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# bigip_data_group – Manage data groups on a BIG-IP

New in version 2.6.

- Synopsis
- Parameters
- Notes
- Examples
- Status

## Synopsis

- Allows for managing data groups on a BIG-IP. Data groups provide a way to store collections of values on a BIG-IP for later use in things such as LTM rules, iRules, and ASM policies.

## Parameters

Parameter | Choices/Defaults | Comments
--- | --- | ---
delete_data_group_file boolean | Choices: no ← yes | When `yes`, will ensure that the remote data group file is deleted. This parameter is only relevant when `state` is `absent` and `internal` is `no`.
description string added in 2.8 |  | The description of the data group.
external_file_name string |  | When creating a new data group, this specifies the file name that you want to give an external data group file on the BIG-IP. This parameter is ignored when `internal` is `yes`. This parameter can be used to select an existing data group file to use with an existing external data group. If this value is not provided, it will be given the value specified in `name` and, therefore, match the name of the data group. This value may only contain letters, numbers, underscores, dashes, or a period.
internal boolean | Choices: no ← yes | The type of this data group. You should only consider setting this value in cases where you know exactly what you're doing, or, you are working with a pre-existing internal data group. Be aware that if you deliberately force this parameter to `yes`, and you have a either a large number of records or a large total records size, this large amount of data will be reflected in your BIG-IP configuration. This can lead to long system configuration load times due to needing to parse and verify the large configuration. There is a limit of either 4 megabytes or 65,000 records (whichever is more restrictive) for uploads when this parameter is `yes`. This value cannot be changed once the data group is created.
name string / required |  | Specifies the name of the data group.
partition string | Default: "Common" | Device partition to manage resources on.
provider dictionary added in 2.5 |  | A dict object containing connection details.
| auth_provider string |  | Configures the auth provider for to obtain authentication tokens from the remote device. This option is really used when working with BIG-IQ devices.
| password string / required |  | The password for the user account used to connect to the BIG-IP. You may omit this option by setting the environment variable `F5_PASSWORD`. aliases: pass, pwd
| server string / required |  | The BIG-IP host. You may omit this option by setting the environment variable `F5_SERVER`.
| server_port integer | Default: 443 | The BIG-IP server port. You may omit this option by setting the environment variable `F5_SERVER_PORT`.
| ssh_keyfile path |  | Specifies the SSH keyfile to use to authenticate the connection to the remote device. This argument is only used for cli transports. You may omit this option by setting the environment variable `ANSIBLE_NET_SSH_KEYFILE`.
| timeout integer |  | Specifies the timeout in seconds for communicating with the network device for either connecting or sending commands. If the timeout is exceeded before the operation is completed, the module will error.
| transport string | Choices: cli rest ← | Configures the transport connection to use when connecting to the remote device.
| user string / required |  | The username to connect to the BIG-IP with. This user must have administrative privileges on the device. You may omit this option by setting the environment variable `F5_USER`.
| validate_certs boolean | Choices: no yes ← | If `no`, SSL certificates are not validated. Use this only on personally controlled sites using self-signed certificates. You may omit this option by setting the environment variable `F5_VALIDATE_CERTS`.
records list |  | Specifies the records that you want to add to a data group. If you have a large number of records, it is recommended that you use `records_content` instead of typing all those records here. The technical limit of either 1. the number of records, or 2. the total size of all records, varies with the size of the total resources on your system; in particular, RAM. When `internal` is `no`, at least one record must be specified in either `records` or `records_content`. When `type` is: `ip`, `address`, `addr` if the addresses use non default route domain, they must be explicit about it that is they must contain a route domain notation `%` eg. 10.10.1.1%11. This is true regardless if the data group resides in a partition or not.
| key string / required |  | The key describing the record in the data group. Your key will be used for validation of the `type` parameter to this module.
| value raw |  | The value of the key describing the record in the data group.
records_src path |  | Path to a file with records in it. The file should be well-formed. This means that it includes records, one per line, that resemble the following format "key separator value". For example, `foo := bar`. BIG-IP is strict about this format, but this module is a bit more lax. It will allow you to include arbitrary amounts (including none) of empty space on either side of the separator. For an illustration of this, see the Examples section. Record keys are limited in length to no more than 65520 characters. Values of record keys are limited in length to no more than 65520 characters. The total number of records you can have in your BIG-IP is limited by the memory of the BIG-IP. The format of this content is slightly different depending on whether you specify a `type` of `address`, `integer`, or `string`. See the examples section for examples of the different types of payload formats that are expected in your data group file. When `internal` is `no`, at least one record must be specified in either `records` or `records_content`.
separator string | Default: ":=" | When specifying `records_content`, this is the string of characters that will be used to break apart entries in the `records_content` into key/value pairs. By default, this parameter's value is `:=`. This value cannot be changed once it is set. This parameter is only relevant when `internal` is `no`. It will be ignored otherwise.
state string | Choices: present ← absent | When `state` is `present`, ensures the data group exists. When `state` is `absent`, ensures that the data group is removed. The use of state in this module refers to the entire data group, not its members.
type string | Choices: address addr ip string ← str integer int | The type of records in this data group. This parameter is especially important because it causes BIG-IP to store your data in different ways so-as to optimize access to it. For example, it would be wrong to specify a list of records containing IP addresses, but label them as a `string` type. This value cannot be changed once the data group is created.

