BigIP UCS Backup script; looking for some guidance on design
Greetings, I've began to work on a bash script, intended to be ran locally on each F5 appliance via a cron task. The criteria for this script has been, Saves the UCS /w encryption using {Hostname}-YYYY-MM-DD.ucs naming format. Uploads the generated UCS file to a SFTP server SFTP native commands are a MUST, SCP will not work due to it's reliance on command shell/login. Rollover after X # of saved files in order to prevent storage exhaustion on the target SFTP Server I strongly doubt any form of deduplication will work with a encrypted UCS Sends an email notification if the backup failed I've so far written a script that addresses the first 3 criteria and have been waiting for those to go through their paces in testing before adding in notification logic. The commands and logic being used have gotten more complex, the further I've gotten into the script's development. This has lead to some concerns about whether this is the best approach given the nature of the F5 BigIP systems being a vendor appliance and worry that there's a large possibility commands may stop working correctly after a major x. version update, requiring an overhaul of a fairly complex script. I'm almost wondering if setting up an AWX/Tower host in our environment and then using the f5networks Ansible Module for the majority of the heavy lifting followed by some basic logic for file rotation, would be a better long term approach. Ansible would also be a bit more flexible in that I wouldn't have to hardcore values that diverge between individual hosts into the script itself. It's however not clear if the F5networks ansible module supports SFTP as I only see SCP referenced. https://my.f5.com/manage/s/article/K35454259 Advice and insight is much appreciated! #!/bin/bash # F5 backup script based on https://my.f5.com/manage/s/article/K000138297 # User-configurable Variables UCS_DIR="/var/ucs" REMOTE_USER="svc_f5backup" REMOTE_HOST="myhost.contoso.local" REMOTE_DIR="/data/f5/dev" SSH_KEY="/shared/scripts/f5-backup/mykeys/f5user" ENCRYPTION_PASSPHRASE='' # Blank out the value to not encrypt the UCS backup. LOG_FILE="/var/log/backupscript.log" MAX_FILES=45 # Maximum number of backup files to keep # Dynamic Variables (do not edit) HOSTNAME=$(/bin/hostname) DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d) UCS_FILE="${UCS_DIR}/${HOSTNAME}-${DATE}.ucs" # Start logging echo "$(date +'%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') - Starting backup script." >> ${LOG_FILE} # Save the UCS backup file if [ -n "${ENCRYPTION_PASSPHRASE}" ]; then echo "Running the UCS save operation (encrypted)." >> ${LOG_FILE} tmsh save /sys ucs ${UCS_FILE} passphrase "${ENCRYPTION_PASSPHRASE}" >> ${LOG_FILE} 2>&1 else echo "Running the UCS save operation (not encrypted)." >> ${LOG_FILE} tmsh save /sys ucs ${UCS_FILE} >> ${LOG_FILE} 2>&1 fi # Create a temporary batch file for SFTP commands BATCH_FILE=$(mktemp) echo "cd ${REMOTE_DIR}" > $BATCH_FILE echo "put ${UCS_FILE}" >> $BATCH_FILE echo "bye" >> $BATCH_FILE # Log that the transfer is starting echo "Starting SFTP transfer." >> ${LOG_FILE} # Execute SFTP command and capture the output transfer_command_output=$(sftp -b "$BATCH_FILE" -i "${SSH_KEY}" -oBatchMode=no "${REMOTE_USER}@${REMOTE_HOST}" 2>&1) transfer_status=$? # Extract the "Transferred:" line transfer_summary=$(echo "$transfer_command_output" | grep "^Transferred: sent") if [ $transfer_status -eq 0 ]; then if [ -n "$transfer_summary" ]; then echo "UCS file copied to the SFTP server successfully (remote:${REMOTE_HOST}:${REMOTE_DIR}/${UCS_FILE}). $transfer_summary" >> ${LOG_FILE} else echo "UCS file copied to the SFTP server successfully (remote:${REMOTE_HOST}:${REMOTE_DIR}/${UCS_FILE}). Please check the log for details." >> ${LOG_FILE} fi else echo "$transfer_command_output" >> ${LOG_FILE} echo "UCS SFTP copy operation failed. Please read the log for details." >> ${LOG_FILE} rm -f $BATCH_FILE exit 1 fi # Clean up the temporary batch file rm -f $BATCH_FILE # Rollover backup files if the number exceeds MAX_FILES echo "Checking and maintaining the maximum number of backup files." >> ${LOG_FILE} # Create a list of files to delete sftp -i "${SSH_KEY}" -oBatchMode=no "${REMOTE_USER}@${REMOTE_HOST}" <<EOF > file_list.txt cd ${REMOTE_DIR} ls -1 ${HOSTNAME}-*.ucs bye EOF # Filter out unwanted lines and sort the files alphanumerically grep -v 'sftp>' file_list.txt | grep -v '^cd ' | sort > filtered_file_list.txt # Determine files to delete files_to_delete=$(head -n -${MAX_FILES} filtered_file_list.txt) if [ -n "$files_to_delete" ]; then # Create a temporary batch file for SFTP cleanup commands CLEANUP_BATCH_FILE=$(mktemp) echo "cd ${REMOTE_DIR}" > $CLEANUP_BATCH_FILE for file in $files_to_delete; do echo "Deleting $file" >> ${LOG_FILE} echo "rm $file" >> $CLEANUP_BATCH_FILE done echo "bye" >> $CLEANUP_BATCH_FILE # Execute SFTP cleanup command and log the output cleanup_command_output=$(sftp -b "$CLEANUP_BATCH_FILE" -i "${SSH_KEY}" -oBatchMode=no "${REMOTE_USER}@${REMOTE_HOST}" 2>&1) echo "$cleanup_command_output" >> ${LOG_FILE} # Clean up the temporary batch file rm -f $CLEANUP_BATCH_FILE else echo "No files to delete. Total files within limit." >> ${LOG_FILE} fi # Clean up the file lists rm -f file_list.txt filtered_file_list.txt # Delete the local copy of the UCS archive tmsh delete /sys ucs ${UCS_FILE} >> ${LOG_FILE} 2>&1 echo "$(date +'%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') - Backup script completed." >> ${LOG_FILE}
Crontab entry LTM Version 15.x not running
Hi @all, I updated out LTM BIG-IP VE from Ver. 13.x to 15.x. But now my cron entry for backup the Certs and ucs files are not running anymore. In Ver. 13 I had a file located under /etc/cron.d/f5backup with the following content: SHELL=/bin/bash PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin MAILTO=test@abc.de HOME=/var/tmp 2 0 * * * root /bin/bash /root/create_backup_bigip_v11.sh 1>/var/tmp/create_backup.log 2>&1 But on Ver. 15.x the cronjob is not running Also an entry with crontab -e is not working 2 0 * * * /root/create_backup_bigip_v11.sh Someone an idea?Just upgraded to 12.1 and getting many 'cron' emails?
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Adding Cron Jobs to the F5 - Is it OK? or should it be avoided?
Hi All, I have created a backup script that would reside on the F5 device, copy all ASM policies to XML and then push them to a remote fileshare. I have planned to have this script run via a cron job on the F5 once per month. When attempting to get approval from the business to implement this on the production devices, concern was raised around setting a cron job on the F5s. I personally did not feel that this would be an issue. Can anyone shed some light on this issue? Are others setting Cron jobs on the F5 or avoiding doing so for any reason in particular. If I want to schedule a script to run every month, is there a better alternative that I could use on the F5? Thank you.