Last Modified: Aug 19, 2026
Affected Product(s):
BIG-IP Install/Upgrade
Known Affected Versions:
12.0.0, 12.0.0 hf1, 12.0.0 hf2, 12.0.0 hf3, 12.0.0 hf4, 12.1.0, 12.1.0 hf1, 12.1.0 hf2, 12.1.1, 12.1.1 hf1, 12.1.1 hf2, 12.1.2, 12.1.2 hf1, 12.1.2 hf2, 12.1.3, 12.1.3.1, 12.1.3.2, 12.1.3.3, 12.1.3.4, 12.1.3.5, 12.1.3.6, 12.1.3.7, 12.1.4, 12.1.4.1, 12.1.5, 12.1.5.1, 12.1.5.2, 12.1.5.3, 12.1.6, 13.0.0, 13.0.0 hf1, 13.0.0 hf2, 13.0.0 hf3, 13.0.1
Opened: Jul 12, 2016 Severity: 2-Critical Related Article:
K72931250
On Azure, after upgrading to any version other than 12.0.0 HF1-EHF14 or 12.1.0-HF1-EHF22, the system boots up as Not Licensed and Inoperative. Although certain cloud-specific 12.x EHFs such as BIG-IP Virtual Edition 12.1.0 HF1 EHF1 is intended for AWS only, BIG-IP does not prevent you from accidentally downloading and installing it into Azure environments. If you upgrade Azure from BIG-IP Virtual Edition 12.0.0 HF1 EHF14 to the 12.1.0 HF1 EHF1 or 12.0.0-hf4 or 12.1.1, the Azure license becomes nonoperational and gets invalidated.
License becomes unusable. Re-licensing the instance gets an invalid license.
Upgrading a BYOL instance on Azure to 12.1.0 HF1 EHF1 or 12.1.1. The Azure-specific versions are as follows: - 12.0.0-HF1-EHF14. - 12.1.0-HF1-EHF22.
The workaround for this issue is to boot back into previous boot volume, and then upgrade to 12.1.0-HF1-EHF22 in Azure. To change default boot volume, choose one of the following methods: 1. tmsh reboot volume volume-name. 2. switchboot utility (interactive mode by default). 3. Admin UI. For more information about the switchboot utility, see SOL5658: Overview of the switchboot utility, available here: https://support.f5.com/csp/#/article/K5658
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