F5 File Management

F5 File Management#

Introduction#

This tutorial provides a comprehensive guide to manage files on the F5 via the REST-API.

The F5 REST-API provides different endpoints for file management:

Description

Method

URI (endpoint)

Path on the F5

Download a File

GET

/mgmt/cm/autodeploy/software-image-downloads

/shared/images/

Upload an Image File

POST

/mgmt/cm/autodeploy/software-image-uploads

/shared/images/

Upload a File

POST

/mgmt/shared/file-transfer/uploads

/var/config/rest/downloads/

Download a QKView

GET

/mgmt/cm/autodeploy/qkview-downloads

/var/tmp/qkviews

Download a UCS

GET

/mgmt/shared/file-transfer/ucs-downloads

/var/local/ucs/

Upload ASM Policy

POST

/mgmt/tm/asm/file-transfer/uploads

/var/ts/var/rest/

Download ASM Policy

GET

/mgmt/tm/asm/file-transfer/downloads

/var/ts/var/rest/

The GET method is used for downloading a file and the POST method to upload a file. Transfering files must be done with range headers, because the F5 REST-API restricts the payload size for each request. Restsh handles this transparently for you.

Initial configuration of Restsh#

See First Steps for the initial configuration of Restsh.

Connect#

Connect to the F5 with Restsh:

  • restsh

  • Select your F5

Upload a file#

This example uses the /mgmt/shared/file-transfer/uploads endpoint that uploads files to /var/config/rest/downloads/ on the F5. A download endpoint for this path does not exist.

# Upload test-file.txt
f5.file.upload /mgmt/shared/file-transfer/uploads test-file.txt

This is the same as:

# Upload test-file.txt
f5.file-transfer.upload test-file.txt

Get the file size#

Check if the file was uploaded by determining its size. It exits with a non-zero exit code if the file does not exist.

f5.file.size /var/config/rest/downloads/test-file.txt

Remove a file#

Restsh uses the /mgmt/tm/util/bash to execute a rm command.

# Remove the file
f5.file.remove /var/config/rest/downloads/test-file.txt

Download a file#

If the file size is specified as 0, Restsh attempts to determine the file size from the HTTP response headers. If that fails, the size must be specified.

f5.file.download /mgmt/cm/autodeploy/software-image-uploads test-file2.txt 0 test-file2.txt

Moving files#

Moving a file is done with the general f5.run function that can execute any Bash commands.

f5.run "mv" "/var/config/rest/downloads/test-file.txt" "/shared/images/test-file2.txt"

Summary#

This tutorial has covered the complete lifecycle of file management using Restsh:

Restsh makes it extremely easy to upload and download files to and from the F5 using the REST API.

Used Restsh commands:

  • f5.file.upload: Uploads a file to the F5.

  • f5.file-transfer.upload: Uploads a file to /var/config/rest/downloads

  • f5.file.size: Get the size of a file on the F5.

  • f5.file.remove: Deletes a file from the F5.

  • f5.file.download: Downloads a file from the F5.

  • f5.run: Runs a shell command on the F5.

References#

Discuss#