Jason_46956
Apr 13, 2011Nimbostratus
Maintaining config between different Boot Locations
Dear F5 Guru's,
Have run into a problem with trying to do testing with different versions of F5.
Currently running (in a test lab) 10.2.1 with HF1. Along comes HF2 so we install the Hotfix onto an alternate Boot Location.
We boot onto the new version and do some testing. In this particular case we ran into some problems with HF2 (support call is open and working in this).
Since the bug we found stops our testing we boot back to HF1 - great be able to have an alternate boot location.
Now, we have done this numerous times - booted back and forth between HF1 and HF2.
The problem is that the configurations between HF1 and HF2 have no diverged. Changes in one boot location are not reflected in the other. The most trivial has been iRule changes.
What is supposed to happen here? Talking with local F5 support people say the config is common across partitions and should not be affected. But looking at the partition tables when booted from different boot locations the /config volume is different.
My assumption is that when initially applied the hotfix it copies over the current config. Subsequent reboot's just uses the last good one for each partition.
How do we go about getting the config's updated? Not too worried about backporting changes in HF2 back to HF1. But HF2 and HF1 have now diverged so much that the HF2 is out of date.
What is best practise? Do we re-apply the hotfix? Can we re-apply it? Do we need to do a 'archive' (create a ucs) and 'recover' that (which has its own problems - different support case again) between boot locations? Can you do this?
Your guidance is appreciated.
Jason