tmsh¶

tmsh(1) BIG-IP TMSH Manual tmsh(1)

NAME
tmsh - Traffic Management Shell - A command line interface for managing the BIG-IP(r) system.

DESCRIPTION
You can use tmsh to configure and manage the BIG-IP system in conjunction with the Configuration utility,
which is the browser-based BIG-IP system and network management tool.

MODULES
The structure of tmsh is hierarchical and modular. The highest level is the root module, which contains
subordinate modules: auth, cli, gtm, ltm, net, sys and wom. Use the command help with no arguments to display
the module hierarchy relative to the current module.

The gtm, ltm, net, sys, and wom modules also contain subordinate modules. All modules and subordinate modules
contain components. To display the list of modules and components that are available in the current module
type Tab or ? at the tmsh prompt.

Commands operate on components. To display the list of available commands type Tab or ? at the beginning of
the command line. To display a list of components on which a command can operate type the command followed by
a space followed by Tab or ?.

The following examples illustrate how to navigate the tmsh hierarchy.

To enter a module, type the name of the module at the tmsh prompt.

(tmos)# ltm

The prompt displays the current module location.

(tmos.ltm)#

You can display the components in a module using the commands list (configuration) and show (statistics and
runtime status). The following command sequence displays the virtual server configuration of the BIG-IP
system.

(tmos.ltm)# list virtual

In the following examples, the commands list and show display information about only ltm components.

(tmos.ltm)# list
(tmos.ltm)# show

You can access any component in any module from any other module by specifying a complete path to the
component. For example, from the ltm module, the following command displays all of the properties of the VLANs
on the system. The forward slash / specifies that what follows is relative to the root module.

(tmos.ltm)# list /net vlan all-properties

The forward slash is optional if the root module is the current module. For example, the following command
sequences display profiles.

(tmos)# list ltm profile
(tmos)# list /ltm profile
(tmos)# list / ltm profile

Most components also support component mode. You can navigate to a single component and run commands to manage
that component. For example, from the ltm module, to navigate to the node component, use the following
command.

(tmos.ltm)# node

To display the properties of all nodes, use the following command.

(tmos.ltm.node)# list

You can also navigate to a specific object (object mode). For example, from the node component, to enter
object mode for a specific node, enter the command modify followed by the IP address of the node.

(tmos.ltm.node)# modify 10.1.1.10

In object mode, you can configure property settings directly. For example, to set the connection limit for
10.1.1.10 to 10000, use the following command.

(tmos.ltm.node.10.1.1.10)# connection-limit 10000

To exit a module enter the command exit at the tmsh prompt, as shown below.

(tmos.ltm)# exit
(tmos)#

PRODUCT PROVISIONING
You must provision a BIG-IP system module before you can use tmsh to configure that product, for example, the
Global Traffic Manager. The command sequence list sys provision displays the BIG-IP system modules that can be
provisioned. For more information about provisioning, see the TMOS(r) Management Guide for BIG-IP Systems and
help sys provision.

LOADING/SAVING THE SYSTEM CONFIGURATION
The system applies all configuration changes that you make from within tmsh to the running configuration of
the system.

You can save a portion of the running configuration known as the base configuration. You can also load the
base configuration from the stored configuration files.

To save the base configuration to the stored configuration files, use the command sequence: save sys base-
config.
To replace the running base configuration with the configuration in the stored configuration files, use the
command sequence: load /sys base-config.

Additionally, you can save the entire running configuration or load all of the stored configuration files.

To save the entire running configuration to the stored configuration files, use the command sequence: save
/sys config.
To replace the entire running configuration with the configuration in the stored configuration files using the
command sequence: load /sys config.

HELP
tmsh tmsh includes man pages for each of the commands and components that are available within tmsh. You
access the man pages using the following command syntax: help [ [command] | [full path to component] ].

For example, to access the man page for the vlan component from the root module, use this command sequence:
help / net vlan.

You can also search the man pages for information on a specific topic. To do this you use the command syntax:
help search [topic]. You can perform a help search from within any module in the tmsh hierarchy. For example,
to find the man pages that contain a reference to VLANs, use this command sequence: help search vlan

To display a list of topics that are available in a module use this command sequence: help [full path to
module].

For example, to display the topics that are available in the current module use this command: help. To display
the topics that are available in the net module use this command sequence: help / net.

CONTEXT-SENSITIVE HELP
tmsh includes a context-sensitive help feature that provides help as you type commands. At any time, you can
type a question mark (?) on the command line, and tmsh returns information to assist you in completing the
command. Based on when you type the question mark, you get the following results.

When you type a question mark immediately following any portion of a command, tmsh returns possible
completions for the command, but does not complete the command as the command completion feature does.
When you type a space before the question mark, tmsh returns descriptive text that explains the commands,
components, or properties that you can configure.
When you type a question mark in the middle of a command, tmsh returns help on the command to the left of the
cursor.

Note: To use a question mark in a Glob or regular expression, you must escape the question mark using
quotation marks, apostrophes, or a backslash.

Additionally, you can request context-sensitive help for the last command in a series of commands. For more
information, see ENTERING MULTIPLE COMMANDS, following.

COMMAND COMPLETION
At any point while typing or editing a command in tmsh, you can press the Tab key. tmsh either completes the
current or next word, or displays possible completions for the current or next word. If tmsh displays nothing
after you press the Tab key, no options exist to complete the word. If you move the cursor anywhere on the
command line and press the Tab key, tmsh completes what is to the left of the cursor.

