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Forum Discussion

Tim_Watts_29480's avatar
Tim_Watts_29480
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Oct 10, 2016

F5 - is it just a reverse proxy (as far as fronting 100 webservers)

Hi,   I have someone trying to sell me the virtues of F5 loadbalancers, so I can present 100+ virtual servers running webservers on a single public (aka publically routeable) IPv4 address instead ...
application delivery
BIG-IP
security
Hannes_Rapp's avatar
Hannes_Rapp
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Oct 13, 2016

F5 is a monstrosity octopus. Does almost anything.

 

However, it's recommended to only pick the features you actually need. The "best license bundle" could mislead people into using all the available modules, and that would be a horrible idea outside lab scenario.

 

My best advice to newcomers looking to use F5 is to use 1-4 modules PER CLUSTER, never more than that. If you want to use more modules, get yourself another cluster for the extra features.

 

  • Hannes_Rapp's avatar
    Hannes_Rapp
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Oct 13, 2016

    Was asked to clarify this.

     

    Why I advise to keep the number of provisioned BigIP modules to 4 or less than that (even when there are no capacity constraints) ? If I had to pick just one reason - retain better chances for seamless software upgrades. If I had to pick two - my second reason is the overall appliance stability.

     

    After X number of tools, Swiss Knives get too bulky and lose their appeal :)

     

  • JG's avatar
    JG
    Icon for Cumulonimbus rankCumulonimbus
    Oct 14, 2016

    As with everything, there is the need to identify first the business need, or what problems one is to solve. The choice of product will then be much clearer.