Forum Discussion
CirrusChanges to DO and AS3 GitHub - no longer monitored
EmployeeGood morning, Folks, I am the PM who implemented the changes on behalf of leadership. Let me address the changes.
No—this is not a signal that BIG-IP tooling is going away. These changes are part of aligning the Automation Toolchain with the broader BIG-IP Tools initiative. Moving images, RPMs, and related software to MyF5 Downloads aligns with how F5 distributes its products today and helps ensure that F5 software is available in a single, centralized location rather than spread across multiple sites. This improves consistency and supports security and governance requirements.
Similarly, removing the GitHub Issues tab is intended to reduce shadow support and route issue resolution through the appropriate support and engineering channels. Having PMs solely manage GitHub issues did not scale well and was not the right long-term model for timely, well-supported resolution. The goal is to connect customers with the engineering resources and formal support processes needed to address issues more effectively.
Overall, the change is better understood as consolidation and operational maturity, not a broader loss of BIG-IP tooling. We are also rolling out the next generation of APIs on BIG-IP that address the challenges introduced with AS3. The deprecation notices you are seeing may be related to the same effort to streamline distribution, support, and lifecycle management across the BIG-IP Tools portfolio. Please don't hesitate to reach out for a call and roadmap review.
Juergen_Mang, MJ_1024, carlbidwell268, juanboticari0, kuhlenkamp, zdenekzemba
MVPHello Mark,
many thanks for the detailed response on this topic. Moving the ATC to a central place makes sense to me. It would have been nice to have been given some advance notice, though.
First issue that should be addressed:
This change breaks my workflow for deploying this packages on my F5's. Let me illustrate that:
Before:
- New AS3 Version was released by F5
- Get the download links from the release page
- I update the URL in my central GitLab repository that has a pipeline to install this packages on my F5's.
- Pipeline installs new Version
You see, it is a simple and straight forward process.
Now:
- New AS3 Version was released by F5
- Got to the Download Site
- Login with Credentials and second Factor
- Download the AS3 RPM
- Create the sha256 checksum file
- Upload both to a local webserver
- I update the URL in my central GitLab repository that has a pipeline to install this packages on my F5's.
- Pipeline installs new Version
You see, it does not make fun with this change.
A second issue that must be fixed:
I could not find a new URL for the schema file. I use in my all declarations:
{
"$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/F5Networks/f5-appsvcs-extension/main/schema/latest/as3-schema.json",
}This provides autocompletion and validation in VSCode. Where can I now point this declaration or where can I download the schema definition?
Third issue:
No overview of open bugs and feature requests for the ATC. I liked the issues view on GitHub and I regularly used it to search for known problems with AS3. New categories in the Bug Tracker could solve this issue. I hope you migrated all the GitHub issues.
Please don't hesitate to reach out for a call and roadmap review.
I've already suggested an MVP call on this topic. I have already seen a roadmap for the new declarative API. It should be an alpha version in 21.1. right? Where is the documentation? I am willing to explore this new declarative approach in an early stage. Is there an EA program?
Best regards
Jürgen
