Keeping your infrastructure up to date is critical to maintaining the security, performance, and reliability of your applications. If you're running older versions of F5 BIG-IP, migrating to newer hardware or software provides better performance and scalability for modern workloads. However, if you’ve been holding off due to the time and effort required, the decade-long partnership between F5 and Red Hat offers a faster and easier way to migrate.
Manual processes slow upgrades
Migrating from older BIG-IP systems to newer platforms requires several tasks, such as transferring security keys between devices, reconfiguring networking components like VLANs, and ensuring consistent infrastructure deployment. These processes are traditionally manual, time-consuming, and prone to errors.
If your infrastructure and network teams don’t typically collaborate, those disconnects can add further complexity to the process, and if you're managing tens or hundreds of BIG-IP instances, these manual processes can stretch upgrade timelines from weeks to months.
Simplify modernization with automation
F5 and Red Hat have partnered to address the challenges of manual upgrades with automation. Numerous certified F5 collections for Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform make BIG-IP one of the most automated items in Ansible Galaxy. These collections are pre-built modules that add enterprise-grade automation to your BIG-IP management and modernization workflows, even if you have limited automation experience.
““Add enterprise-grade automation to your BIG-IP management and modernization workflows, even if you have limited automation experience.””
Ansible Content Collections include automation capabilities for both imperative and declarative APIs for F5 BIG-IP TMOS as well as for newer F5 rSeries appliances or F5 VELOS chassis running F5OS. These collections allow you to quickly start automating your modernization journey to:
- Simplify the lift-and-shift process by automating the tedious parts of the process, reducing manual steps and potential errors
- Upgrade to the latest software versions and migrate to new hardware in one coordinated process
- Bridge operational silos so your infrastructure teams can work seamlessly with network teams
- Achieve consistency across environments by applying the same configurations reliably across all your new deployments
The automation framework allows you to significantly reduce the number of tasks required to update, which is particularly valuable if you're running end-of-life or approaching end-of-life versions (such as iSeries appliances or BIG-IP 16.1.x). In those cases, moving quickly to supported versions will avoid any interruptions to technical and software development support.
A faster path to the latest application services
Automating with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform modernizes your BIG-IP fleet faster, reducing the upgrade process length to weeks or even days. But it’s not just about speed—automation also helps you:
- Reduce the risk of human error to ensure consistent deployments
- Close security gaps with current, supported software and hardware
- Free your IT staff from repetitive tasks to focus on higher-value work
You don't need extensive automation expertise—the certified Ansible Content Collections for F5 make it easy. Start small by upgrading a single device, then scale your approach as confidence grows. The long-standing F5 and Red Hat partnership ensures that these tools are enterprise-ready, fully supported, and continually updated. As you plan your next BIG-IP upgrade, consider how automation can help you migrate and modernize with ease.
You can learn more about F5 BIG-IP Ansible Collections here.
See the F5 and Red Hat partnership in action at Red Hat Summit in Boston, May 19-22. Join us at booth #648 to learn about automation, AI security, and more.
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