BIG-IP : determine active device

I know its an old thread but incase someone still looking, though above answers are also correct

>>> state = mgmt.tm.cm.devices.get_collection()
>>> print state[0].failoverState
active

In addition to my previous response the following approach looks better to me.

Make a call via GET to

/mgmt/tm/cm/traffic-group/traffic-group-1/stats?$select=deviceName,failoverState

to one of the units in your sync-failover BIG-IP device service clusters in order to receive the following response:

{
  "entries": {
    "https://localhost/mgmt/tm/cm/traffic-group/traffic-group-1/~Common~traffic-group-1:~Common~bigip61.lb-net.bit/stats": {
      "nestedStats": {
        "entries": {
          "deviceName": {
            "description": "/Common/bigip61.lb-net.bit"
          },
          "failoverState": {
            "description": "standby"
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "https://localhost/mgmt/tm/cm/traffic-group/traffic-group-1/~Common~traffic-group-1:~Common~bigip62.lb-net.bit/stats": {
      "nestedStats": {
        "entries": {
          "deviceName": {
            "description": "/Common/bigip62.lb-net.bit"
          },
          "failoverState": {
            "description": "active"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

When using a REST API call of

/mgmt/tm/cm/failover-status?$select=details

to both devices in a sync-failover device group you can expect results as follows:

Unit being active for traffic-group-1 and traffic-group-2:

{
  "entries": {
    "https://localhost/mgmt/tm/cm/failover-status/0": {
      "nestedStats": {
        "entries": {
          "https://localhost/mgmt/tm/cm/failoverStatus/0/details": {
            "nestedStats": {
              "entries": {
                "https://localhost/mgmt/tm/cm/failoverStatus/0/details/0": {
                  "nestedStats": {
                    "entries": {
                      "details": {
                        "description": "active for /Common/traffic-group-1"
                      }
                    }
                  }
                },
                "https://localhost/mgmt/tm/cm/failoverStatus/0/details/1": {
                  "nestedStats": {
                    "entries": {
                      "details": {
                        "description": "active for /Common/traffic-group-2"
                      }
                    }
                  }
                }
              }
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Unit being standby for traffic-group-1 and traffic-group-2:

  "entries": {
    "https://localhost/mgmt/tm/cm/failover-status/0": {
      "nestedStats": {
        "entries": {}
      }
    }
  }
}

Tested on TMOS v12.1.2 via BIG-IQ REST API proxy to a device service cluster of 2 BIG-IP VE.

Hmm... I'm sure I used to have a script that would show the state from the traffic-group POV... i.e. given a traffic group, find where it was active...

 

Let me see if I can dig one out...

 

H

 

Hi Hamish,

Your script uses System.Failover.get_failover_state() - https://devcentral.f5.com/wiki/iControl.System__Failover__get_failover_state.ashx. Calling that against my test HA pair (both units are active for different traffic-groups) shows:

>>> print b1.System.Failover.get_failover_state()
FAILOVER_STATE_ACTIVE

>>> print b2.System.Failover.get_failover_state()
FAILOVER_STATE_ACTIVE

When calling Management.DeviceGroup.get_failover_status(), output shows the failover status per device with more detail, such as all active traffic-groups on that device. For example, the same call with 10 traffic groups. 1-5 are active on lb-01 and 6-10 are active on lb-02:

>>> print b1.Management.DeviceGroup.get_failover_status()
{'failover_status': 'HA_STATE_ACTIVE', 'color': 'COLOR_GREEN', 'status': 'ACTIVE', 'details': ['active for /Common/traffic-group-10', 'active for /Common/traffic-group-7', 'active for /Common/traffic-group-6', 'active for /Common/traffic-group-9', 'active for /Common/traffic-group-8'], 'summary': '5/10 active'}

>>> print b2.Management.DeviceGroup.get_failover_status()
{'failover_status': 'HA_STATE_ACTIVE', 'color': 'COLOR_GREEN', 'status': 'ACTIVE', 'details': ['active for /Common/traffic-group-1', 'active for /Common/traffic-group-3', 'active for /Common/traffic-group-4', 'active for /Common/traffic-group-2', 'active for /Common/traffic-group-5'], 'summary': '5/10 active'}

I do not see anything that shows where a specified traffic-group is active - I was looking under Management.TrafficGroup (https://devcentral.f5.com/wiki/iControl.Management__TrafficGroup.ashx) but only saw calls for configuration details

Hi shaggy.

