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Herman2024's avatar
Herman2024
Icon for Cirrus rankCirrus
Nov 21, 2024

Should config via cli rather than gui?

hi, someone advised to better config big-ip via cli rather than gui,  and for HA cluster, should config on standby unit rather than active unit. Are these advices correct? if yes, why need to do so? ...
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  • Paulius's avatar
    Paulius
    Nov 25, 2024

    Herman2024

    1. It is recommended to use the GUI whenever possible. For me, when I make a lot of changes at once I use the CLI because it's faster but if it's just a few changes I will perform them in the GUI.
    2. If you have your HA cluster setup to auto-sync the configuration between devices it doesn't matter if you make the changes on the active or standby unit. If you made the changes on the standby unit you theoretically have a slight delay for the changes to sync to the primary unit.

    Food for thought. A lot of the F5 certificate questions are GUI based so it would be better in the long run to make the changes in the GUI.

Mayur_Sutare's avatar
Mayur_Sutare
Icon for MVP rankMVP
Nov 25, 2024

On the question of cli or gui interface, I would say it depends on every admin. Someone might be more used to wit GUI and someone might also prefer CLI. Personally I started with GUI and then shifted to CLI as a part of my own curiosity initially, then I started preferring only CLI for the requirement of my job responsibilities. In depth Understanding of CLI will be required for automation, scripting jobs on the F5.


If you are already familiar with GUI, I would recommend you to start exploring CLI. That will definitely help you.

 

Regarding your 2nd question, I agree with other folks answers. You need to make changes on ACTIVE unit only so it will get applied / take an effect as per changes done. 

 

Hope it helps!

M