Command completion also reduces the amount of typing that is required to run commands. When you press the Tab
key, the system automatically completes the current command-line element to as many unique characters as
possible. If there is more than one possible completion the list of possible completions displays. Command
completion also completes configuration object identifiers.

ENTERING MULTIPLE COMMANDS
You can enter multiple commands on the command line by separating the commands with semi-colons (;). For
example, to display the properties of the self IP addresses and VLANs of the system, use this command
sequence:

list / net self ; list / net vlan

When you enter multiple commands in this way, all of the commands are added to the command history in a single
line item, regardless of whether any of the commands were successful. However, if one of the commands that you
enter fails to parse, tmsh does not run the remaining commands you entered. tmsh audits commands as the
commands run; therefore, if a command fails to parse, tmsh does not audit the remaining commands. For more
information about the command history, see COMMAND HISTORY, following.

You can also specify multiple commands in a command alias by separating the commands with semi-colons. For
example, to create an alias that displays the properties of the VLANs and VLAN groups on the system, use this
command sequence:

create / cli alias vlans command "list / net vlan ; list / net vlan-group"

You can request context-sensitive help and utilize the command completion feature on the last command in a
series of commands. For example, the following command sequence displays help for the vlan-group component.

list / net vlan ; list / net vlan-group ?

COMMAND HISTORY
tmsh saves in the command history file each command that you enter. The command history persists when you log
off of the system. The next time you log on to the system, you can search for, display, and then edit, the
tmsh commands that you entered in previous sessions. The command history persists even through a restart of
the BIG-IP system. For more information about the command history feature, see help history.

The following examples show how to use the command history feature.

To display the commands in the history list, enter either the command sequence show history or an exclamation
point (!). tmsh displays a list of commands each preceded by a numeric ID.

To run a command from the history list, enter an exclamation point followed by the numeric ID of the command.

To run the previous command, enter !!.

FILTERING OUTPUT
You can filter the output generated by the commands list (configuration settings) and show (statistics and
runtime status) using the UNIX grep utility. You must type the character | before the grep specification. You
can use multiple filters chained together. For a list of supported grep options, see the Traffic Management
Shell (tmsh) Reference Guide.

The following examples show how to use the grep utility in tmsh.

KEYBOARD BINDINGS
tmsh supports vi, emacs and default keyboard bindings. You can set the binding using the keymap preference.
For more information, see help cli preference. For a detailed description of the default mapping, see the
Traffic Management Shell (tmsh) Reference Guide.

Note that all mappings provide command-line editing and the capability to search the command history.

WILDCARD OBJECT IDENTIFIERS
You can specify configuration object identifiers using glob and regular expression syntax.

For glob and regular expression syntax rules, see help glob and help regex. Note that you can escape the glob
and regular expression special characters using a back slash.

The following examples show how to use glob and regular expressions in tmsh.

Uses a glob expression to display the configuration of all nodes that begin with 10.1..

list ltm node 10.1.*

Uses a regular expression to display the configuration of all nodes that begin with 10. and contain .44.. Note
that a regular expression must begin with an @ symbol. This identifies to tmsh that the identifier should be
treated as a regular expression and not a glob or standard object identifier. The leading @ is not part of the
regular expression.

list ltm node @^10\..*\.44\.

PREFERENCES
You can customize the behavior of tmsh. For more information, see help cli preference.

FILES
tmsh manages several files in a user's home directory.

$HOME/.tmsh-history- contains command history.

STATISTICS
You can use tmsh to display statistics, including historical performance statistics. You can select the format
in which the statistics display, as well as reset the statistics for some of the tmsh components. To determine
if statistics are available for a component, see the man page for the specific component.

The following examples show how to display and reset statistics for the net interface component from the root
module.

show net interface
reset-stats net interface

The following examples show how to display and reset statistics for the net interface component from the net
module.

show interface
reset-stats interface

AUTOMATING TMSH
You can use tmsh to build TCL scripts to automate management of the BIG-IP. See the cli script help page.

COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
The following options can be specified when tmsh is started from the system shell.

-a tmsh does not write commands to the command history file.

Note that if auditing is enabled, tmsh continues to write commands to the audit log. This option is
useful when writing scripts from the system shell, because it stops the scripts from filling up the
command history file. This option applies to the non-interactive mode only.

-c Run the specified command. A command that contains multiple arguments must be in quotes. No other options
may be specified after -c

-d [ip address | host name]
Connects to the specified blade in a clustered system.

-e Disables video highlighting in tmsh.

-h Displays options you can use when accessing tmsh from the system shell.

-m Generates a tmsh debug log named tmsh.out in the current directory.

Note that when you run a tmsh script, the shell generates a debug log file for the script named
tmsh.out.[script name].

Using this option causes tmsh to run significantly slower.

-q Prevents tmsh from responding to user actions with questions. This option is useful when writing non-
interactive shell scripts from the system shell.

-r
This option allows the user to run TMSH the specified version. This is used to provide backwards
compatibility for older TMSH syntax only. The version must be specified in the format maj.min.pt, for
example 11.5.0

SEE ALSO
Detailed information on the following topics is available through the help command: cli preference, cli
script, glob, help, regex, and sys provision.

For complete information about tmsh, see the Traffic Management Shell (tmsh) Reference Guide. This guide is
available on the AskF5(sm) Knowledge Base ().

COPYRIGHT
No part of this program may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval systems, for any purpose
other than the purchaser's personal use, without the express written permission of F5 Networks, Inc.

BIG-IP 2014-02-18 tmsh(1)