Bug ID 1974869: Unable to load config after upgrading to v17.1.3/v17.5.x with the Syntax Error: "state" may not be specified more than once.

Last Modified: Dec 19, 2025

Affected Product(s):
BIG-IP AFM, Install/Upgrade(all modules)

Known Affected Versions:
17.1.0, 17.1.0.1, 17.1.0.2, 17.1.0.3, 17.1.1, 17.1.1.1, 17.1.1.2, 17.1.1.3, 17.1.1.4, 17.1.2, 17.1.2.1, 17.1.2.2, 17.1.3, 17.5.0, 17.5.1, 17.5.1.2

Fixed In:
21.0.0, 17.5.1.3

Opened: Jun 30, 2025

Severity: 2-Critical

Symptoms

After upgrading a BIG-IP AFM device from version 16.1.x to 17.1.3/17.5.x, the device fails to come online. Affected vectors that might have duplicated state entries in bigip.conf: -- bad-tcp-flags-malformed -- tcp-ack-ts -- tcp-flags-uncommon

Impact

The BIG-IP device fails to load its configuration and does not come online after the upgrade.

Conditions

Set the all network device-config vectors into detect-only state and then initiate upgrade from v16.1.x to v17.1.3/v17.5.x

Workaround

-- Manually remove the duplicate state entry in bigip.conf. -- Perform "tmsh load sys config verify" or reboot

Fix Information

None

Behavior Change

Guides & references

K10134038: F5 Bug Tracker Filter Names and Tips