F5 Admin API provides the opportunity to build your own F5 automation tool in Python. Here you can find more information of the API. And the example to build your own tools.
The API was developed with a few idioms in mind:
- Keep It Simple
- Make It Beautiful
- Make It Enjoyable
All future developments would be bound by the above rules.
Python modules are usually documented using docstrings. You can read the module's docstrings from the Python interactive shell, such as below:
$ python
>>> import f5_admin
>>> help(f5_admin)
Help on package f5_admin:
NAME
f5_admin
FILE
/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/f5_admin/__init__.py
PACKAGE CONTENTS
f5_asm
f5_client
f5_data_group
f5_dep_tree
util
CLASSES
f5_admin.f5_client.F5Client
f5_admin.f5_asm.F5Asm
f5_admin.f5_data_group.F5DataGroup
class F5Asm(f5_admin.f5_client.F5Client)
....You can also download the API HTML Document. Unzip it under your local drive. Then under your favorite browser to open the index.html page.
Eventually you might also want to check out the API source code under the 'src' directory.
The 'f5_client' class provides the hook for you to access the remote F5 box. Then you can perform your Python fu from there. To start, you want to make sure you have Python 3 in your local machine. And the 'f5' package is already installed in your python environment. Refer to README for installation instructions.
$ python -V
Python 3.7.5
$ pip list | grep f5
f5 1.1.6 or current versionCopy the following code block in a text editor. Then save it into a file name 'test.py'. Or Download it as raw file.
# !/usr/bin/env python # Let's build a tool together
import f5_admin # First we need to let Python know we're going to use the API
f5_node = "xx-rhwebdev1" # The F5 node we want to connect to.
f5_command = "show sys software" # The F5 command we want to run
with f5_admin.F5Client(None,None,None) as client:
client.load(f5_node) # Now we're ready to open a remote connection
result=client.ssh_command(client.ssh_connect(),f5_command,"")
for line in result: # line print the F5 command result in the console
print(line)
# Congratulation. You just build an automation tool with the API!Run the 'test' utility in Python. Enter your F5 credential at the prompt. Here is what you will see:
$ python test.py
Loading cache_config: /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/f5_admin-1.0.0-py2.7.egg/f5_admin/conf/xx-rhwebdev1/xx-rhwebdev1.txt
Loading complete
Setting up remote SSH session to host: xx-rhwebdev1
Please enter the F5 user name:
Please enter the F5 password:
Execution on the remote SSH host: show sys software
Command execution complete.
----------------------------------------------------------
Sys::Software Status
Volume Slot Product Version Build Active Status
----------------------------------------------------------
HD1.1 1 BIG-IP 12.1.3.4 0.0.2 yes complete
HD1.2 1 BIG-IP 11.6.1 2.0.338 no complete
...In the real world you want the tool to be both reliable and user friendly as possible. In order to archive the goal, you may end up adding a lot of extra code to the tool.
The improved tool can be found as f5-run within this package. If you have the package installed already, you can run it like below:
$ f5-run -n xx-rhwebdev1 -p $F5Pass -c "show sys software"
...
Loading cache_config: /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/f5_admin-1.0.0-py2.7.egg/f5_admin/conf/xx-rhwebdev1/xx-rhwebdev1.txt
Loading complete
Total Number of Top Level objects: 267
Setting up remote SSH session to host: xx-rhwebdev1
Execution on the remote SSH host: tmsh show sys software
Command execution complete.
...
--------------------------------------------------------
Sys::Software Status
Volume Slot Product Version Build Active Status
--------------------------------------------------------
HD1.1 2 BIG-IP 12.1.3.4 0.0.2 no completeIf you want to see another API example, click here
🐒 $F5Pass - this is the shell environment variable storing my root password ✌️