How to efficiently delete a node from LTM?

If you try to do it from the CLI, you could use a command like

tmsh list ltm pool one-line | grep nodename

Hi Sergei,

if you have figured out the related pools you can use tmsh as well to delete a specific pool member:

tmsh modify ltm pool  members delete { : }

Combining this with the answer from Michael J you can use a one liner to parse all pools and create the syntax to modify all pools on your system. Just replace the value of node with the node´s name:

node="10.131.131.5"; tmsh list ltm pool one-line | grep -E "${node}:[[:alnum:]]" | \
sed -r 's/ltm pool ([^ ]+).*members.*('${node}':[[:alnum:]]+).*/tmsh modify ltm pool \1 members delete { \2 }/g'

By adding "bash -x" the output will be executed immediately. Please be very careful!:

node="10.131.131.5"; tmsh list ltm pool one-line | grep -E "${node}:[[:alnum:]]" | \
sed -r 's/ltm pool ([^ ]+).*members.*('${node}':[[:alnum:]]+).*/tmsh modify ltm pool \1 members delete { \2 }/g' | bash -x

As this only modifies the running configuration you need to save to startup configuration afterwards and config-sync:

tmsh save sys config  
tmsh run cm config-sync to-group 

The syntax above can be enhanced to support administrative partitions and routing domains. Please let me know, if this is an additional requirement.

Thanks, Stephan

PS: Of course I recommend a config backup before applying all kind of change ...

Thank you guys very much for the answers. I was hoping I could be able to do it with iControl but I may need to revert to pre-sharing ssh keys and tmsh, like I did before with bigpipe. I was really hopeful for the rest APIs but I find more and more that they are not made or the scenarios I need in real life. Thanks again!

If you wanted to find out what pools are using a specific node (through name or ip address) with iControlREST and wanted to user PowerShell, you could use this script...

 Get the credentials for the BIG-IP
$cred = Get-Credential;
 iControlREST url for pools (expand sub references)
$url = "https://example.com/mgmt/tm/ltm/pool?expandSubcollections=true"
 Get the pools
$pools = Invoke-RestMethod -Method GET -URI $url -Credential $cred;
 Specify which node you're looking for (name or ip)
$node = "1.1.1.1";
 Filter the pools based on containing the specified node (wildcard search on name and ip)
$poolsF = @($pools.items | ?{$_.membersReference.items | ?{ $_.name -like "*$($node)*" -or $_.address -like "*$($node)*" } };)
 Get an array of the pool names containg the node
$poolNames = $poolsF | Select -ExpandProperty name;

Thanks Michael, To me removing members is not an issue, once member is found. Finding it is what takes long time.

Answering my own question. It pays to read documentation ;-) If I pass expandSubccollections=true while making REST call, like https://lb.example.com/mgmt/tm/ltm/pool?expandSubcollections=true, then LTM returns all pools with all their members. I can get everything I need from a single GET instead of thousands. Takes me now ~3 seconds instead of 15+ minutes to delete node from remote LTM. Thank you all for your help!

I have another question on this thread. As you describe Sergei I can get all pool members with "expandSubccollections=true", but if I would like to only show the once that contains a certain node? I tried with "filter" but im not sure of the syntax as i want to filter on "memberReference->items->name"? I have only seen examples to filter on partition, name for the pool etc. not subcollections. Is this even possible or do i need to get the full list and handle the search in my script?

Cheers! // Mattias