Forum Discussion

moog67_108621's avatar
moog67_108621
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Feb 19, 2014

UCS vs. SCF files

Hi everyone,

 

A few days ago we had an incidence at one of our customers (managed through local partner) which rendered a F5 box out of service. Our local partner managed to get an spare and put it up and running.

 

That make me wonder about what may happen if we face a similar case with out directly managed customer base. Let's say we have a dead F5 system (big-IP 3600) and manage to get a spare one. Assuming same OS version is already in place, what would be the best approach to put it back in service?

 

We currently keep backup copies (both UCS and SCF files) for all my systems, which one do you recommend to use in this case?

 

Maybe this is a too wide question, but any comments,hints, references are welcome.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Moog

 

application delivery
availability
LTM
management

2 Replies

Sort By
  • moog67_108621's avatar
    moog67_108621
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Feb 19, 2014
    To clarify a bit the question: Spare system is available locally, not through F5 RMA process. We are considering the case where another box is available without having to wait for the whole RMA process to complete. Thanks Moog
  • Hamish's avatar
    Hamish
    Icon for Cirrocumulus rankCirrocumulus
    Feb 19, 2014

    If you have the same box, and the OS has been upgraded already to the same version (This wouldn't be guaranteed anywhere unless syou have dedicated hardware and keep it inline with what's deployed already), then you can just take the UCS and after setting the FQDN to the correct value load it, reboot and )Asusming it's patched correctly) away you go...

     

    The devil is in the detail of getting all that organised of course. But certainly restoring a UCS is a 5 minute job once you've got it on the unit. (Worst case you have to reboot after the re-license - the restore will load the old one, which won't match, so you'll need to save off the proper license and put it back)

     

    H