Scale, Enhance, and Evolve BIG-IP Administration-Getting Started
Modern BIG-IP environments are increasingly more dynamic, requiring different methods to scale administration beyond traditional UI-based click ops management. This begs the question: How can BIG-IP admins enable rapid, consistent, and auditable infrastructure management and configuration workflows?
This article and the accompanying 4-video series answer this question and show BIG-IP operators how to adopt scalable practices for BIG-IP management. Whether you’re starting out or already building automation pipelines, these resources will show you how to use real-world strategies starting with built-in BIG-IP tools like LTM policies and iRules. They will then move you to more advanced topics like Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) and GitOps workflows with Terraform and Ansible.
In this series, we'll provide context and practical examples (with sample scripts) of how to use these BIG-IP administration strategies to:
- Streamline daily operations
- Reduce manual overhead
- Improve the consistency of your BIG-IP environment
These resources will cover how to do all this using the BIG-IP UI, APIs and familiar scripting tools.
The videos can be found below in the following four learning modules:
Foundation
The starting point for automation. This module introduces Local Traffic Manager (LTM) policies, iRules, AS3, and iControl REST—and provides you with a clear breakdown of what each approach is best suited for. It also covers developer-friendly tooling like the Visual Studio Code F5 Extension and highlights best practices approaches to visibility, monitoring and troubleshooting, enabling you to build an audit trail before going “full automation."
Automation with Terraform and Ansible
This module focuses on using Terraform to provision infrastructure (cloud instances, networks, and BIG-IP devices) and Ansible to manage configuration (pools, monitors, virtual servers). You’ll also learn how to integrate both tools into CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins), and how to automate failover and logging workflows with structured templates.
GitOps & Infrastructure-as-Code
Here, you’ll explore version-controlled BIG-IP configurations stored in Git, and how to automate deployments through GitLab pipelines. You’ll also see examples of secrets handling, rollback strategies, and policy enforcement using various tools. These patterns make BIG-IP configuration changes trackable, testable, and secure.
Automation Lifecycle Management
This last module zooms out to look at a holistic automation strategy. You'll explore how to define goals, evaluate risk/reward, and select the right processes to automate based on your team’s maturity. You'll also learn how to monitor and troubleshoot your automation efforts using tools like BIG-IQ, iHealth, and external platforms like Datadog or Splunk. The emphasis here is not just on deployment—but also on visibility, rollback, and long-term operational health.
Next Steps
There are multiple ways to scale BIG-IP operations depending on your starting point. For some teams, that may mean leveraging the UI and policy-based tools to reduce human error. For others, it’s about scripting repeatable workflows with Terraform and Ansible or implementing full GitOps pipelines for declarative, test-driven delivery.
Start by reviewing the module videos to see real-world demos of each approach. Then explore the accompanying assets and examples in our supplementary Automation GitHub repository. Be sure to follow the Github—we'll be adding reusable Terraform modules, Ansible playbooks, Jenkins pipelines, and AS3 declarations that can be adapted to your environment.
Every organization’s maturity is different; your org’s preferred approach to automation may be as well. The key is finding the right mix of tools—whether UI-driven, script-based, or fully integrated into CI/CD pipelines—giving your team visibility, control, and confidence to effectively administrate BIG-IP environments at scale.
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