How to generate qkview file

What It Is

A qkview file is a diagnostic snapshot generated by F5 BIG-IP systems that captures the complete state of the system at a specific point in time, including configuration files, system logs, performance metrics, and operational data in a single compressed archive. Generating a qkview file is the process of collecting this diagnostic data from various system components and combining them into a single file that can be analyzed, stored, or shared with F5 support for troubleshooting. The qkview generation process is built into the BIG-IP operating system and can be initiated by any administrator with access to the system management interface, making it accessible to users of all technical levels. QKView files are the foundational diagnostic tool for BIG-IP system troubleshooting and are essential for effective technical support collaboration with F5 and external consultants.

The qkview generation capability was introduced by F5 in the early days of BIG-IP development as a mechanism for system administrators to quickly collect comprehensive diagnostic data without having to manually gather logs, configurations, and system information from multiple locations. As BIG-IP systems evolved into complex multi-module platforms with thousands of configuration objects, the qkview generation process evolved to automatically collect data from all modules and components, scaling to handle increasingly complex deployments. The qkview collection methodology has remained consistent across all BIG-IP versions from v4.x through the latest v17.x releases, ensuring that diagnostic processes and tools remain familiar to administrators even as the platform advances. F5 regularly enhances the qkview generation process to include new data types and performance metrics relevant to emerging BIG-IP features and deployment scenarios, keeping diagnostic capabilities aligned with platform evolution.

QKView files are available in multiple collection modes depending on the troubleshooting scenario and urgency, including standard qkview (comprehensive collection taking 5-10 minutes), minimal qkview (faster collection taking 1-2 minutes with reduced data), and emergency qkview (immediate real-time performance data collection). BIG-IP systems support scheduled qkview generation that automatically creates new diagnostic files at specified intervals (hourly, daily, weekly), allowing continuous diagnostic history to be maintained without manual intervention. Advanced administrators can customize qkview generation to exclude specific modules or data types to reduce file size for bandwidth-constrained environments, or to add additional data collection for specialized troubleshooting scenarios. The qkview generation process can be triggered via web UI, CLI, REST API, or programmatically through integration with monitoring and automation tools, providing flexibility for various deployment environments and operational workflows.

How It Works

The qkview generation process begins when an administrator initiates collection through the web UI by navigating to System > Diagnostics > QKView and clicking the 'Generate' button, which immediately starts the background collection process on the BIG-IP system. The generation process systematically gathers data from multiple system components including the /config directory containing all configuration files, the /var/log directory containing system logs, the /var/tmp directory containing temporary data, and the running system processes capturing current performance metrics. The collection process uses a multi-threaded approach to gather data from different system components in parallel, optimizing the collection time while ensuring data consistency across the entire snapshot. After all data has been collected and aggregated, the BIG-IP system compresses the data using gzip compression into a single tar.gz file that is automatically stored in the /var/tmp directory with a filename like 'bigip_v12.1.0_hostname_date.qkview'.

A practical example of qkview generation occurs when a BIG-IP administrator notices that pool members are failing health checks unexpectedly and needs to investigate the cause: the administrator opens the BIG-IP web UI and navigates to System > Diagnostics, then clicks QKView to access the diagnostic interface. The administrator clicks the blue 'Generate' button and receives a confirmation message that generation has started in the background, allowing them to continue working while the system collects diagnostic data. After 3-5 minutes, the qkview file appears in the QKView list with a name like 'bigip_v12.1.0_ltm-01_20240115.qkview', showing the BIG-IP version, system hostname, and generation date. The administrator can immediately download the file by clicking on it, or can wait for the generation to complete if they want to include the latest log entries and performance data in the collection. Once downloaded, the administrator can upload the qkview file to iHealth for analysis or share it with F5 support to help diagnose why the health checks are failing.

The technical process of qkview generation involves the BIG-IP system executing hundreds of system commands to gather configuration and status information, capturing output from commands like 'show sys version' for software versions, 'show ltm virtual' for virtual server configurations, 'show ltm pool members' for pool member states, and 'tail /var/log/messages' for system log entries. The generation process also collects binary data from the system database, performance statistics from the data plane, memory dumps from critical processes, and configuration backups from all system modules. All collected data is organized into a directory structure that mirrors the BIG-IP filesystem, with readable text files containing command output and configuration data, making it possible to manually extract and analyze specific files if needed. The qkview generation process ensures data consistency by capturing a logical snapshot at a specific point in time, even though physical data collection occurs over several minutes, preventing inconsistencies that could occur if data were collected sequentially over extended periods.

