Migration from F5-VE to F5 Hardware i2000 series

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1

I am a novice with F5 BigIP.

I am looking for a procedure as to how I can migrate my config from my existing configuration to the hardware appliance.

F5-VE has interface names as 1.1,1.2,1.3… and i2000 series interface names are 1.0 2.0 - I am not sure where and how to edit the base config file.

2

Hi HarishSolanki,

For VM:

1. Backup UCS

save /sys ucs /var/local/UCS/MyUCS.ucs no-private-key

2. Download UCS

3. Look f5mku

f5mku -K

For i2000:

1. Upload UCS to /var/local/ucs folder

2. Create temp folder in /var/local/ucs

cd /var/local/ucs
mkdir abc
cd abc

3. Unzip UCS

tar -xzf /var/local/ucs/MyUCS.ucs

4. Open bigip_base.conf folder

nano config/bigip_base.conf
# or
vi config/bigip_base.conf

5. Change all interface names in bigip_base.conf

1.1 > 1.0
1.2 > 2.0
1.3 > 3.0
...

6. Save bigip_base.conf

7. Zip files

tar -czf /var/local/ucs/newMyUCS.ucs *

8. Enter vm’s f5mku value

f5mku -r <vm f5mku value>

9. Restore UCS

tmsh
load sys ucs newMyUCS.ucs no-license no-platform-check

Article for f5mku: https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K9420

3

Want to clear one confusion. In step 4; using nano \config\bigip_base.conf is opening the original file of the physical appliance where else if I open the folder config and then open the bigip_base.conf; then it opens the conf file that was unzipped and this file I can see interfaces 1.1 and so on.

4

You’re right. I change step 4.

Correctly command is without slash:

nano config/bigip_base.conf
# or
vi config/bigip_base.conf
5

Used the procedure from the following link and it seems to have worked. Will do the same with the standby unit and will test it to make sure fail over works.

Thanks EAA… really appreciate your help.

6

The best solution is to :

  • Create an archive on VE
  • Configure i2000 with different IP address than VE
  • switch i2000 to OFFLINE mode
  • Configure VE and hardware with sync and failover network on one self IP
  • move Self IP (used for sync) to Allow default on both systems
  • add i2000 in VE trust peers --> Master key is synchronized to new peer
  • create a device group sync-failover with both systems
  • Sync VE to i2000 --> all cluster configuration is synced, including routes, dns, vs, pools
  • failover to i2000
  • disconnect VE vNICs (to fallback, you can restore archive… it will remove cluster configuration)
  • remove VE and i2000 from Device group
  • Remove the VE from i2000 device trust
  • The i2000 is now in Standalone mode
  • move Self IP (used for sync) to Allow None

This solution requires both system to be in same TMOS version, same release Point.