02-Mar-2023 13:56
I just started looking into F5 REST APIs. I've been told that iControl will be deprecated in favor of AS3. But, some reading about AS3 makes it look like it is used to configure F5 devices. I didn't find a way to just query device properties, for example, using the iControl /mgmt/tm/cm/device URI. Does AS3 provide this?
Solved! Go to Solution.
07-Mar-2023 19:15 - edited 07-Mar-2023 19:15
Hey @cbarlock - let me help you answer your question about AS3 vs Rest, i believe that the aim is more of AS3 should be considered the gold standard to delivering applications, for things like what you are talking about (querying and gathering data) to fill in blanks i think those will be around for a very long time, either that or will be adapated to something that will be more in-line with our Automation toolchain.
The automation toolchains are really aimed at deploying configurations in their endstate so in theory you wouldnt need to query an object as it would be configured to however the templates are designed, and any modifications would be done to the templates never within the GUI or CLI so the templates become the single source of truth.
There are 3 major parts of our Automation Tool Chain as per (https://www.f5.com/products/automation-and-orchestration). Ill try to explain to you how i define them.
Hopefully this helps answer your questions (sorry if long winded), and if not please let me know
02-Mar-2023 14:25
Hi @cbarlock - did you see this AS3 Best Practice article?
02-Mar-2023 18:37
Thank you, no. I will read it!
03-Mar-2023 10:03
That best practices article didn't address my question.
07-Mar-2023 08:10
OK, I'll ask one of my colleagues to swing by this thread.
03-Mar-2023 10:50
In the AS3 documentation, it says:
If you attempt to use GET, but you do not currently have any AS3-produced configuration on the target device, the system responds with a 204 HTTP status (“The server successfully processed the request and is not returning any content”).
This makes me think that you can't use AS3 to query F5 device configuration (say virtual servers or network config) like you can with iControl REST.
07-Mar-2023 19:15 - edited 07-Mar-2023 19:15
Hey @cbarlock - let me help you answer your question about AS3 vs Rest, i believe that the aim is more of AS3 should be considered the gold standard to delivering applications, for things like what you are talking about (querying and gathering data) to fill in blanks i think those will be around for a very long time, either that or will be adapated to something that will be more in-line with our Automation toolchain.
The automation toolchains are really aimed at deploying configurations in their endstate so in theory you wouldnt need to query an object as it would be configured to however the templates are designed, and any modifications would be done to the templates never within the GUI or CLI so the templates become the single source of truth.
There are 3 major parts of our Automation Tool Chain as per (https://www.f5.com/products/automation-and-orchestration). Ill try to explain to you how i define them.
Hopefully this helps answer your questions (sorry if long winded), and if not please let me know
08-Mar-2023 08:57 - edited 08-Mar-2023 08:59
Hey @Matt_Mabis - apologies, your reply somehow got caught up in our automated spam filter. I've released it now, so everyone can see it!
@cbarlock - if this answered your question, can you please hit the Accept as Solution button on Matt's post so that future users can easily find the answer they're looking for?
09-Mar-2023 05:51
Thank you Matt! Very thorough explanation.