APM Profile Export Format

Hello Peter,

From what I can tell, being able to view the exported files wasn't really the functionality F5 had in mind when designing the export/import options for BIG-IP APM, and its possible that the exported documents are intended to be used solely for the purpose of implementing them into another BIG-IP system, or saving a configuration. I have yet to find any documentation on reading exported files before they are imported back in to BIG-IP. But you're right: we should be able to run tar on the compressed file.

I was unable to reproduce your particular error in a lab environment (using tar 1.3 on a Fedora, BIG-IP v. 13.1.1.x), and was able to unzip the file, for the most part. Running:

tar xzf profile_Common_devcentral.conf.tar.gz

Gave me the same error as you: Archive contains ‘0000091’ where numeric uid_t value expected.

But it also made one readable file, ng-export.conf, and a directory res with more files inside, all of which I was able to view. ng-export.conf had the majority of my APM configuration, but there are a couple shorter files I can share here. For instance, I could see the configuration details of my webtop link for my Windows Edge Client for SSL VPN.

cd res
cat 9_Common_WindowsClient_resource_webtop_link_customization

Gave me this html output:

    
        SSL VPN Edge Client
        /public/images/full_wt/link.png
        Windows Client
    

I am not sure what effect the error message had on the files tar created but I haven't noticed any config info missing.

Feel free to ask if you have any follow-up questions,

Austin