BIG-IP v15.1 reached End of Software Development (EoSD) and End of Technical Support (EoTS) on December 31, 2024. Make sure your BIG-IP Fleet is running v16.1 at a minimum to ensure access to technical support and software patches beyond this date. Learn more ›
Upgrade BIG-IP
Modernize today to secure your apps
BIG-IP’s newer software versions are inherently more secure and comprise innovative new security capabilities. Prioritize regularly upgrading your BIG-IP to mitigate harmful vulnerabilities and cyberthreats.
Why Should I Upgrade?
As a critical component of F5’s Application Delivery and Security Platform, its 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 v17.5 unlocks a variety of benefits, including:
- Advanced application and API threat protection
- Improved software quality
- 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.
What Version Should I Be Running?
BIG-IP v11, v12, v13, v14 & v15
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)
BIG-IP v16
Reasons to upgrade:
- Access to software patches for bugs or vulnerabilities expiring within 12 months
- Access to technical support expiring within 12 months
- Inability to implement cutting-edge application and network protections from recent versions
- Newer software versions are inherently more secure and higher quality
BIG-IP v17.1 & v17.5
Reasons to upgrade:
- Unlock innovative new app delivery and security functionality with BIG-IP v17.5
- Reduce risk exposure by running BIG-IP v17.5 – the most secure BIG-IP release to date, with the fewest known vulnerabilities of any version.
Post Quantum Security
Defend against quantum-based threats with integrated Post Quantum Cryptography.
Comprehensive App and API security
Protect against sophisticated threats including malicious botnets, L7 Denial-of-Service, API attacks and much more.
Secure App Access
Enforce unified global access controls for users, devices, applications, and APIs to ensure secure, authorized access for both remote and internal employees.
Encrypted Traffic Visibility
Provide high performance decryption of inbound and outbound SSL/TLS traffic, enabling security inspections to expose threats and prevent attacks.
Automation
Automatically provision and configure BIG-IP with declarative APIs using the CI/CD and automation tools you’re familiar with.
Container Ingress
Optimize and secure your containers and microservices by extending BIG-IP application services.
Upgrade Scenarios and Benefits
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BIG-IP VE
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F5 rSeries
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F5 VELOS
Why upgrade BIG-IP VE to run v17.1 and later?
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.
Innovative functionality
Unlock the latest BIG-IP app delivery and security capabilities, including enhanced API security, Post-Quantum Cryptography, and enhanced DNS security.
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).
Extended lifecycle
Maintain access to BIG-IP software patches and F5 technical support, ensuring security for your apps and support for your organization.
Federal-grade encryption
Encrypt and protect critical customer data with a FIPS 140-3 Level 1 validated cryptographic module.
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).
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.
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.
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..
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.
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.
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.
Accomplish more with automation
Reduce deployment time from weeks to minutes with a fully automatable API-first architecture.
Future proof your infrastructure
Frictionless migration and flexible licensing for the Kubernetes-based hardware of the future.
Lower your TCO
Simplify and consolidate your existing infrastructure with significantly lower operating costs.
Carrier class reliability
Reduce risk with NEBS compliancy and redundant configurations and components.
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 and support, F5 Professional Services can provide expert assistance.
Related Products
Discover the F5 Application Study Tool (AST)
Providing comprehensive, centralized observability across your entire BIG-IP fleet, the F5 Application Study Tool helps identify and troubleshoot issues, visualize application usage and traffic patterns, and streamline upgrades and capacity planning.
Resources
Featured
See an example migration with the Journeys Migration Utility.
Upgrade guides
Next Steps