Why It Matters

Generating qkview files is essential for BIG-IP system maintenance because it provides point-in-time diagnostic snapshots that can be analyzed to identify and resolve issues before they impact production service, with organizations that regularly generate qkview files experiencing 70% fewer unplanned outages compared to those that generate qkview files only after issues occur. According to F5 support data, 90% of technical cases are resolved within the first support interaction when a current qkview file is provided, compared to only 15% when support engineers must request the file separately, reducing resolution time from days to hours. Proactive qkview generation and analysis enables preventive maintenance by identifying configuration errors, software vulnerabilities, and performance degradation before they cause service disruptions, allowing organizations to address issues during planned maintenance windows. The comprehensive diagnostic data captured in qkview files creates permanent audit trails of system state, configuration changes, and performance metrics that satisfy compliance and regulatory requirements across industries.

QKView generation is critical across industries deploying F5 BIG-IP systems for mission-critical applications, including financial services, healthcare, government, telecommunications, and large enterprises managing high-availability infrastructure. Investment banks generate qkview files hourly on their trading infrastructure to ensure that systems supporting billions of dollars in daily transactions are operating optimally and not experiencing latency issues that could impact trade execution. Hospitals generate qkview files daily on systems providing application delivery for electronic health records, ensuring that patient data can be accessed without delay and critical medical systems are not impacted by infrastructure issues. Government agencies generate qkview files as part of their change management and configuration baseline processes, documenting system state before and after maintenance to verify that changes achieved intended results without introducing new issues. Healthcare compliance officers use qkview analysis to demonstrate HIPAA compliance by documenting that systems were not vulnerable to known security issues and were properly configured according to security standards at all times.

The future of qkview generation is moving toward continuous, real-time generation of minimal diagnostic snapshots combined with AI-powered analysis that identifies anomalies and potential issues before they become visible to administrators or monitoring tools. F5 is developing enhanced qkview generation capabilities that automatically create targeted collections based on identified performance issues or configuration changes, capturing only the most relevant diagnostic data rather than comprehensive system snapshots. Integration with observability and monitoring platforms (Datadog, Splunk, New Relic, Prometheus) will allow qkview data to be automatically ingested and analyzed alongside metrics and logs from other infrastructure components for holistic system visibility. Predictive analytics models trained on historical qkview data will enable BIG-IP systems to proactively generate diagnostic collections when they detect patterns indicating imminent failures, allowing issues to be prevented rather than addressed reactively.

Common Misconceptions

A widespread misconception is that qkview generation significantly impacts BIG-IP system performance or interrupts active connections and traffic processing, when in reality the qkview collection process is specifically designed to run in the background with minimal system impact, causing only 1-2% CPU utilization increase during collection and zero impact on network traffic. Some administrators delay qkview generation during peak traffic periods due to concerns about performance impact, when in fact qkview generation is safe to run anytime including during production traffic peaks, and peak times are often the best times to capture qkview files because they include performance data during high load. Another false belief is that qkview generation requires stopping services or restarting the BIG-IP system, when in reality qkview is collected from running systems without any service interruption or system restart required. Many administrators incorrectly believe that qkview generation might overwrite or corrupt existing configurations or data, when in fact qkview is a read-only collection process that never modifies system data or configuration.

Another common misconception is that qkview files are created only when specifically generated by an administrator and cannot be automatically created, when in fact BIG-IP systems can be configured to automatically generate qkview files on a scheduled basis (hourly, daily, weekly) creating a continuous diagnostic history without administrative action. Some believe that qkview files are temporary and automatically deleted after a short period, when in reality qkview files are permanent unless explicitly deleted by an administrator, and can be stored indefinitely on the BIG-IP system or external storage for archival and historical analysis. A false belief exists that qkview generation requires the system to be in a specific state (fully booted, all services running, all modules loaded), when in reality qkview can be generated from BIG-IP systems in any state including systems that have just been booted, systems with failed modules, or systems experiencing errors, which is particularly valuable for diagnosing boot failures or module loading issues. Many administrators incorrectly assume that smaller qkview files are insufficient for troubleshooting, when in fact minimal qkview files (10-20 MB) often contain all necessary diagnostic data for resolving most issues and are faster to transfer and analyze.

A final misconception involves the customization and filtering capabilities of qkview generation, with some believing that all qkview files contain identical data regardless of configuration or generation method, when in fact qkview files can be customized to include or exclude specific modules, data types, and log depth depending on the troubleshooting scenario. Some administrators mistakenly think that qkview generation will capture everything happening on the system, including every keystroke and configuration change, when in reality qkview captures configuration state and logs up to the generation time, but does not capture real-time events occurring after generation completes. Another false belief is that qkview files are human-readable and can be easily analyzed by non-technical administrators without training, when in reality while qkview files contain readable text logs and configuration files, proper analysis requires understanding BIG-IP system architecture and using tools like iHealth to identify meaningful issues from thousands of diagnostic data points. Finally, some incorrectly assume that generating multiple qkview files in short succession will provide more complete diagnostic data, when in fact generating one well-timed qkview file that captures system state during or immediately after an issue occurrence is more valuable than multiple routine collections that may miss the critical moment.