Lab 2.2: Manually Execute a Workflow¶

Task 1 - Import and Explore BIG-IP Collections¶

We will import two collections to Postman using the same steps in the previous labs. The collections will allow us to perform REST API Authentication to BIG-IP devices and then execute Operational actions on the BIG-IP device.

Execute the following steps to complete this task:

1. Click Import -> Import from Link and import these collection URLs:

   • https://raw.githubusercontent.com/0xHiteshPatel/f5-postman-workflows/master/collections/BIG_IP/BIGIP_API_Authentication.postman_collection.json
   • https://raw.githubusercontent.com/0xHiteshPatel/f5-postman-workflows/master/collections/BIG_IP/BIGIP_Operational_Workflows.postman_collection.json

2. You should now have two additional Collections in the sidebar:

   • BIGIP_API_Authentication
   • BIGIP_Operational_Workflows

3. Expand the BIGIP_API_Authentication collection. Within the collection you will see one folder named 1_Authenticate. Folders are used to organize various workflows within a collection. In this case this collection performs exactly one task, authentication, therefore one folder is present.

4. Expand the 1_Authenticate folder. Notice there are three requests in the folder. These three requests will be executed in a synchronous manner (one-after-another).

5. Click the ... icon on the 1_Authenticate folder, then click Edit

   

6. In the following window you will see documentation explaining what the requests in this folder accomplish. Additionally you will see a series of Input and Output variables. Unless marked otherwise it is assumed that all Input variables are required. In this case the bigip_token_timeout variable is optional.

   Folders may also contain output variables that are set to pass data between requests in different collections. In this case the output variable is named bigip_token and contains the authentication token that can be sent in the X-F5-Auth-Token HTTP header to perform authentication.

7. Close the window by clicking ‘Cancel’

8. Repeat the steps above and explore the BIGIP_Operational_Workflows collection, specifically the 4A_Get_BIGIP_Version folder

Task 2 - Manually Chain Folders into a Workflow¶

In this task we will explore how to chain two folders together and manually execute a workflow. This example is simple, but should help illustrate how we can use folders as building blocks that can be assembled or chained together to construct a workflow.

We will use the 1_Authenticate folder in the BIGIP_API_Authentication collection and then pass the authentication token to the 4A_Get_BIGIP_Version folder in the BIGIP_Operational_Workflows collection.

Execute the following steps to complete this task:

1. Create a new Postman environment by clicking the Gear icon -> Manage Environments -> Add.

2. Name the environment Lab 2.2 and populate the following key/value pairs:

   • bigip_mgmt: 10.1.1.4
   • bigip_username: admin
   • bigip_password: admin

3. Click the ‘Add’ button, then close the ‘Manage Environments’ window.

4. Select the Lab 2.2 environment:

   

The preceding steps configured the Input Variables required for all the folders that comprise our workflow. We will now manually execute all the requests in the folders.

1. Expand the BIGIP_API_Authentication -> 1_Authenticate folder.

2. Select the Authenticate and Obtain Token item and click Send

3. Examine the Tests in the response portion of the request. All the tests should be passing. Additionally you should see a test similar to:

   [Populate Variable] bigip_token=....

   

   These test items and their corresponding actions (populating a variable in this case) are generated by the f5-postman-workflows framework.

4. Examine your Postman Environment variables and confirm that the bigip_token variable is present and populated.

   

5. Select the Verify Authentication Works request in the folder and click ‘Send’. Examine the Tests and ensure they are all passing

6. Select the Set Authentication Token Timeout request, click Send and verify all Tests pass.

At this point we have successfully authenticated to our device and stored the authentication token in the bigip_token environment variable. We will now execute a request in a different collection and folder that uses the bigip_token variable value to authenticate and perform its actions.

1. Expand the BIGIP_Operational_Workflows -> 4A_Get_BIGIP_Version folder.

2. Click the Get Software Version request.

3. Click the ‘Headers’ tab. Notice that the value for the X-F5-Auth-Token header is populated with the bigip_token variable value.

   Note

   Postman uses the {{variable_name}} syntax to perform variable value substitution.

   

4. Click ‘Send’ to send the request. Examine the Tests and ensure all tests have passed.

5. Examine your environment variables and note that the bigip_version and bigip_build variables are now populated.

While the example above was simple it should show how we can chain together different collections and folders to assemble custom workflows. The key concepts to understand are:

• The f5-postman-workflows framework and collection test code perform unit tests on the response data and verify the request executed successfully.
• The framework also populates Output Variables as documented so they can be used in subsequent requests as Inputs to assemble a workflow

Next, we will explore how to use this base knowledge to assemble various collections and folders into workflows using Newman and the f5-newman-wrapper.