import f5!

We are super excited to announce a preview of the F5 SDK, a set of client tools which facilitate consuming some of our popular APIs/Services, and currently consists of the following:

f5-sdk-python - a new python client library
f5-cli - a remote CLI that is built-off the f5-sdk-python

Getting existential, as the old saying goes, the most valuable commodity in the world is time. Our short time here on earth is finite, the average lifespan is only around 70-71 years (according to Wikipedia), and if we’re not doing everything we can to try to save you every sliver of time possible, we’re not doing one of our fiduciary duties as a technology company. As software developers know, code is the ultimate embodiment of saving time (after all, a “for loop” is nothing but a modern marvel that repeats something dutifully to save time). So, as a convenience to developers and system integrators, vendors / platforms provide Software Development Kits (SDKs) to help them save even more time on that last mile.

Developers/Integrators also hate having to re-invent the wheel (which often translates to code “not related” to their business logic) and look to leverage something that already exists. In hardware, you may leverage drivers. In software, you import libraries/modules. In this case, these SDK client libraries provide objects in their own language to help abstract you from low level implementation details like having to know the service’s exact URLs, authentication mechanisms, transport required (ex. REST, SOAP, GRPC), file download/uploads, etc. and let you focus on your business logic. Here at F5, we rely on SDKs like the Broadcom SDK, Octeon SDK, Intel DPDK (for hardware), Cloud SDKs (for software), etc. and the age-old value of offering an SDK hasn’t gone anywhere. SDKs are getting released and making headlines every day. ex. https://www.engadget.com/2020/01/24/boston-dynamics-robotic-dog-spot-sdk/

We’ve actually had an unofficial SDK for a while with a project called the f5-common-python. It was a “common” library for the core underlying component in one our integrations (LBaaS driver for Openstack) but, when looking at it from a more current end-user’s perspective, there were some significant enough changes we wanted to implement that mandated a fresh start. Nevertheless, it gathered a fair amount of traction and the value of a generic reusable client library was a great pattern we wanted to officially expand upon.

And now what’s this CLI? I thought it was all about the API now and clients didn't matter?

Yes, the main value is obviously in the API itself since that is what scales and where you deliver your main value proposition. However, there is still a client user experience (UX) to your APIs and doing everything you can to optimize / enhance the overall client experience is key to firing on all cylinders. SDKs/CLIs are like the client browser UX to your service … but for programmatic access and automation.

From articles like below, you can see some of the traditional values of having a CLI component.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/good-news-for-developers-the-cli-is-back/
"CLI is arguably better for ad hoc tasks or quick exploratory operations since it is more human-readable." Source: https://nordicapis.com/the-return-of-the-cli-clis-being-used-by-api-related-companies/

The familiar CLI UX is a common entry point for everyone, whether it is developers testing/exploring your API or network/system admins automating common tasks.

And don’t you already have a CLI called TMSH?

Well, this is a little different. Everyone today knows how useful *remote* CLIs like AWS’s aws-cli, Azure’s az, Google's gcloud, Openstack’s osc, Kubernete’s kubectl, etc. are in consuming and developing against a service or platform. Instead of SSH’ing to a single device, remote CLIs use transports/protocols like HTTP or GRPC to talk to a service’s remote APIs.

The f5-cli, inspired by popular public cloud shells (which are all built on python SDKs) will focus on providing the same ease and convenience to some our most popular APIs/Services and aims to be demand/use case driven (high usage APIs vs. exposing the entire portfolio of APIs).

For example, the Automation Tool Chain APIs. For some of you that may have not heard about them yet, those are some of the powerful declarative APIs that allow you to provision entire configurations in a single API call / JSON payload.

Application Services 3 (AS3) = Virtual Services
Declarative Onboarding (DO) = System related config like licensing, provisioning, networking, clustering, etc.
Telemetry Streaming (TS) – Analytics, Logging

That would normally require 10s to 100s of imperative API calls. As with any API(s), however, there is some amount of overhead (authentication, async transaction handling, best practices, etc.) in consuming them that can be optimized and captured via client libraries.

Probably the most common use case: "I want to create a Virtual Service" (using AS3).

