iControl Proxy¶
iControl Proxy API Details¶
There are three application programing interfaces (APIs) that provide
the ability to interact with a BIG-IP system using iControl Proxy
through an Enterprise Manager.
Details on the prototype, parameters, returns, and exceptions for each
API are provided with the iControl API documentation. Click an API
name to see this information.
Important: The client user account used to authenticate these API
calls must have the role of Administrator on Enterprise Manager.
| Name | Description | Usage Scenario |
| get_context_id | Use the get_context_id
API to retrieve a unique context ID. The context ID serves as a unique identifier that the iControl web proxy can use for client/user session management. |
Important: This API must be called before you make any other iControl Proxy API calls. The context ID identifies the BIG-IP device to which you want to communicate. This is significant because Enterprise Manager (which establishes your iControl-proxied connection) could be managing multiple BIG-IP devices. For example, if the first instruction in your iControl script is to add a pool member, the context ID identifies a client/user session that will connect to the BIG-IP device to which you want to add a pool member. |
| get_devices | Use the get_devices
API to retrieve a list of devices previously discovered by Enterprise Manager. |
When Enterprise Manager through which you establish the iControl proxied connection manages multiple BIG-IP devices, use the get_devices
API to retrieve a list of the those BIG-IP devices. |
| `set_device_context < Management__EM__set_d evice_context.html>`_ _ | Use the set_device_context
API to establish a device context for the specified client/user context. |
When the computer from which you initiate iControl proxied connections has multiple clients, the device context identifies the client that is initiating the connection. The context ID can also be used to create multiple iControl web proxy references from within the same client. Each context ID corresponds to an iControl web proxy reference that connects to a single device. The iControl Proxy API call sequence diagram illustrates the order in which API calls run to perform the iControl Proxy functions. |
Associated libraries¶
The iControl Proxy APIs use the iControl web interface, which is a
simple object application protocol (SOAP) web service.
