iApps iApps is the name for a collection of features available from TMOS v11 onwards; a so-called ‘framework’ for deploying and managing application delivery services and their related BIG-IP configuration. This is done using custom templates and question-driven GUI based forms to automate complex tasks and/or processes. The templates (which control the possible configurations) are created using the tmsh scripting language. The related forms are created using a simple scripting language called Application Presentation Language (APL) and the overall iApp output (once a user completes the relevant forms) is the necessary configuration and objects. This ‘package’ can then be managed and administered (or even removed) as a whole to reduce administration overhead. iApps can be used across a number of modules including APM, LTM and WAM. As with any template derived automated configuration and process, particularly with complex configurations, iApps can help to reduce configuration time and errors and increase accuracy. iApps can also be used in tandem with other features such as User Roles and iRules to provide fine grained configuration control across administrative groups. Equally, iApps can be very complex.
iControl iControl is an open SOAP (XML) web services and REST enabled API (and related SDK) that provides control of the configuration of an F5 BIG-IP as well as access to configuration object status and statistics. These interfaces are accessed using Web Services Description Language (WSDL) version 1.1 for SOAP and HTTP for REST. The iControl API is only accessible using SSL/TLS via a device’s dedicated management interface and uses HTTP basic authentication (via WWW-Authentication HTTP headers) using the same authentication method(s) configured for accessing the device’s GUI or CLI via SSH. Interestingly, the iControl SOAP API cannot be specifically disabled as it is a server-side module of the administrative web server (which serves the management GUI). Additionally as iControl is single threaded, performance, by today’s standards, may be poor. The benefits of iControl include; ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
Standards based integration into existing extensible management, monitoring, workflow and application systems Automated provisioning and de-provisioning of servers and applications Automation and configuration management and efficiency Service Orientated Architecture (SOA) integration Software Defined Networking (SDN) integration
Some examples of products where iControl is used include; VMware vCenter integration, Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) with the F5 Management Pack, the F5 iRules Editor and F5 Enterprise Manager.
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