UCS file migration on differing OS versions

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1

We are currently upgrading the F5 load balancers of our customer, from iSeries, to rSeries.

old F5 load balancers:

  • model: BIG-IP i5600 (C119)
  • OS: 12.1.x (either 12.1.2 Hotfix HF2 2.0.276 or 12.1.4 Final 0.0.8)
  • GTM / DNS configurations: enabled

new F5 load balancers:

  • model: rSeries (2600 and 4800)
  • OS: 17.5.1.6
  • GTM / DNS configurations: no longer needed, as per our customer

questions:

1. Noting the OS versions of the old and new F5 load balancers…

Is this the ideal OS upgrade sequence? (based on F5 K13845)

BIG-IP 12.x > BIG-IP 14.x > BIG-IP 15.x or BIG-IP 16.x > BIG-IP 17.x

2. BIG-IP 14.x is no longer available in F5’s Downloads website.

Are there any other methods for obtaining a copy of BIG-IP 14.x?

3. About UCS file migration, from old to new F5 load balancers:

Would there be any risks, configuration-wise, if we do the following steps?

- we take the UCS file from the old F5 load balancer, which is running on BIG-IP 12.x

- we import and load that UCS file onto the new lab F5 load balancer, which is running on BIG-IP 17.x

4. Since our customer advised that they will no longer need any GTM / DNS configurations on their new F5 load balancer:

Should we delete the bigip_gtm.conf file from the contents of the UCS file of the old F5 load balancer, before migrating to the new F5 load balancer?

2

Hi @mtfeliciano ,

  1. The fact that your customer is still on 12.x should tell you, that they didn’t care about their BIG-IP for more than 8 years. Ticking bomb…
    Your update sequence is correct.
  2. Try your luck opening a support case. I doubt a customer running on 12.x has an active support contract…
  3. Make sure you have the Masterkey: myF5
    and that you prepare the UCS archive for migration from iSeries for rSeries: myF5
  4. Remove the GTM config on the iSeries before the migration.

Good luck

3

And for 3.
Don’t take an UCS on 12 and restore it on 17. Just don’t!

4

You’re better off migrating the configuration a bit manually using the scf file or grabbing the configuration via CLI. I would indeed remove the GTM configuration before migrating to the iSeries.

5

Hello,

Since the new rSeries isn’t in production yet, so you can try, so :

First: 
in your Upgrade path, avoid upgrading to v16 it’s not supported over F5OS platforms, so use V15 
so it shoud be ( V12 --> V14 --> V15 --> V17.1.x )

Second: 
you need to request these series of Old versions from F5 Support, so contac t them if you have a valid Contract.

Third: If you couldn’t get them you will do some work manually… 
- get bigip.conf file from the old devies, and ( bigip_base.conf  if you want to migrate with the same L2 configs like Vlans , Trunks , selfips ) 
- open the new TMOS tenant that inside the rSeries and then merge configurations from terminal, use this article

- When you encounter errors duo to missing some dependances in some Configuration objecs like Virtual servers, go and add them manully via GUI, Like downloading ( SSL Certificates and Private Keys ) make sure to put them before anything on the new tenant.

- then start with mergind ( Nodes, Monitors, irules , Profiles , pools , VIPs … )

- Avoid restoring UCS file on V17 directly.

- As I see you don’t need GTM configs anymore, so don’t merge or add anything from bigip_gtm.conf

Good luck !