BIG-IP LTM Specialist: Architect, Set-up and Deploy

11 Sub-Modules | 38 Lessons

• Configuration objects required to deploy an application (dependencies, least-object deployments, virtual servers versus virtual addresses)

• Deploying with LTM alone (functionality and capability of LTM configuration objects, profile settings)

• Deployment models (one arm, two arm, nPath, Direct Server Return, full proxy, auto last hop)

• Choosing profiles and settings (OneConnect, TCP, UDP, FastL4, performance impact)

• Virtual server and load balancing type selection (Standard versus FastL4, L2 to L3 virtual servers, method use cases)

• Multi-tier application architecture (connection based architecture, SNAT, persistence and SSL across tiers)

• Packet based versus connection based load balancing

• Preserving the original client IP (when SNAT is required, SNAT type, X-Forwarded-For, returning traffic without SNAT)

• Virtual server matching order (which virtual server processes given traffic, why one fails to receive it)

• Profiles and configuration required to support an iRule

• Deploying applications with iApp templates (modifying a deployed iApp, identifying objects it created)

9 Sub-Modules | 32 Lessons

• Securing Self IPs (which administrative services need access, what is permitting it, services required for HA)

• Securing virtual servers (limiting access, virtual server types compared, profile settings that restrict resources)

• Basic device configuration (time synchronisation, restricting GUI and CLI access, administrative partitions)

• Software upgrades without losing availability (avoiding downtime, migrating configuration to new hardware, stopping services)

• High availability groups (traffic groups versus HA groups, why a failover did not happen, network versus hardware failover)

• Meeting security requirements with BIG-IP functionality (port lockdown, restricting the management interface and virtual servers)

• How configuration changes affect existing and new connections (persistence, timing, load balancing, virtual server changes)

• User roles, administrative partitions and route domains, and how the three work together

• Deploying and upgrading vCMP guests (guest states, CPU and memory relationships, version compatibility, network objects)

No. 301a earns no credential by itself. It is the first of two exams for F5 Certified Technology Specialist, BIG-IP LTM (F5-CTS, LTM). You need 301a and then 301b to hold the certification. 301a is also the required prerequisite for sitting 301b, so it cannot be skipped or taken second.

Yes. F5 Certified Administrator, BIG-IP (F5-CA) is required before any 3xx specialist exam. Since May 2025 that credential is earned by passing five short exams, F5CAB1 through F5CAB5, rather than the old 201.

Real deployment experience helps more than exam study here. 301a assumes you already understand traffic flow through a full proxy and can reason about how a change affects live connections. The blueprint expects you to choose between one arm, two arm, nPath and DSR on the facts of a scenario, which is judgement rather than recall. The course builds that reasoning explicitly.

Yes. The course includes step-by-step demonstrations in both the F5 GUI and TMSH covering deployment models, profile selection, SNAT, virtual server configuration, high availability groups and vCMP. 301a is a design and deployment exam, so the emphasis is on why a given object or setting is the right choice, not only on where to click.

301b, Maintain and Troubleshoot. It completes the F5-CTS, BIG-IP LTM certification and cannot be attempted until 301a is passed. Where 301a is about designing and deploying correctly, 301b is about finding out why something built by someone else is not working.