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Arie_90212's avatar
Arie_90212
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Aug 21, 2018

/stats returning JSON nested objects instead of array?

I noticed that requesting a list of virtuals returns a JSON array, while the stats for the same collection returns nested objects.

Is this intentional?

https://hostname/mgmt/tm/ltm/virtual             << returns JSON array

https://hostname/mgmt/tm/ltm/virtual/stats       << returns JSON nested objects
`


Details (tweaked to protect the innocent):


`https://hostname/mgmt/tm/ltm/virtual?$select=destination,name

{
    "kind": "tm:ltm:virtual:virtualcollectionstate",
    "selfLink": "https://localhost/mgmt/tm/ltm/virtual?$select=destination%2Cname&ver=12.1.2",
    "items": [
        {
            "name": "vs_vlan1",
            "destination": "/Common/10.15.15.0:0"
        },
        {
            "name": "vs_vlan2",
            "destination": "/Common/any:0"
        }
    ]
}

The above output stores the virtuals (and its details) in an array. However, 

/stats
changes that to nested objects:

https://hostname/mgmt/tm/ltm/virtual/stats?$select=destination,tmName

{
    "kind": "tm:ltm:virtual:virtualcollectionstats",
    "selfLink": "https://localhost/mgmt/tm/ltm/virtual/stats?$select=destination%2Cname%2CtmName&ver=12.1.2",
    "entries": {
        "https://localhost/mgmt/tm/ltm/virtual/~Common~vs_vlan1/stats": {
            "nestedStats": {
                "entries": {
                    "destination": {
                        "description": "10.15.15.0:any"
                    },
                    "tmName": {
                        "description": "/Common/vs_vlan1"
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "https://localhost/mgmt/tm/ltm/virtual/~Common~vs_vlan2/stats": {
            "nestedStats": {
                "entries": {
                    "destination": {
                        "description": "any:any"
                    },
                    "tmName": {
                        "description": "/Common/vs_vlan2"
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
BIG-IP
devops
iControlREST
json parsing
Super-NetOps

3 Replies

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  • Hamish's avatar
    Hamish
    Icon for Cirrocumulus rankCirrocumulus
    Aug 21, 2018

    Examples are always helpful for when people won't have immediate access to a BigIP to verify...

     

  • Satoshi_Toyosa1's avatar
    Satoshi_Toyosa1
    Icon for Employee rankEmployee
    Aug 21, 2018

    The endpoint without 

    stats
    is equivalent to 
    tmsh list
    : it dumps the configuration information. The endpoint with 
    stats
    is 
    tmsh show
    and shows the stat information. They are different commands hence different outputs.

    Please refer to pp. 35-38 of iControl REST User Guide Version 13.1 for more information on the statistical output. For those who would like to see example outputs, see iControl REST Cookbook - Virtual Server (ltm virtual).

    If you are asking why 

    /mgmt/tm/ltm/virtual
    returns {"items":[vs1object, vs2object, ...]} while 
    /mgmt/tm/ltm/virtual/stats
    returns {"entries":{vs1statEndpoint: {statsObject1}, vs2statEndpoint:{statsObject2}, ....}, then I imagine that's just an implementation decision, most likely due to the differences between outputs from list/show tmsh commands.

  • Hamish's avatar
    Hamish
    Icon for Cirrocumulus rankCirrocumulus
    Aug 22, 2018

    That's not what I would call 'nested objects'. That's a hash with the name of the object used as a key. There's nothing inherently more difficult in passing through a hash, and it has the advantage that you can access each object directly (by key) rather than having to search from one end o the array to the other.

     

    I thought you mean it was somehow corrupted and one object was nested inside the previous one. But it looks fine to me.

     

    If you think about it, it makes sense... When grabbing the list of virtual you're probably going to run through them from one to the next anyway, because at the end of the day the only data is its name. But when accessing stats it's nicer to be able to directly grab the object you're interested in rather than having to run through the array and then work out where the data is for the object you're most interested in (Obviously if you wanted just one object you'd not have to worry about that)

     

    As a programmer I think it makes far more sense the way they produce the data now.