Support bundle

Create a support bundle for F5 Support

To generate a support bundle file for troubleshooting, follow these steps:

  1. Connect to the VM via SSH.

    ssh admin@<VM_IP>
    
  2. Run the support bundle script.

    sudo /opt/f5insight/scripts/support-bundle.sh
    

Example output:

The following sample output shows the support bundle collection process:

admin@asish-final-vm:~$ sudo /opt/f5insight/scripts/support-bundle.sh
[sudo] password for admin:
[2026-01-30 14:43:16] ==========================================
[2026-01-30 14:43:16] F5 Insight Support Bundle Collection
[2026-01-30 14:43:16] Version: 1.0.0
[2026-01-30 14:43:16] ==========================================
[2026-01-30 14:43:16] Using default namespace: f5-insight
[2026-01-30 14:43:16] Using default output location: /tmp
[2026-01-30 14:43:16] ==========================================
[2026-01-30 14:43:16] Using output directory: /tmp
[2026-01-30 14:43:16] Creating artifact directory: /tmp/f5insight-bundle-f5-insight-20260130-144316
▶ Collecting logs and system information...
[2026-01-30 14:43:16] Collecting logs and system information...
▶   - Collecting system information
[2026-01-30 14:43:16]   - Collecting system information
▶     - Collecting pod configurations for f5-insight namespace
[2026-01-30 14:43:18]     - Collecting pod configurations for f5-insight namespace
[2026-01-30 14:43:22] SUCCESS: System information collected
▶   - Collecting /var/log directory
[2026-01-30 14:43:22]   - Collecting /var/log directory
[2026-01-30 14:43:22] Creating /var/log tarball...
[2026-01-30 14:43:23] Tarball created successfully, extracting...
[2026-01-30 14:43:23] SUCCESS: /var/log collected
▶   - Collecting systemd journal logs
[2026-01-30 14:43:23]   - Collecting systemd journal logs
[2026-01-30 14:43:23] SUCCESS: Systemd journals collected
▶   - Collecting F5 Insight application logs
[2026-01-30 14:43:23]   - Collecting F5 Insight application logs
[2026-01-30 14:43:23] SUCCESS: F5 Insight logs collected
✅ All logs collected successfully
[2026-01-30 14:43:23] SUCCESS: All logs collected successfully
▶ Creating support bundle tarball...
[2026-01-30 14:43:23] Creating support bundle tarball...
✅ Tarball created
[2026-01-30 14:43:24] SUCCESS: Tarball created
[2026-01-30 14:43:24] Cleaned up temporary directory
✅ Support bundle saved: /tmp/f5insight-bundle-f5-insight-20260130-144316.tar.gz (1.8M)
[2026-01-30 14:43:24] SUCCESS: Support bundle saved: /tmp/f5insight-bundle-f5-insight-20260130-144316.tar.gz (1.8M)
[2026-01-30 14:43:24] ==========================================
[2026-01-30 14:43:24] Support bundle collection completed
[2026-01-30 14:43:24] ==========================================

Verification and health checks

Check system health

Connect to the VM:

ssh admin@<VM_IP>

Check all pods health:

kubectl get pods -n f5-insight

Review pod logs if issues are detected:

kubectl logs -n f5-insight <pod-name>

Monitor node and pod resource utilization:

# Check node resources
kubectl top nodes

# Check pod resources
kubectl top pods -n f5-insight

# Verify disk space availability
df -h

# Check persistent volume status
kubectl get pv
kubectl get pvc -n f5-insight

Verify data collection

Check ClickHouse data:

  1. Run kubectl get pods -n f5-insight.

  2. Note the ClickHouse container name.

  3. Run the following command:

    kubectl exec -it <clickhouse-container-name> -n f5-insight -- clickhouse-client --query "SELECT count(*) FROM otel.otel_logs"
    

Check OpenTelemetry collector status:

kubectl logs -n f5-insight deployment/otel-collector

Troubleshooting

Common issues and solutions

Issue 1: VM unable to boot

Symptoms: VM starts but becomes unresponsive.

Solution:

Run these commands on the virtual machine host only:

# Check VM status
sudo virsh list --all

# Connect to serial console
sudo virsh console f5insight

# Check boot logs
sudo virsh dumpxml f5insight

# Verify qcow2 image integrity
qemu-img check f5insight-1.0.0.qcow2

Issue 2: Services not starting

Symptoms: Pods stuck in “Pending” or “CrashLoopBackOff” status.

