Introducing the F5 AI Assistant for BIG-IP

iRules have long been one of F5’s biggest differentiators and one of the main reasons for its success. The ability to manipulate data in flight in an almost unrestricted way is unmatched in the industry. It has been leveraged for almost every conceivable purpose, from small tweaks like HTTP header modifications to the implementation of new features. It’s no wonder that more than 85% of BIG-IP customers use iRules.

iRules come with their own challenges: they are based on TCL, an excellent scripting language for its purpose, but it doesn’t have many users, so the knowledge pool is restricted. While writing simple iRules is very straightforward and intuitive, more complex iRules require a deep understanding of TMM, and this can be particularly challenging. Many iRules were actually developed to (temporarily) patch problems with the back-end servers but were so successful that they turned into permanent fixes. The downside is that the hastily developed scripts might not have been properly documented. This poses an additional challenge regarding their support by unfamiliar Ops teams.

All these challenges can be overcome by allocating in-depth training and provisioning more time to analyze the code. However, Ops team reaction time will likely be affected. Since speed a a critical ingredient for the success of any Ops team, F5 designed the AI Assistant for BIG-IP to automate the creation, maintenance, and optimization of iRules, reducing the time and resources required for iRules management, while reducing errors and ensuring a more reliable and consistent experience.

F5’s AI Assistant for BIG-IP uses Generative AI to deliver a natural language interface for BIG-IP iRules that can:

Analyze existing iRules to summarize their purpose, components, and structure
Generate new iRules based off business and application requirements
Provide more context on iRules events and commands

Let’s see a demo of F5’s AI Assistant for BIG-IP:

Conclusion

F5 AI Assistant for BIG-IP aims to accelerate the creation of new iRules and simply their management, making traffic management and security more accessible and efficient than ever before.