Course Outline
BIG-IP Architecture & Platform Management
- Networking fundamentals — OSI model (Layers 2–7), and the role of load balancers at Layers 4/7; mapping IP addressing and subnetting to BIG-IP self IPs and VLANs.
- TMM traffic-processing architecture; understanding traffic flow from client to virtual server to pool member; device modes, administrative partitions, and role-based access control (addressing banking segregation-of-duties); licensing and module provisioning (LTM, AVR).
- Efficient TMUI navigation and GUI workflows; essential tmsh commands; backing up and restoring configurations with UCS archives; comparing hardware and virtual editions to determine their suitability within bank data centres.
- Practical Exercise “Getting Traffic Flowing” — initial configuration (VLANs, self IPs, routes), creating nodes, pools, and health monitors, building the first virtual server, verifying traffic to backend application servers, and performing a UCS backup.
Core Load Balancing & SSL/TLS
- Networking fundamentals — TCP/UDP handshakes and port concepts; HTTP methods, headers, status codes, and keep-alive connections.
- Virtual server types; designing pools, nodes, and monitors; load-balancing algorithms; TCP/HTTP profiles and connection reuse; applying these concepts to internet banking and API traffic patterns.
- SSL/TLS offloading and certificate management (key/cert import, chains, and cipher policies aligned with banking security baselines); persistence methods (cookie and source-address based) and their appropriate use cases; introduction to iRules with simple read-only examples like redirects and header insertion.
- Practical Exercise — Construct an HTTPS virtual server with SSL offloading for a simulated banking portal, configure cookie persistence, verify the certificate chain in a browser, apply a simple redirect iRule, and observe monitor-driven pool member failover.
High Availability & Operations
- Networking fundamentals — VLANs, routing, ARP essentials; DNS resolution flows and record types; a recap of the TLS handshake process.
- Device Service Clustering: establishing device trust, sync-failover groups, configuration synchronization, traffic groups, and floating IPs; analyzing failover behavior and client experience; high availability design considerations for banking, such as dual-datacentre patterns and 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; a brief outlook on automation (iControl REST) and WAF (ASM/Advanced WAF) as advanced topics.
- Practical Exercise — Assemble an active/standby high availability pair using the two BIG-IP VE instances assigned per trainee, establish device trust and configuration sync, execute a forced failover during live traffic, configure remote syslog, review audit logs, and perform a final backup; concludes with a course recap and Q&A.
Lab Environment
Each trainee is provided with a dedicated, isolated laboratory environment consisting of two BIG-IP Virtual Edition instances (enabling the Day 3 high availability exercise) and shared backend web servers that simulate application tiers. Access is exclusively browser-based through a secure Guacamole gateway. Participants only need a web browser, eliminating the need for VPN clients or local software installations, which simplifies participation from restricted 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 the first day.
Requirements
No previous F5 experience is necessary to join this course.
While basic TCP/IP knowledge is beneficial, it is not a prerequisite. Each day begins with concise networking primers covering the OSI model, TCP/HTTP, DNS/TLS, aligned with the day's F5 topics. This approach ensures that teams with varying experience levels start from a consistent baseline.
Target Audience: Network engineers, security specialists, and application support or operations staff working in banking and financial institutions.
Testimonials (1)
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