For more information regarding the security incident at F5, the actions we are taking to address it, and our ongoing efforts to protect our customers, click here.

Forum Discussion

Florian_Loos_11's avatar
Florian_Loos_11
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Jul 23, 2013

How to update datagroup on a regular basis from external data source

Hello,   we are currently looking into a specfic topic with F5 networks technologies. We would like to implement a filter for the Exchange activesync protocol to allow connection only from "known"...
application delivery
dev
devops
iRules
Kevin_Stewart's avatar
Kevin_Stewart
Icon for Employee rankEmployee
Jul 24, 2013
If I may add, you can also simply import a new file (or the same file after editing) with the following: 


modify sys file data-group DATA.GROUP.NAME source-path file:/config/dev/test.foo

The trick, as Michael states, is getting the external information into usable data group format. Take a look at the following post for some really good insight:

https://devcentral.f5.com/community/group/asg/53/aft/2159165/showtab/groupforums

Also, interestingly, the source-path option above acts like a cURL command, so the path could just as easily be a remote HTTP URI. I agree with Michael that modifying the config every 60 seconds probably isn't the best method, but if you absolutely had to do it, I'd create an external monitor script and apply it to a "phantom pool" - an arbitrary pool of IPs not tied to any virtual server. The pool assignment 1) causes the external script to fire on a schedule (like a cron job), and 2) is saved with the configuration (unlike a cron job). How you choose to get the (properly formatted) data to the BIG-IP (push via SCP or pull via TMSH source-path) is a completely different challenge.