Course Outline
Day 1 — BIG-IP Architecture & Platform Administration
• Networking fundamentals — OSI model (Layers 2–7), 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 path 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 the TMUI and optimizing GUI workflows; essential tmsh commands; backup and restoration of configurations via UCS archives; comparing hardware and virtual editions and their suitability for bank data centers.
• Lab (3 hours) — “Establishing Traffic Flow” — 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 capture of a UCS backup.
Day 2 — Core Load Balancing & SSL/TLS
• Networking fundamentals — TCP/UDP handshake mechanisms and port concepts; HTTP methods, headers, status codes, and keep-alive behavior.
• Theory 1 — Types of virtual servers; design of pools, nodes, and monitors; load-balancing algorithms; TCP/HTTP profiles and connection reuse; application of these concepts 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-based, source-address-based) and their appropriate use cases; introduction to iRules with simple read-only examples (redirects, header manipulation).
• Lab (3 hours) — Constructing an HTTPS virtual server with SSL offloading for a simulated banking portal, configuring cookie persistence, verifying the certificate chain in a browser, applying a basic redirect iRule, and observing monitor-triggered pool member failover.
Day 3 — High Availability & Operations
• Networking fundamentals — Key concepts of VLANs, routing, and ARP; DNS resolution flows and record types; review of the TLS handshake.
• Theory 1 — Device Service Clustering: device trust, synchronization and failover groups, configuration sync, traffic groups, and floating IPs; failover behavior and client impact; high-availability design considerations for banking (dual-datacenter strategies, zero-downtime maintenance).
• Theory 2 — Operations in regulated environments: local and remote logging (syslog, SNMP), AVR traffic analysis, audit logging of administrative changes, upgrade and maintenance procedures, backup strategies, and disaster recovery fundamentals; brief overview of automation (iControl REST) and WAF (ASM/Advanced WAF) as future topics.
• Lab (3 hours) — Building an active/standby high-availability pair using the two BIG-IP VE instances per trainee, establishing device trust and configuration 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 (enabling the Day 3 high-availability exercise) and shared backend web servers simulating application tiers. Access is fully browser-based through a secure Guacamole gateway, requiring only a web browser and no VPN client or local software installation, which facilitates participation from restricted banking workstations. The environment is pre-configured and verified prior to Day 1; by the end of Day 1, every trainee will have established working traffic through their own BIG-IP instance.
Requirements
No previous F5 experience is necessary.
While basic TCP/IP knowledge is beneficial, it is not a prerequisite. Each day begins with concise networking reviews (covering the OSI model, TCP/HTTP, DNS/TLS) tailored to the day's F5 topics, ensuring that teams with mixed technical backgrounds reach a common baseline.
Target Audience: Network engineers, security specialists, and application support or operations staff working within banking and financial institutions.
Testimonials (1)
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