Tuesday, July 29, 2008

BIG-IP v4 - Common bigstart commands

The bigstart is the command used for controlling the F5 BIGIP daemons/services. For Windows users, this is synonymous to Control Panel -> Admin Tools -> Services. Here is BIG-IP v4.x bigstart command syntax dissected:


SYNTAX

bigstart [-d] action [id]

  • -d
    Lists the execution order of the services for the specified action command.

  • action
    Performs whatever action is specified. Values are startup, shutdown, active, standby, status, reinit and restart.

  • id
    The specific service on which the specified action would be acted upon. That is, for example, bigstart shutdown named will shutdown the service named.


ACTIONS
  • startup
    The target program commences. Bigstart startup is called from /etc/rc before rc.local is executed.

  • shutdown
    The target program should shut down gracefully.

  • active
    The target program takes any action necessary whenits host BIG-IP becomes the active unit. Bigstart active is called when the BIG-IP becomes the active
    BIG-IP.

  • standby
    The target program takes any action necessary when its host BIG-IP becomes the standby unit.

  • reinit
    The target program initializes itself from its configuration data.

  • restart
    The target program is to be restarted. Typically this means the program will be stopped then started.

  • status
    The target program responds by providing some status information.




SCRIPT AND ACTION DIRECTORIES

The scripts for each of the services are in the /etc/bigstart/scripts directory.

Each of the actions have their own individual action directories in /etc/bigstart/action. Files in the action directories are actually symbolic links pointing to the actual scripts in the /etc/bigstart/scripts directory.


SYMBOLIC LINK FORMAT

Each symbolic link in the action directories follow this naming convention:

SNNString

NN - two digit number that determines the execution order of the services.

String - name of the service

The contents of, say, /etc/bigstart/startup will correspond to the output of the command bigstart -d startup.


CASE STUDY: PREVENT A SERVICE FROM RUNNING ON STARTUP

Scenario: In our setup, the name service named of the BIG-IP is not being used. Hence, it was decided to be not started during device startup.

Procedure:
  1. Verify the status of the named service:

    bigip:# bigstart status named
    bigstart: status named
    status named: (pid=1130) is running
    bigip:#


  2. Shutdown the service:

    bigip:# bigstart shutdown named
    bigip:#


  3. Remove the named symbolic link in the startup action directory:

    bigip:# cd /etc/bigstart/startup
    bigip:/etc/bigstart/startup# ls *named*
    S10named
    bigip:/etc/bigstart/startup# rm S10named
    remove S10named? y
    bigip:/etc/bigstart/startup#


Verification
  • Verify that the service is not in the execution order for the startup action.

    bigip:# bigstart -d startup
    ...
    <output omitted>
    ...


  • Verify status of the current running status of the service:

    bigip:# bigstart status named
    bigstart: status named
    status named: is not running
    bigip:#



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