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Resize CE Site

Published December 6, 2025 | Last modified December 6, 2025

Objective

This document provides instructions on how to resize an F5 Distributed Cloud Customer Edge (CE) across all supported site types (such as Secure Mesh v2, Secure Mesh v1, AWS VPC, AWS TGW, Azure VNet, GCP VPC) and Service Providers (on-premises providers such as VMware, KVM; public cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, and GCP)

Planning

Read the following documents before resizing this in any environment:

General Prerequisites

  • An F5 Distributed Cloud Services Account is required. If you do not have an account, see Getting Started with Console.

  • Resources required per node: Minimum 8 vCPUs, 32 GB RAM, and 80 GB disk storage. For a full listing of the resources required, see the Customer Edge Site Sizing Reference guide. All the nodes in a given CE Site should have the same resources regarding the compute, memory, and disk storage. When deploying in cloud environments, these nodes should use the same instance flavor.

  • Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) needs to be opened between the CE nodes on the Site Local Outside (SLO) interfaces. This is needed to ensure intra-cluster communication checks.

  • Ensure that the CE site is running on the latest software version. If the CE site is not on the latest software version, ensure that you upgrade to the latest version before you start resizing the site.

  • There will be an impact on the application traffic during this procedure. Therefore, it is recommended that you resize your CE Site nodes during a maintenance window.

  • Ensure that you do not modify any other settings in the Cloud Service Providers (such as AWS VPC/TGW SItes and Azure VNET Sites) in conjunction with instance type updates on the F5 Distributed Cloud Console.

  • For more information regarding sites, see Site Management.

Validate Customer Edge (CE) Site is Online | Healthy

Ensure that your CE site meets the following requirements on the F5 Distributed Cloud Console, before you start resizing the nodes:

  • Ensure that the site is online, and at 100% health.
    Figure: CE Site Health

    Figure: CE Site Health

  • Ensure that the site has connectivity to an RE (Regional Edge).
    Figure: CE Site Connected

    Figure: CE Site Connected

  • Ensure that the site has no critical alerts in the Alerts tab.
    Figure: CE Site Alerts

    Figure: CE Site Alerts

  • Check the Hardware Information of the site for the current Node Memory and Node CPU statistics.
    Figure: CE Site Hardware Information - Node Memory

    Figure: CE Site Hardware Information - Node Memory

    Figure: CE Site Hardware Information - Node CPU

    Figure: CE Site Hardware Information - Node CPU

Introduction

Currently, there are multiple site workflows that have been used to deploy customer edge (CE) sites. The site types are as follows:

  • Secure Mesh Site v2
  • Secure Mesh Site v1
  • AWS VPC Site
  • AWS TGW Site
  • Azure VNET Site
  • GCP VPC Site

Additionally, both Secure Mesh Site v2 and Secure Mesh Site v1 sites have multiple supported service providers. This document provides information about each of these site types and provides step-by-step instructions to follow for resizing the CE nodes.

Secure Mesh Site v2

Secure Mesh Site v2 is a simplified workflow for deploying Customer Edge (CE) Sites across different providers, both on-premises and in public clouds. This is the recommended workflow for all CE deployments.

Determine the Site Type

In the Multi-Cloud Network Connect workspace, navigate to Manage > Site Management > Secure Mesh Sites v2.
This page displays a list of the Secure Mesh Site v2 sites deployed in the tenant.

On-premises Providers

Here are the steps to follow for resizing CE sites of on-premises providers such as VMware, KVM, Openstack, and Nutanix:

  1. Shutdown one node of the Customer Edge (CE) site at a time.

  2. Update the node resources to medium ( 8vCPU and 32Gb) or large (16vCPU and 64 GB). See Update Node Resources for the steps to follow for each Service Provider.

  3. Reboot the node and wait for the node to be fully up and running.

  4. Verify that the node is reporting the updated infrastructure resources. See Verify Resized Site Resources for the steps to follow.

  5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 for all the remaining nodes in the site.

Notes:

  • The Service resources are updated only after all the nodes of the CE Site are resized, which may take up to an hour. To track updates during the resize process, refer Check Instance Update Status.
  • There will be an impact on the application traffic during this procedure. Therefore, it is recommended that you resize your CE Site nodes during a maintenance window.

Cloud Service Providers

Here are the steps to follow for resizing CE sites of cloud service providers such as AWS, Azure, GCP and OCI:

  1. Shutdown one Customer Edge (CE) node at a time.

  2. Update the instance type to medium ( 8vCPU and 32Gb) or large (16vCPU and 64 GB) through the cloud provider console. Refer to this Customer Edge Site Sizing Reference Guide to select the right instance type. See Update Instance Type for the steps to follow for each Service Provider.

