[rancid] F5 BIG-IP devices - any tricks?

[Dale Shaw]

Hi all,

I'm running RANCID 2.3.6 on a RHEL 4.8 system.

I'm trying to add some F5 BIG-IP devices to the repository but I'm not
having much luck.

I don't know much at all about the F5s themselves but I suspect a
terminal length/paging issue.

The devices are running:

BIG-IP Version 10.1.0 3341.0

Interactive "clogin" works fine -- I am dropped straight into a
'bigpipe' CLI (prompt "bp>"); I'm not sure if that's relevant.

When I execute commands like "version show", the output is paged.
Pressing <SPACE> scrolls by page, <ENTER> scrolls by line, as you'd
expect.

Running "f5rancid -d <hostname>" just results in a file containing:

#RANCID-CONTENT-TYPE: bigip
#
#
#
#

..and the terminal output shows:

dale at box:/tmp$ sudo -H -u rancid f5rancid -d gsu-lb01
executing clogin -t 90 -c"bigpipe version;bigpipe platform;cat
/config/bigip.license;bigpipe monitor list all;bigpipe profile
list;bigpipe base list;bigpipe db show;bigpipe route static show;ls
--full-time --color=never /config/ssl/ssl.crt;ls --full-time
--color=never /config/ssl/ssl.key;bigpipe list" gsu-lb01
gsu-lb01 clogin error: Error: TIMEOUT reached
gsu-lb01 clogin error: Error: TIMEOUT reached
gsu-lb01: missed cmd(s): ls --full-time --color=never
/config/ssl/ssl.crt,bigpipe route static show,bigpipe base list,cat
/config/bigip.license,bigpipe platform,bigpipe db show,bigpipe monitor
list all,ls --full-time --color=never /config/ssl/ssl.key,bigpipe
version,bigpipe profile list,bigpipe list
gsu-lb01: missed cmd(s): ls --full-time --color=never
/config/ssl/ssl.crt,bigpipe route static show,bigpipe base list,cat
/config/bigip.license,bigpipe platform,bigpipe db show,bigpipe monitor
list all,ls --full-time --color=never /config/ssl/ssl.key,bigpipe
version,bigpipe profile list,bigpipe list
gsu-lb01: End of run not found
gsu-lb01: End of run not found

If I run: clogin -t 90 -c"bigpipe version" gsu-lb01

..I see 'clogin' sending the command "terminal length 0", which is not
parsed/accepted by the device, then it sends the command "bigpipe
version", which executes and hangs at the first page of output.

Any clues? I couldn't see an obvious way to disable the CLI pager.

Cheers,
Dale