Putting the CLI in debug, you can see some of the low level details the SDK is handling:

Managing Authentication (dependencies on other APIs)
Managing Tasks for Async Operations
Retry Attempt logic
Even convenience functions like installing the required extension package (an RPM) if not already installed

> export F5_SDK_LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG
> f5 bigip extension service create --component as3 --install-component --declaration as3.json
 
 
user1@desktop: f5-cli $ f5 bigip extension service create --component as3 --declaration as3.json --install-component

2020-03-10 00:17:49,779 - f5sdk.bigip.mgmt_client - DEBUG: Performing ready check using port 8443
2020-03-10 00:17:49,810 - f5sdk.bigip.mgmt_client - DEBUG: Logging in using user + password
2020-03-10 00:17:49,810 - f5sdk.bigip.mgmt_client - DEBUG: Getting authentication token
2020-03-10 00:17:49,814 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: POST /mgmt/shared/authn/login
2020-03-10 00:17:50,009 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 200 OK
2020-03-10 00:17:50,010 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: PATCH /mgmt/shared/authz/tokens/EEPEH4IXVKX7TVP27NECH76VQJ
2020-03-10 00:17:50,131 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 200 OK
2020-03-10 00:17:50,134 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: POST /mgmt/shared/iapp/package-management-tasks
2020-03-10 00:17:50,252 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 202 Accepted
2020-03-10 00:17:50,253 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: GET /mgmt/shared/iapp/package-management-tasks/11fc9258-a2c2-495b-8687-2e427fd64091
2020-03-10 00:17:50,363 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 200 OK
2020-03-10 00:17:59,798 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: POST /mgmt/shared/file-transfer/uploads/f5-appsvcs-3.17.1-1.noarch.rpm
2020-03-10 00:18:01,605 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 200 OK
2020-03-10 00:18:01,608 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: POST /mgmt/shared/file-transfer/uploads/f5-appsvcs-3.17.1-1.noarch.rpm
2020-03-10 00:18:03,814 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 200 OK
2020-03-10 00:18:03,815 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: POST /mgmt/shared/file-transfer/uploads/f5-appsvcs-3.17.1-1.noarch.rpm
2020-03-10 00:18:05,678 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 200 OK
2020-03-10 00:18:05,680 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: POST /mgmt/shared/file-transfer/uploads/f5-appsvcs-3.17.1-1.noarch.rpm
2020-03-10 00:18:07,905 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 200 OK
2020-03-10 00:18:07,908 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: POST /mgmt/shared/file-transfer/uploads/f5-appsvcs-3.17.1-1.noarch.rpm
2020-03-10 00:18:09,642 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 200 OK
2020-03-10 00:18:09,644 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: POST /mgmt/shared/file-transfer/uploads/f5-appsvcs-3.17.1-1.noarch.rpm
2020-03-10 00:18:11,707 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 200 OK
2020-03-10 00:18:11,709 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: POST /mgmt/shared/file-transfer/uploads/f5-appsvcs-3.17.1-1.noarch.rpm
2020-03-10 00:18:13,915 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 200 OK
2020-03-10 00:18:13,918 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: POST /mgmt/shared/file-transfer/uploads/f5-appsvcs-3.17.1-1.noarch.rpm
2020-03-10 00:18:16,050 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 200 OK
2020-03-10 00:18:16,052 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: POST /mgmt/shared/file-transfer/uploads/f5-appsvcs-3.17.1-1.noarch.rpm
2020-03-10 00:18:18,042 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 200 OK
2020-03-10 00:18:18,044 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: POST /mgmt/shared/file-transfer/uploads/f5-appsvcs-3.17.1-1.noarch.rpm
2020-03-10 00:18:20,623 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 200 OK
2020-03-10 00:18:20,625 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: POST /mgmt/shared/file-transfer/uploads/f5-appsvcs-3.17.1-1.noarch.rpm
2020-03-10 00:18:22,823 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 200 OK
2020-03-10 00:18:22,826 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: POST /mgmt/shared/file-transfer/uploads/f5-appsvcs-3.17.1-1.noarch.rpm
2020-03-10 00:18:24,864 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 200 OK
2020-03-10 00:18:24,866 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: POST /mgmt/shared/file-transfer/uploads/f5-appsvcs-3.17.1-1.noarch.rpm
