Anyone have any experiences they can share on GTM 10 to GTM 11 upgrades? Specifically, has it been a smooth upgrade or did you have to rebuild topology rules, wideip entries, pools, etc.? We are in the planning stages for upgrading our single module bigip GTM 10.2.1 to 11.4.0 latest hot fix. Google searches have very little information, but what was found was split between the process being a very simple code install and cpcfg to a code install and complete rebuild of all configs. The F5 documentation is fairly slim on this topic. FEATURE OR FUNCTIONALITY DESCRIPTION Assigning a BIG-IP system to probe a server to gather health and performance data Assigning a single BIG-IP system to probe a server to gather health and performance data, in version 10.x, is replaced by a Prober pool in version 11.x.Any information is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Jason

We have performed GTM upgrades from v10 to v11. All the objects were successfully carried over to V11. We found out that once the GTMs in a sync group have been upgraded, there might be issues with the Sync Groups. You can circumvent by naming the SYNC group name to something else and renaming back to the original sync group name after the upgrades. Say you have two GTMs (GTM1 and GTM2) in your sync group with syncgroup name as GTMSYNC. Backup GTM configsGTM1 - Rename SYNC Group name to GTMSYNC-Other1GTM1 - Install V11 on a new volume and reboot to new V11 volume. Test DNS functionality by testing against GTM1.GTM2 - Rename SYNC Group name to GTMSYNC-Other2GTM2 - Install V11 on a new volume and reboot to new V11 volume. Test DNS functionality by testing against GTM2.GTM1 and GTM2 - Rename SYNC Group name back to GTMSYNCPerform iqdump from each GTM to the other GTM to verify iQuery. Also perform iqdump from GTM to all the LTMs that they are talking to, to verify iQuery is still working.We had no issues with iQuery. But for some reason if iQuery is failing against the LTMs, perform bigip_add against the LTMs to re-establish iQuery connectivity. On another note keep away from versions such as V11.3.0 HF7 and V11.4.0 HF3, etc because of a BIND vulnerability that it introduces. The downloads page has the warning in there, so avoid such releases. "Customers that rely on BIND Zone syncing to replicate their DNS database between GTMs should not upgrade to this HF due to a problem with Zone syncing. This issue is being tracked as ID429127."

I am trying to upgrade from 10.2.4 to 11.4.1 and once booted into the 11.4.1, the Zone runner went crazy. The Daemon keep restarting over and over again, the GTM only has WideIP info, they are not running bind. Not sure what to do next. Anyone every run into that issue? Let me know. Wallace

Hi Bhanu, we are upgrading GTM from 11.2.0 to 11.4.0. we have 2 DC (active and standby) each having 1+1 F5 with LTM, GTM and ASM modules installed. We are going to upgrade systems at standby DC first and let that version running for 1 week. Can you pls guide what should be upgrade strategy and what imp things we should keep in mind. your guidance will be appreciated. -> We would need to break sync group between GTM. How can this be achieved.

Excellent information Bhanu. I was able to talk to an F5 engineer who has been through this process. He mentioned the exact same renaming of sync groups that you employed. The engineer also mentioned these other tidbits. 1) Re-activate the existing 10.x license. Reason: If your currently running 10.x license was activated before the release of the 11.x software version that you are installing, the 11.x software ( particularly bind/zonerunner if memory serves ) will not work properly and will not bring your entries over. 2) Disable the GTM synchronization as Bhanu mentioned. This will prevent your different versions of GTM from trying to sync with each other and causing potential problems. 3) Check all zone files for non-standard entries and fix errors before running the install. named-checkconf -t /var/named -z -j /config/named.conf 4) Run the install of the software into the slot. Apply the relevant hot fixes. 5) Reboot into the new OS to test the version. Run some dns queries at listeners running on the upgraded GTM. Don't forget to make a full UCS backup and keep it off-system before you start this. You can always reboot into another slot, but just in case it never hurts. We'll be giving this a try in the very near future. Much thanks to Chad of F5 for spending a lot of time going over this with me. The conversation was much more useful than anything that could have gone into a ticket. Jason

Hi Bhanu I'll perform upgrade BIG-IP 3900 from 10.2.4 to ... using GTM+LTM Module. (Customer want to use AVR too, so it will using 3 modules) Which version you suggest to upgrade?

