Interactive iControl with bigsuds

A couple months back we released a new iControl library for python called bigsuds. The introductory article for bigsuds covered some differences/enhancements in syntax between it and pycontrol versions one and two. Last week, I received an update to the bigsuds library (thanks Paul and Garron!) that includes some handy interactive and debug assistance for the ipython environment. This article will walk you through installing ipython, updating bigsuds, and checking out the new features.

Installing iPython

Grab a zip (or clone with git) of the ipython source from github, then install.

unzip ipython-master.zip
cd ipython-master/ipython-master
python setup.py install

Installing bigsuds

Grab a copy of the bigsuds update, then install.

tar xvfz bigsuds-1.0.tar.gz
cd dist/bigsuds-1.0.1
python setup.py install

iPython Interactive Shell

Now that the tools are installed, I can launch the ipython environment from cli or by clicking on the ipython.py icon in my file system.

Now, I can instantiate the BIG-IP, but instead of the default configuration, I'll add a debug mode as shown below

Next, I can enter an interface, such as LocalLB::Rule, and by hitting the tab key after b.LocalLB.Rule, I can get a listing of the methods instead of having to look them up in the API Reference on DevCentral.

Finally, I can select my method and by adding a question mark and hitting return, I can see the method documentation necessary for submitting arguments for the commands.