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Daniel_H
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Dec 20, 2019

SOAP and REST iControl authentication question

I think I already know the answer to this question, but will ask here anyways. Is it possible to authenticate to an F5, say via an iControl REST call and not have to re-authenticate to the same F5 if a SOAP call is then made (or vice versa)? I guess the root of the question is - 'Are iControl REST and SOAP authentication calls essentially independent of one another (i.e., one doesn't know about the authentication status of the other)?

 

You might well ask 'Why bother doing both?' and my answer is that I have a large script that was developed using SOAP calls (long before REST became available). I am in the process of converting over the SOAP calls to REST calls but it will take a fair amount of effort, so it would be really nice to just authenticate once.

 

You might further ask, 'So what if you authenticate more than once, what's the big deal, just have the script authenticate to both SOAP and REST?' The issue is mainly for remote accounts that have dynamically changing passwords (fixed password + changing PIN). This then requires users to enter passwords twice, which of course seems silly from their perspective if they are just accessing one F5.

 

I have read over:

 

https://devcentral.f5.com/s/articles/demystifying-icontrol-rest-part-6-token-based-authentication

 

and have REST basic/token authentication working fine, but I can't seem to make corresponding SOAP calls work without re-authenticating (or vice versa if SOAP calls are made first, then REST calls), but if the REST and SOAP interfaces are completely separate from one another, then that would explain why.

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