Python code using Parallel-SSH library to connect to F5 BigIP

[Eljay]

Hi,
I'm trying to use Parallel-SSH (Python library) to connect to F5 BigIP.

s = SSHClient(<host>,user=<username>, password=<password>, timeout=5, num_retries=1)

res = s.run_command("uname")

for line in res.stdout:

    print(line)

This simple code works perfectly toward a Red Hat server, but it fails toward F5 BigIP:

Here is the error message:
pssh.exceptions.AuthenticationError: ('Authentication error while connecting to %s:%s - %s - retries %s/%s', '<IP address>, 22, AuthenticationError(), 1, 1)

Has anyone gotten this to work with the Parallel-SSH library?
I have already tested Paramiko and that works, but I want to use Parallel-SSH.

[Leslie_Hubertus]

This seems like a question @JRahm may be able to answer!

[JRahm]

For anyone else trying to get this to work on Mac...first:

1. brew install cmake
2. (In a venv) pip install ssh2-python
3. (In a venv) pip install parallel-ssh

Will post back on details if I can get it talking to BIG-IP. Just took a minute to get through the pip errors for this module.

UPDATE: Got it working. Works with password or key file if you copied your ssh keys to BIG-IP.

from pssh.clients import ParallelSSHClient

hosts = ['ltm1.test.local', 'ltm2.test.local']
#client = ParallelSSHClient(hosts, user='root', password='default')
client = ParallelSSHClient(hosts, user='root', pkey='/Users/justme/.ssh/id_rsa')
cmd = 'tmsh list ltm pool'

output = client.run_command(cmd)
for host_out in output:
    for line in host_out.stdout:
        print(line)

### One output for brevity ###
/Users/justme/PycharmProjects/playground/venv/bin/python /Users/justme/PycharmProjects/playground/sshtest.py 
ltm pool nginx-pool {
    members {
        172.16.102.5:http {
            address 172.16.102.5
            session monitor-enabled
            state up
        }
    }
    monitor http
}

Process finished with exit code 0

[Eljay]

Thanks, @JRahm. Now I see that I wasn't crystal clear, I was using the single host client in Parallel-SSH. See examples for both single and multi host here: https://pypi.org/project/parallel-ssh/ 

I can adapt my code to this solution as well. But I still wonder if it's a problem with the single host client in the Parallel-SSH library.

Here's an example that works in Paramiko:

from  paramiko.client import SSHClient

p = SSHClient()
p.load_system_host_keys()
p.connect('<IP>', username=<username>, password=<password>)
stdin, stdout, stderr = p.exec_command('uname')
print(stdout.read().decode())

And here's the code using single host client in Parallel-SSH that fails:

import pssh.exceptions
from pssh.clients import SSHClient

s = SSHClient('<IP>',user=<username>, password=<password>, timeout=5, num_retries=1)
res = s.run_command("uname")
print(res)
for line in res.stdout:
    print(line)

[JRahm]

Hi @Eljay ... This also works just fine for me (both with key or password):

from pssh.clients import SSHClient

host = 'ltm15.test.local'
s = SSHClient(host, user='root', password='default')
# s = SSHClient(host, user='root', pkey='/Users/justme/.ssh/id_rsa')
cmd = 'tmsh list ltm pool'

res = s.run_command(cmd)
print(res)
for line in res.stdout:
    print(line)

Output:

/Users/justme/PycharmProjects/playground/venv/bin/python /Users/justme/PycharmProjects/playground/sshtest.py 
	host=ltm15.test.local
	alias=None
	exit_code=None
	channel=<ssh2.channel.Channel object at 0x107c46ef0>
	exception=None
	encoding=utf-8
	read_timeout=None
ltm pool nginx-pool {
    members {
        172.16.102.5:http {
            address 172.16.102.5
            session monitor-enabled
            state up
        }
    }
    monitor http
}

Process finished with exit code 0

My versions:

• python: 3.11.2
• ssh-python: 1.0.0
• ssh2-python: 1.0.0
• parallel-ssh: 2.12.0
• BIG-IP: 15.1.8.1

[Eljay]

Thanks, @JRahm. There's hardly any difference between your and my code.
My Python version is 3.9, the libraries are the same as yours and I have tested toward BigIP v151.5.1, v15.1.6 (Eng hotfix) and v16.1.x. Still the same problem. I'll try to upgrade Python and reinstall the libraries.

[JRahm]

any luck? Wondering if you're using root or an alternative account?

[Eljay]

No, I haven't got this working yet. I'll make a workaround with Paramiko because I know that works. I will finish this project first, and try again Parallell-SSH later.

I use the root user. It works with Paramiko, but fails with Paralllell-SSH.