BIG-IP iHealth User Guide

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Publication Date
This manual was published on January 7, 2011
This manual was updated on April 11, 2012
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Copyright 2011, F5 Networks, Inc. All rights reserved.
F5 Networks, Inc. (F5) believes the information it furnishes to be accurate and reliable.
However, F5 assumes no responsibility for the use of this information, nor any
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3-DNS, Access Policy Manager, APM, Acopia, Acopia Networks, Advanced Client
Authentication, Advanced Routing, Application Security Manager, ASM, AskF5, ARX,
BIG-IP, Data Manager, DevCentral, Edge Client, Edge Gateway, Edge Portal, Enterprise
Manager, EM, F5, F5 Networks, the F5 logo, F5 Management Pack, Fast Application
Proxy, Fast Cache, FirePass, Global Traffic Manager, GTM, iControl, Intelligent
Browser Referencing, IBR, iHealth, Intelligent Compression, IPv6 Gateway, iQuery,
iRules, iRules OnDemand, L7 Rate Shaping, Link Controller, LC, Local Traffic
Manager, LTM, Message Security Module, MSM, NetCelera, OneConnect, Packet
Velocity, Protocol Security Module, PSM, Real Traffic Policy Builder, SSL
Acceleration, StrongBox, SYN Check, TCP Express, Traffic Management Operating
System, TMOS, TrafficShield, Transparent Data Reduction, TDR, VIPRION, WANJet,
WAN Optimization Module, WOM, WebAccelerator, WA, and ZoneRunner, are
trademarks or service marks of F5 Networks, Inc., in the U.S. and other countries, and
may not be used without F5's express written consent.
All other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective
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BIG-IP iHealth User Guide

Contents
Chapter 1: What is BIG-IP iHealth?
What does the BIG-IP iHealth system do with my qkview file?

Chapter 2: How do I create a qkview file?

Chapter 3: How do I upload my qkview file into BIG-IP iHealth?

Selecting your uploaded qkview files

Chapter 4: How do I delete my qkview files from the BIG-IP iHealth system?

Chapter 5: How do I navigate the BIG-IP iHealth Viewer?

Viewing the Status menu
Viewing the Network menu
Viewing the Commands menu
Viewing the Configuration menu
Viewing the Graphs menu
Viewing the Diagnostics menu
Viewing the Files menu

Chapter 6: How do I use the search feature?

13

Chapter 7: How do I contact F5 Technical Support?

14

Chapter 1: What is BIG-IP iHealth?

BIG-IP iHealth enables you to verify the proper operation of your BIG-IP system and
ensure your hardware and software function at peak efficiency.
BIG-IP iHealth is an F5-hosted tool that is available at https://ihealth.f5.com. It is not a
feature or tool that resides on the BIG-IP system.
The technology at the heart of BIG-IP iHealth is the qkview file, which provides a
running snapshot of your BIG-IP system with up-to-the-minute configuration and
diagnostic information. You can quickly download a qkview file from your BIG-IP
system, and then upload the file to the BIG-IP iHealth system.
Note: For detailed instructions about creating a qkview file, refer to SOL12878:
Generating BIG-IP diagnostic data using the qkview utility (10.x - 11.x).
The BIG-IP iHealth system translates the output from your qkview file and displays the
content in a customer-friendly format that mimics the familiar BIG-IP Configuration
utility. In addition to translating the raw data, the BIG-IP iHealth Diagnostics component
of the BIG-IP iHealth system evaluates the logs, command output, and configuration of
your BIG-IP system against a database of known issues, common mistakes, and
published F5 best practices. The prioritized results provide tailored feedback about
configuration issues or code defects, and provide a description of the issue,
recommendations for resolution, and a link to further information in the AskF5
Knowledge Base.
This customized diagnostic information enables you to take the recommended action, and
in many cases, can help you resolve common configuration issues without the need to
contact F5 Technical Support. If you require assistance from F5 Technical Support, your
BIG-IP iHealth data will be available to F5 engineers for faster resolution.

What does the BIG-IP iHealth system do with my qkview file?

The BIG-IP iHealth system has two components: BIG-IP iHealth Viewer and BIG-IP
iHealth Diagnostics.
Note: Due to a change in the qkview file output in BIG-IP version 10.x, BIG-IP iHealth
does not operate with qkview files from BIG-IP versions prior to 10.x.