  3. Reboot the node and wait for the node to be fully up and running.

  4. Verify that the node is reporting the updated infrastructure resources. See Verify Resized Site Resources for the steps to follow.

  5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 for all the remaining nodes in the site.

Notes:

  • The Service resources are updated only after all the nodes of the CE Site are resized, which may take up to an hour. To track updates during the resize process, refer Check Instance Update Status.
  • There will be an impact on the application traffic during this procedure. Therefore, it is recommended that you resize your CE Site nodes during a maintenance window.

Legacy Site Configurations

Secure Mesh Site v1

Secure Mesh Site v1 is the legacy workflow for deploying Customer Edge (CE) Sites across different providers, both on-premises and in public clouds.

Determine the Site Type

In the Multi-Cloud Network Connect workspace, navigate to Manage > Site Management > Secure Mesh Sites (Legacy Configurations).
This page displays a list of the Secure Mesh Site v1 sites deployed in the tenant.

On-premises Providers

Here are the steps to follow for resizing CE sites of on-premises providers such as VMware and KVM:

  1. Shutdown one node of the Customer Edge (CE) site at a time.

  2. Update the node resources to medium ( 8vCPU and 32Gb) or large (16vCPU and 64 GB). See Update Node Resources for the steps to follow for each Service Provider.

  3. Reboot the node and wait for the node to be fully up and running.

  4. Verify that the node is reporting the updated infrastructure resources. See Verify Resized Site Resources for the steps to follow.

  5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 for all the remaining nodes in the site.

Notes:

  • The Service resources are updated only after all the nodes of the CE Site are resized, which may take up to an hour. To track updates during the resize process, refer Check Instance Update Status.
  • There will be an impact on the application traffic during this procedure. Therefore, it is recommended that you resize your CE Site nodes during a maintenance window.

Cloud Service Providers

Here are the steps to follow for resizing CE sites of cloud service providers such as AWS, Azure, and GCP:

  1. Shutdown one Customer Edge (CE) node at a time.

  2. Update the instance type to medium ( 8vCPU and 32Gb) or large (16vCPU and 64 GB) through the cloud provider console. Refer to this Customer Edge Site Sizing Reference Guide to select the right instance type. See Update Instance Type for the steps to follow for each Service Provider.

  3. Reboot the node and wait for the node to be fully up and running.

  4. Verify that the node is reporting the updated infrastructure resources. See Verify Resized Site Resources for the steps to follow.

  5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 for all the remaining nodes in the site.

Notes:

  • The Service resources are updated only after all the nodes of the CE Site are resized, which may take up to an hour. To track updates during the resize process, refer Check Instance Update Status.
  • There will be an impact on the application traffic during this procedure. Therefore, it is recommended that you resize your CE Site nodes during a maintenance window.

AWS VPC Site

  • Navigate to the AWS VPC Sites page on the F5 Distributed Cloud console.
  • From the Actions column of the site that you want to update, select Manage Configuration.
    Figure: Site Management - AWS VPC Sites

    Figure: Site Management - AWS VPC Sites

  • In the Site Configuration page, click Edit Configuration.
    Figure: AWS VPC Site - Configuration

    Figure: AWS VPC Site - Configuration

  • Navigate to the Site Node Parameters section, and update the AWS Instance Type for the Node field to the desired flavor.
    Figure: AWS VPC Site - Configuration

    Figure: AWS VPC Site - Configuration

  • Save the configuration.
  • From the Actions column of the site that you updated, click ... > Plan to start the action of Terraform plan.
    Figure: AWS VPC Site - Plan Action

    Figure: AWS VPC Site - Plan Action

  • Click ... > Terraform Parameters for the site object, and select the Plan Status tab to review the output.
    Figure: AWS VPC Site - Terraform Parameters Action

    Figure: AWS VPC Site - Terraform Parameters Action

    Figure: AWS VPC Site - Terraform Parameters > Plan Status

    Figure: AWS VPC Site - Terraform Parameters > Plan Status

  • Click ... > Apply.
    Figure: AWS VPC Site - Apply Action

    Figure: AWS VPC Site - Apply Action

  • Click ... > Terraform Parameters for the site object, and select the Apply Status tab to verify the status for the apply action.
    Figure: AWS VPC Site - Terraform Parameters Action

    Figure: AWS VPC Site - Terraform Parameters Action

    Figure: AWS VPC Site - Terraform Parameters > Apply Status

    Figure: AWS VPC Site - Terraform Parameters > Apply Status

  • Verify that the node is reporting the updated infrastructure resources. See Verify Resized Site Resources for the steps to follow.

