Course Outline
Day 1 — BIG-IP Architecture & Platform Management
• Networking primers — 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 (aligned with segregation-of-duties requirements in banking); licensing and module provisioning (LTM, AVR).
• Theory 2 — Navigating the TMUI and efficient GUI workflows; tmsh essentials; configuration backup and restore using UCS archives; overview of hardware versus virtual editions and their application in bank datacenters.
• Lab (3 hours) — “Get Traffic Flowing” — initial setup (VLANs, self IPs, routes), creation of nodes, pools, and health monitors, building a first virtual server, verifying traffic to backend application servers, and performing a UCS backup.
Day 2 — Core Load Balancing & SSL/TLS
• Networking primers — TCP/UDP handshakes and port concepts; HTTP methods, headers, status codes, and keep-alive mechanisms.
• Theory 1 — Virtual server types; design of 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 (key/cert import, chains, cipher policy aligned with typical 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) — Build an HTTPS virtual server with SSL offloading 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 primers — Essentials of VLANs, routing, and ARP; DNS resolution flow and record types; TLS handshake recap.
• Theory 1 — Device Service Clustering: device trust, sync-failover groups, config synchronization, traffic groups, and floating IPs; failover behavior and client experience; 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 outlook on automation (iControl REST) and WAF (ASM/Advanced WAF) as follow-on topics.
• Lab (3 hours) — Build an active/standby HA pair using the two dedicated BIG-IP VEs, establish device trust and configuration synchronization, execute forced failover during live traffic, configure remote syslog, review audit logs, 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 (to support the Day 3 HA exercise) and shared backend web servers simulating application tiers. Access is entirely browser-based via a secured Guacamole gateway, requiring only a web browser with no VPN client or local software installation, which simplifies participation from secured banking workstations. The environment is pre-built and validated before Day 1, ensuring every trainee has working traffic through their own BIG-IP by the end of Day 1.
Requirements
No prior experience with F5 is required.
While basic TCP/IP knowledge is beneficial, it is not assumed. Each day begins with brief networking primers covering the OSI model, TCP/HTTP, DNS, and TLS, contextualized to that day's F5 content. This approach ensures that teams with mixed experience levels start from a common baseline.
Audience: Network engineers, security engineers, and application support and operations staff within banking and financial institutions
Testimonials (1)
communication, knowledge from experience, solve problems,
