Course Outline
Day 1 — BIG-IP Architecture & Platform Management
• Networking basics — OSI model (L2–L7), 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 (relevant to segregation-of-duties in banking); licensing and module provisioning (LTM, AVR).
• Theory 2 — TMUI navigation and efficient GUI workflows; tmsh essentials; configuration backup and restore using UCS archives; comparison of hardware versus virtual editions and their respective roles in bank data centers.
• Lab (3 h) — “Get 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 taking a UCS backup.
Day 2 — Core Load Balancing & SSL/TLS
• Networking refresher — TCP/UDP handshake and port concepts; HTTP methods, headers, status codes, and keep-alive mechanisms.
• Theory 1 — Virtual server types; pool, node, and monitor design; load-balancing algorithms; TCP/HTTP profiles and connection reuse; application to internet banking and API traffic patterns.
• Theory 2 — SSL/TLS offload and certificate management (key/cert import, chains, cipher policy 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 h) — Build an HTTPS virtual server with SSL offload for a simulated banking portal, configure cookie persistence, validate the certificate chain in the browser, apply a simple redirect iRule, and observe monitor-driven pool member failover.
Day 3 — High Availability & Operations
• Networking refresher — VLANs, routing, and ARP essentials; DNS resolution flow and record types; TLS handshake recap.
• Theory 1 — Device Service Clustering: device trust, sync-failover groups, configuration sync, traffic groups, and floating IPs; failover behavior and client impact; HA design considerations for banking (dual-datacenter patterns, maintenance without downtime).
• Theory 2 — Operations for regulated environments: local and remote logging (syslog, SNMP), AVR traffic analytics, audit logging of administrative changes, upgrade and maintenance procedures, backup strategy, and disaster-recovery basics; brief overview of automation (iControl REST) and WAF (ASM/Advanced WAF) as follow-on topics.
• Lab (3 h) — Build an active/standby HA pair using the two per-trainee BIG-IP VEs, establish device trust and configuration sync, execute forced failover during live traffic, configure remote syslog, review audit logs, and perform a final backup; course recap and Q&A.
Lab Environment
Each trainee receives a dedicated, isolated lab environment consisting of two BIG-IP Virtual Edition instances (for Day 3 HA exercises) plus shared backend web servers simulating application tiers. Access is fully browser-based via a secured Guacamole gateway — trainees require only a web browser, with no VPN client or local software installation, facilitating participation from locked-down banking workstations. The environment is pre-built and validated prior to Day 1; by the end of Day 1, every trainee will have working traffic flowing through their own BIG-IP instance.
Requirements
No prior experience with F5 is necessary.
While basic TCP/IP knowledge is beneficial, it is not a prerequisite. Each day begins with concise networking refresher sessions (covering the OSI model, TCP/HTTP, and DNS/TLS) tailored to that day's F5 topics, ensuring that teams with varying experience levels start from a common baseline.
Target Audience: Network engineers, security engineers, application support, and operations staff within banking and financial institutions
Testimonials (1)
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