Yes! I can finally say that I have survived the one thing that haunts me and that is a certification that involves passing two exams and one that requires you pass the first exam to be eligible for the second exam. I have always preferred the one exam per certification route but I can say that I learned a lot with this path. I will try to provide what I used for both exams in the hope it will help someone who is looking to tackle this certification.
My F5 Background
Let us begin by saying that I am not new to the F5 BIG-IP nor to many of its modules. I was exposed to the BIG-IP as a SQL developer where our main relational database was being load balanced behind one of its virtual servers. One day, I had the opportunity to log in (basically the only one who was around) and had no idea how to navigate. A few years later, I would have the opportunity to manage one. This eventually turned into fourteen but things tend to multiply.
I was lucky enough to get plenty of hands-on with Local Traffic Manager, BIG-IP DNS (GTM for the old people – me included), Access Policy Manager, and Application Security Manager. This definitely made it easier for me to learn how the BIG-IP worked and how each module fit into the overall plan F5 has with making applications go faster and become more secure (applications, not the control plane CVE in 2020). It’s not impossible to pass an exam without having physical access to the BIG-IP but it definitely helps.
Let’s Talk Exams
There are two exams required to achieve the LTM certification, which is at the 300-level. The certification team at F5 actually does a great job at providing the necessary info on requirements as well as resources to study materials. While there are no official study guides for the 300-level exams, the F5 certification team provides exam blueprints as well as access to practice exams for each exam. I’ll explain where to find those later but here is an interactive guide to prerequisites for each exam.
Exam 301A – Where It All Begins
This exam will measure your ability to set up a BIG-IP device in multiple ways (i.e. Standalone, Active/Standby, or Active/Active), architect the BIG-IP so that it fits into an existing network, as well as deploying applications behind it using the many configuration options the device provides.
If you have experience in onboarding a BIG-IP into an existing network, deploying applications behind different types of virtual servers, setting up high availability with multiple BIG-IP devices, you should not have an issue with at least being in the ball park to pass this exam (minimum score of 245). Depending on your environment and exposure will determine how much you need to study.
I started out in an environment where everything was simple and had very little segmentation so no way I was passing this exam. I am no in an environment where I am exposed to more than just a standard virtual server and round robin load balancing. The Exam Blueprint can be found here so take a peek and see if there are any items that you need to do some more research.
ProTip: If you pass 301A, I would not post that you are 301A certified. Dr. Ken will be in your comments quickly to tell you this.
Exam 301B – Last Person Standing
Passing this exam will get you pass the finish line and that really nice looking purple badge! I mean that’s really what you’re after right?
This exam will test your ability to troubleshoot issues with the BIG-IP devices and application configurations. This can be anything from consolidation of redundant or unused items in an existing configuration, deploying custom alerting (I see you MIBs), upgrades and rollbacks (ouch!), and profile modifications. Time is not your friend on this one. Troubleshooting can be time consuming and these questions are no different. Again, having some experience in a production environment will help (a lot) but still not impossible if you have access to a lab. But remember, passing this will get you that fancy badge so good luck!
Oh…before I forget, you can find the Exam Blueprint here but there was a nice blog post that I found where someone was kind enough to put some information to some of the items in the blueprint. I would personally like to give “Erik” a shoutout because his blog actually filled in some gaps for me. Check it out (not spam!).
Other Study Items That Really Help…I promise!
Practice Exams
There is a practice exam for each F5 exam so both 301A and 301B both have their own exams. My personal method is to buy two ($40) and while there is only one exam, I take one early on in the study process and one before I take the exam. The questions do not appear on the exam but they do, at least, give you an idea on how the questions are formatted. This is a big part of the exam process, in my opinion. They are provided by Exam Studio Online and are located here. I do believe that this ties in with your candidate login information but don’t quote me on that. It’s been a bit since I signed up and I can barely remember my password and username.
I do recommend at least purchasing one ($25) unless you like to live dangerously and if that is the case, rock on!
Labs
While I’m lucky to have access to actual devices, I know some don’t. However, I have deployed some personal devices in Amazon Web Services where you can only pay for the time that they are running (so make sure to turn them off!). This can be helpful to learn the GUI or run TMSH commands to help with learning. You are definitely going to want some hands-on experience with these because as you navigate through the GUI and command line, you can see how items relate such as how “/sys” at the command line corresponds to the “System” section in the GUI or how “/net” allows you to list the interfaces on the BIG-IP similar to how you can see them in the “Network” section. See where I am going? It helps…trust me.
AskF5
The last resource I used and really in conjunction with the labs section is AskF5. This is a great resource that will explain configuration options for a profile, tell you the default value, and even provide some “gotcha” items in the event you plan to change a value on a profile, for example. I used these quite a bit when I wanted to learn more about certain items in a given profile or configuration that you do not configure regularly or at all. Here is an example of what it might look like:
What I like most is that you can see how often it’s updated and which version of the BIG-IP software it might apply to.
In Conclusion
My only hope for this blog post is to provide some sort of insight into what it takes to become certified with Local Traffic Manager as well as give some tips that helped me pass these exams while also minimizing spelling and grammar errors.
At the end of the day, you should take these exams because you want to and not because you feel like you have to. I use certifications as a way to keep me honest while I am learning, otherwise I feel like I would not put as much effort into it. Take them for yourself because you want to learn and not because you feel like it will validate what you know.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post and I wish you good luck!
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