A Guide to F5 Big-LTM Certification

When pursuing an IT infrastructure certification, thoroughly researching the exam details, importance, demand, objectives, and skills covered is crucial for success. A comprehensive understanding of the certification's scope and requirements is essential for effective preparation and career advancement.

If you are planning to gain a CIiso Certification training and become an F5 LTM-certified professional, then you must know about the major objectives of the examination and the skills that will be acquired and validated through the certification.

In this article, we will cover all necessary information about the F5 Big LTM certification, and share tips to prepare for it. 

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What is F5 BIG-IP LTM certification?

F5 is one of the leading companies to provide support to different applications through their products. Many big companies use F5 products to secure and balance the network reaching them. As a consequence, the companies require skilled and trained individuals to manage and maintain the products in the company.

Since these products are related to application security and traffic management, the companies hesitate to hire completely new or clueless candidates. Therefore, F5 introduced F5 certifications.

These certifications are helpful for the employer and the employee both. This helps the employer to choose the right candidate easily and helps the candidate to prove his/her skills in managing the products, along with gaining credibility.

F5 BIG-IP LTM certifications validate the skills required to install, deploy, manage, maintain, and troubleshoot the load-balancing product offered by F5. Where the LTM stands for Local traffic manager, this product helps to manage the network traffic, and speed of the application network, inspect and report the network, and many more.

Important Information About F5 BIG-IP LTM

Some important information related to the F5 BIG-IP LTM certification examination.

The exam has two sub-tests:

● BIG-IP LTM 301A: BIG-IP LTM 301A LTM Specialist- Architect, Set-up & Deploy exam.

● BIG-IP LTM 301B: BIG-IP LTM Specialist: Maintain and Troubleshoot (Exam 301 B)

Prerequisites:

● BIG-IP LTM 301A: Valid F5-CA, BIG-IP Certification

● BIG-IP LTM 301B: Valid F5-CA, BIG-IP Certification, and a valid passing score in exam LTM 301A

Core Objectives of  F5 BIG-IP LTM

● Application delivery testing and verifying through the BIG-IP traffic statistics.

● Safekeeping through the backup of BIG-IP system configuration.

● Describe use cases and differentiate between SSL, SIP, Universal, cookie, and destination address affinity persistence.

● Configure pools, virtual servers, profiles, monitors, and persistence objects.

● Configure the priority group activation to activate and manage traffic processes on a load-balancing pool.

● Member-based vs node-based dynamic load balancing methods.

● Placing of threshold on traffic volume to specific pool members and nodes through configuring connection limits.

● Configuration of VLAN tagging and trunking.

● Description of 3 Match Across Services persistence options and uses it for each.

● Installing and configuring health monitors to have a check on application delivery through a BIG-IP system.

● Configuration of types of virtual services to support different traffic processes through a BIG-IP system.

● Configuration of SNATs to support routing of traffic.

● Configuration of SNMP alerts and traps in support of remote monitoring of the system.

● To customize application delivery through the BIG-IP system, proper use of iRules, and local traffic policies.

● Use of packet filters, port lockdown, and virtual server settings to restrict the administrative and application traffic.

● Configuration of SNMP alerts and traps in support of routing of traffic through a BIG-IP system.

● Use of LTM features such as eviction policies, iRules, SYN check, and Local Traffic Policies to detect and mitigate some common attacks at the networks and layers of applications.

Tips to Prepare for F5 BIG-IP LTM

As mentioned above, there are lots of technical and tricky things on which the candidate is being tested.

To prepare for such complicated concepts, of course, the candidate requires a lot of study and knowledge before appearing in the examination.

The candidate can prepare in three ways:-

1) Self-study: The candidates can prepare by themselves. They can collect the blueprint from the official site of F5 and start studying the concepts from different books, online videos, study materials, and more. However, this will require more focus, dedication, and willpower. Some sites and channels provide videos and recommend books for the same.

2) Courses provided by the company F5: The official site of F5 has the option of courses and training as well. Before certification, the candidates can subscribe to or buy the F5 BIG-IP LTM course at F5. They provide training through videos, sessions, study materials, and more.

3) Training centers provide theoretical and practical knowledge: There is another medium of preparation for F5 BIG-IP LTM is getting trained through professional trainers and instructors. One can purchase the recorded sessions or enroll in live group batches or one-to-one batches. Some institutes even provide virtual labs to deliver hands-on experience and train the candidate with real troubleshooting.

Important Concepts for F5 Big-IP LTM Certification

However to appear in the exam, one needs complete knowledge of the objectives. But some basics need to be known even before joining the training courses. However, some institutes even start from scratch, but it is recommended to have the following knowledge.

● Ethernet & ARP

● OSI model encapsulation

● Routing and switching

● LAN

● WAN

● NAT and private IP addressing

● Default gateway

● IP addressing & subnetting

● TCP/IP

● Network firewalls

These are some of those basic concepts that are expected to be known by the candidate who is looking to enroll in the F5 BIG-IP LTM training course or start with the self-study method.

These are some of the information and details related to the BIG-IP LTM certification which needs to be known by anyone who is thinking of acquiring the certification of BIG-IP LTM.

Summing Up F5 Big LTM Certification

The F5 Big IP LTM Certification equips IT professionals with essential skills to manage and optimize network traffic using F5's Local Traffic Manager. This certification covers critical areas such as load balancing, SSL offloading, and high availability, enhancing reliability and security in network environments.

We have provided all the necessary information about the F5 LTM certification. This guide teaches the concepts, exams and tips to prepare for this exams.