F5 Load Balancer and more

Hey guys,

I was just informed we were getting a client with a small web farm balanced with an F5 load balancer. They also have a Radware linkproof.

Training isn't an option, and they are fully expecting us to take this customer on "running". Just wondering if you can point me to some good books? Or docs that you think someone completely new to both of these technologies could benefit from?

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erpadmin

Daniel333 wrote: »

Hey guys,

I was just informed we were getting a client with a small web farm balanced with an F5 load balancer. They also have a Radware linkproof.

Training isn't an option, and they are fully expecting us to take this customer on "running". Just wondering if you can point me to some good books? Or docs that you think someone completely new to both of these technologies could benefit from?

Daniel, we use BIG IP for our Weblogic servers. What models of F5 do they have? What code is used for their Big-IP devices? Finally, what web servers are they using?

You're gonna want to ask those questions then read a deployment guide for the environment you need to support:

Deployment Guides | Solutions | F5 Networks

Daniel333

Thanks, good questions. I have no idea. It was just sorta madated by our sales team we will take on this client. We honestly know nothing at this point other than they are very sensitive about their web data.

stuh84

You can sign up on F5's site for free training and some free lab time, so that would be the first place I'd start.

erpadmin

Another thing to keep in mind is if they are using SSL, are the BIG-IPs managing the SSL on their devices ["SSL Offloading"] or are the web servers managing certificates individually and the F5 devices are just strictly load balancing. (Assuming SSL is being used at all.)

These are questions that either your sales team should have asked your new client and have been provided to you, OR you will have to get that from the client.

DevilWAH

Try the online training its free to sign up and will help you understand the systems.

I had never done load balancing before, but after getting my hands on an F5 for one of our customers, and getting one of there guys to show me how they have there set up working.

(about 1hr training) I now do all there implementation changes, it really is very logical, both the global load balancing and the Server load balancing.

you set up a virtual IP , DNS name. then set up the pools and servers that it will relate to and specify you balancing method (round robin, weighted, etc).

On the F5 site you can log on to demo systems to do some labs, Do them and you should be able to get a grasp of what is involved.

Do that then once you have an idea what is going on get the customer to walk you through there system. And don't worry about asking them to show you the system, ever one has there own ways of setting things up and you need to know how they have done theres.

erpadmin

DevilWAH wrote: »

And don't worry about asking them to show you the system, ever one has there own ways of setting things up and you need to know how they have done theres.

Ummmm....forgive me, but how is he to support his client if he doesn't know their setup? This last statement sounds a bit contradictory, with respect.

Daniel333

erpadmin wrote: »

but how is he to support his client if he doesn't know their setup? .

My point exactly to management.. they are not interested in such excuses. We start supporting this client tomorrow without so much as a our technicians walking through their site. Just sales people making promises.

erpadmin

Daniel333 wrote: »

My point exactly to management.. they are not interested in such excuses. We start supporting this client tomorrow without so much as a our technicians walking through their site. Just sales people making promises.

I was going to write this in my last response, but I figure now would be a better time....

Every shop I've ever worked in has been burned, in one way or another, by a vendor making promises and "YES"ing us to death, in the same typical fashion that your sales team has done. Basically a real life Dilbert strip...lmao.

I wish you the best of luck tomorrow. I really feel for your situation. Hopefully your client isn't terribly demanding.

Turgon

sales bonus 1 network engineers 0

APA

hey dude,

Very easy systems to pick up.......

My last employer pretty much did the same thing to me on my second week with them..... With no prior knowledge of f5 systems....they wanted me to deploy a redundant pair in one week!

Read up on f5.com also at f5 dev central....will allow you to learn how the systems work.....

Also f5 have a vmware appliance which emulate a BIG IP.... However I'd be pushing management for at least a pair of real BIG-IP 1600s for your lab.... As you don't want to be deploying changes, new code etc....without having it tested in a lab environment first....

My 2c

Turgon

APA wrote: »

However I'd be pushing management for at least a pair of real BIG-IP 1600s for your lab.... As you don't want to be deploying changes, new code etc....without having it tested in a lab environment first....

My 2c

That is utopian. The guy will have to support these boxes right now without any of that because Sales said 'Yes We Can'.

Happy days.

mfieldhouse

stuh84 wrote: »

You can sign up on F5's site for free training and some free lab time, so that would be the first place I'd start.

Nice one, thanks for the info. I'm going to have a look through these. For anyone trying to find the training, search 'F5 University' in Google and create an account there.

mfieldhouse

Btw, I love how their range of products is called BIG-IP. It reminds me of 192.168.0.1 but MASSIVE

NightShade03

You can also script much of the command line tasks on them. We use them at work and when you login via SSH we have a scripted menu that allows us to disable/enable/maintenance/etc it's pretty nice.