Course Outline
BIG-IP Architecture & Platform Management
- Networking fundamentals—OSI model (L2–L7), load balancers at L4/L7; mapping IP addressing and subnetting to BIG-IP self IPs and VLANs.
- TMM traffic-processing architecture; client to virtual server to pool member traffic flow; device modes, administrative partitions, and role-based access control (aligned with banking segregation-of-duties requirements); licensing and module provisioning (LTM, AVR).
- TMUI navigation and efficient GUI workflows; tmsh basics; configuration backup and restore using UCS archives; comparison of hardware versus virtual editions and their respective roles in bank data centers.
- Lab “Get Traffic Flowing”—initial configuration (VLANs, self IPs, routes), creation of nodes, pools, and health monitors, construction of the first virtual server, verification of traffic to backend application servers, and creation of a UCS backup.
Core Load Balancing & SSL/TLS
- Networking fundamentals—TCP/UDP handshakes and port concepts; HTTP methods, headers, status codes, and keep-alive mechanisms.
- Virtual server types; designing pools, nodes, and monitors; load-balancing algorithms; TCP/HTTP profiles and connection reuse; application to internet-banking and API traffic patterns.
- SSL/TLS offload and certificate management (key/cert import, chains, cipher policies aligned with standard banking security baselines); persistence techniques (cookie, source-address) and their appropriate use cases; introduction to iRules with simple read-only examples (redirects, header insertion).
- Lab—Building an HTTPS virtual server with SSL offload for a simulated banking portal, configuring cookie persistence, verifying the certificate chain in a browser, applying a simple redirect iRule, and observing monitor-driven pool member failover.
High Availability & Operations
- Networking fundamentals—VLANs, routing, and ARP essentials; DNS resolution flow and record types; TLS handshake review.
- Device Service Clustering: device trust, sync-failover groups, config sync, traffic groups, and floating IPs; failover behavior and client experience; high-availability design considerations for banking (dual-data center patterns, maintenance without downtime).
- Operations for regulated environments: local and remote logging (syslog, SNMP), AVR traffic analytics, audit logging of administrative changes, upgrade and maintenance procedures, backup strategies, and disaster-recovery basics; an overview of automation (iControl REST) and WAF (ASM/Advanced WAF) as future topics.
- Lab—Establishing an active/standby high-availability pair using the two per-trainee BIG-IP VE instances, setting up device trust and config sync, executing forced failover during live traffic, configuring remote syslog, reviewing audit logs, and performing a final backup; 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 (to support the Day 3 high-availability exercise) and shared backend web servers simulating application tiers. Access is entirely browser-based through a secured Guacamole gateway, requiring only a web browser and no VPN client or local software installation, which simplifies access from secured banking workstations. The environment is pre-built and verified before Day 1, ensuring every trainee achieves working traffic through their own BIG-IP by the end of Day 1.
Requirements
No previous experience with F5 is necessary.
While basic TCP/IP knowledge is beneficial, it is not assumed. Each day begins with concise networking briefings covering the OSI model, TCP/HTTP, DNS/TLS, tailored to the day’s F5 content, ensuring teams with varying experience levels start from a common baseline.
Audience: Network engineers, security engineers, and application support or operations staff within banking and financial institutions.
Testimonials (1)
communication, knowledge from experience, solve problems,
