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Roman_Melekh's avatar
Roman_Melekh
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May 09, 2023

Backup F5 BigIP using RestAPI and PowerShell (again?)

Hello! I went through the Forum and I saw a lot of related messages but none of them actually answered my question. The documentation [I found] leaves to be desired and I hope that the community is ...
BIG-IP
devops
f5
powershell
RestAPI
Roman_Melekh's avatar
Roman_Melekh
Icon for Altocumulus rankAltocumulus

Thanks for the link. I am going to share it with my team players to be reviewed.

But, anyway, having both options to compare will be smart. 

I found two commands for saving-loading data and I need somebody who knows what is it to help me.

 

Save/Load config -  tm/sys/config
Save/Load UCS -  tm/sys/ucs

What does "config" and what does "USC"?
I am looking for an option to be able to restore all settings. 

I did create a backup file using tm/sys/ucs but not sure if this is the right way. It looks like it is very simple (when everything is working):

$headers = @{
    "Content-Type" = "application/json"
    "X-F5-Auth-Token" = "$token"
}


$body = @{
    
    "command" = "save"
    "name" = "testBackup.ucs"
    "includePrivateKeys" = $true
    "isEncrypted" = $false       
    "description" = "This one is done from PowerShell"

} | ConvertTo-Json


$result = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://$server/mgmt/tm/sys/ucs" -Method Post -Headers $headers -Body $body

 

 

Paulius's avatar
Paulius
Icon for MVP rankMVP
May 11, 2023

Roman_Melekh So config is the configuration on the device and is essentially loading what is in the config file on the device when you use the load command and saving the CLI changes you made to the config file on the device. A UCS is an archive file of the entire configuration and all settings on the F5 device. Please keep in mind that, depending on the code version, the UCS uses a master-key to encrypt and decrypt certain pieces of configuration in the UCS backup. It is important that you save the master-key of the device in a secure location so if you ever have to replace your device with a new one because the existing failed you will have to set the master-key to the same one as it was before or the UCS will not load properly. The UCS also stores the license of the device which is a unique pairing to the previous device so you will have to use the appropriate load command with the UCS so it doesn't load the license. You can use command "f5mku -K" without the quotations to view the existing master-key.

    • Paulius's avatar
      Paulius
      Icon for MVP rankMVP
      May 12, 2023

      Roman_Melekh I'm glade this worked for you. You should be able to add onto the end of the script a command that issues a delete of the existing archive file, exactly the same as you did to create the file but in this case a delete. Good luck with the SharePoint piece and if you find that the primary issue has been resolved please mark the comment that solved this for you.

      • Roman_Melekh's avatar
        Roman_Melekh
        Icon for Altocumulus rankAltocumulus
        May 12, 2023

        Yep, the command is here already:

         

        function Delete-F5ArchiveFile
{
    param 
    (
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string]$token,        
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string]$server,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string]$UCSFileName        
    )
    
    $headers = @{
        "Content-Type" = "application/json"
        "X-F5-Auth-Token" = "$token"
    }

    $body = @{
        "command" = "run";
        "utilCmdArgs" = " -c `"rm -f /var/local/ucs/$UCSFileName`" "
    } | ConvertTo-Json


    $result = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://$server/mgmt/tm/util/bash" -Method Post -Headers $headers -Body $body
    return $result
}