IRULE DEVELOPMENT COURSE

[Deepak_Nair]

Hi FOLKS ,

How good is the irule development course ? should I consider taking 3-day class training or there are other resource over internet or any book from F5 I should consider ?

Also , is it worth deep diving with irule which uses TCL scripting as oppose to irule-LX which is java based ? I believe this is the roadway F5 now considering for future by using irule LX .

Please advise !

Thanks

[Nikoolayy1]

Didn't you google and find https://devcentral.f5.com/s/articles/irules-101-01-introduction-to-irules as it is one of the first google searches when you write "irule training"? This is really good community training for something that is free. If you want more then I think you need the paid official courses.

[Deepak_Nair]

yup agree . What I was talking about the official vendor training where they will walk you through some scenario with lab examples . This will instructor led focussing specially on irule requirement and developing an optimised code for traffic processing through the device .

This is the course curriculum :

F5 Developing iRules for BIG-IP

DURATION 3 Days AUDIENCE

OVERVIEW

PREREQUISITES TOPICS COVERED

This course is intended for system administrators, network administra- tors and application developers responsible for the customization of traffic flow through a BIG-IP system.

This course provides networking professionals a functional understand- ing of iRules development. The course builds on the foundation of the Administering BIG-IP course, demonstrating how to logically plan and write iRules to help monitor and manage common tasks involved with processing traffic on the BIG-IP. Course Labs consist of writing, applying and evaluating the effect of iRules on LTM traffic. This hands-on course includes lectures, labs, and discussions.

Completion of Administering BIG-IP or Configuring BIG-IP LTM is required before attendance in this course.

TOPICS COVERED

• Setting up the BIG-IP system
•  Getting started with iRules
•  Using the iRules Editor
•  Leveraging DevCentral resources for iRule development
•  Exploring iRule elements, including events, functions, commands,
• variables, and operators
•  Using control structures for branching and looping
•  Mastering whitespace, grouping, and special symbols
•  Logging from an iRule using syslog-ng and high-speed logging
• (HSL)
•  Optimizing iRules execution, including implementing efficiency best
• practices
•  Modularizing iRules for administrative efficiency, including using
• procedures

[Deepak_Nair]

Has anyone taken this course ?? How was your experience and how it benefit your skill in terms of irule development based on business requirement .

I am having a moderate experience with irule , understanding on requirement . But dont have optimisation skill and how to create a good code based on business requirement .

Please advice .

[Nikoolayy1]

It is good but it was a long time ago.

As I see F5 does not have iRulesLX course in https://www.f5.com/services/training/training-courses-and-classes , so I think the F5 uses iRulesLX and iControlLX for AS3 automation and making wizards and special GUI (the F5 APM fast deployment wizards and SSL Orchestrator GUI and F5 ASM DDOS wizards I think are based on this) and the users like us for now will still will use the old iRules. Still for iRulesLX for general idea this is good:

https://devcentral.f5.com/s/articles/getting-started-with-irules-lx-introduction-conceptual-overview...

[Deepak_Nair]

Hi Nikoolayy1 ,

What do you meant by "It is good but it was a long time ago." ??

If I understood correctly from your response irule still gonna stay for traffic manipulation for LTM module or possibly for GTM as well for coming years .

So you recommend to still take this course( if available ) is beneficial in some way ?

Thanks

[Nikoolayy1]

It was good when I took it on version 11. If you take the new version, you can share with the community if it was worth it.

[Deepak_Nair]

Thanks Nikoolayy1 , I am considering to take the latest course . I will share the update once I finish the course and let community know my experience .

Thank you !

[Nikoolayy1]

Thanks. Deepak can yo mark the session as closed if you don't have anything else to ask?

[Deepak_Nair]

Thanks   for helping me out with queries . Much appreciated .

[crodriguez]

As the developer and an instructor for F5’s 3-day iRules course, perhaps my viewpoint is a bit biased. But I have to say it’s one of the most fun courses our instructors and partners teach, and it gives you, the student, an opportunity to experiment freely in an environment that is free from the constraints of production. It includes a lot of hands on labs where you can experiment with iRules in many different ways. It is an intensive and immersive course.

Having said that, the iRules tutorials available on DevCentral are a really good place to get started with iRules development. also, there is a brief iRules section in the free Getting started with BIG-IP| LTM course. (seehttps://www.f5.com/services/training/free-training-courses/getting-started-with-big-ip-local-traffic... ) And very soon here, we will make available some paid self-paced iRules training that includes hands on labs where you can put your skills to the test.

[Deepak_Nair]

Thanks   for your valuable response . I am looking forward to attend this course .

[Gurus]

Deepak, I seriously recommend taking the instructor-led irule development course if you are new to development. It teaches a great deal about basics. For example how to code efficiently and how to improve the performance of your irule with the right operators, statements, and methods.

For example, you can view the results of your timing tests using the following TMSH command: 

tmsh show /ltm rule <rule-name> [raw]