Modernizing F5 Platforms with Ansible
I’ve been meaning to publish this article for some time now. Over the past few months, I’ve been building Ansible automation that I believe will help customers modernize their F5 infrastructure. This especially true for those looking to migrate from legacy BIG-IP hardware to next-generation platforms like VELOS and rSeries. As I explored tools like F5 Journeys and traditional CLI-based migration methods, I noticed a significant amount of manual pre-work was still required. This includes: Ensuring the Master Key used to encrypt the UCS archive is preserved and securely handled Storing UCS, Master Key and information assets in a backup host Pre-configuring all VLANs and properly tagging them on the VELOS partition before deploying a Tenant OS To streamline this, I created an Ansible Playbook with supporting roles tailored for Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. It’s built to perform a lift-and-shift migration of a F5 BIG-IP configuration from one device to another—with optional OS upgrades included. In the demo video below, you’ll see an automated migration of a F5 i10800 running 15.1.10 to a VELOS BX110 Tenant OS running 17.5.0—demonstrating a smooth, hands-free modernization process. Currently Working Velos Velos Controller/Partition running (F5OS-C 1.8.1) - which allows Tenant Management IP to be in a different VLAN Migrates a standalone F5 BIG-IP i10800 to a VELOS BX110 Tenant OS VLAN'ed Source tenant required (Doesn’t support non-vlan tenants) rSeries Shares MGMT IP with the same subnet as the Chassis Partition. Migrates a standalone F5 BIG-IP i10800 to a R5000 Tenant OS VLAN'ed Source tenant required (Doesn’t support non-vlan tenants) Handles: Configuration and crypto backup UCS creation, transfer, and validation F5OS System VLAN Creation, and Association to Tenant - (Does Not manage Interface to VLAN Mapping) F5 OS Tenant provisioning and deployment inline OS upgrades during the migration Roadmap / What's Next Expanding Testing to include Viprion/iSeries (Using VCMP) Tenant Testing. Supporting hardware-to-virtual platform migrations Adding functionality for HA (High Availability) environments Watch the Demo Video View the Source Code on GitHub https://github.com/f5devcentral/f5-bd-ansible-platform-modernization This project is built for the community—so feel free to take it, fork it, and expand it. Let’s make F5 platform modernization as seamless and automated as possible.
BIG-IP 16.1.x End of Technical Support July 31, 2025
Hello, Community! I wanted to share an important update regarding BIG-IP 16.1.x. As of July 31, 2025, this version will officially reach End of Technical Support (EoTS). If you are on version 16.1.x and haven’t started planning your upgrade, now is the perfect time. Keeping your system on supported software ensures continued technical support, and software development support. Planning ahead can foster a smooth transition. To help you navigate this update I have compiled a list of Knowledge Articles that can assist in planning your upgrade. K000139937: BIG-IP 15.1.x and 16.1.x are reaching End of Technical Support K5903: BIG-IP software support policy K84554955: Overview of BIG-IP system software upgrades K13845: Overview of supported BIG-IP upgrade paths and an upgrade planning reference K18074701: iHealth Upgrade Advisor K7727: License activation may be required before a software upgrade for BIG-IP K16022: Opening a proactive service request with F5 Support If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them below or contact F5 Support for customized assistance. Here we can work together to keep your systems secure, supported, and optimized.
R-Series after upgrading to 1.8 - RADIUS Auth stopped working
Radius user authentication was working just fine while running v1.40. After upgrading to 1.80 any attempt is "Failed authentication." Running tcpdump does not show any traffic going to the RADIUS server and the RADIUS server has not entry of the failures in it's log. I have deleted and recreated the radius server group - that did not help. I have deleted and recreated users - that did not help. Any guidance for what to try next is appreciated. Dave
F5 BIG_IP 3900 (C106) - Software Upgrade Advisor not working
Hello, I need to upgrade a 3900(C106) from version 11.5.4 HF2 to 12.1.3.7 I have uploaded the QKView to the iHealth tool to perform a Software Upgrade advisor but it prompts the following message: "You are already running the latest version". The menu to select to version to be upgraded to does not appear I have checked this model can be upgraded to this version in the compatibility matrix, in fact, in the Diagnostics section of the Status at the iHealth the following Upgrade options appear. Upgrade Options: 11.5.4.HF4 (hotfix) 11.5.9 (stability release) 12.1.3.7 (latest release) Any idea why this is happening? Thanks
[APM] - Error: failed to reset strict operations; disconnecting from mcpd
Hello Experts , When we try to verify the sys config with the command "load sys config verify" , we are getting beow error message followed with the services restart ...Bug ID 997793 (f5.com) , We tried to remove the old epsec-package file and restarted , but no luck . Can anyone please advise on this ? Validating configuration... /config/bigip_base.conf /config/bigip_user.conf /config/bigip.conf /config/bigip_script.conf Error: failed to reset strict operations; disconnecting from mcpd. Will reconnect on next command. The connection to mcpd has been lost, try again.R-Series Appliance No GUI ( host system gui ) after 1.7.0 upgrade
After running the 1.7.0 upgrade for the r-series 5000 appliance - the login screen does not display in a browsers. Admin and Root passwords are as they were before upgrade. mgmt-ip settings are the same. Device can ping it's upstream router in the mgmt-ip network. the device mgmt-ip address does not reply to ping ( or any request [ ssh, http...]) from the console I can see the whole running config - it is the same as before the upgrade Any help is appreciated, Dave MehlbergHow to free up the HD1 physical disk space ?
Hello Experts , How to free up the HD1 disk space ? We have 2 volume HD1.1 and HD1.2 , to create a new volume how much free space is required ? How can we free up the space for the same ? Hardware Version Information Name HD1 Type physical-disk Model WDC Parameters -- -- SerialNumber WD-WM Size 465.76G Firmware Version 01.01S03 Media Type HDD --- Volume group --- VG Name vg-db-sda System ID Format lvm2 Metadata Areas 1 Metadata Sequence No 127 VG Access read/write VG Status resizable MAX LV 0 Cur LV 13 Open LV 8 Max PV 0 Cur PV 1 Act PV 1 VG Size 465.75 GiB PE Size 4.00 MiB Total PE 119233 Alloc PE / Size 116260 / 454.14 GiB Free PE / Size 2973 / 11.61 GiB VG UUID NRa4BZ-TYJm-gTFW-AVO3-7bEd-Evpj-lqgYbW LV VG Attr LSize Pool Origin Data% Meta% Move Log Cpy%Sync Convert dat.appdata vg-db-sda -wi-ao---- 357.25g dat.boot vg-db-sda -wi-a----- 468.00m dat.log vg-db-sda -wi-ao---- 21.02g dat.share vg-db-sda -wi-ao---- 42.03g dat.swapvol vg-db-sda -wi-ao---- 5.00g set.1._config vg-db-sda -wi-a----- 3.17g set.1._usr vg-db-sda -wi-a----- 6.09g set.1._var vg-db-sda -wi-a----- 4.50g set.1.root vg-db-sda -wi-a----- 440.00m set.2._config vg-db-sda -wi-ao---- 3.17g set.2._usr vg-db-sda -wi-ao---- 6.09g set.2._var vg-db-sda -wi-ao---- 4.50g set.2.root vg-db-sda -wi-ao---- 440.00m
