f5networks.f5_modules.bigip_command module – Run TMSH and BASH commands on F5 devices

Note

This module is part of the f5networks.f5_modules collection (version 1.33.0).

You might already have this collection installed if you are using the ansible package. It is not included in ansible-core. To check whether it is installed, run ansible-galaxy collection list.

To install it, use: ansible-galaxy collection install f5networks.f5_modules.

To use it in a playbook, specify: f5networks.f5_modules.bigip_command.

New in f5networks.f5_modules 1.0.0

Synopsis 

Sends a TMSH or BASH command to a BIG-IP node and returns the results read from the device. This module includes an argument that will cause the module to wait for a specific condition before returning or timing out if the condition is not met.
This module is not idempotent, nor will it ever be. It is intended as a stop-gap measure to satisfy automation requirements until such a time as a real module has been developed to configure in the way you need.
If you are using this module, we recommend also filing an issue to have a real module created for your needs.

Parameters 

Parameter	Comments
chdir string	Change into this directory before running the command.
commands any / required	The commands to send to the remote BIG-IP device over the configured provider. The resulting output from the command is returned. If the wait_for argument is provided, the module is not returned until the condition is satisfied or the number of retries has expired. Only `tmsh` commands are supported. If you are piping or adding additional logic that is outside of `tmsh` (such as grep’ing, awk’ing or other shell related logic that are not `tmsh`), this behavior is not supported.
interval integer	Configures the interval in seconds to wait between retries of the command. If the command does not pass the specified conditional, the interval indicates how to long to wait before trying the command again. Default: `1`
match string	The match argument is used in conjunction with the wait_for argument to specify the match policy. Valid values are `all` or `any`. If the value is set to `all`, then all conditionals in the wait_for must be satisfied. If the value is set to `any` then only one of the values must be satisfied. Choices: `"any"` `"all"` ← (default)
provider dictionary added in f5networks.f5_modules 1.0.0	A dict object containing connection details.
auth_provider string	Configures the auth provider for to obtain authentication tokens from the remote device. This option is really used when working with BIG-IQ devices.
no_f5_teem boolean	If `yes`, TEEM telemetry data is not sent to F5. You may omit this option by setting the environment variable `F5_TELEMETRY_OFF`. Previously used variable `F5_TEEM` is deprecated as its name was confusing. Choices: `false` ← (default) `true`
password aliases: pass, pwd string / required	The password for the user account used to connect to the BIG-IP. You may omit this option by setting the environment variable `F5_PASSWORD`.
server string / required	The BIG-IP host. You may omit this option by setting the environment variable `F5_SERVER`.
server_port integer	The BIG-IP server port. You may omit this option by setting the environment variable `F5_SERVER_PORT`. Default: `443`
ssh_keyfile path	Specifies the SSH keyfile to use to authenticate the connection to the remote device. This argument is only used for cli transports. You may omit this option by setting the environment variable `ANSIBLE_NET_SSH_KEYFILE`.
timeout integer	Parameter in effect when `transport` is set to `rest` Specifies the timeout in seconds for communicating with the network device for either connecting or sending commands. If the timeout is exceeded before the operation is completed, the module will error.
transport string	Configures the transport connection to use when connecting to the remote device. Choices: `"cli"` `"rest"` ← (default)
user string / required	The username to connect to the BIG-IP with. This user must have administrative privileges on the device. You may omit this option by setting the environment variable `F5_USER`.
validate_certs boolean	If `no`, SSL certificates are not validated. Use this only on personally controlled sites using self-signed certificates. You may omit this option by setting the environment variable `F5_VALIDATE_CERTS`. Choices: `false` `true` ← (default)
retries integer	Specifies the number of retries a command should be tried before it is considered failed. The command is run on the target device every retry and evaluated against the wait_for conditionals. Default: `10`
wait_for aliases: waitfor list / elements=string	Specifies what to evaluate from the output of the command and what conditionals to apply. This argument will cause the task to wait for a particular conditional to be true before moving forward. If the conditional is not true by the configured retries, the task fails. See the examples.
warn boolean	Whether the module should raise warnings related to command idempotency or not. Note that the F5 Ansible developers specifically leave this on to make you aware that your usage of this module may be better served by official F5 Ansible modules. This module should always be used as a last resort. Choices: `false` `true` ← (default)

