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SP_266134's avatar
SP_266134
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Jun 20, 2018

VE F5 13.1 Proper back up and restore procedure.

I have configured F5 VE 13.1 with LTM module as Active Standby mode. 1.I want to know what is the process to properly back up the whole system for preparing for a disaster recovery. 2.Only one config I changed is alerts for traps and emails rest all out of box rest all done via config wizard/portal. 3.Currently I am planning to take VM backups for cloning. 4.Periodically am taking Archives backups of the F5 system to USC and exporting manually before I modify the system. 5.Is there anything I am missing.? 6.Can we script this whole process of exporting the USC file automatically export to a file-share.

 

In case of DR , I plan to restore the VM form backup 1.Use the USC and import the configuration 2.May be call F5 to port the licenses to new host. 3.Is this a good plan. Anything missing Regards

 

1 Reply

  • Hamish's avatar
    Hamish
    Icon for Cirrocumulus rankCirrocumulus

    For a VE, the most comprehensive DR backup would be at the VMWare level. By taking a copy of the VM itself (OVA) and exporting it out, you're backing up everything. Your DR recovery therefore is simply re-importing the VMWare image. (Disk and Config). Effectively you're creating your very own 'appliance' complete with 'base config' (Being all your config). As an OVA it's 1 file (A tar of the ovf files) so easy to keep and copy around (Although may be quite large).

     

    Everything else would require you to be able to re-create the VM guest before you can reinstall and be up & running again. e.g. if you rely on UCS then in DR you still have to create a new guest, install bigip and reload your config. That's downtime you may not be able to handle.