n8n-nodes-bigip-f5

An n8n community node for automating F5 BIG-IP appliances via the iControl REST API.

Automate pool management, WAF policy lifecycle, APM session control, and system operations — directly from your n8n workflows.

Contents

• Prerequisites
• Installation
• Credentials
• Resources and Operations
  • LTM — Local Traffic Manager
  • ASM — Application Security Manager
  • APM — Access Policy Manager
  • System
  • Authentication
• Compatibility
• Development
• License

Prerequisites

• An F5 BIG-IP appliance or VE running TMOS 13.1 or later with the iControl REST API enabled.
• An n8n instance (self-hosted or cloud) running n8n 1.0 or later.
• A BIG-IP user account with sufficient privileges for the operations you intend to automate (at minimum, the Operator role; Administrator for system-level operations).

Installation

In n8n (recommended)

1. Open your n8n instance and go to Settings → Community Nodes.
2. Click Install a community node.
3. Enter n8n-nodes-bigip-f5 and click Install.

Self-hosted via npm

cd ~/.n8n
npm install n8n-nodes-bigip-f5

Then restart n8n.

Credentials

Create a BIG-IP F5 API credential in n8n with the following fields:

| Field | Description | Example | |---|---|---| | Host | Base URL of the BIG-IP, including protocol | https://192.168.1.245 | | Username | BIG-IP admin username | admin | | Password | BIG-IP admin password | (masked) | | Ignore SSL Certificate Errors | Skip TLS validation (useful for appliances with self-signed certs) | true |

Note: The node uses HTTP Basic Authentication for every request. To use token-based auth instead, call the Authentication → Request Token operation first, then pass the returned token via the HTTP Request node with the X-F5-Auth-Token header.

Resources and Operations

LTM — Local Traffic Manager

Manage load-balancing pools and virtual servers.

| Operation | Description | |---|---| | Discover Resources | List all available LTM resource links on the BIG-IP | | Get All Pools | Retrieve all configured LTM pools | | Create Pool | Create a new pool with optional members, monitor, and load-balancing mode | | Update Pool | Update members, monitor, description, or load-balancing mode on an existing pool | | Get Pool Stats | Retrieve real-time connection statistics for a pool | | Reset Virtual Server Stats | Reset cumulative statistics for a named virtual server |

Supported load-balancing modes: Round Robin, Least Connections (Member/Node), Fastest (App/Node), Observed (Member/Node), Predictive (Member/Node), Ratio (Member/Node/Session), Weighted Least Connections (Member/Node).

Pool name format: Use the full path including partition, e.g. ~Common~my_pool.

ASM — Application Security Manager

Manage WAF policies, attack signatures, and vulnerability assessments.

| Operation | Description | |---|---| | Apply Policy | Enforce a WAF policy (provide the policy self-link) | | Check Task Status | Poll the status of any long-running ASM background task | | Diff Policies | Find differences between two WAF policies | | Export Policy | Export a policy to a declarative JSON or XML file on the BIG-IP | | Export Signatures | Export the current attack signature set to a file | | Import Policy | Restore a WAF policy from a revision history reference | | Import Vulnerabilities | Import vulnerability scan results from an external scanner | | Initiate Vulnerability Assessment | Trigger a new vulnerability assessment scan | | Merge Policies | Apply changes from a diff task back into target policies | | Publish Policy | Publish pending changes to make a policy active | | Terminate Vulnerability Assessment | Stop a running vulnerability assessment scan | | Update Signatures | Update the attack signature database from a file or live feed |

Tip: Long-running operations (import, export, update signatures, vulnerability assessment) return a task ID. Use Check Task Status to poll for completion.

APM — Access Policy Manager

Manage user sessions, access policies, OAuth tokens, and reports.

| Operation | Description | |---|---| | Get All Sessions | List all active APM user sessions | | Delete Session | Terminate a specific user session | | Get Access Policy | Retrieve an access policy by ID | | Update Access Policy | Modify an access policy's name or description | | Delete Access Policy | Permanently delete an access policy | | Get OAuth Token Statistics | Get a summary count of active OAuth tokens | | Revoke OAuth Token | Immediately revoke an OAuth access token | | Get Reports | Retrieve all resources in the APM report collection |

System

Perform system-level operations on the BIG-IP.

| Operation | Description | |---|---| | Reboot | Reboot the BIG-IP device | | Save Configuration | Write the current running configuration to disk | | Restart Service | Restart a named system service (e.g. icrd, mcpd, tmm) | | Ping | Run a ping command from the BIG-IP management plane | | Get Software Images | List all software installation images on the device | | Get Software Volumes | List all disk volumes used by software installations | | Download UCS File | Download an existing UCS (User Configuration Set) backup | | Create UCS Task | Initiate a UCS backup (save) or restore (load) task | | Execute CLI Command | Run a TMSH or shell command via the REST API |

Warning: Reboot immediately restarts the appliance. Ensure no critical traffic is running through it before executing this operation.

Authentication

Manage iControl REST authentication tokens.

| Operation | Description | |---|---| | Request Token | Authenticate with username and password to obtain a REST token | | Get Token Details | Retrieve metadata and expiry information for an existing token | | Get Modules | Discover all licensed and provisioned modules on the BIG-IP |

Compatibility

| Requirement | Version | |---|---| | n8n | ≥ 1.0.0 | | Node.js | ≥ 18 | | BIG-IP TMOS | ≥ 13.1 (iControl REST) |

This node uses the declarative routing style introduced in n8n 0.190 and does not require a custom execute() function.

Development

Setup

git clone https://github.com/kboykov/n8n-nodes-bigip-f5.git
cd n8n-nodes-bigip-f5
npm install

Build

npm run build        # compile TypeScript to dist/
npm run build:watch  # watch mode

Lint

npm run lint         # check for issues
npm run lint:fix     # auto-fix where possible

Test locally in n8n

npm run dev          # build and link the node into a local n8n instance

Publish a new release

npm run release      # interactive: bumps version, tags, pushes → triggers GitHub Actions

Publishing to npm requires the GitHub Actions workflow at .github/workflows/publish.yml. See the comments inside that file for the one-time npm Trusted Publisher setup.

License

MIT © Kristiyan Boykov