After ESX upgrade, Interfaces uninitialized (10.2.1.297)

IIRC, a change to the vmxnet3 driver was required in order to support vSphere 5, so an upgrade is probably the only solution. You should be able to upgrade your existing VE instance just as you would a physical LTM. http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/12000/600/sol12628

 

 

Thanks for the quick reply!

 

We're talking about ESX 5.1, where can I see the minimum compatible version?

1. "Is there an easy way to solve this?"

 

I'm guessing that since you can see the interfaces as unitiailized (normal on 10.2.1 VE with VMXNET3, fwiw) that the box does come up. The problem with pre 10.2.3 on ESX5.x and later is more of a deployment issue, not so much that the NICs won't work so well.

 

Anwyays, I think this indicates that the problem is likely in NIC ordering from your hypervisor upgrade. You can line the nics up again. This is written better in the manuals, but check the mac addresses against the BIG-IP view of the interfaces. Its likely that you'll have to reassign them.

 

You can also move them around on the BIG-IP by changing the VLAN(s) that the BIG-IP interfaces are assigned to.

 

 

2) "Can I upgrade 10.2.1 to 10.2.2\3\4 without messing up my configuration?"

 

Yes. My very bare-bones summary (manuals, askf5.com, support have more details)

 

Copy the 10.2.1 and 10.2.x iso of your choice to /shared/images and you can perform a liveinstall to another boot location. This will preserve the 10.2.1 configuration and let you experiment with the new technologies available in the later releases with simple time tested BIG-IP controls.

 

The old boot location and disk image can be kept around. Once the old version isn't needed and to save space, be sure to remove the m using the web based configuration utility or tmsh. Note that if the system was deployed using thin provisioning (for lab edition), flatten the filesystem on the hypervisor side when there is a chance for downtime to reclaim the deleted blocks on the hypervisor's storage.

 

For an extra and somewhat redundant layer of protection you can also take a snapshot of your 10.2.1 instance before installing 10.2.x and rolling back if need be, but this generally requires some consideration of snapshotting a live filesystem. Snapshotting the RAM isn't suggested.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Hypervisor support matrix is here: https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/products/big-ip_ltm/manuals/product/ve-supportedhypervisormatrix-1-0-0.html. ESXi5.1 has not yet been on the support matrix, as I think it was released after our last 11.2 version.

 

 

Today version 11.3 was released. but it looks like the documentation is being updated and the support matrix hasn't yet been updated. I believe that 11.3 has been certified with ESXi 5.1 but I am not positive. the documentation should be updated by the end of the day.

 

 

Just to be sure I checked again and the matrix has been updated and 11.3 shows support for ESXi 5.1

 

 

https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/products/big-ip_ltm/manuals/product/ve-supportedhypervisormatrix-1-1-0.html

 

 

Thanks guys!

 

 

The MAC address for the UNINITIALIZED NICs is 0:0:0:0:0:0 - any ideas?

I can't find full notes for v10.x but in the v11.3 release notes which I was browsing yesterday there seems to be many known issues with interfaces which I'm sure are present in v10 too. Have a gander at: http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/products/big-ip_ltm/releasenotes/product/relnote-ve-11-3-0.html

Strangely enough, 11.3.0 is the first of a new architecture model for the virtual edition wherein the drivers are different from previous releases. Throughput is much higher and many new features are present.

 

in 11.3.0, you get CMP (multi-tmm) and extra hypervisors alongside the supported fleet.

 

 

 

 

I'd try rm'ing /var/db/mcpdb.bin and rebooting as a next step.

 

(only because of what you've already done and you're seeing the zero MAC)

 

 

 

in 11.3.0, you get CMP (multi-tmm) and extra hypervisors alongside the supported fleet.

 

 

Woo hoo! Yes, i's so nice to have CMP on VE now.

 

 

Aaron

Well, after rm'ing /var/db/mcpdb.bin... the configuration seems to be messed up.

 

 

Getting the following notification:

 

BIGpipe interface creation error:

 

01070318:3: The requested media for interface 1.1 is invalid.

 

 

And the following error when connecting via WI:

 

 

This BIG-IP system has encountered a configuration problem that may prevent the Configuration utility from functioning properly.

 

 

To prevent adverse effects on the system, F5 Networks recommends that you restrict your use of the Configuration utility to critical tasks only until the problem is resolved. Beware that attempting to modify your configuration in this state with the Configuration utility may cause your configuration to be overwritten.