Course Outline
Day 1 — BIG-IP Architecture & Platform Management
• Networking primers — OSI model (L2–L7), load balancers at L4/L7; IP addressing and subnetting mapped 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 segregation-of-duties requirements 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; overview of hardware versus virtual editions and their placement in bank data centres.
• Lab (3 h) — “Get Traffic Flowing” — initial setup (VLANs, self IPs, routes), creation of 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 primers — TCP/UDP handshake and port concepts; HTTP methods, headers, status codes, and keep-alive mechanisms.
• Theory 1 — Virtual server types; pools, nodes, 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 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 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 primers — VLANs, routing, and ARP essentials; DNS resolution flow and record types; TLS handshake recap.
• Theory 1 — Device Service Clustering: device trust, sync-failover groups, config sync, traffic groups, and floating IPs; failover behaviour and client experience; HA design considerations for banking (dual-datacentre patterns, zero-downtime maintenance).
• 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 h) — Build an active/standby HA pair using the two per-trainee BIG-IP VEs, establish device trust and config sync, execute forced failover during live traffic, configure remote syslog, review audit logs, perform a final backup, and conclude with a course recap and Q&A.
Lab Environment
Each trainee receives a dedicated, isolated lab environment consisting of two BIG-IP Virtual Edition instances (enabling the Day 3 HA exercise) along with shared backend web servers simulating application tiers. Access is entirely browser-based via a secured Guacamole gateway — trainees only need a web browser, with no VPN client or local software installation required, simplifying participation from locked-down banking workstations. The environment is pre-built and validated before Day 1; every trainee will finish Day 1 with working traffic through their own BIG-IP instance.
Requirements
No prior F5 experience is necessary.
Basic TCP/IP knowledge is beneficial but not a prerequisite. Each day begins with brief networking primers (covering the OSI model, TCP/HTTP, DNS/TLS) contextualized for the day's F5 content, ensuring mixed-experience teams reach a common baseline.
Audience: Network engineers, security engineers, and application support/operations staff within banking and financial institutions.
Testimonials (1)
communication, knowledge from experience, solve problems,