GTM 10 to 11 upgrade experiences

18 Replies

Jason_04_138617
Nimbostratus
Feb 26, 2014
Actually yes. I sent F5 some qkviews, both before and after the upgrade. They were able to determine that the issue was being caused by a single HTTP monitor which had been built into a user-created partition. For some reason, this caused a bug. The fix was as follows...

After upgrading, I had to move this particular monitor from the user-created partition, to the Common partition. This was accomplished by editing wideip.conf with vi. I simply opened the file in vi, scrolled down to the monitor in question, and changed its partition name.

I then ran this command: esrapmtg -l -k

At that point, the wideip.conf file loaded up with the modification I had just made in vi, and then all other objects appeared like magic.

The F5 engineer I worked with stated this is a known bug where occasionally certain objects created outside of the Common partition can cause a problem during upgrade.

Your best bet is probably to open a TAC case with F5 and send them qkviews of before and after the failed upgrade, same as I did, as you may not be able to determine which particular object or objects is causing the hangup without first having F5 review your qkview.
jsdy_46483
Nimbostratus
Feb 28, 2014
We have separate LTMs and GTMs. When we upgraded the GTMs, it went smoothly. When we upgraded the LTMs, the GTMs' pools lost half their data! The V11 conversion changed LTM Virtual Server names by adding "/Common/" to the front of the names. There were no longer any LTM Virtual Servers on the GTM with the old names, so the old names were removed from all GTM WideIP Pools.

Fortunately, we had kept copies of all the old configuration files, so could reconstitute the states of the pools (and VS-dependent stuff like dependencies) using 'tmsh' statements. But it was annoying. And F5 tells me there is no workaround.

It did occur to me later that I could have set "Virtual Server Discovery" to "Enable (No Delete)" before upgrading the LTMs, and then move the changes over. But that would probably not have worked, as F5 says there is no workaround.
MO_63346
Nimbostratus
Nov 09, 2014
I have to perform few GTMs upgrades to v11, and they all are in one sync group. I wanted to check the correct procedure to remove a GTM from the sync group as I came across SOL14044 (https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/14000/000/sol14044.html) According to this, "If you attempt to remove a member from the BIG-IP GTM synchronization group by changing the name of the BIG-IP GTM synchronization group for that member, the new name will be synchronized to the remaining members instead." Thoughts please ?
- Wallace1
  Nimbostratus
  Jun 19, 2015
  Un-check the synchronize check box...
weblead_151334
Nimbostratus
Jun 20, 2015
would request your assistance in migrating the all environments from F5 10.2.4 to Viprion 11.5.1 Viprion is installed -TMSH-VERSION: 11.5.1 & one of the site has been migrated LTM - Product: BIG-IP Version: 10.2.4 There are multiple partitions for development, QA & production as a precutover activity I am interested to create the 200 virtual servers ,pools,profiles over viprion & have them in disabled state till cutover could you please advise to migrate 200 VIP's having the same VLAN .... shall I need to create via Viprion console or is there a better way to handle the VIP ,pool & profile creation.Is there any command to create virtual servers ,profiles,pools via CLI Assume the existing VIP & pool as follows over F5 let me know the TMSH command to create the VIP,pools & profiles over Viprion

VIP(http & https)

virtual delltest01.dell.com-VS-HTTP { snat automap pool pool_delltest01.dell.com_http destination 10.21.123.80:http ip protocol tcp rules { irule_pool_redirect irule_https } profiles { profile_delltest01.dell.com_http {} tcp {} } } virtual delltest01.dell.com-VS-HTTPS { snat automap pool pool_delltest01.dell.com_http destination 10.21.123.80:https ip protocol tcp rules { irule_pool_redirect irule_https } profiles { dell-COM-Wildcard { clientside } profile_dell_dev_https {} tcp {} } }

Profile desc

profile http profile_dell_dev_https { defaults from http header insert "Original-Protocol:HTTPS" redirect rewrite all insert xforwarded for enable }

Pool desc

pool pool_delltest01.dell.com_http { monitor all tcp members 10.21.123.28:29086 {} }

Forum Discussion

GTM 10 to 11 upgrade experiences

18 Replies

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