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cgrieves_14587
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Jan 14, 2019

BIGIP 4000 stuck without config after upgrade to 14.1

Hi all, we're building a new infrastructure using two existing, licensed and supported F5 4000Ss with APM. We had everything up and running and the devices in a configsync pair. As the final cherry on top I decided to upgrade from 13.1.0.7 to 14.1.0 as it seems to have some cool features. Install went fine, I saved the config (from the first device only, stupidly), swapped the active partition, copied config and rebooted the standby box and it won't load a config (I get "The configuration has not yet loaded. If this message persists, it may indicate a configuration problem."). I tried returning to the original partition (without copying config from the 14.1 boot) and get the same problem. I then found K7727 which reports the licence activation date is important. Tried reactivating and then both 13.1 and 14.0 boots, but no joy.

 

Worst case, I figured I'd just wipe the unit and set up configsync again, learning my lesson for not saving the standby config! Problem is, I can't configure anything, nor get to the CLI, as the admin user has the console disabled, nor can I change the user config (I get "An error has occurred while trying to process your request." when I click on the user).

 

The active unit is OK and working (and I'm not touching it!)

 

Any help much appreciated as I'm a little stuck...

 

Many thanks, Corin.

 

3 Replies

  • Are you able to log in as root via SSH/Console?

     

    if so it's an idea to check that the bigip config is there by typing "cat /config/bigip.conf"

     

    If that appears to have your config then it's possible that the BIG-IP just won't load the config. If this is the case try "tmsh load sys config" and it will fail, but at least give you an error to say why it won't import the config.

     

    Also, if you can't login as root via the console/SSH but have GUI access, you can enable admin's CLI access and/or review the LTM logs through the GUI to see why the config won't load.

     

    HTH

     

  • I faced the same error message on a TMOS v14.1 cluster when trying to access the licensing information. The same system does not display the LTM menue in the configuration utility. Problems came up after an automated deployment of the BIG-IP cluster.

    In my case the issues seem to be related to changing the system time zone.

    This results in problems with licensing and device trust.

    To solve the issue I would recommend to re-license the unit (in a working partition) and to use
    cpcfg 
    to copy both the updated license and configuration data to the new TMOS v14.1 partition.

    The service check date in your updated license (
    /config/bigip.license
    ) need to meet the requirements described in Ask F5 K7727.

    TMOS v14+ is requiring strong passphrases for the locally authenticated admin and root accounts by default. Its actually the very first thing you have to do when deploying a new TMOS v14+ system.

    I would recommend to check the log files (
    /var/log/ltm
    ) for error messages. It is a shared volume. So you can access it both from bash or from configuration utility after rebooting the system into a working partition.
  • Thanks Stephen. As there was no way to get to the CLI (admin user had CLI access disabled, and adding or amending users gave me a database error) I had to go to the DC and get in via the console. By reverting to 13.x, uploading an old (out of date) ucs and rebooting, I got it into a state I could reactivate, upgrade and work with.

     

    The unit was exhibiting very strange issues- installing the image to any boot locations consistently failed, even after a delete and recreate.

     

    I now have further issues in that the unit won't accept any connections from our internal VLANs. The primary unit has an identical config and is working fine. I'm off to the DC again to replace cables as I'm out of ideas! .... But I'll raise that elsewhere if I can't fix it.

     

    Thanks all.