 

That's the same call as above. But I'm not sure it has the detail that's required if you run many traffic-groups. Does the details change if you have 10 traffic-groups active for example?

 

There's another call in the v11 iControl that's gets the status of the traffic-group itself. Saves parsing out any comment that may or may not be the same in a few versions time.

 

Sorry, can't find my notes that I made from when I looked at this, but if you look in Management::TrafficGroup you should find what you need to determine where a traffic-group is currently living.

 

I was able to get v11 failover-state using 'Management.DeviceGroup.get_failover_status()' (https://devcentral.f5.com/wiki/iControl.Management__DeviceGroup__get_failover_status.ashx)

Not sure what language you use, but the python commands are:

Python 2.7.6
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import bigsuds
>>> import getpass
>>> nameuse = raw_input('user: ')
user: admin
>>> passuse = getpass.getpass()
Password: xxxxxxx
>>> b1 = bigsuds.BIGIP(hostname = "lb-01.test.com",username = nameuse,password = passuse)
>>> b2 = bigsuds.BIGIP(hostname = "lb-02.test.com",username = nameuse,password = passuse)
>>> print b1.Management.DeviceGroup.get_failover_status()
{'failover_status': 'HA_STATE_STANDBY', 'color': 'COLOR_GRAY', 'status': 'STANDBY', 'details': [], 'summary': '1/1 standby'}
>>> print b2.Management.DeviceGroup.get_failover_status()
{'failover_status': 'HA_STATE_ACTIVE', 'color': 'COLOR_GREEN', 'status': 'ACTIVE', 'details': ['active for /Common/traffic-group-1'], 'summary': '1/1 active'}

Here's one from walkF5Stats that I wrote a few years back... There's some additional bits in there that track elapsed time to call, logging etc. but the important part is the call to System/Failover and get_failover_state

Now that's (below) only for a device. In v11 with traffic-groups it's slightly different. Hold on a bit and I'll see if I can dig that up (I wrote something a couple of months ago for that, just need to find it 🙂 )

sub getFailoverState {
  my ($dbh, $dev)=(@_);
  my $t0=[gettimeofday];

  my $devID=$dev->{ID};
  my $devFQDN=$dev->{FQDN};
  my $icServer=$dev->{MgmtAddr};
  my $icPort=$dev->{MgmtPort};

  dbprint "getFailoverState: cookiejar (Before)\n";
  print Dumper($cookieJar);
  my $Failover =  SOAP::Lite
        -> uri('urn:iControl:System/Failover')
        -> proxy("$sProtocol://$icUser:$icPass\@$icServer:$icPort/iControl/iControlPortal.cgi", cookie_jar => $cookieJar);
        -> proxy("$sProtocol://$icUser:$icPass\@$icServer:$icPort/iControl/iControlPortal.cgi"i,
  $Failover->transport->cookie_jar($cookieJar);

  dbprint "getFailoverState: Getting failover state for $devFQDN\n";

  my $soapResponse = $Failover->get_failover_state();

  dbprint "getFailoverState: cookiejar (After)\n";
  print Dumper($cookieJar);

  &checkResponse($soapResponse);
  my $failoverState=$soapResponse->result;

  dbprint "getFailoverState: state=$failoverState\n";

  my $updatestr="update device set fostate='$failoverState' where id=$devID";
  dbprint "getFailoverState: SQL [$updatestr]\n";
  my $update=$dbh->prepare($updatestr);
  $update->execute;

  my $elapsed=tv_interval ( $t0 );
  log_action($elapsed, 0, "getFailoverState", "$updatestr");

}