Upgrade BIG-IP

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.

BIG-IP v16.1 reached End of Software Development (EoSD) and End of Technical Support on July 31, 2025. Make sure your BIG-IP fleet is running v17.1 at a minimum to ensure access to technical support and software patches beyond this date. Learn more ›

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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, 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)

BIG-IP v17.1

Upgrade recommended – access important new capabilities and enhance security

Reasons to upgrade:

  • Unlock innovative new app delivery and security functionality in BIG-IP v17.5.
  • Reduce risk exposure by upgrading to BIG-IP v17.5, which is the most secure software version

BIG-IP v17.5

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 v21.x to access exciting new capabilities and software enhancements.

Recent BIG-IP Innovation

Review the release notes to learn about incremental new capabilities added within
each of the last software versions across the BIG-IP product family.

v17.5 | v17.1 | v16.1 | v15.1 | v14.1

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

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).

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.

Learn more about F5’s Journeys Migration Utility ›

Read the Journeys Migration Utility Solution Overview ›

person typing on computer

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.

person talking on headset

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.

Learn more about F5 Professional Services ›

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.

Learn more about the F5 Application Study Tool

Resources

Next Steps

Ready to upgrade or need questions answered?

Contact F5

 

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