Solution:

# Check pod status
kubectl get pods -n f5-insight
kubectl describe pod <pod-name> -n f5-insight

# Check events
# Detailed pod info (includes recent events per pod)
kubectl describe pods -n f5-insight

# Check logs for any running pods
kubectl logs -n f5-insight -l app.kubernetes.io/instance=f5-insight --tail=100

# Check logs
kubectl logs <pod-name> -n f5-insight

# Restart specific pod
kubectl delete pod <pod-name> -n f5-insight

# Restart all services
sudo systemctl restart k3s

Issue 3: Cannot access UI

Symptoms: Unable to connect to https://<VM_IP>.

Solution:

# Check if frontend is running
kubectl get pods -n f5-insight | grep frontend

# Check frontend logs
kubectl logs deployment/frontend -n f5-insight

# Check if ingress is working
kubectl get ingress -n f5-insight

Issue 4: BIG-IP devices not showing data

Symptoms: Devices added successfully but no metrics displayed.

Solution:

# Check collector logs for errors
kubectl logs deployment/otel-collector -n f5-insight

# Verify connectivity from VM to BIG-IP
ping <BIGIP_IP>

# Test BIG-IP API connectivity
curl -k https://<BIGIP_IP>/mgmt/tm/sys/version

# Check if HSL is configured on BIG-IP
ssh admin@<BIGIP_IP>
tmsh list ltm pool f5insight_hsl_pool
tmsh show ltm pool f5insight_hsl_pool

# Test HSL connectivity
logger -n <VM_IP> -P 514 -T "Test message from BIG-IP"

Issue 5: High resource usage

Symptoms: VM consuming too much CPU or memory.

Solution:

Log locations

All logs are stored in /opt/f5insight/logs/ and are accessible via:

# First boot setup log
sudo tail -f /opt/f5insight/logs/f5insight-startup.log

# K3s logs
sudo journalctl -u k3s -f

# PAM daemon logs
sudo journalctl -u f5-insight-pam -f

# Container logs
kubectl logs -n f5-insight <pod-name> --tail=100 -f

# System logs
sudo tail -f /var/log/syslog

Appendix

A. Default directory structure

The F5 Insight VM uses the following directory structure for organizing application components, data, and configurations:

/opt/f5insight/
├── .version                    # Installed version identifier
├── .release                    # Release identifier
├── bin/                        # Binary executables (if any)
├── configs/                    # Configuration files
│   └── r1/                     # Release-specific configurations
│       └── values.yaml         # Helm chart values
├── data/                       # Persistent application data
│   ├── cacher/                 # Cacher data files
│   ├── clickhouse/             # ClickHouse database storage
│   ├── grafana/                # Grafana dashboards and settings
│   ├── postgresql/             # PostgreSQL database files
│   └── prometheus/             # Prometheus time-series database
├── helm-charts/                # Helm chart definitions
│   └── f5-insight/             # Main F5 Insight chart
├── images/                     # Pre-loaded container images (empty after initial load)
├── logs/                       # System and application logs
│   ├── f5insight-startup.log   # First boot initialization log
│   └── platform-upgrade.log    # Platform upgrade log
├── scripts/                    # Utility and maintenance scripts
│   ├── f5insight-startup.sh    # First boot initialization script
│   ├── platform-upgrade.sh     # Platform upgrade script
│   └── migrations/             # Database migration scripts
└── system/                     # System management
    ├── bundle/                 # Deployed application bundles
    └── staging/                # Staging area for upgrades

B. Network ports reference

The following ports must be accessible for F5 Insight to function properly:

Port Protocol Service Purpose
22 TCP SSH Remote administration
80 TCP HTTP Web UI (redirects to HTTPS)
443 TCP HTTPS Web UI/AP
514 TCP/UDP Syslog OpenTelemetry collector (HSL from BIG-IP)

C. Systemd services

The F5 Insight VM uses the following systemd services:

Service Purpose Enabled by default
k3s.service K3s Kubernetes cluster Yes
f5insight-first-boot.service First boot initialization Yes (runs once)
f5-insight-pam.service PAM authentication daemon Yes
platform-upgrade.service Executes platform upgrades No (triggered by path unit)

Manage services on the VM:

Check service status:

# Check K3s status
sudo systemctl status k3s

# Check first boot service status
sudo systemctl status f5insight-first-boot

View service logs:

# Follow K3s logs in real time
sudo journalctl -u k3s -f

# View first boot logs
sudo journalctl -u f5insight-first-boot

Restart services:

# Restart K3s cluster
sudo systemctl restart k3s