Manual Chapter : Managing ISO images for vCMP guests

Applies To:

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BIG-IP AAM

  • 11.6.5, 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1

BIG-IP APM

  • 11.6.5, 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1

BIG-IP GTM

  • 11.6.5, 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1

BIG-IP LTM

  • 11.6.5, 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1

BIG-IP ASM

  • 11.6.5, 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
Manual Chapter

About host management of ISO images

BIG-IP software images that are stored and managed on the vCMP host are available for vCMP guests to install. The vCMP host presents a list of those images within each guest for guest administrators to use as needed.

Installing updates and hotfixes on the host for guests to use offers these benefits:

  • You save time because you remove the need to repeatedly copy the same ISO image into each guest's /shared/images folder.
  • You reduce the impact on the management network.
  • You conserve storage space on the vCMP system.

Viewing a list of host ISO images from within a guest

vCMP guest administrators perform this task to view any ISO images that resides on the vCMP host and are available for installation on the guest. All ISO images that the host administrator has imported into the host's /shared/images folder automatically appear on each guest as available for installation.

  1. On the Main tab, click System > Software Management > Image List. The Image List screen displays a list of existing image files.
  2. In the Available Images area of the screen, in the Image Source column, view the ISO images that show a value of Host. For example, the following shows a sample list of ISO images available on the vCMP host for installation on the guest.
     List of ISO images shared from host
After you perform this task, you can see the images that reside on the vCMP host and are available for installation on the guest.

Installing a host ISO image from within a guest

vCMP guest administrators perform this task to install an ISO image that resides on the vCMP host. All ISO images that the host administrator has imported into the host's /shared/images folder automatically appear on each guest as available for installation.

  1. On the Main tab, click System > Software Management > Image List. The Image List screen displays a list of existing image files.
  2. In the Available Images area of the screen, in the check box column, select an ISO image that shows Host in the corresponding Image Source column. The Install Software Image screen opens.
  3. For the Select Disk setting, select the disk on which to install the software (for example, MD1 or HD1).
    Note: You can install software only on inactive volumes. To install software to the active volume, you must boot to a different volume.
  4. For the Volume set name setting, select the volume on which to install the software.
  5. Click Install. A progress indicator displays as the BIG-IP system installs the software image.
After you perform this task, an ISO image shared by the vCMP host is installed on the guest.

Installing a host ISO image from within a guest using tmsh

vCMP guest administrators perform this task when using the Traffic Management Shell (tmsh) to install an ISO image that resides on the vCMP host. All ISO images that the host administrator has imported into the host's /shared/images folder automatically appear on each guest as available for installation.

  1. On a vCMP guest, log in to the BIG-IP system and access tmsh.
  2. At the tmsh prompt, type install sys software block-device-image image_name volume volume_name and press Enter. For example: install sys software block-device-image BIGIP-11.3.0.2806.0.iso volume HD1.1
After you perform this task, an ISO image shared by the vCMP host is installed on the guest.