Notes 

Note

When running this module in an HA environment via SSH connection and using a role other than admin or root, you may see a Change Pending status, even if you did not make any changes. This is being tracked with ID429869.
When using the bigip_command module with the REST API, there are a number of places regex is used internally to escape characters such as quotation marks. If your TMSH command contains regex characters itself, such as datagroup wildcards *, then a large amount of escape characters may be needed.
When issuing a long running command, you must provide a large enough value for the timeout option in the provider block.
For more information on using Ansible to manage F5 Networks devices see https://www.ansible.com/integrations/networks/f5.
Requires BIG-IP software version >= 12.
To specify timeout when transport is set to cli, use the ANSIBLE_PERSISTENT_COMMAND_TIMEOUT environment variable or specify a command_timeout in the ansible.cfg file, see https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/reference_appendices/config.html#persistent-command-timeout
The F5 modules only manipulate the running configuration of the F5 product. To ensure that BIG-IP specific configuration persists to disk, be sure to include at least one task that uses the f5networks.f5_modules.bigip_config module to save the running configuration. Refer to the module’s documentation for the correct usage of the module to save your running configuration.

Examples 

- name: run show version on remote devices
  bigip_command:
    commands: show sys version
    provider:
      server: lb.mydomain.com
      password: secret
      user: admin
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: sleep for 200 seconds
  bigip_command:
    commands: 'run /util bash -c "sleep 200"'
    provider:
      server: lb.mydomain.com
      password: secret
      user: admin
      timeout: 210
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: run show version and check to see if output contains BIG-IP
  bigip_command:
    commands: show sys version
    wait_for: result[0] contains BIG-IP
    provider:
      server: lb.mydomain.com
      password: secret
      user: admin
  register: result
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: run multiple commands on remote nodes
  bigip_command:
    commands:
      - show sys version
      - list ltm virtual
    provider:
      server: lb.mydomain.com
      password: secret
      user: admin
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: run multiple commands and evaluate the output
  bigip_command:
    commands:
      - show sys version
      - list ltm virtual
    wait_for:
      - result[0] contains BIG-IP
      - result[1] contains my-vs
    provider:
      server: lb.mydomain.com
      password: secret
      user: admin
  register: result
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: tmsh prefixes will automatically be handled
  bigip_command:
    commands:
      - show sys version
      - tmsh list ltm virtual
    provider:
      server: lb.mydomain.com
      password: secret
      user: admin
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Delete all LTM nodes in Partition1, assuming no dependencies exist
  bigip_command:
    commands:
      - delete ltm node all
    chdir: Partition1
    provider:
      server: lb.mydomain.com
      password: secret
      user: admin
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Command that contains wildcard character to be passed to tmsh
  bigip_command:
    commands:
      - modify ltm data-group internal dg_string records add { "my test\\\\\\\*string"  { data "value" }}
    provider:
      server: lb.mydomain.com
      password: secret
      user: admin
  delegate_to: localhost

Return Values 

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key	Description
failed_conditions list / elements=string	The list of conditionals that have failed. Returned: failed Sample: `["...", "..."]`
stdout list / elements=string	The set of responses from the commands. Returned: always Sample: `["...", "..."]`
stdout_lines list / elements=string	The value of stdout split into a list. Returned: always Sample: `[["...", "..."], ["..."], ["..."]]`
warn boolean	Whether or not to raise warnings about modification commands. Returned: changed Sample: `true`

Authors

Tim Rupp (@caphrim007)
Wojciech Wypior (@wojtek0806)

f5networks.f5_modules.bigip_command module – Run TMSH and BASH commands on F5 devices

Synopsis

Parameters

Notes

Examples

Return Values