Course Outline
BIG-IP Architecture & Platform Management
- Networking fundamentals — covering the OSI model (L2–L7) and the role of load balancers at L4/L7; mapping IP addressing and subnetting to BIG-IP self IPs and VLANs.
- TMM traffic processing architecture; analyzing the traffic path from client to virtual server to pool member; exploring device modes, administrative partitions, and role-based access control (RBAC) to meet banking segregation-of-duties standards; and reviewing licensing and module provisioning (LTM, AVR).
- Efficient TMUI navigation and GUI workflows; essential tmsh commands; managing configuration backups and restores using UCS archives; and comparing hardware versus virtual editions to determine their fit within bank data centers.
- Practical Lab “Get Traffic Flowing” — performing initial setup (VLANs, self IPs, routes), creating nodes, pools, and health monitors, building a first virtual server, verifying traffic to backend application servers, and capturing a UCS backup.
Core Load Balancing & SSL/TLS
- Networking fundamentals — reviewing TCP/UDP handshakes and port concepts; detailing HTTP methods, headers, status codes, and keep-alive connections.
- Exploring virtual server types; designing pools, nodes, and monitors; selecting load-balancing algorithms; configuring TCP/HTTP profiles and connection reuse; and applying these strategies to internet banking and API traffic patterns.
- Implementing SSL/TLS offloading and certificate management (including key/cert import, certificate chains, and cipher policies aligned with banking security baselines); choosing appropriate persistence methods (cookie or source-address); and introducing iRules with simple read-only examples like redirects and header insertion.
- Practical Lab — Constructing an HTTPS virtual server with SSL offloading for a simulated banking portal, configuring cookie persistence, validating the certificate chain in a browser, applying a basic redirect iRule, and observing pool member failover driven by health monitors.
High Availability & Operations
- Networking fundamentals — reviewing VLANs, routing, and ARP essentials; examining DNS resolution flows and record types; and recapping the TLS handshake process.
- Device Service Clustering concepts: establishing device trust, configuring sync-failover groups and configuration synchronization, managing traffic groups and floating IPs; analyzing failover behavior from the client's perspective; and considering HA design patterns for banking, such as dual-datacenter setups and zero-downtime maintenance.
- Operations in regulated environments: implementing local and remote logging (syslog, SNMP), utilizing AVR for traffic analytics, maintaining audit logs for administrative changes, following upgrade and maintenance procedures, and establishing backup and disaster recovery strategies; including a brief overview of automation (iControl REST) and WAF (ASM/Advanced WAF) as potential next steps.
- Practical Lab — Building an active/standby HA pair using the two assigned BIG-IP VEs, establishing device trust and configuration synchronization, executing a forced failover during live traffic, configuring remote syslog, reviewing audit logs, and performing a final backup; followed by a course summary and Q&A.
Lab Environment
Each trainee is provided with a dedicated, isolated lab environment consisting of two BIG-IP Virtual Edition instances (required for the Day 3 HA exercise) along with shared backend web servers that simulate application tiers. Access is completely browser-based via a secure Guacamole gateway, meaning trainees only need a web browser without requiring a VPN client or local software installation, which simplifies access from restricted banking workstations. The environment is pre-built and validated before Day 1, ensuring every trainee has working traffic flowing through their own BIG-IP by the end of the first day.
Requirements
Previous experience with F5 is not mandatory.
While a fundamental understanding of TCP/IP is beneficial, it is not assumed. Each day begins with concise networking refresher modules covering the OSI model, TCP/HTTP, and DNS/TLS, tailored to the day's F5 topics to ensure a uniform knowledge baseline for mixed-experience teams.
Intended Audience: Network engineers, security specialists, and application support and operations personnel within banking and financial institutions.
Testimonials (1)
communication, knowledge from experience, solve problems,
