Does a BIG-IP keep forwarding when F5-SVC-BIG ends?

Quick Take

Quick Take: A perpetual BIG-IP keeps forwarding on the version already installed when F5-SVC-BIG ends. What stops is TAC, advance replacement, and any software branch whose license check date is later than the service check date. The box does not go dark because the contract date passed.

Published 2026-09-29. This page is for the person who runs the appliance. The purchase-order argument about L1-3 versus L3 is a different page. Here the contract has ended, or you are deciding whether to let it end.

What keeps running

Quick Answer: The installed BIG-IP version keeps forwarding after F5-SVC-BIG ends. A perpetual license is not the same date as the support contract. License Time Limit of N/A is that perpetual license. Traffic on the current boot location does not stop at midnight on the Entitled Service end date.

On a China bid, the deviation table (偏离表) often lists support years, or a short nickname for the service line. That cell does not say the appliance stops. The Entitled Service dates must be their own line, separate from any sentence that claims the box goes dark. A 13% VAT special fapiao is the invoice. It is not a reason to collapse "support ended" and "forwarding stopped" into one row. The tax document does not power the appliance down.

Think of the appliance as a truck you already own. The service contract is the workshop agreement. When the agreement ends, the truck still drives the route it is on. You lose the workshop: the phone, the replacement parts under that contract, and the right to load a later factory build that the agreement no longer covers.

F5 ties the entitlement to the unit. When the contract ends, the system is no longer entitled until you renew. That sentence is about support, not about whether virtual servers still pass traffic. Operators who reboot into the same installed version, on the same license, should see the same forwarding they had the day before. Do not schedule a traffic outage for the contract date. Forwarding on the installed version continues. A different dependency, such as a feature that was only legal under a subscription you are not describing here, would be a different fact.

What the contract actually stops

Quick Answer: Three entitlements stop with the F5-SVC-BIG end date. You cannot open F5 TAC, and a partner on an L3 line cannot escalate to F5 level 3. Advance hardware replacement stops, including add-on RMA clocks that required the base contract to be active. A later software branch can fail to load its configuration.

Night coverage was never part of Standard. If you were on F5-SVC-BIG-STD-L1-3 or F5-SVC-BIG-STD-L3, you already had Monday to Friday, local 08:00 to 18:00, which is 10 hours on 5 business days. Expiry does not create a new night outage. It removes the weekday phone and the parts path you did have. Premium's 24 hours across 7 days were a different contract. If that one ends, the night phone ends with it.

Which new version is blocked

Quick Answer: The blocked image is a BIG-IP software branch whose license check date is later than this unit's service check date. F5 publishes that date by branch, so 17.1.x and 17.5.x are different dates. A later maintenance build on a branch you already may run is not automatically blocked. The version you are running now is not uninstalled.

Each branch carries one license check date, baked in when that branch shipped. Your service check date lives in the license file. You can see it with tmsh show sys license. If your date is earlier than the branch you want, the install can bring the system up and then fail to load the configuration. Reactivating the license while the contract is already expired does not push the service check date past the old end date.

A public case makes the cut obvious. Coverage that ended on 2024-05-11 still allowed 17.1.x and did not allow 17.5.x, because 17.5 carried a later license check date. That is the meaning of a new version that will not come up. It is not every hotfix dated after your contract, and it is not a new appliance. BIG-IQ uses a different date table. Leave it off this BIG-IP page.

Warranty End Date on the product profile is still a different column. A unit can be inside Entitled Service and outside warranty, or the reverse. Neither column, by itself, tells you the service check date. Read that on the box before you schedule the change.

How to see the cut before you skip a renewal

Quick Answer: Step 1 reads the Entitled Service end date on the profile. Step 2 reads Service Check Date on the box. Step 3 compares that date with the license check date of the branch you want, from F5's branch table. If you only need the installed version to keep forwarding, the third step can wait.

1. Step 1. Confirm the end date on Entitled Service. Do not use Warranty End Date.
2. Step 2. On the appliance, run tmsh show sys license and record Service Check Date.
3. Step 3. Look up the target branch in F5 K7727. If its license check date is later, that branch is the one that will not load.

The cost of waiting is a failed change window, not a silent forwarding failure. The gain of checking is a written line: stay on this branch, or renew before you move. The small step is to write the installed version next to the Entitled Service end date on the deviation table, as its own line. You can self-check with one command and one row in K7727. Send the installed version, the Entitled Service end date, and the branch you wanted. Lead time on a renewal stays pending confirmation. This page does not price the lapsed fee. That is the next decision, on its own page, and only after you know the end date.

Typical scenario: the change window was the surprise

Quick Answer: In this typical scenario traffic is fine on the morning after F5-SVC-BIG ends. The surprise is the next software move. The branch in the change plan carries a license check date after the service check date, so the new boot location comes up without its configuration. The installed version, rolled back, forwards again.

Label this as a typical scenario. Nobody scheduled an outage for expiry day because expiry day did not need one. Two months later a maintenance branch is in the calendar. The error text talks about a service contract. The operator hears that the appliance is dead. It is not. The new branch is outside the date. The previous boot location is the one that still matches the license. Say that out loud in the bridge: forwarding on the installed version did not stop.

Write the installed version into the asset record on the day you decide not to renew. That note is what stops a later project from treating every newer image as entitled. A 13% VAT special fapiao on a renewal you skipped does not move the service check date.

Who this answer is for

Quick Answer: Use this answer when a perpetual BIG-IP is approaching an F5-SVC-BIG end date and someone has said the appliance will stop. It is fit for the operator who needs TAC, parts, and the next branch separated. It is unfit for choosing STD-L3 versus STD-L1-3, and unfit for calculating a lapsed-renewal fee.

• Fit: will traffic stop? The installed version keeps forwarding.
• Fit: which image is the new version that fails? The branch whose license check date is later.
• Unfit: a first-time buy of L1-3 versus L3.
• Unfit: the 180-day lapsed fee. Know the end date here, then use the renewal page.

FAQ

References

Quick Answer: F5 K7727 lists a license check date per BIG-IP software branch, which is how you tell 17.1.x from 17.5.x. K000151473 states that reactivation does not move the service check date past an expired contract. K000160443 shows where that date sits when you run tmsh show sys license.

• F5 K7727 — license check date by software branch
• F5 K000151473 — expired support does not advance the service check date on reactivation
• F5 K000160443 — Service Check Date versus the date baked into the ISO

Key Takeaway

Related