why spanning enabled on virtual-address after upgrade?

[neeeewbie]

Hi 
I upgraded OS version 11.6.1 > 15.1.6.1 

but I found some different configuration 

For virtual addresses with arp disabled, the spanning option is enabled.

is it bug ? 11.6.1 version has no span option on virtual address 

is it need disabled the this option?

thank you

[F5_Design_Engineer]

Hi @neeeewbie ,

If spanning option is not enable environments that require spanning do not process traffic.

Starting from BIG-IP 12.1.0 , when you upgrade your system from BIG-IP 10.x to BIG-IP 12.1.0 or later when you have a virtual address with address resolution protocol (ARP) disabled and spanning feature got enable.

Prior to upgrading, the virtual address is configured with ARP disabled.

After you upgrade to 15.1.6.1, the virtual server address is still configured with ARP disabled; 

However the virtual server address now have the required Spanning option enabled.

You can manually modify the virtual server address to enable/disable spanning.

To manually enable/disable spanning, perform the following procedure:

1. Log in to the Configuration utility.

2. Navigate to Local Traffic > Virtual Servers > Virtual Address List.

3. Click the affected virtual server address.

4. Under Configuration, select/unselect the Spanning check box to enable/disable spanning.

5. Click Update.

Spanning feature enables all BIG-IP systems in a device group to listen for and process traffic on the same virtual address.

Spanning for a virtual address occurs when you enable the spanning option on a device, and then sync the virtual address to the other members of the device group.

Spanning also relies on the upstream router to distribute application flows to the BIG-IP systems using ECMP routes. ECMP defines a route to the virtual address using distinct Floating self-IP addresses configured on each BIG-IP system.

You must also configure MAC masquerade addresses and disable arp on the virtual address when Spanning is enabled.

When creating a new virtual address, if this parameter is not specified, the default valus is no.

HTH

[neeeewbie]

Hi 

thank you !

There is no span option in version 11
So, does span operation not work in version 11?

[Leslie_Hubertus]

Hey @neeeewbie, FYI in case @F5_Design_Engineer isn't able to answer the version question, I'll ask a teammate to take a look. 

[neeeewbie]

Thank you

I checked the documentation related to this situation.
This article explains that enabling the spans option is an expected feature after upgrade.

However, the 11.x version does not have the span option.
I wonder if the 11.x version handles the SPAN feature.
can you confirm this?

[Leslie_Hubertus]

I don't personally know, but I've asked a colleague. It is after business hours here, so they won't reply until at least tomorrow. Sorry for the delay!

[neeeewbie]

Thank you for all your assistance 🙂

I will wait for your reply

[buulam · Accepted solution]

Hi @neeeewbie , Spanning is a setting for ECMP and it was introduced in 12.1. It does not exist in v11