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datago_205305's avatar
datago_205305
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Jun 16, 2015

Upgrade production VIPRION to vCMP while updating from 10.2.4 to 11.4.1

Is there a recommended approach or SOL document for migrating from no vcmp to vcmp on a production VIPRION 2400 with two 2100 blades clustered in remote active/passive HA to an identical chassis AND needing to update from 10.2.4 to 11.4.1. Upgrade version first and verify production? Separately plan for copying v11.4.1 config, rebuild with vcmp, create guest and mount the copied config? Any and all advice is appreciated.

 

application delivery
deployment
design
LTM
vcmp
  • Sec-Enabled_658's avatar
    Sec-Enabled_658
    Jun 24, 2015

    I would save off the UCS, upgrade and build out the configuration to a VCMP guest in the lab, then during the maintenance window, convert the viprion to vcmp and then load the prepped UCS on to a blank guest. There is quite a bit of legwork in this conversion so I don't think F5 has a guide for this. I have done this exact process via a PS engagement for some of my clients. The upgrade isn't hard, but the VCMP conversion process is where its gets tricky. Feel free to email me if you want more info.

     

  • Sec-Enabled_658's avatar
    Sec-Enabled_658
    Icon for Cirrostratus rankCirrostratus
    Jun 24, 2015

    I would save off the UCS, upgrade and build out the configuration to a VCMP guest in the lab, then during the maintenance window, convert the viprion to vcmp and then load the prepped UCS on to a blank guest. There is quite a bit of legwork in this conversion so I don't think F5 has a guide for this. I have done this exact process via a PS engagement for some of my clients. The upgrade isn't hard, but the VCMP conversion process is where its gets tricky. Feel free to email me if you want more info.

     

  • rafaelbn_305907's avatar
    rafaelbn_305907
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Aug 29, 2017

    Hello datago and Sec-Enabled!

     

    Sorry for hijacking this thread but I would love to talk about this migration with you guys.

     

    I'm going to migrate 2 Viprions from non-vCMP to vCMP and I think you guys can point me in the right direction.

     

    We have LTMs running on both Viprions in active-standby. My plan was:

     

    1. Backup both boxes (ucs file).
    2. Validate that active-standby is working by failing over.
    3. Erase config from standby and reloading it.
    4. Install new vCMP license on Viprion so it will become a host.
    5. Deploy vCMP guest.
    6. Restore UCS on vCMP guest.

    My main concern is that when I do the restore I know I'll have some problems with Interfaces config, VLAN and etc. I can edit the UCS file to correct that. But how about the active-standby part? All the trust domain stuff (I think) will break because the vCMP guest will behave like a totally new instance, so certificates and ssh fingerprint will not match, right?

     

    Any tips for me?

     

    • Stanislas_Piro2's avatar
      Stanislas_Piro2
      Icon for Cumulonimbus rankCumulonimbus
      Aug 29, 2017

      Hi,

       

      if you are migrating LTM only appliance, I recommend to use platform-migrate option when loading UCS.

       

      I did a migration last month and I converted the new instance to standalone during migration because:

       

      • VCMP guest are on a different version than before migration
      • VCMP guest hostname changes during migration
    • rafaelbn_305907's avatar
      rafaelbn_305907
      Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
      Aug 29, 2017

      Hello Stanislas! Thank you so much for that link.

       

      That plataform-migrate option will be very handy. Allow me to make a follow-up question about it. The plataform-migrate states that these configurations will NOT be carried over to the new instance:

       

      • internal and external VLANs and any other VLANs that the high-level configuration may depend on
      • the management IP address
      • any needed self-IP addresses
      • route domains
      • device trust
      • admin partitions
      • traffic groups
      • device groups

      So to me it seems that I would do a load ucs but pretty much I would have to manually configure the trust domain, Self-ips, config-sync, etc. Is that right?

       

      Since I do have active-standby running, what would help a lot to me is being able to load the ucs file so the new vCMP instance could join the config-sync/HA domain an do a full sync.

       

      Is that possible?

       

      Thanks!