Notes:

  • Ensure that you do not make modifications other than instance type during the resizing.
  • If you make any modifications to these instances directly in the cloud provider console (resources not managed by the F5 Distributed Cloud Console), the modifications will be removed during reconciliation. You can view a detailed summary of all the changes that will be applied in the plan output.
  • If the site contains worker nodes, resizing will not be allowed until the number of worker nodes are scaled down to zero. After the worker nodes count is brought down to zero, you can follow the mentioned steps for resizing.
  • There will be an impact on the application traffic during this procedure. Therefore, it is recommended that you resize your CE Site nodes during a maintenance window.
  • Ignore any updates reported as null_resources, volterra_set_cloud_site_info, aws_autoscaling_group, aws_launch_template, and aws_launch_configuration.

AWS TGW Site

  • Navigate to the AWS TGW Sites page on the F5 Distributed Cloud console.
  • From the Actions column of the site that you want to update, select Manage Configuration.
  • In the Site Configuration page, click Edit Configuration.
  • Navigate to the Site Node Parameters section, and update the AWS Instance Type for the Node field to the desired flavor.
  • Save the configuration.
  • From the Actions column of the site that you updated, click ... > Plan to start the action of Terraform plan.
  • Click ... > Terraform Parameters for the site object, and select the Plan Status tab to review the output.
  • Click ... > Apply.
  • Click ... > Terraform Parameters for the site object, and select the Apply Status tab to verify the status for the apply action.
  • Verify that the node is reporting the updated infrastructure resources. See Verify Resized Site Resources for the steps to follow.

Notes:

  • Ensure that you do not make modifications other than instance type during the resizing.
  • If you make any modifications to these instances directly in the cloud provider console (resources not managed by the F5 Distributed Cloud Console), the modifications will be removed during reconciliation. You can view a detailed summary of all the changes that will be applied in the plan output.
  • If the site contains worker nodes, resizing will not be allowed until the number of worker nodes are scaled down to zero. After the worker nodes count is brought down to zero, you can follow the mentioned steps for resizing.
  • There will be an impact on the application traffic during this procedure. Therefore, it is recommended that you resize your CE Site nodes during a maintenance window.
  • Ignore any updates reported as null_resources, volterra_set_cloud_site_info, aws_autoscaling_group, aws_launch_template, and aws_launch_configuration.

Azure VNet Site

  • Navigate to the Azure VNet Sites page on the F5 Distributed Cloud console.
  • From the Actions column of the site that you want to update, select Manage Configuration.
  • In the Site Configuration page, click Edit Configuration.
  • Navigate to the Site Node Parameters section, and update the Azure Machine Type for the Node field to the desired flavor.
  • Save the configuration.
  • From the Actions column of the site that you updated, click ... > Plan to start the action of Terraform plan.
  • Click ... > Terraform Parameters for the site object, and select the Plan Status tab to review the output.
  • Click ... > Apply.
  • Click ... > Terraform Parameters for the site object, and select the Apply Status tab to verify the status for the apply action.
  • Verify that the node is reporting the updated infrastructure resources. See Verify Resized Site Resources for the steps to follow.

Notes:

  • Ensure that you do not make modifications other than instance type during the resizing.
  • If you make any modifications to these instances directly in the cloud provider console (resources not managed by the F5 Distributed Cloud Console), the modifications will be removed during reconciliation. You can view a detailed summary of all the changes that will be applied in the plan output.
  • If the site contains worker nodes, resizing will not be allowed until the number of worker nodes are scaled down to zero. After the worker nodes count is brought down to zero, you can follow the mentioned steps for resizing.
  • There will be an impact on the application traffic during this procedure. Therefore, it is recommended that you resize your CE Site nodes during a maintenance window.
  • Ignore any updates reported as null_resources, volterra_set_cloud_site_info, and azurerm_virtual_machine_scale_set.

GCP VPC Site

Resizing a GCP VPC Site through F5 Distributed Cloud Services is currently not supported, as the underlying terraform workflow would recreate the site instead of resizing the existing one. This may result in unexpected behavior. As GCP VPC Sites are a legacy site type, we recommend migrating to Secure Mesh Site v2 to ensure full support and access to the latest capabilities.
Refer to the SMSv2 migration guide to transition your site.

