This course gives network administrators, network operators, and network engineers a functional understanding of the BIG-IP system as it is commonly deployed in an application delivery network. The course introduces students to the BIG-IP system, its configuration objects, how it processes traffic, and how typical administrative and operational activities are performed. The course includes lecture, hands-on labs, interactive demonstrations, and discussions.

Audience

This course is intended for network administrators, operators, and engineers responsible for managing the normal day-to-day
operation and administration of a BIG-IP application delivery network. This course presents the prerequisite knowledge for many other of F5’s BIG-IP instructor-led training courses.

The following free web-based training courses, although optional, will be very helpful for any student with limited BIG-IP
administration and configuration experience.

Getting Started with BIG-IP web-based training

Getting Started with BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) web-based training

The following general network technology knowledge and experience are recommended before attending any F5 Global Training Services instructor-led course:

OSI model encapsulation

Routing and switching

Ethernet and ARP

TCP/IP concepts

IP addressing and subnetting

NAT and private IP addressing

Default gateway

Network firewalls

LAN vs. WAN

Students should be able to:

Describe the role of the BIG-IP system as a full proxy device in an application delivery network

Set up, start/restart/stop, license, and provision the BIG-IP system out-of-the-box

Create a basic network configuration on the BIG-IP system including VLANs and self IPs

Use the Configuration utility and TMSH to manage BIG-IP resources such as virtual servers, pools, pool members, nodes, profiles, and monitors

Create, restore from, and manage BIG-IP archives

View resource status, availability, and statistical information and use this information to determine how the BIG-IP system is
currently processing traffic

Use profiles to manipulate the way the BIG-IP system processes traffic through a virtual server

Perform basic troubleshooting and problem determination activities including using the iHealth diagnostic tool

Support, and view traffic flow using TCPDUMP

Understand and manage user roles and partitions

Configure and manage a sync-failover device group with more than two members

Configure stateful failover using connection mirroring and persistence mirroring

Getting started with the BIG-IP system

Traffic processing with BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)

Using TMSH (TMOS Shell) command line interface

Using NATs and SNATs

Monitoring application health and managing object status

Modifying traffic behavior with profiles, including SSL offload and re-encryption

Modifying traffic behavior with persistence, including source address affinity and cookie persistence

Troubleshooting the BIG-IP system, including logging (local, high-speed, and legacy remote logging), and using TCPDUMP

User roles and administrative partitions

vCMP concepts

Configuring high availability (including active/standby and connection and persistence mirroring)