Course Outline
Day 1 — BIG-IP Architecture & Platform Management
• Networking primers — 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.
• Theory 1 — TMM traffic processing architecture; traffic flow from client to virtual server to pool member; device modes, administrative partitions, and role-based access control (addressing banking segregation-of-duties requirements); licensing and module provisioning (LTM, AVR).
• Theory 2 — Navigating TMUI and optimizing GUI workflows; tmsh fundamentals; backing up and restoring configurations using UCS archives; comparing hardware and virtual editions and their suitability for bank data centers.
• Lab (3 hours) — "Getting Traffic Flowing" — initial setup (VLANs, self IPs, routes), creating nodes, pools, and health monitors, building the first virtual server, verifying traffic to backend application servers, and capturing a UCS backup.
Day 2 — Core Load Balancing & SSL/TLS
• Networking primers — TCP/UDP handshake and port concepts; HTTP methods, headers, status codes, and keep-alive mechanisms.
• Theory 1 — Types of virtual servers; designing pools, nodes, and monitors; load balancing algorithms; TCP/HTTP profiles and connection reuse; application to internet banking and API traffic patterns.
• Theory 2 — SSL/TLS offloading and certificate management (importing keys/certs, chains, and cipher policies aligned with banking security baselines); persistence methods (cookie, source-address) and their appropriate use cases; introduction to iRules with simple read-only examples (redirects, header insertion).
• Lab (3 hours) — Building an HTTPS virtual server with SSL offloading for a simulated banking portal, configuring cookie persistence, validating the certificate chain in a browser, applying a simple redirect iRule, and observing monitor-driven pool member failover.
Day 3 — High Availability & Operations
• Networking primers — VLANs, routing, and ARP essentials; DNS resolution flow and record types; TLS handshake overview.
• Theory 1 — 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).
• Theory 2 — Operations in 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; brief overview of automation (iControl REST) and WAF (ASM/Advanced WAF) as advanced topics.
• Lab (3 hours) — Creating an active/standby HA pair using the two per-trainee BIG-IP VEs, establishing device trust and config sync, performing forced failover during live traffic, configuring remote syslog, reviewing audit logs, and executing 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 (facilitating the Day 3 HA exercise) and shared backend web servers simulating application tiers. Access is fully browser-based through a secured Guacamole gateway, requiring only a web browser with no VPN client or local software installation. This setup simplifies participation from restricted banking workstations. The environment is pre-built and validated before Day 1, ensuring every trainee achieves working traffic through their own BIG-IP by the end of Day 1.
Requirements
No prior experience with F5 is necessary.
While a basic understanding of TCP/IP is beneficial, it is not a prerequisite. Each day begins with concise networking primers covering the OSI model, TCP/HTTP, and DNS/TLS, contextualized to the day's F5 content to ensure teams with varying experience levels reach a common baseline.
Target Audience: Network engineers, security engineers, and application support or operations staff working in banking and financial institutions
Testimonials (1)
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