Update Node Resources

This section provides steps on how to update node resources for on-premise providers.

VMware using vSphere

You can resize the VMware Sites through Vsphere Client by performing the following steps in the Vsphere Client console:

Step 1: Stop the existing Virtual Machines
  • From the list of available Virtual Machines, select the VM that you want to turn off.
  • From the Actions menu, select Power, and then select Power Off.
    Figure: VMware - Power Off VM

    Figure: VMware - Power Off VM


    The Power status changes to powered off for the specific Virtual Machine.
    Figure: VMware - VM Powered Off

    Figure: VMware - VM Powered Off

  • Repeat the steps for each Virtual Machine that you want to turn off.
Step 2: Update the CPU and Memory for each VM
  • From the list of available Virtual Machines, select the Virtual machine that you want to update.
  • From the Actions menu, select Edit Settings.
    Figure: VMware - Edit Settings

    Figure: VMware - Edit Settings

  • In the CPU field, update the value to 8 or 16 (depending on whether you want to resize to a medium or large instance).
    Figure: VMware - CPU Resize

    Figure: VMware - CPU Resize

  • In the Memory field, update the value to 32 or 64 GB (depending on whether you want to resize to a medium or large instance).
    Figure: VMware - Memory Resize

    Figure: VMware - Memory Resize

  • Repeat the steps for each Virtual Machine that you want to update.
Step 3: Start the Virtual Machines
  • From the list of available Virtual Machines, select the VM that you want to restart.
  • From the Actions menu, select Power, and then select Power On.
    Figure: VMware - Power On VM

    Figure: VMware - Power On VM

  • Repeat the steps for each CE instance that you want to restart.

KVM using Host Command Line

You can resize the KVM Sites by performing the following steps in the host:

  1. Verify the CPU and Memory size by running the following command:
    virsh dominfo <virtual machine name>
    Figure: KVM - Verify size

    Figure: KVM - Verify size

  2. Turn the power off for all the Virtual Machines (nodes) of the CE by running the following command:
    virsh shutdown <virtual mcahine name>
    Figure: KVM - Power off nodes

    Figure: KVM - Power off nodes

    Figure: KVM - Shutdown nodes

    Figure: KVM - Shutdown nodes

  3. Update the CPU (to 8 or 16) and Memory (to 32 or 64) for each Virtual Machine by running the following command:
    virsh setvcpu <virtual machine name> <8/16> --config
    Figure: KVM - Update CPU and Memory for the VM

    Figure: KVM - Update CPU and Memory for the VM

  4. Verify the CPU and Memory size after resizing by running the following command:
    virsh dominfo <virtual machine name>
    Figure: KVM - Verify size after Resizing

    Figure: KVM - Verify size after Resizing

  5. Turn the power on for the Virtual Machine by running the following command:
    virsh start <virtual machine name>
  6. Verify the status of the Virtual Machine by running the following command:
    virsh list –all | grep <virtual machine name>
    Figure: KVM - Verify status after Resizing

    Figure: KVM - Verify status after Resizing

Update Instance Type

This section will provide steps on how to update instance types for cloud providers.

AWS EC2 Instance

You can resize the AWS EC2 node instances by performing the following steps in the AWS console:

Step 1: Stop the existing CE instances
  • From the list of available CE EC2 instances, select the instance that you want to stop.
  • From the Instance state drop-down, select Stop instance.
    Figure: AWS - Stop Instance

    Figure: AWS - Stop Instance


    The instance state changes to stopped for the specific instance.
    Figure: AWS - Stopped Instances

    Figure: AWS - Stopped Instances

  • Repeat the steps for each CE instance that you want to stop.
Step 2: Update the Instance Type of each Node
  • From the list of available CE EC2 instances, select the instance that you want to update.
  • From the Actions drop-down, select Instance Settings, and then select Change Instance Type.
    Figure: AWS - Instance Settings

    Figure: AWS - Instance Settings


    The Change Instance Type screen appears.
  • In the New Instance Type field, select the m5.2xlarge (8vCPU + 32GB Memory) or the m5.4xlarge (16vCPU + 64GB Memory) based on your requirement.
    Figure: AWS - Change Instance Type

    Figure: AWS - Change Instance Type

  • Repeat the steps for each CE instance for which you want to update the instance type.
Step 3: Start the CE Instances
  • From the list of available CE EC2 instances, select the instance that you want to restart.
  • From the Instance state drop-down, select Start instance.
    Figure: AWS - Start Instance

    Figure: AWS - Start Instance


    The instance state changes to Running for the specific instance.
    Figure: AWS - Running Instances

    Figure: AWS - Running Instances

  • Repeat the steps for each CE instance that you want to restart.

