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Chris_Phillips's avatar
Chris_Phillips
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Apr 30, 2013

upgrading from 10.2.0 to 10.2.4 with HA, any comments?

 

Hi,

 

 

We're looking at upgrading some LTM HA pairs from 10.2.0 to 10.2.4 and have been advised to follow SOL11215, but for a mior version upgrade, this seems inappropriate. Our, still slightly overkill, approach would go something like this:

 

 

1) Ensure upgrade target is in standby and has preference set as such

 

2) Disable all data interfaces on the standby box on the switch

 

3) Relicense standby box

 

4) Reboot for fun

 

5) Perform upgrade

 

6) Ensure HA is reestablished between pair

 

7) Renable data interfaces

 

8) Fail over pair (proves 10.2.0 to 10.2.4 failover)

 

9) Fail back pair (proves 10.2.4 to 10.2.0 failover)

 

10) Fail over pair again

 

11) Change HA preferences to make primary box prefer Standby

 

12) Repeat steps 1 - 8 on other box

 

13) Revert HA preference to standby on secondary box

 

 

Now we've had basic assurances that the two versions ARE HA compatible, but I'm after any comments on any perceived risks of our zero downtime (and VASTLY simpler) approach.

 

 

Thanks

 

management
monitoring

4 Replies

  • nitass's avatar
    nitass
    Icon for Employee rankEmployee
    Apr 30, 2013
    won't you leave 10.2.4 as active for a while (e.g. a day) before upgrading the other unit?
  • moog67_108621's avatar
    moog67_108621
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Apr 30, 2013

    Hi acid,

     

    I'm planning to upgrade to the same version (HF5 in my case) and fullly adhere to your approach.

     

    Just a quick question, do you really need to relicense the boxes?, it this a mandatory step to upgrade ?

     

     

    On the other hand, I also agree on nitass' comment.

     

    I plan to leave the upgraded acting as primary box for a few days until we are sure that nothing gets broken.

     

     

    Rgs

     

    moog

     

  • nitass's avatar
    nitass
    Icon for Employee rankEmployee
    Apr 30, 2013
    do you really need to relicense the boxes?, it this a mandatory step to upgrade ?it depends on service check date in /config/bigip.license file and license check date of the version you are going to upgrade to. anyway, i think it is good to re-activate license.

     

     

    sol7727: License activation may be required prior to software upgrade

     

    http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/7000/700/sol7727.html
  • Chris_Phillips's avatar
    Chris_Phillips
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Apr 30, 2013
    Yeah, the license stuff is confusing, not least becuase the wording is wrong / ambiguous on the SOL - the names of the different fields get mixed up.

     

     

    no, we aren't looking to hang around for too long. We will be upgrading all manner of non HA systems in test and live environments so will have confidence in the versions by that stage.