PowerShell module for the F5 LTM REST API

You're welcome, Joshua. I'm very glad you found it useful.

Would you please update the document to include the correct process for establishing the connection? Powershell doesn't use parentheses when passing parameters. While the comments section is helpful, a newbie (like myself) would have thought the document as displayed was correct.

`Function F5-Connect {

if ( (Get-Module | Where-Object { $_.Name -eq "F5-LTM"}) -eq $null ) {

    Write-error "'F5-LTM' is not installed on this computer."
    Exit

} else {

     Connect to the F5 Load Balancer using the predefined credentials for node management

    $myhost = 'myf5.mycompany.com'
    $myuser = 'f5adminusername'
    $mysecpass = ConvertTo-SecureString "f5adminpassword" -AsPlainText -Force
    $mycreds = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential $myuser, $mysecpass
    $SessionToken = New-F5Session -LTMName $myhost -LTMCredentials $mycreds -Passthrough
}

Return $SessionToken

} `

Hi, I'd be happy to correct whatever is currently incorrect, but I'm not clear on the function call with parentheses that you're referring to. Could you please include the line with the params? Are you referring to something on devcentral.com or the github repo?

Thanks, Joel

The code snippet at the top of this page:

$mycreds = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential ("username", $secpasswd)

Should be:

$mycreds = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential "username", $secpasswd

Another gotcha I found with the commands was capturing the Pool membership statistics. In a comment on this page, someone posted this solution:

Get-Pool -F5Session $F5Session | Select-Object -ExpandProperty fullPath;

The problem I had was determining what "fullPath" was. I wanted to see the number of server connections for a given node. I stumbled onto a solution using

-ExpandProperty *

$PoolConnections = Get-PoolMemberStats -F5Session $F5Session -PoolName $Poolname -Partition $PoolPartition -Address $IPAddress | Select -ExpandProperty * | % { $_.nestedStats.entries.'serverside.curConns'.value }

Thanks for clarifying re: the parentheses in the New-Object call. The code works as is, but it is more in line with PowerShell standards to not include the parentheses, so I'll remove them.

Re: the call to get pool member connections, if you call the deprecated function Get-CurrentConnectionCount, you'll get a message that it's recommended to use:

Get-PoolMemberStats | Select-Object -ExpandProperty 'serverside.curConns'

which is similar to your method. However, this may no longer work as of v12.1, so I have an open issue in the GitHub project to look into this.

Cheers, Joel

what is the usage for new-virtualserver? I've tried using it like this: New-VirtualServer -name "test" -DestinationIP 192.168.15.98 -DestinationPort 30784 -DefaultPool "testpool"

I get this error:

New-VirtualServer : Parameter set cannot be resolved using the specified named parameters.

Hi, Alvin. Thanks for catching this. The issue was that, when neither VlanEnabled or VlanDisabled were specified, the cmdlet didn't know how to process. I've fixed that and committed it to the github repo (https://github.com/joel74/POSH-LTM-Rest/commit/cdb7f03ca90f87af739b61d8ba29294abc3f18e6), but I'm not seeing the commit show up yet.

One thing to note, you'll need to include the ipProtocol parameter and a value for that, as that's a mandatory param. In my testing with the committed change, this worked for me:

new-virtualserver -name "test" -DestinationIP "192.168.15.98" -DestinationPort "30784" -DefaultPool "TEST_POOL" -ipProtocol tcp

PS C:\Windows\system32> $F5Session = New-F5session -LTMName "ServerNameHere" -LTMCredentials $mycreds -PassThrough; Get-Pool -F5Session $F5Session | Select-Object -ExpandProperty fullPath; ConvertFrom-Json : Cannot bind argument to parameter 'InputObject' because it is null. At C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\F5-LTM\Public\Invoke-RestMethodOverride.ps1:64 char:50 + $message = $_.ErrorDetails.Message | ConvertFrom-json | Select-Objec ... + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : InvalidData: (:) [ConvertFrom-Json], ParameterBindingValidationException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentValidationErrorNullNotAllowed,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.ConvertFromJsonCommand

Invoke-RestMethodOverride : " : At C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\F5-LTM\Public\New-F5Session.ps1:27 char:15 + $Result = Invoke-RestMethodOverride -Method POST -Uri $AuthURL -Body $JSONBo ... + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [Write-Error], WriteErrorException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.WriteErrorException,Invoke-RestMethodOverride

ConvertFrom-Json : Cannot bind argument to parameter 'InputObject' because it is null. At C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\F5-LTM\Public\Invoke-RestMethodOverride.ps1:64 char:50 + $message = $_.ErrorDetails.Message | ConvertFrom-json | Select-Objec ... + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : InvalidData: (:) [ConvertFrom-Json], ParameterBindingValidationException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentValidationErrorNullNotAllowed,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.ConvertFromJsonCommand

Invoke-RestMethodOverride : " : At C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\F5-LTM\Public\Get-Pool.ps1:32 char:21 + $JSON = Invoke-RestMethodOverride -Method Get -Uri $URI -WebSession ... + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [Write-Error], WriteErrorException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.WriteErrorException,Invoke-RestMethodOverride

This happens when the LTM device can't be found. I could add a check to test that the name / IP entered for the LTM is a reachable device (i.e. responds to a ping) but it's still up to the user to use the correct LTM name.