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Objective

This guide provides instructions on how to manage an F5® Distributed Cloud Site in your cloud or edge location. A Distributed Cloud Site consists of one or more nodes. To learn more about sites, see Distributed Cloud Site.

Using the instructions provided in this guide, you can edit the site properties, perform scaling, perform upgrades, or remove the site.

Note: For multi-node sites, the nodes will not be functional if the primary outside interface is down, and they are rebooted. They will become functional only after the primary outside interface comes up.

Prerequisites

An F5 Distributed Cloud Services Account is required. In case you do not have an account, see Create an Account.
Allow traffic from and to the Distributed Cloud public IP addresses to your network and allowlist related domain names. See Firewall or Proxy Reference guide for the list of IP addresses and domain names.
Resources required per node: Minimum 4 vCPUs and 14 GB RAM.
For more information regarding sites, see Site Management.

Edit Site

You can edit the site configuration by performing the following:

Step 1: Navigate to your site and open the site edit form.

This example uses AWS TGW Sites.

Select Multi-Cloud Network Connect service.

Select Manage > Site Management.
Select type of site you want to edit.
Select ... > Manage Configuration to view your site's configuration.
Select Edit Configuration in upper right corner to edit its configuration.

Step 2: Edit the site and apply the changes.

Set site configuration parameters according to your requirements.
If configuring the VIP addresses, you must choose from the reserved addresses. The system reserves addresses using the following mechanism of DHCP subnet prefix length (PL):

Prefix Length (PL)	Reserved Addresses
PL <= 25	The last 8 addresses of the subnet range are reserved, and the last address is set as broadcast address. Therefore, you can select from the rest of the 7 addresses.
PL <= 27	The last 4 addresses of the subnet range are reserved, and the last address is set as broadcast. Therefore, you can select from the rest of the 3 addresses.
PL <= 29	The last 2 addresses of the subnet range are reserved, and the last address is set as broadcast. Therefore, you can only select the other address.

Select Save and Exit.

Add or Remove Worker Nodes

You can also configure scaling for your sites after registration.

Note: Scaling works on AWS and Azure cloud sites only. It does not work on GCP sites. This example uses AWS TGW Sites. For information on node replacement, see the Replace Node guide.

This example uses AWS TGW Sites.

Perform the following to set up scaling:

Step 1: Edit worker node selection.

Select the Multi-Cloud Network Connect service.
Select Manage > Site Management.
Select type of site you want to edit.
Select ... > Manage Configuration to view your site's configuration.
Select Edit Configuration in upper right corner to edit its configuration.
In AWS Resources section, select Edit Configuration link.

Toggle Show Advanced Fields to expand Worker Nodes section.
From the Desired Worker Nodes Selection drop-down menu, select from the following:
- Desired Worker Nodes Per AZ: Enter a number.
- Total Number of Worker Nodes for a Site: Enter a number.
- No Worker Nodes: Default option.
Select Apply.
Select Save and Exit.

Step 2: Perform registration for new pool nodes.

Select Manage > Site Management > Registrations.
Select Pending Registrations tab.
Approve pool nodes.

Note: Individual nodes are not visible from the site list for multi-node sites. However, you can check the nodes in the Other Registrations tab.

Upgrade Site

Site upgrade includes a console software upgrade and/or OS upgrade, and you can perform this from the F5 Distributed Cloud Console. The upgrade functionality is visible only if it is available and applicable for your site. Site upgrades may take up to 10 minutes per site node.

Note: Cloud sites need to be edited from the site management menu.

To upgrade using API, go to learn How to Upgrade or Downgrade Customer Edge CE Version via API.

You can perform the software upgrade from Console using any of the following ways:

Site List: Upgrade in Site View.

Navigate to Overview > Sites > Dashboard.
Select Upgrade in the SW version (Current/Status) and OS version (Current/Status) columns for your site to perform software and OS upgrades, respectively.
Select Upgrade in the confirmation window to proceed.

Site Dashboard: Upgrade in Site Dashboard view of Site Management.

Select your site in AWS TGW Site board.

Select Upgrade in Software Version section in F5 Software and Operating System.
Select Upgrade in confirmation window to proceed.

Figure: Upgrade from Site Dashboard View

Site Status: Upgrade in Site Status view of Site Monitoring.

Select your site in Overview > Sites to load dashboard.
Select Site Status tab.
Select Upgrade in F5 Software Version and F5 OS Status.
Select Upgrade in the confirmation window to proceed.

Note: The update status is indicated in the Update Status field in the site dashboard or the site status views. In the site list view, the status is indicated in the SW version (Current/Status) and OS version (Current/Status) fields.

Remove Site

To remove a site, perform the following:

Select Multi-Cloud Network Connect service.
Select Manage > Site Management.
Select type of site you want to remove.
Locate your site and then select Destroy.
Enter DELETE in confirmation window.
Select Destroy. Process will destroy cloud sites using Terraform.

Perform Factory Reset

You can trigger factory reset of the nodes in your site by performing the site re-registration.

Perform the following in case of factory reset:

Step 1: Navigate to registrations page.

In Multi-Cloud Network Connect service, select Sites from the configuration menu.
For your site, select ... > Reregister.
Select Reregister in confirmation window. This removes the node from the site and changes the site state to the WAITINGNODES state. Also, the factory reset will be applied to all available nodes and then will reboot those nodes. New registration request are created after a node is rebooted.

Note: For multi-node sites, re-registration removes all nodes from the site and factory reset starts for all nodes. Re-registration, as in a factory reset, is only available for physical sites. Virtual sites (sites created by a cloud provider) are "factory reset" by destroying the virtual site and then recreating it. This can be done in Manage > Site Management with Destroy and Apply.

Step 2: Approve new registration for site.

Select Manage > Site Management > Registrations.
Select your site from the Pending Registrations tab to approve the registration. For multi-node sites, perform this step for each node request.

Concepts

API References

Site

Manage Site

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