how to fetch entire big ip configuration file

You can certainly create a UCS file, download it and put it where your user can access it - all with the REST API. See:

https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K13225405

https://f5-sdk.readthedocs.io/en/latest/userguide/file_transfers.html

.

I tried to read 512 bytes but getting error back from bigip. Any idea what is wrong? also how do I completely read the file, like knowing filesize etc.

Request

GET https://172.18.20.98/mgmt/shared/file-transfer/ucs-downloads/bigipconfig.ucs HTTP/1.1

Content-Type: application/octet-stream

X-F5-Auth-Token: VOVJQUWKAPZ3AO4KGIY4BJDNJ2

Content-Range: 512

Host: 172.18.20.98

Response

HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request

Date: 12 Jul 2019 07:53:37 UTC

Server: com.f5.rest.common.RestRequestSender

X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN

Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=16070400; includeSubDomains

Pragma: no-cache

Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate

Expires: -1

Content-Length: 0

Content-Type: application/octet-stream

Content-Range: 512

Local-Ip-From-Httpd: 172.18.20.98

X-Forwarded-Server: localhost.localdomain

X-Forwarded-Proto: http

X-Forwarded-Host: 172.18.20.98

X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff

X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block

Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline' 'unsafe-eval'; img-src 'self' http://127.4.1.1 http://127.4.2.1

Connection: close

I also made sure bigipconfig.ucs file has been properly saved first and then I sent the request above.

I tried changing content type to application/json and added content range header but it returns "string index out of range". Here is the request/response pair (below)

Request

GET https://172.18.20.98/mgmt/shared/file-transfer/ucs-downloads/bigipconfig.ucs HTTP/1.1

Content-Type: application/json

X-F5-Auth-Token: BS3ZK3KEYLVEXBH2VD4R4RAUGD

Content-Range: 512

Host: 172.18.20.98

Response

HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request

Date: 12 Jul 2019 16:32:16 UTC

Server: com.f5.rest.common.RestRequestSender

X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN

Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=16070400; includeSubDomains

Pragma: no-cache

Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate

Expires: -1

Content-Length: 132

Content-Type: application/json

Content-Range: 512

Local-Ip-From-Httpd: 172.18.20.98

X-Forwarded-Server: localhost.localdomain

X-Forwarded-Proto: http

X-Forwarded-Host: 172.18.20.98

X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff

X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block

Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline' 'unsafe-eval'; img-src 'self' http://127.4.1.1 http://127.4.2.1

Connection: close

{"code":400,"message":"String index out of range: -1","referer":"172.18.20.97","restOperationId":136890,"kind":":resterrorresponse"}

May be you did not specify the Content-Range value properly: It should be

Content-Range: start-end/totalSize

e.g.,

Content-Range: 0-511/512 (for a 512 bytes file)

See also Demystifying iControl REST Part 5: Transferring Files.

Here's a Python script that worked for me, although it took a long time to download the file:

#!/usr/bin/python3
 
from f5.bigip import ManagementRoot
import requests
from requests.packages.urllib3.exceptions import InsecureRequestWarning
requests.packages.urllib3.disable_warnings(InsecureRequestWarning)
 
API_ROOT = ManagementRoot("xx.xx.xx.xx", "admin", "admin")
API_ROOT.shared.file_transfer.ucs_downloads.download_file('config.ucs', '/tmp/on_mypc_config.ucs')
 

This also works:

curl -sk -u admin:admin -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -X POST -d '{"command": "run", "utilCmdArgs": "-c \"tmsh show running-config all-properties\""}' https://<ip_of_bigip>/mgmt/tm/util/bash