Upgrade BIG-IP
Modernize today to better secure and deliver your apps
BIG-IP’s newer software versions are inherently more secure and comprise innovative new app delivery and security capabilities. Prioritize upgrading your BIG-IP to keep pace with the evolving tech landscape and mitigate harmful cyberthreats.
Why Should I Upgrade?
As a critical component of F5’s Application Delivery and Security Platform, it’s essential to keep your BIG-IP software up to date. Doing so unlocks cutting-edge functionality, minimizes risk exposure, and avoids end-of-lifecycle complications. F5 recommends running BIG-IP v17.1 at a minimum across your BIG-IP fleet, while upgrading to BIG-IP v21.1 unlocks a variety of benefits including:
- Quantum-resistant cryptography and AI workload protection
Improved software quality and security - Extended software lifecycle
To stay up-to-date with the latest BIG-IP releases and software lifecycle milestones, please review the BIG-IP software support policy.
BIG-IP v11, v12, v13, v14, v15, and v16
Upgrade highly recommended – software versions are no longer supported
Reasons to upgrade:
- Access to patches for software bugs or vulnerabilities has expired
- Access to technical support has expired
- Inability to implement cutting-edge application and network protections from recent versions
- Newer software versions are inherently more secure and higher quality
- Inability to use newer capabilities such as Automation Tool, Container Ingress Services and Telemetry Streaming (v11 and v12)
- Improve BIG-IP performance, scalability, and efficiency
BIG-IP v17.1 and v17.5
Upgrade recommended – access important new capabilities and enhance security
Reasons to upgrade:
- Unlock innovative new app delivery and security functionality in BIG-IP v21.1
- Reduce risk exposure by upgrading to the most secure software version, BIG-IP v21.1
- Improve BIG-IP performance, scalability, and efficiency
BIG-IP v21.1
Upgrade not yet necessary – you’re running the latest version of BIG-IP
Great job, keep it up! Once released, consider upgrading to BIG-IP v22.x to access exciting new capabilities and software enhancements.
Recent BIG-IP Innovation
What’s new with BIG-IP v21?
New PQC-ready ciphers
Mitigate quantum-threats with support for new NIST- and FIPS-compliant PQC-cipher groups
Seamless, secure access for AI agents
Enable autonomous AI agents to securely self-register for resource access with BIG-IP Zero Trust Access Dynamic Client Registration (DCR)
Quantum-resistant VPN tunnelling
Keep sensitive data out of the wrong hands with end-to-end, quantum resistant TLS/SSL VPN tunneling
Modern API and protocol protection
Block sophisticated threats targeting HTTP/3 traffic and APIs defined by the OpenAPI 3.1 specification
Secure delivery of AI workloads
Optimize and protect Model Context Protocol (MCP) traffic between AI models and apps, tools, or data sources
BIG-IP software modernization
Streamline automation with the new BIG-IP Declarative API and improve system efficiency and resiliency with various control plane upgrades
Review the release notes to learn about incremental new capabilities added within each of the last software versions across the BIG-IP product family.
v21.1 | v21.0 |v17.5 | v17.1 | v16.1 | v15.1 | v14.1
Upgrade Scenarios and Benefits
BIG-IP VE
Why upgrade BIG-IP VE to run the latest software versions?
Multi-cloud freedom
Deploy across an increasingly diverse array of supported cloud environments, granting the freedom to use whichever environment is best suited to individual apps.
Extended lifecycle
Maintain access to BIG-IP software patches and F5 technical support, ensuring security for your apps and support for your organization.
Innovative functionality
Unlock the latest BIG-IP app delivery and security capabilities, including enhanced API security, Post-Quantum Cryptography, and enhanced DNS security.
Federal-grade encryption
Encrypt and protect critical customer data with a FIPS 140-3 Level 1 validated cryptographic module.
Enhanced performance
Boost data plane performance and deliver a blazing-fast end-user experience with support for the latest technologies – including the newest software drivers and network interface cards (NICs).
Flexible consumption models
Align consumption to your organizations purchasing preferences with a variety of licensing options, including perpetual, utility, subscription and Flex Consumption Program (FCP).
F5 rSeries
Why refresh your appliances to F5 rSeries?
API-first platform scales for the future
F5’s next-generation appliance, rSeries, bridges the gap between traditional and modern infrastructures with a rearchitected, API-first platform designed to meet the needs of your entire application portfolio now, and into future.
Increase application delivery and service velocity
The growth and complexity of app services and application attacks are challenging IT’s ability to manage application traffic, secure infrastructure, and meet the needs of customers. With F5 rSeries, a next-gen platform architecture with up to 100% performance growth, you can future-proof your application delivery infrastructure and increase service velocity.
Lower costs with a modern ADC design
F5 rSeries delivers the unprecedented level of performance and protection your critical applications and network deployments require. Designed on a new microservices-based platform layer and an API-first architecture, rSeries enables consolidation for lower costs and reduced TCO across your infrastructure.
Protect critical data with industry-leading SSL performance
A new revolution in the rSeries platform design balances performance, scalability, and security, enabling IT to offload SSL processing up to 3x overall and deploy comprehensive application delivery and security services anywhere.
Automation leads to rapid deployment
The F5 Automation Toolchain on the rSeries platform makes it easy for customers to deploy and configure F5 application services via simple, yet powerful declarative interfaces. With a fully automatable architecture, customers see lower staffing costs by increasing process efficiency and reducing time spent on manual tasks.
F5 VELOS
Why refresh your VIPRION chassis to F5 VELOS?
Get unmatched performance with improved ROI
Achieve accelerated app performance and lower latency with more FPGAs and ECC ciphers.
Lower your TCO
Simplify and consolidate your existing infrastructure with significantly lower operating costs.
Accomplish more with automation
Reduce deployment time from weeks to minutes with a fully automatable API-first architecture.
Carrier class reliability
Reduce risk with NEBS compliancy and redundant configurations and components.
Future proof your infrastructure
Frictionless migration and flexible licensing for the Kubernetes-based hardware of the future.
F5 Journeys Migration Utility
Streamline BIG-IP instance migrations with the F5 Journeys Migration Utility
Modernizing your BIG-IP infrastructure has never been easier. With the Journeys Migration Utility you can effortlessly modify existing BIG-IP configurations to be compatible with new physical or virtual BIG-IP instances, helping simplify and accelerate your migration experience.
Stay on Top of Your BIG-IP Asset Lifecycle
It’s vital to keep track of the key lifecycle dates for your BIG-IP assets—especially End of Software Development (EoSD) and End of Technical Support (EoTS) dates. Beyond software’s EoSD date, you won’t be able to receive security patches or software fixes, and after the EoTS milestone, you won’t have access to the technical support you might need.
Key lifecycle dates for BIG-IP software versions ›
Key lifecycle dates for BIG-IP appliances ›
Note: Lifecycle information for BIG-IP Virtual Editions is aligned with the version of BIG-IP in use. For BIG-IP version 15.x, EoSD and EoTS is 31 December, 2024.
Need Help Upgrading?
Upgrade the software on your BIG-IP appliances and VEs manually with these easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions, or learn how to automate your upgrades with BIG-IQ or Ansible in this DevCentral video.
If you need additional help planning and executing your upgrade, or performing post-upgrade verification, F5 Professional Services can provide expert assistance.
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Resources
FEATURED
Journeys Migration Demo
See an example migration with the Journeys Migration Utility.