Forum Discussion
NimbostratusF5 3900 appliance in High Availability mode with F5 Virtual Edition - Possible ?
We purchased F5 Virtual Edition - F5-BIG-VE-BT-3G-V13 (BIG-IP Virtual Edition Best Bundle 3 Gbps (11.4.1 - 13.x)).
We also have F5 Big-IP 3900 Appliance running in Production. The appliance is running version 11.4.0 and Virtual Edition is running 11.4.1. Can I setup 3900 Appliance and One Virtual Machine in High Availability Mode ? If yes, what needs to be taken into consideration (for ex: same memory, same cpu, same disk space, same OS, etc…). If the appliance fails then the F5 Virtual Edition should become primary F5 and process traffic.
Please guide if this is possible or how to make this possible and what else should be taken into consideration.
9 Replies
Hello, Unfortunately, connecting these two units in a Device Service Cluster will likely fail to work correctly, due to the mismatch in software version. It is strongly recommended to have matching software versions between the members of a DSC group.
I would upgrade both to use the same base version and hotfix, and then proceed with configuring high-availability.
natheCirrocumulus
See https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/15000/400/sol15496.html
You can't mix hardware and VEs until 11.5.0
N
- Hamish
And also be aware that SOME stuff just requires identical units still... e.g. connection mirroring (It'll probably work... but isn't supported. even between 2x vCMP guests that have different amounts of memory/CPU).
H
Vee_142890Thank you all for response. Which is the most stable F5 version as of today ? 11.5.2 or 11.6.0 ?
- Vee_142890I also came across the link https://devcentral.f5.com/questions/does-1152-include-bug-fixes-from-any-1150-and-1151-hotfixes ================================ Following is mentioned in that link: all fixes in 11.5.1 hf8 except one (ID496849-4) are included in 11.5.2. ID496849-4 ASM/DPI/FPS update mechanism is susceptible to Man-In-The-Middle attack ================================ So is it advisable to go with 11.5.2 ?
- natheI still think so
- Vee_142890Info about 11.6.0 Eng-Hotfix on link: https://devcentral.f5.com/questions/bigip-1161 ===================== Comment by: There are so many bug fixes in 11.6.0 that are just not in any other releases. And for us, there was no other option really, for when we had to downgrade to 11.5.1 briefly, we got into a TMM restart loop upon reboot.We ended up with 11.6.0 with an EngHF. ==========================
- nathe11.5.2 has all updates from 11.5.1 hf8 and has the new longer term support so I'd go with that one. See https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/5000/900/sol5903.html?sr=44013879
As a FYI, 11.6.0 HF4 was released on March 3rd. There appears to be a fairly significant number of fixed issues in this release. It may be worthwhile to look at it if you don't mind running into the occasional issue.