BIG-IP iHealth User Guide

BIG-IP iHealth Viewer

The BIG-IP iHealth Viewer essentially translates the raw information pulled from your
qkview file and presents your system data in an easy-to-read format for fast access.
The BIG-IP iHealth Viewer displays clear summaries of your units hardware, software,
failover configuration, and licensing details. Graphs showing performance metrics, such
as CPU usage, throughput, memory, and RAM cache, can be customized to show specific
dates and times, so you can focus on the appropriate information. By using an interface
that logically organizes data in the same way as your BIG-IP device interface, you can
isolate the information you want. You can also search within your configuration files,
logs, log files, BIG-IP iHealth Diagnostics output, commands, and the graphical network
map.

BIG-IP iHealth Diagnostics

The BIG-IP iHealth Diagnostics component takes advantage of technical knowledge of
experienced F5 engineers to assist you in implementing the best practices for your
system. Using advanced heuristics, the tool can determine when your system is operating
outside of normal levels so you can take steps to improve performance. BIG-IP iHealth
Diagnostics will also check for security issues and recommend patches or software
updates. Content is added regularly to give you fast access to emerging threats and newly
found issues. F5 recommends uploading a qkview file to the BIG-IP iHealth system at
least once a month, since F5 updates the BIG-IP iHealth known issues and best practices
database on a weekly basis.

Chapter 2: How do I create a qkview file?

To get started using BIG-IP iHealth, you must generate a qkview file on your BIG-IP
system.
1.

Log in to your BIG-IP version 10.x or higher system.

2.

Click System.

3.

Click Support.
The Support Snapshot page will display.

4.

Ensure that QKView is selected.

5.

Click the Start button.

After a few moments, possibly several minutes on a busy system, the Download
Snapshot File button will appear, indicating that your qkview file is ready to
download.

6.

Click the Download Snapshot File button to download the qkview file to your local
computer.

Note: You can also manually generate a qkview file using the command line qkview
utility. For information about the qkview utility, including detailed instructions about
creating a qkview file, refer to SOL12878: Generating BIG-IP diagnostic data using the
qkview utility (10.x - 11.x).
Important: Some web browsers may incorrectly append a file extension (such as .zip) to
the downloaded qkview file. Ensure that the filename of your qkview file ends in .tar.gz
before continuing.

BIG-IP iHealth User Guide

Chapter 3: How do I upload my qkview file into BIG-IP

iHealth?
1.

Navigate to https://ihealth.f5.com.

2.

When prompted for a login account, use your F5 WebSupport credentials.

3.

To upload a new qkview file, click the Upload button.

The QKView upload page will display.

4.

Click the Choose File button.

5.

Browse to the location of the qkview file on your computer.

Important: The BIG-IP iHealth system accepts only valid qkview files.

6.

Optional: If you have an open support case with F5 Technical Support, you may add
your case number to the F5 Case field. If you do not have an open support case
related to this qkview file, leave the field blank.

7.

Optional: You may add your own identifier to the External Case field for tracking
purposes.

8.

Click Upload.
Once the upload has completed, the BIG-IP iHealth system may take several minutes
to process the data.

Selecting your uploaded qkview files

You can log into BIG-IP iHealth at any time to see a list of available uploaded qkview
files. You can also access this list by clicking the MyQKViews link at the top of any
page. Click on the link for the desired qkview file and the BIG-IP iHealth Viewer
overview page for that qkview file will display.
Note: You can sort the columns by any field, such as the creation date of the qkview file,
F5 case number, or the upload date and time. If you have uploaded several qkview files
to the system, sorting the columns allows you to quickly find the qkview file you are
interested in.
Note: F5 will only store customer data in the BIG-iHealth system for 30 days.

Chapter 4: How do I delete my qkview files from the

BIG-IP iHealth system?
In accordance with the F5 data retention policy, the BIG-IP iHealth system will
automatically delete your qkview file one month after it is uploaded. However, you may
optionally delete your uploaded qkview file at any time. To delete a qkview file, perform
the following procedure:
1.

Log in to the BIG-IP iHealth system.

2.

Click the MyQKViews link at the top of the page.

3.

