Editing raw conf files in 11.3.0
Hey guys! New to the f5 world here. We have 2 viprions in HA mode running 11.3.0 HF5. We have about 3,000-4,000 virtual servers to create. I created them using the web gui then scp'd off the /config/bigip.conf file after running save /sys config. I copied out the sections I needed and used them as a template in a script that outputs all the lines for each virtual server. Then scp'd the config back and ran load /sys config. That worked fine at first and they were all listed in the gui and configured properly. I sync'd the config back to the other device.
But this morning, they're all gone, even the test ones I created. Which leaves me wondering if you can no longer edit the conf files directly or if I missed a step/command to make this stick. I know that I could use icontrol or tmsh but I'd really not learn another api/cli at the moment :)
Is there a proper command/method for saving the bigip.conf file after being directly edited? Or is it something that's no longer able to be done...