Forum Discussion
ringoseagull_77
Nimbostratus
NimbostratusIs it possible to change the network management interface IP remotely?
Set up: Pair of 1600s which were in active/standby mode. Active unit running 9.4.7. Standby unit running 10.1 but needs some reconfiguration to it's monitors before it can be brought back into the HA pair.
I need to bring the standby unit up and change the config before making it active so that I can then upgrade the other box. At present the unit is off because it's heartbeat is enough to make the active unit behave incorrectly.
I can put the standby unit's network management port on another VLAN so that I can bring it up and reconfigure it, but I'd like to leave it so that when I test failover at 7am tomorrow morning I can bring it up remotely from my office, not have to trek across London to the data centre and switch things manually.
Can the net management IP be changed remotely, or just through the LED on the front of the box?
hoolioCirrostratus
You can use the 'b mgmt' and 'b mgmt route' commands to remove and set the management IP and routes. See 'b mgmt help' and 'b mgmt route help' for details. For 10.x you can also use tmsh to do this. I'd suggest making these changes from the serial port though. Or if you don't have serial port access, you can use the SCCP or AOM (for the 1600) to access the host. See these related solutions for configuring remote access to the SCCP and AOM:
SOL3753: Configuring the switch card control processor so that it can be accessed over the network
https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/3000/700/sol3753.html
SOL9608: Configuring the AOM so that it can be accessed over the network
https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/9000/600/sol9608.html
Aaron
ringoseagull_77Thanks Aaron, just what I needed.- ringoseagull_77Is it possible to change the IP on the fly by issuing the set command with a new IP address? If I have to delete the old one I'll lose my connection and won't be able to set the new address.
- Chris_Miller
Altostratus
Posted By ringoseagull on 08/11/2010 04:18 AM
Is it possible to change the IP on the fly by issuing the set command with a new IP address? If I have to delete the old one I'll lose my connection and won't be able to set the new address.
It should indeed change it on the fly. Like Aaron said though, best to do from serial or another Out-of-Band method. - ringoseagull_77Thanks Chris, there is no console access to these boxes, another task added to my list to get them in order.
- Chris_MillerPosted By ringoseagull on 08/11/2010 08:34 AM
Thanks Chris, there is no console access to these boxes, another task added to my list to get them in order.
Gotcha...out-of-band is very nice to have for tasks such as this...otherwise you're relegated to pressing buttons on the box. I've changed mgmt IP even through the GUI several times and haven't had problems...I usually have a ping going to the new IP just so I can watch for issues. If I recall, the config utility is smart enough to take you to the new IP when changing it through the GUI. - hoolioUsing the GUI might work. You could also group the commands on one line using semi-colons. But I'd suggest testing that on first another unit that you have other means of accessing in case you get the commands wrong. In general, I'd think you'd want to remove the mgmt route, remove the mgmt IP, add the new mgmt IP and then the new mgmt route (command1; command2; command3; command4).
Else, if you can get a spare IP on the existing mgmt network, you could configure the AOM with it and use that shell access to change the management IP via hostconsh.
Aaron 
HamishCirrocumulus
I've always done this via the GUI... Although there used to be a command line config utility that would do it all at one go too (Not sure if that still exists). The GUI does it all in one shot, I haven't had it fail on me yet tat I can remember...
As aaron says, there's always the AOM. That works like a charm too. Very handy (Except that there's a bug when you power on, or do a full box reboot, the IP on the service processor doesn't get configured until the host is up... If the host doesn't come up, then it doesn't come up either).
Failing that, write a script & nohup it...
H- ringoseagull_77Thanks all. Changing it on the fly didn't work btw, the F5 threw an error stating that the requested IP could not be found but the GUI worked fine.
- Chris_Millerringo - I've gotten that error from CLI before...I got around it by re-issuing the command but giving it the IP and the Mask...that is something of a bug.