Click the red minus button to the right of the qkview file you would like to delete.
A pop-up window will ask you to confirm your choice.

4.

Confirm.

The BIG-IP iHealth system will immediately remove the qkview file from your
MyQKViews list. Deletion from the rest of the BIG-IP iHealth system will take several
minutes, as the BIG-IP iHealth system synchronizes the request between the F5 data
centers.
Note: If you delete a qkview file that is needed to troubleshoot your open support case,
F5 Technical Support may request that you upload the file again for diagnostic purposes.

BIG-IP iHealth User Guide

Chapter 5: How do I navigate the BIG-IP iHealth

interface?
The BIG-IP iHealth system is available through navigation links on the left side of the
screen. The main overview page summarizes the BIG-IP iHealth Diagnostics findings.

Viewing the Status menu

Status > Overview
The Status > Overview page highlights key configuration data about your BIG-IP system:
Diagnostics
The Diagnostics section is a summary of BIG-IP iHealth Diagnostics findings. Click on
any of the results levels (high, medium, low, or informational) to view detailed
information. If no issues were found, this field may be blank. For more information about
diagnostics results, see the Diagnostics section below.
If the BIG-IP iHealth Diagnostics component finds an issue that would be resolved by
upgrading to a newer release, the Recommendation field would display that information.
The Status field indicates that all diagnostics are up to date for this qkview file. If you
upload a qkview file to the BIG-IP iHealth system, and new diagnostics are added to the
system, the Status field changes to indicate that the diagnostics need to be run again. For
example, you would see the following message:
Diagnostics are out-of-date
If the heuristics are out of date, a Rerun Diagnostics link will appear. Click the Rerun
Diagnostics link to analyze the qkview file again using the new diagnostics.
Errors
The Errors section of the overview indicates whether there are any issues with the
qkview file processing.
File
Details about the qkview file and any F5 Technical Support case numbers associated
with the upload are listed in the File section.
Quick Links
The Quick Links section provides quick access to important configuration files and logs,
such as the bigip.conf file.

System
The System section provides details about your BIG-IP systems hostname, platform,
chassis, and blade.
Configuration Totals
A total count of all virtual servers, nodes, pools, iRules, SNATs, NATs, and monitors
associated with your configuration is provided in the Configuration Totals section.
Software
The Software section provides information about your product and the running software
version, including links to details regarding installed hotfixes.
Product
The Product section lists all of your TMOS modules, and whether they are licensed and
provisioned.

Status > Hardware

The Hardware page provides a snapshot of appliance information related to the system
hardware including BIOS versions, RAM, FIPS information, model numbers, serial
numbers, and part numbers.
VIPRION hardware is fully supported in BIG-IP iHealth. Each VIPRION blade has its
own summary, with detailed disk partitioning information. The per-blade serial numbers
aid in tracking chassis content. You can also identify mixed blade chassis on this page.

Status > Software

The Software page provides a snapshot of the installed software, registration key, and any
firmware information available.

Status > Failover

The Failover page outlines your network and hardware failover configuration
information, which includes failover status, active time, and high availability
configuration information.

Status > Licensing

The Licensing page provides a snapshot of all licensing information, including service
check date, registration key, and platform and appliance IDs. Active modules and enabled
features are also included to help you understand your system.

BIG-IP iHealth User Guide

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Viewing the Network menu

The Network drop-down menu allows you to dive into specific data about the
configuration and status of your BIG-IP system at the time the qkview snapshot was
taken. Each link opens a different view of the Network Map, which is a collapsible tree of
your configuration objects. You can open directly to your virtual addresses, virtual
servers, pools, pool members, iRules, profiles, classes, or monitors.
To see more information about any object, click on its containing folder. Offline objects
are crossed out with a red line. You can hover over any entry to view additional
information about the state of your running configuration.

Viewing the Commands menu

The Commands drop-down menu allows you to browse commands, just as if they were
typed from the command line. You can view bigpipe, Traffic Management Shell (tmsh),
and UNIX command results. For example, to see the tmsh network information, click
Commands > TMShell > Network > net interface show. Results are opened in a new
browser tab.

