F5 Fundamentals Certification Resource Guide

Purpose of this document

This document outlines topic areas covered on the F5 Fundamentals Certification Exam and resources available to help prepare test takers.

OSI model
Networking basics

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Networking-Basics-Part1.html http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/

Data link layer

Networking concepts, switching, addressing, media access control http://www.osischool.com/protocol/arp/basic http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/products/bigip_ltm/manuals/product/ltm_implementations_guide_10_1/sol_linkagg.html Book: The TCP/IP Guide, Kozierok http://www.tcpipguide.com/ http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/products/big-ip_ltm/manuals/product/tmos-ip-routingadministration-11-2-0/5.html http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/products/bigip_ltm/manuals/product/tmos_management_guide_10_1/tmos_arp.html https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/3000/500/sol3523.html https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/3000/500/sol3523.html

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F5 Fundamentals Resource Guide

Network layer
IP and host addressing, routing, packet traversing Book: The TCP/IP Guide, Kozierok http://www.tcpipguide.com/ http://www.tenouk.com/download/pdf/Module42.pdf http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/gg243376.pdf https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/products/big-ip_ltm/manuals/product/tmos-ip-routingadministration-11-2-0.html https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/13000/200/sol13284.html

Transport layer
TCP, UDP concepts Book: The TCP/IP Guide, Kozierok http://www.tcpipguide.com/ http://www.osischool.com/protocol/tcp/three-way-handshake http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/8000/000/sol8082.html http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/7000/500/sol7559.html http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/7000/500/sol7535.html http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/1000/800/sol1893.html

Application layer
HTTP concepts, SIP, SMTP, DNS Book: The TCP/IP Guide, Kozierok http://www.tcpipguide.com/ http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/products/bigip_ltm/manuals/product/ltm_configuration_guide_10_1/ltm_services_profiles.html?sr=20 797034#1226979 http://www.f5.com/pdf/white-papers/sip-defined-wp.pdf http://www.f5.com/pdf/white-papers/http-fundamentals-wp.pdf Book: DNS and Bind, Liu http://www.amazon.com/DNS-BIND-CricketLiu/dp/1565925122 RFC 2616 (HTTP): http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2616.txt

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F5 Fundamentals Resource Guide

Positive and Negative Security

Concepts and examples https://devcentral.f5.com/Tutorials/TechTips/tabid/63/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/10 88520/F5-Security-on-Owasp-Top-10.aspx https://devcentral.f5.com/Community/GroupDetails/tabid/1082223/asg/39/aff/47/showtab /groupforums/Default.aspx

Cryptographic services
http://www.f5.com/pdf/white-papers/authentication-101-tb.pdf

IPSec and SSL

SSL Concepts, termination, client SSL, acceleration
Book: SSL and TLS, Eric Rescorla, http://www.amazon.com/SSL-TLS-DesigningBuilding-Systems/dp/0201615983 LTM Essentials, Module 7 on F5 University http://eprint.iacr.org/2004/314.pdf https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/10000/100/sol10167.html https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/11000/200/sol11220.htm https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/10000/200/sol10209.html

F5 Solutions & Technology

Whitepapers and data sheets http://www.f5.com/solutions/resources/white-papers.html http://www.f5.com/solutions/resources/datasheets/

iRules
Best practices, examples, wiki groups

https://devcentral.f5.com/wiki/iRules.HomePage.ashx

iApps
Best practices, examples, wiki groups

2012 F5 Networks, Inc.

F5 Fundamentals Resource Guide https://devcentral.f5.com/wiki/iApp.HomePage.ashx

iControl
Best practices, examples, wiki groups https://devcentral.f5.com/default.aspx?tabid=76 https://devcentral.f5.com/wiki/iControl.HomePage.ashx

Proxy & Packet based Architectures

LTM architecture LTM Essentials, Modules 1 and 2 on F5 University http://www.f5.com/pdf/products/big-ip-local-traffic-manager-overview.pdf https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/7000/800/sol7820.html https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/7000/700/sol7751.html https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/11000/700/sol11796.html https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/7000/700/sol7752.html https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/12000/200/sol12272.html https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/13000/400/sol13444.html

High Availability
Redundant pair concepts, setup, and synchronization

LTM Essentials, Module 10 on F5 University https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/7000/000/sol7024.html https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/11000/700/sol11736.html https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/7000/200/sol7222.html https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/13000/200/sol13297.html

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Load Balancing
Load balancing methods, configuration LTM Essentials, Module 3 on F5 University http://www.f5.com/pdf/white-papers/load-balancing101-wp.pdf https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/6000/400/sol6406.html https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/9000/100/sol9125.html https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/12000/100/sol12105.html

Client Server roles and protocol

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/sloan-school-of-management/15-564-information-technology http://www.protocols.com/

Web Application Delivery Platforms (VM and HW Based)

Hypervisors, supported platforms, virtualization http://www.f5.com/solutions/virtualization/ http://www.vmguru.nl/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Hypervisorcomparison.pdf

Acceleration techniques
https://devcentral.f5.com/weblogs/macvittie/category/4335.aspx http://www.f5.com/solutions/acceleration/ http://www.f5.com/pdf/white-papers/acceleration-101-wp.pdf http://www.f5.com/pdf/white-papers/acceleration-102-wp.pdf

2012 F5 Networks, Inc.