A BIG-IP Administrator creates an HTTP Virtual Server using an iApp template.

In F5 BIG-IP administration, iApps are designed to manage complex application configurations as a single unit. When an iApp is deployed, it creates an "Application Service" object that owns all the associated LTM objects, such as Virtual Servers, Pools, and Nodes. By default, these iApps are created with Strict Updates enabled. Strict Updates is a safety mechanism that prevents administrators from making manual "out-of-band" changes to the individual objects created by the iApp. The system enforces this because manual changes would be overwritten the next time the iApp template is updated or re-entered.

When the administrator attempts to change the destination IP address directly on the Virtual Server object, the BIG-IP system checks the "Strict Updates" flag. If it is set to "Enabled," the system blocks the modification and generates the error message stating the service must be updated via the application management interface. To resolve this, the administrator must navigate to the iApp >> Application Services menu, select the specific application service, and go to the "Reconfigure" tab. Within the iApp configuration form, the destination IP can be safely changed. Alternatively, if the administrator specifically wants to manage the objects manually and forgo the benefits of the iApp template management, they could disable "Strict Updates" in the iApp properties, though this is generally discouraged as it breaks the template's logic. The error is not related to subnetting or duplicate IPs, but strictly to the configuration authority assigned to the iApp service.