2020-03-10 00:18:26,624 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 200 OK
2020-03-10 00:18:26,625 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: POST /mgmt/shared/file-transfer/uploads/f5-appsvcs-3.17.1-1.noarch.rpm
2020-03-10 00:18:28,922 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 200 OK
2020-03-10 00:18:28,924 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: POST /mgmt/shared/file-transfer/uploads/f5-appsvcs-3.17.1-1.noarch.rpm
2020-03-10 00:18:31,068 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 200 OK
2020-03-10 00:18:31,070 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: POST /mgmt/shared/file-transfer/uploads/f5-appsvcs-3.17.1-1.noarch.rpm
2020-03-10 00:18:31,503 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 200 OK
2020-03-10 00:18:31,508 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: POST /mgmt/shared/iapp/package-management-tasks
2020-03-10 00:18:32,618 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 202 Accepted
2020-03-10 00:18:32,618 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: GET /mgmt/shared/iapp/package-management-tasks/a7c839c3-b340-4497-a520-437a237aef30
2020-03-10 00:18:32,727 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 200 OK
2020-03-10 00:18:33,733 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: GET /mgmt/shared/iapp/package-management-tasks/a7c839c3-b340-4497-a520-437a237aef30
2020-03-10 00:18:33,865 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 200 OK
2020-03-10 00:18:33,866 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: GET /mgmt/shared/appsvcs/declare
2020-03-10 00:18:37,066 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: GET /mgmt/shared/appsvcs/declare
2020-03-10 00:18:37,877 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: POST /mgmt/shared/iapp/package-management-tasks
2020-03-10 00:18:37,998 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 202 Accepted
2020-03-10 00:18:37,999 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: GET /mgmt/shared/iapp/package-management-tasks/093dfa5a-eb52-4002-a3d8-88d3edf4ad71
2020-03-10 00:18:38,116 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 200 OK
2020-03-10 00:18:38,125 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: Making HTTP request: POST /mgmt/shared/appsvcs/declare
2020-03-10 00:18:56,120 - f5sdk.utils.http_utils - DEBUG: HTTP response: 200 OK
{
   "declaration": {
       "Sample_app_sec_Tenant": {
           "HTTPS_Service": {
               "Pool1": {
                   "class": "Pool",
                   "members": [
                       {
                           "serverAddresses": [
                               "10.0.1.11"
                           ],
                           "servicePort": 80
                       }
                   ],
                   "monitors": [
                       "http"
                   ]
               },
               "WAFPolicy": {
                   "class": "WAF_Policy",
                   "ignoreChanges": true,
                   "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/f5devcentral/f5-asm-policy-templates/master/owasp_ready_template/owasp-no-auto-tune-v1.1.xml"
               },
               "class": "Application",
               "serviceMain": {
                   "class": "Service_HTTPS",
                   "policyWAF": {
                       "use": "WAFPolicy"
                   },
                   "pool": "Pool1",
                   "redirect80": false,
                   "serverTLS": {
                       "bigip": "/Common/clientssl"
                   },
                   "snat": "auto",
                   "virtualAddresses": [
                       "0.0.0.0"
                   ]
               },
               "template": "https"
           },
           "class": "Tenant"
       },
       "class": "ADC",
       "controls": {
           "archiveTimestamp": "2020-03-10T00:18:55.759Z"
       },
       "id": "autogen_3a78cbd8-7aa4-4fb6-8db9-3e458f583513",
       "label": "ASM_VS1",
       "remark": "ASM_VS1",
       "schemaVersion": "3.0.0",
       "updateMode": "selective"
   },
   "results": [
       {
           "code": 200,
           "host": "localhost",
           "lineCount": 28,
           "message": "success",
           "runTime": 16658,
           "tenant": "Sample_app_sec_Tenant"
       }
   ]
}

That’s actually quite a bit of work offloaded to accelerate getting you up and going on an API. As our portfolio expands to offer more and more products and services, this will hopefully save our users some extra time.

DISCLAIMER: it’s in public preview and we have many enhancements already planned

F5 SDK