) with role mapping from external IdP groups.

  7. Fleet Management - Software Updates and Patching

    Centralized software management for BIG-IP TMOS. Upload images, distribute, and install updates and patches (including F5 Hardened Releases) across your BIG-IP fleet from a single console. Supports TMOS 17.1.x, 17.5.x, and 21.1.x.

  8. Upgrade and Patching

    Full upgrades and image-only patches with bundle upload (up to 8 GB), automated preflight checks, pre-upgrade backup, automatic rollback, manual patch rollback within 72 hours, and scheduled upgrades.

Fixed issues

This section details the bugs and issues resolved in this release.

  1. PostgreSQL credentials are now randomly generated at startup

    F5 Insight now randomly generates PostgreSQL and Vault-PostgreSQL credentials at startup, replacing previously hardcoded placeholder passwords. Each deployment generates a unique 32-character alphanumeric password using cryptographically secure random generation. This change eliminates hardcoded database passwords from startup scripts and reduces the risk of credential-based attacks.

  2. Virtual server overview panel displays incorrect availability status

    Fixed an issue where the Virtual Server (VS) Overview panel on the BIG-IP Device Overview dashboard displayed incorrect or ambiguous availability data. The panel returned all availability ratio values for a device, which could include multiple VS entries with varying statuses. The fix updates the query to return only virtual servers with a confirmed available status, providing accurate VS availability information.

  3. DNS resolution failure in K3s pods after static IP/DNS configuration

    Fixed an issue where Kubernetes pods inside the K3s cluster couldn’t resolve hostnames. The issue occurred after running f5insight-netconfig set-static to configure a static IP and DNS. CoreDNS pods retained stale upstream DNS configuration after a K3s restart, requiring a full VM reboot to restore DNS resolution. CoreDNS is now automatically restarted after every K3s restart, and DNS changes are immediately effective inside K3s pods without a VM reboot. This fix applies to both static IP and DHCP configuration changes.

Known issues

This release includes the following known issues.

  1. SAML single logout (SLO)

    SAML Single Logout (SLO) is a known limitation in this release. Logging out of F5 Insight might terminate your F5 Insight session, while the Identity Provider (IdP) session can stay active, allowing re-login without re-authentication.

    Workaround: To make sure you fully log out, either:

    • Use a private/incognito browser window for SAML sessions, or
    • Explicitly log out from the IdP after logging out of F5 Insight.

  2. SAML login redirect

    When using SAML-based authentication (for example, Okta or Ping), selecting the external IdP login option on the F5 Insight login page might route users through an intermediate service-provider login screen rather than directly to the IdP authentication page.

    Workaround: To complete authentication, select the IdP login option once more on the intermediate screen.

  3. IdP group sync

When user group or profile attributes are changed in an external IdP (SAML/OIDC, for example, Okta or Ping), those updates might not be synchronized to the existing user record in F5 Insight on subsequent logins. As a result, previously assigned groups in F5 Insight can persist (for example, admin group remains after change to operator group in IdP).

Workaround: Re-create the Saml IdP provider configuration in F5 Insight after IdP group changes are made.

  1. Manual browser refresh required after upgrading from 1.1.1 to 1.2.1

    After upgrading from F5 Insight version 1.1.1 to 1.2.1, the user interface might not automatically refresh to reflect the updated interface. This occurs because the auto-reload fix delivered in 1.2.1 only applies to upgrades starting from version 1.2.1 onwards due to significant codebase restructuring between 1.1.1 and 1.2.1.

    Workaround: After upgrading from 1.1.1 to 1.2.1, perform a manual browser refresh to load the updated 1.2.1 user interface.

  2. Lite mode UI displayed during upgrade to Full mode

    During the upgrade process, the F5 Insight Lite onboarding UI might appear instead of the expected Full mode interface.

    Workaround: Refresh the browser to restore the Full mode UI.

  3. Software installation job fails for Active or Standby BIG-IP devices in Standalone mode

    Adding BIG-IPs that are either ‘Standby’ or ‘Active’ into a Software Installation of type ‘Standalone’ will result in error “Failed to start software installation job”. This issue is planned for a future release.

  4. Primary node upgrade may fail when upgrading DR pair from 1.2.0 to 1.2.1 after failover

    When upgrading an F5 Insight DR pair from 1.2.0-210 to 1.2.1-4, the standby node upgrade may succeed, but the primary node upgrade can fail during the Helm post-upgrade phase with a bootstrap secret error. After the failure, the primary node rolls back to version 1.2.0-210.

    This issue occurs after a DR failover has been performed. It is not expected when upgrading directly from 1.1.x releases to 1.2.1-4.

  5. Auto-generated temporary password disappears from VMware console during initial boot (BZ-2433349)

    During fresh F5 Insight v1.2.1 OVA deployments on VMware ESXi/vSphere, the temporary admin password appears briefly on the console during initial boot and then disappears. Restarting the VM does not show the password again, so you may be locked out.

    Temporary workarounds:

    1. Capture a screen recording of the VMware console during the initial power-on to read the password.
    2. Deploy using cloud-init to set a custom admin password before first boot.