Azure Virtual Machine Instance

You can resize the Azure instances by performing the following steps in the Azure console:

Step 1: Stop the existing CE instances
  • From the list of available instances, select the instance that you want to stop.
  • From the menu bar in the Overview section, select Stop.
    Figure: Azure - Stop Instance

    Figure: Azure - Stop Instance


    The instance state changes to stopped for the specific instance.
Step 2: Update the Instance Type of each Node
  • From the left pane, select the Size option.
  • In the Size tab, select the new instance flavor based on your requirement.
    Figure: Azure - Change Instance Type

    Figure: Azure - Change Instance Type

  • Click Resize.
    The Virtual Machine Resized Notification appears.
    Figure: Azure - Resized Virtual Machine

    Figure: Azure - Resized Virtual Machine

  • Verify that the instance has been resized.
    Figure: Azure - Verify Resized Virtual Machine

    Figure: Azure - Verify Resized Virtual Machine

Step 3: Start the CE Instances
  • From the list of available instances, select the instance that you want to restart.
  • From the menu bar in the Overview section, select Start.
    Figure: Azure - Start Instance

    Figure: Azure - Start Instance


    The instance state changes to running for the specific instance.

GCP Compute Engine Instance

You can resize the GCP instances by performing the following steps in the GCP console:

Step 1: Stop the existing CE instances
  • From the list of available instances, select the instance that you want to stop.
  • From the menu bar in the Overview section, select Stop.
    Figure: GCP - Stop Instance

    Figure: GCP - Stop Instance

  • In the dialog box that appears, click Stop.
    Figure: GCP - Stop Instance Confirmation

    Figure: GCP - Stop Instance Confirmation


    The instance state changes to stopped for the specific instance.
Step 2: Update the Instance Type of each Node
  • From the Details tab, select the Edit option.
    Figure: GCP - Edit Instance Type

    Figure: GCP - Edit Instance Type

  • In the Preset tab, select the new instance flavor based on your requirement.
    Figure: GCP - Update Instance Type

    Figure: GCP - Update Instance Type

Step 3: Start the CE Instances
  • From the list of available instances, select the instance that you want to restart.
  • From the menu bar in the Overview section, select Start.
  • In the dialog box that appears, click Start.
    Figure: GCP - Start Instance

    Figure: GCP - Start Instance


    The instance state changes to running for the specific instance.

Check Instance Update Status

This section provides steps on how to check the status of the instance type updates while the site is being resized.

Follow these steps to check the status of the Instance Type updates on the F5 Distributed Cloud Console:

  • In the Multi-Cloud Network Connect workspace, select Overview > Infrastructure > Sites.
  • For the site that you updated, navigate to the Infrastructure tab to view the status of the nodes in the site.
    Figure: Site Infrastructure

    Figure: Site Infrastructure

  • After all the nodes are online with the new instance type, navigate to the Events tab to view the status of events for each node.
    Figure: Site Flavor Change Event

    Figure: Site Flavor Change Event

  • Click View Details > View All to monitor the status of the CE updates to the service resources.
    Figure: Site Upgrade

    Figure: Site Upgrade

  • After the resizing is complete, the phase parameter displays the UPGRADE_COMPLETED state.
    Figure: Phase - Upgrade Completed

    Figure: Phase - Upgrade Completed

Verify Resized Site Resources

This section provides steps on how to check if the site has been successfully resized as per the resource settings provided.

Follow these steps to verify the resized CE site statistics on the F5 Distributed Cloud Console:

  • Ensure that the site is online, and at 100% health.
    Figure: CE Site Health

    Figure: CE Site Health

  • Ensure that the site has connectivity to an RE (Regional Edge).
    Figure: CE Site Connected

    Figure: CE Site Connected

  • Ensure that the site has no critical alerts in the Alerts tab.
    Figure: CE Site Alerts

    Figure: CE Site Alerts

  • Verify the Hardware Information of the site to view the resized Node Memory and Node CPU statistics.
    Figure: CE Site Hardware Information - Resized Node Memory

    Figure: CE Site Hardware Information - Resized Node Memory

    Figure: CE Site Hardware Information - Resized Node CPU

    Figure: CE Site Hardware Information - Resized Node CPU

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