Enhanced Logging¶
The F5 Next collection has built in enhanced logging, which logs verbose information on the module and plugin operations. These logs are supplementary to the standard ansible logging and are disabled by default. Generally enhanced logging should only be enabled at the explicit request by the support team. F5 advises against leaving it enabled in the production systems unless it is for diagnostic purposes.
Enabling logging will produce log file in the system tmp directory, the log file will follow the following naming pattern: <module_name>-<timestamp>-debug.log.
For example:
cm_files-2024-01-16 15:51:54.924944-debug.log
Each time a module is run, a separate log file is created for that run. F5 will likely ask you to collect all log files alongside the full playbook that has been used as well as ansible.log file and other Ansible controller details.
Logs security¶
To address concerns relating to privacy and security, F5 logging with automatically obfuscate any parameters from modules that have the no_log property set, as well as the username and password used for communication with the CM/NEXT device. To extend this capability the variable f5_secrets have been introduced, which allows users to define a list of values that the logging system should automatically obfuscate. While this should reduce the burden of sanitizing logs before sending the to support. F5 recommends that the logs are checked and altered should there be any sensitive data that has not been redacted.
Usage¶
To use enhanced logging the following variables need to be configured in the test playbook:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| f5_debug | A boolean value that indicates if the enhanced logging should be enabled, default: false |
| f5_debug_leval | Level of logs to be written, default: info, F5 recomends using: ‘debug’ when logging for cases with support. (optional) |
| f5_secrets | List of values that should be obfuscated in the logs. (optional) |
F5 Httpapi plugin¶
Welcome to the BIG-IP NEXT Httpapi Plugin collection for Ansible. To use this plugin, consult the following documentation:
- f5os_plugin_4
Note
- (D): This marks a module as deprecated, which means a module is kept for backwards compatibility but usage is discouraged. The module documentation details page may explain more about this rationale.
What’s next?
- F5 BIG-IP NEXT modules