Migrating v4.5 config to v9.4.3 BIG-IP

You cannot load a 4.5.x config directly on 9.x. Depending on the size/complexity of your 4.5.x configuration it might be cleaner and faster to build the 9.x configuration from scratch. There have been a few significant changes in logic between 4.x and 9.4.x, so even if you go through the upgrades described below, you'd need to verify the configuration is accurate. Also, moving a UCS from one platform to another isn't officially supported and would require a close review of the config.

 

 

With that being said... which platform is the 4.5.x box on? The 3400 didn't support 4.x.

 

 

If you want to automatically upgrade your 4.x configuration and the 4.5.x units support 9.x, you'd need to do (an/a few) intermediate upgrades. To upgrade to 9.4.3, you'd need upgrade to 9.2. To upgrade to 9.2, you must be on 4.5ptf3 or higher. Take a look at the 9.2 upgrade doc on AskF5 for details on the upgrade and the one time conversion unit (OTCU) (Click here) Make sure to re-activate the license before and after each upgrade.

 

 

Aaron

My mistake our 4.5 is on 540's also i have 9.0.5 on 3400. I assume i can copy the ucs file directly from 9.0.5 to the new 9.4.3? I think i have to change the hostname on the destination device first and then copy the ucs file across, reboot and then change the hostname back?

 

 

I did hear that it may be easier to create the config from scratch instead of migrating the 4.5 config to 9.4.3 but wanted to see if there was a quicker way.

 

 

many thanks

I think it was only in 9.4.2/9.4.3 that installing an older UCS was supported. I don't think it would be good to try installing a 9.0.x UCS on a 9.4.3 unit even if they were from the same platform. The format of the bigip.conf and bigip_base.conf files have change significantly between those versions. Also, if you're taking a UCS from a 540 platform and trying to install it on a 6400, I expect you will get errors about interfaces not being defined correctly in the bigip_base.conf as the physical ports and port numbers are different.

 

 

Overall, I think it would be cleaner and faster to just rebuild the 9.4.3 config from scratch.

 

 

Aaron

F5's best practice recommendation for 4.x to 9.x migration is to perform a full 4.x configuration audit, then rebuild the config by hand to take advantage of LTM features. However, you could re-image the target device with 9.0.x, copy the 4.x ucs to the target device and use the OTCU (One Time Conversion Utility) to convert the configuration, then upgrade the target device again to 9.4.3. The OTCU may not exactly replicate your existing configuration, but it will get you fairly close with very little work. (For a good example of a manual intervention you may have to make after the conversion, see my last tech tip (Click here))

 

 

To roll the 9.0.5 config forward to 9.4.3 without rebuilding manually, you could take the same approach: Re-image the target box to 9.0.5, apply the UCS, then upgrade to 9.4.3.

 

 

HTH

 

/deb

Hi

 

 

I run into same issue, I have 2xxx box and upgrading to 6400 with 9.4.4, I am going through OTCU document as it says the following file contents changes after running the OTCU:

 

 

/config/bigip.conf

 

/config/bigip_base.conf

 

/config/user.txt

 

/config/routes Routes commands are converted to 9.x bigpipe commands.

 

 

Any body have those files after conversion, I want to understand what are the changes with in those files?

 

 

Thanks and regards

 

Rao

 

Hi I am a newbie with F5 and I need to upgrade from version 4.5 to 9.2.5. I saw the comments good suggestions on this thread, but I am actually looking for a doc/guidelines on how to do this upgrade end-to-end. If not end-to-end at least the main steps to follow so I have something to guide me.

 

 

Thanks,

 

 

Sandro

The link that hoolio provided earlier (Click here) is probably the best documentation on the process.

 

 

My experience with 4.x - 9.x migrations is that there is always something that will need to be tweaked by hand after conversion though.

 

 

Denny