## Notes

Note

- This module does NOT support atomic updates of data group members in a type `internal` data group.
- For more information on using Ansible to manage F5 Networks devices see https://www.ansible.com/integrations/networks/f5.
- Requires BIG-IP software version >= 12.
- The F5 modules only manipulate the running configuration of the F5 product. To ensure that BIG-IP specific configuration persists to disk, be sure to include at least one task that uses the bigip_config module to save the running configuration. Refer to the module’s documentation for the correct usage of the module to save your running configuration.

## Examples

    - name: Create a data group of addresses
      bigip_data_group:
        name: foo
        internal: yes
        records:
          - key: 0.0.0.0/32
            value: External_NAT
          - key: 10.10.10.10
            value: No_NAT
        type: address
        provider:
          password: secret
          server: lb.mydomain.com
          user: admin
      delegate_to: localhost

    - name: Create a data group of strings
      bigip_data_group:
        name: foo
        internal: yes
        records:
          - key: caddy
            value: ""
          - key: cafeteria
            value: ""
          - key: cactus
            value: ""
        type: str
        provider:
          password: secret
          server: lb.mydomain.com
          user: admin
      delegate_to: localhost

    - name: Create a data group of IP addresses from a file
      bigip_data_group:
        name: foo
        records_src: /path/to/dg-file
        type: address
        provider:
          password: secret
          server: lb.mydomain.com
          user: admin
      delegate_to: localhost

    - name: Update an existing internal data group of strings
      bigip_data_group:
        name: foo
        internal: yes
        records:
          - key: caddy
            value: ""
          - key: cafeteria
            value: ""
          - key: cactus
            value: ""
        provider:
          password: secret
          server: lb.mydomain.com
          user: admin
      delegate_to: localhost

    - name: Show the data format expected for records_content - address 1
      copy:
        dest: /path/to/addresses.txt
        content: |
          network 10.0.0.0 prefixlen 8 := "Network1",
          network 172.16.0.0 prefixlen 12 := "Network2",
          network 192.168.0.0 prefixlen 16 := "Network3",
          network 2402:9400:1000:0:: prefixlen 64 := "Network4",
          host 192.168.20.1 := "Host1",
          host 172.16.1.1 := "Host2",
          host 172.16.1.1/32 := "Host3",
          host 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334 := "Host4",
          host 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334/128 := "Host5"

    - name: Show the data format expected for records_content - address 2
      copy:
        dest: /path/to/addresses.txt
        content: |
          10.0.0.0/8 := "Network1",
          172.16.0.0/12 := "Network2",
          192.168.0.0/16 := "Network3",
          2402:9400:1000:0::/64 := "Network4",
          192.168.20.1 := "Host1",
          172.16.1.1 := "Host2",
          172.16.1.1/32 := "Host3",
          2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334 := "Host4",
          2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334/128 := "Host5"

    - name: Show the data format expected for records_content - string
      copy:
        dest: /path/to/strings.txt
        content: |
          a := alpha,
          b := bravo,
          c := charlie,
          x := x-ray,
          y := yankee,
          z := zulu,

    - name: Show the data format expected for records_content - integer
      copy:
        dest: /path/to/integers.txt
        content: |
          1 := bar,
          2 := baz,
          3,
          4,

## Status

- This module is not guaranteed to have a backwards compatible interface. [preview]
- This module is maintained by an Ansible Partner. [certified]

### Authors

- Tim Rupp (@caphrim007)
- Wojciech Wypior (@wojtek0806)
- Greg Crosby (@crosbygw)

Hint

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