Viewing the Configuration menu

The Configuration drop-down menu shows much of the same information as the
Commands drop-down menu, but organized in a similar manner to the BIG-IP web
interface. For example, to view all virtual server entries, select Configuration > LTM >
Shows > b virtual all show all.
For complex configurations, results can be quite large. Clicking the first line of most
results entries will collapse the results for that object. You can collapse or expand all
entries by clicking expand all or collapse all.

Viewing the Graphs menu

BIG-IP iHealth renders detailed graphs for all trending data available in the qkview file.
A glossary describing each line of the graph is included on each page. You can zoom in
to focus on trouble spots, and create custom graphs. Keep in mind that these graphs can
only show data that was captured up to the time that the qkview file was generated.
To view the connections graph, click Graphs > Connections. The graph will display
traffic for the three hours prior to the creation of the qkview file. To select other time
periods, click the 1 day or 7 day tabs above the graph.
By selecting the Custom tab, you can select a specific time period to render. You can
also select individual data sets for the graph, which allows you to simplify and refine any
graph to display the specific area of interest. All of the data set names are described in the
glossary at the bottom of the page. When you have finished selecting the information of
interest, click the Create Custom Graph button.
To save a custom graph to your local computer, click the graph.

Viewing the Diagnostics menu

The BIG-IP iHealth Diagnostics component automatically runs all of F5s custom
diagnostics against your qkview data after the qkview file is uploaded to the BIG-IP
iHealth system. The results of these diagnostics are easily accessible from the
Diagnostics drop-down menu on the left. You can choose to view high, medium, low, or
informational diagnostics. Clicking one of these links will display a results page for the
diagnostics of that category that identifies issues with the qkview file you uploaded. Note
that this is the same information provided by clicking on the Results links at the top of
the Overview page.
Each diagnostic result includes a summary of the identified issue, a suggested action to
address the issue, and links to further information about the issue (such as AskF5
Solutions). Open the Details section of the diagnostic by clicking on the small downward
pointing arrow to reveal more information about the issue.
The default diagnostics view shows only the diagnostics that matched your qkview file.
To view the diagnostics that were checked but did not match your qkview file, click the
Passed tab. To go back to the diagnostics that matched your qkview file, click the
Identified tab. The number after each tab indicates the number of diagnostics that match
that category.
You may rate whether an individual diagnostic is helpful by clicking on the thumbs up
or thumbs down icons. F5 Technical Support uses this information to update the
diagnostics, or to influence the development of other diagnostics. To provide more
specific feedback about your experience with BIG-IP iHealth, click the Feedback link at
the top of any page.

Viewing the Files menu

Under the Files menu, you can drill down into all of the configuration files, logs, and
other raw information contained in the qkview file. This information is presented in a
raw and unprocessed form. Accessing this information can help to locate issues that were
not found by the BIG-IP iHealth Diagnostics component.
To download any file to your local computer, click the name of the file you are interested
in. If a filename is grey and does not appear as an active link, then the file contains no
data. Note that due to the manner in which qkview files are generated, some information
(such as large log files) may not be included in the qkview file.

BIG-IP iHealth User Guide

12

Chapter 6: How do I use the search feature?

Another way to find critical information about your qkview file is to use the search
feature. To quickly search for information, open your qkview file and click the Search
link in the upper right corner of the page. A pop-up window will display where you can
specify the parameters of your search. You can constrain your search to look for
information in the configuration, log files, diagnostics, commands, all files, or the
network map. All searches are case insensitive.
The information returned depends on the search category you request. For example,
searching the Network Map for the string tcp returns all profiles, monitors, and other
entities with tcp in their name.
Search terms may also include simple regular expressions. For example, try searching
Logs for link.*down to find all log lines that contain the string link followed by the
string down. Click the down arrow next to Show Matching Lines to display the log lines
that matched your search.
Note: Some search queries return too many results to display. Try a more specific search
string if you receive the following error message:
Your search query exceeded the maximum number of results.
Please use a narrower query.

Chapter 7: How do I contact F5 Technical Support?

If you run into any issues, click the Feedback link at the top of any page within the BIGIP iHealth system to send feedback to the BIG-IP iHealth team. The BIG-IP iHealth team
responds to all feedback submissions and tracks the reported issues in an internal bug
tracking system.
If you have an F5 support agreement and need immediate assistance, contact F5
Technical Support.

BIG-IP iHealth User Guide

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