BIG-IP usage monitoring script collection

For some time I have been digging into statistics and configurations across my customers devices in order to assist in a variety of tasks from troubleshooting, sizing, and finding dead objects. I was using F5's iHealth tool to uncover some of that data, but this isn't the right hammer for every nail. Often times admins may have restrictions on sending qkview files into the iHealth system or they need an answer quickly. While I have shown where I look for data and the patterns to peers internally, customers and partners, I wanted to leverage some recent work projects to help a broader audience and make it readily accessible via github.

For the TLDR crowd - https://github.com/CarlB-dev/f5_bash_tmsh_collection/tree/main/system_usage

F5 BIG-IP Administrative Scripts: Monitoring, Performance, and Troubleshooting Tools

Welcome to the F5 BIG-IP Administrative Scripts Repository! This repository contains a collection of commands and scripts aimed at helping administrators monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize their F5 BIG-IP environments. Each script is designed for various BIG-IP operational tasks, such as:

• Validating the configuration and performance of health monitors.
• Optimizing virtual servers based on traffic and CPU usage.
• Analyzing iRule performance to identify areas of inefficiency or failure.
• Monitoring system uptime and traffic flow for resource-heavy virtual servers.

Repository Overview

This list will likely grow as I get feedback and continue to see what works and what does not, so as of 2/17/2025, these are what I have put together.

• monitor_settingss.sh - Lists all monitors on the device, including type, interval, timeout, and send string. View README
• monitor_instance_stats.sh - Identifies problematic monitors (e.g., those with high latency, probe failures, or non-"up" statuses). View README
• irule_stats.sh - Analyzes iRule performance, listing execution frequency, CPU usage, and errors. View README
• virtual_server_usage.sh - Provides system uptime and detailed performance and traffic metrics for virtual servers. View README

Use Cases

Each script comes with unique use cases. Knowing that not all customers deploy in just the common partition, I made sure the scripts would scan all partitions. For detailed usage information, refer to their individual README.md files. Below is a quick summary of the purposes they serve:

a) Monitor Analysis

• Provides a complete view of all health monitors configured on the system.
• Ensures timeout values are accurate and identifies frequently checked monitors. Using care in ensuring guidance of Timeout = 3 x Interval +1 as well as properly formatted send strings can enhance performance of the platform.
• Learn More

b) Problematic Monitor Analysis

• Focuses on monitors that exhibit high latency, frequent failures, or problematic statuses. Monitors with frequent failures can negatively impact performance and can be an indication of abandoned nodes/servers.
• Useful for finding and fixing misconfigured or inefficient monitors.
• Learn More

c) iRule Performance Analysis

• Tracks iRule execution statistics, including average CPU cycles, execution counts, and failure rates.
• Helpful for optimizing resource-heavy iRules.
• Learn More

d) Virtual Server Traffic and Resource Usage

• Monitors uptime and key traffic metrics for virtual servers, such as bits in/out and CPU usage.
• Enables resource prioritization and bottleneck identification.
• Learn More

Sample Outputs

Here’s an overview of the type of output you can expect from these scripts. For detailed examples, refer to the corresponding script's README file.

1. Monitor Auditing

2. Problematic Monitors

3. iRule Performance

4. Virtual Server Traffic

Please take a look and let me know if there are more bits of data you would like some commands to get to.