201 · Question #150
A BIG-IP Administrator is conducting maintenance on one BIG-IP appliance in an HA Pair. Why should the BIG-IP Administrator put the appliance into FORCED_OFFLINE state?
The correct answer is D. To terminate existing connections to Virtual Servers and prevent the appliance from becoming active. Placing a BIG-IP appliance into FORCED_OFFLINE state during maintenance ensures that all existing connections are terminated and the device cannot become active, safely removing it from traffic processing in an HA pair. This allows the peer device to take over all traffic without
Question
A BIG-IP Administrator is conducting maintenance on one BIG-IP appliance in an HA Pair. Why should the BIG-IP Administrator put the appliance into FORCED_OFFLINE state?
Options
- ATo preserve existing connections to Virtual Servers and reduce the CPU load
- BTo allow new connections to Virtual Servers and ensure the appliance becomes active
- CTo terminate connections to the management IP and decrease persistent connections
- DTo terminate existing connections to Virtual Servers and prevent the appliance from becoming active
How the community answered
(39 responses)- A13% (5)
- B8% (3)
- C5% (2)
- D74% (29)
Why each option
Placing a BIG-IP appliance into FORCED_OFFLINE state during maintenance ensures that all existing connections are terminated and the device cannot become active, safely removing it from traffic processing in an HA pair. This allows the peer device to take over all traffic without interruption.
FORCED_OFFLINE terminates existing connections, it does not preserve them, nor is its primary purpose to reduce CPU load.
FORCED_OFFLINE prevents new connections and ensures the appliance does not become active; it explicitly takes it offline.
While it affects service connections, its primary purpose is not to terminate management IP connections or decrease persistent connections in general, but rather to take the entire device out of service for all traffic.
The FORCED_OFFLINE state on a BIG-IP device in an HA pair terminates all active connections to its Virtual Servers and prevents the device from ever becoming active. This is crucial for safely performing maintenance as it ensures the device gracefully relinquishes traffic handling to its peer and will not interfere with the HA failover mechanism.
Concept tested: F5 BIG-IP HA FORCED_OFFLINE state
Source: https://techdocs.f5.com/kb/en-us/products/big-ip_ltm/manuals/product/bigip-system-initial-configuration-11-5-0/4.html
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