Feedback request: pyControl v11 session support

Hi everyone: if you use pycontrol, I'd like your feedback on how you'd like session support implemented. As of right now I'm thinking about keeping it as simple as possible and exposing the internals so you can modify things if you want.

For example, it seems sensible to add a keyword arg to the BIGIP class constructor so you can do something like: sessions=True, which will send the pycontrol BIGIP class into "v11 mode" and fetch the session ID for you and stuff it into the request headers automatically for you on subsequent calls.

Questions:

1) Would this work for you? If not, is there a better alternative that I am missing?

2) How should I handle situations where you load multiple WSDLs into the pycontrol BIGIP class? I ask because each actual client object is unique per WSDL, so theoretically you could have a unique session ID for each.

For now, I'm thinking of simply setting that header to the same session_id for each client object. As usual, I'll expose a way to override it via suds.set_options() or a similar helper function. Would that be OK for you?

Thanks in advance, and thanks for using pycontrol!

-- Matt Cauthorn

dev

devops

iControl

13 Replies

George_Watkins_
Historic F5 Account
Oct 10, 2011
Hi Matt,

I had the same question running through my head with the Ruby libraries. I wrote a Tech Tip on enabling sessions manually (http://devcentral.f5.com/Tutorials/TechTips/tabid/63/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1086489/v11-iControl-Sessions.aspx), but was thinking that we should probably add a parameter to enable sessions at instantiation. I'll keep an eye on this thread to see what everyone else thinks.

-George
L4L7_53191
Nimbostratus
Oct 10, 2011
Had a chat with Joe and Jason about it today, and I think I've got my head around the initial implementation, barring any other suggestions here. I've got the multi-wsdl bit figured out, so I'm going to go with a constructor argument and handle the basics for the user (i.e. getting a session and passing that value in a custom header for subsequent calls).

--Matt
George_Watkins_
Historic F5 Account
Oct 11, 2011
Nice. I'll work on getting something similar in the Ruby library.

-George
mhite_60883
Cirrocumulus
Oct 11, 2011
Hey L4L7,

Great to hear you are working on a v11 pycontrol. That's fantastic news! Looking forward to trying it when it becomes available.
L4L7_53191
Nimbostratus
Oct 13, 2011
I forgot to point out that it'll work today, but just with extra steps if you want to use the session magic. I'm working it out now, and I think the code is pretty well done but I need to do some testing and then I'll release it to my old pycontrol bud Jason to test out with me :)

All in all it's easier than I thought from an implementation standpoint so it should Just Work. If it doesn't, I'll do my best to fix it :). As of right now I'm setting up the constructor option (sessions=True), with some helper functions that allow you to fectch/reset a session that has expired. It'll propagate down the WSDL chain if you've loaded multiples.

--Matt Cauthorn
mhite_60883
Cirrocumulus
Oct 25, 2011
I'm a little unclear: are you saying we can utilize V11 API with Pycontrol v2?
L4L7_53191
Nimbostratus
Oct 27, 2011
Absolutely. There's nothing really special here; if you want to utilize sessions just load that wsdl, then set the X-iControl-Session header to the session value you get back and pass it into the client object's headers via suds.set_options(headers={'X-iControl-Session': 1234321}) for example.

I'm about done with the pycontrol stuff and will be testing it later tonight. I'll post back any news.

--Matt Cauthorn
L4L7_53191
Nimbostratus
Oct 29, 2011
I wrapped it up and did some testing last night; it seems to be working. I've sent it over to Jason, who'll do some testing as well. Mhite if you're interested in helping to test let me know and we'll sync up offline.

--Matt Cauthorn
mhite_60883
Cirrocumulus
Jan 23, 2012
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but if I am using the API in the following manner:

import pycontrol.pycontrol as pc

b = f5_build_bigip_object(ltm, user, pw, wsdl_list, soap_debug=False)

How should I go about setting the suds option on the F5 object?

suds.set_options(headers={'X-iControl-Session': 1234321})

Help on class BIGIP in module pycontrol.pycontrol:

class BIGIP(__builtin__.object)

| Wrap suds client object(s) and create a user-friendly class to use.

|

| Methods defined here:

|

| __init__(self, hostname=None, username=None, password=None, wsdls=None, directory=None, fromurl=False, debug=False, proto='https')

|

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------

| Data descriptors defined here:

|

| __dict__

| dictionary for instance variables (if defined)

|

| __weakref__

| list of weak references to the object (if defined)

(END)
mhite_60883
Cirrocumulus
Jan 24, 2012
Ok, just some poking around... but does this look like I'm on the right track? Every item I have in wsdl_list has a separate suds client setup for it, correct? (Sorry, I know very little about the suds library). So I need to apply the set_options to each one of those clients, ie.

b = f5_build_bigip_object(ltm, user, pw, wsdl_list, soap_debug=False)

Get F5 session id

print "Requesting session identifier..."

try:

sid = f5_get_session_identifier(b)

for client in b.clients:

client.set_options(headers={'X-iControl-Session': sid})

except Exception, detail:

print "Unable to request session identifier."

else:

print "Session identifier %s received." % sid