COVID-19 Response: F5 Certifications Q&A
F5 knows that COVID-19 restrictions greatly affect your ability to schedule and attend exam certification appointments. No candidate will lose certification as a result of these extraordinary events. AskF5 published K25023468: COVID-19 update for F5 Certifications, which provides answers to the following questions: What is F5 going to do to solve this? I got notified that my certification is expiring/expired, but I cannot schedule an exam; what am I supposed to do? Why can’t you just extend certifications to stop the messages and prevent the certifications from reporting as expiring/expired? Will F5 implement online proctored exams like some other organizations are doing?Attempting the new path to BIG-IP Certified Administrator
A couple weeks ago I had kjsalchow on for an episode of DevCentral Connects, which you can watch at your pleasure here: I had reached out to Ken and HeidiSchreifels after one our MVPs made a comment on this new path toward certification. I missed the memo (Heidi's article here), but this was big news and I knew we needed to have a conversation with the community. During our chat, Ken mentioned that all five beta tests required to earn your BIG-IP Certified Administrator would be available on-site at AppWorld (as would the recertification test available to ANYONE who has previously held the cert) and that he needed more people to start at #5 and work backwards. And so I did. I had time Tuesday morning before "The Hub" opening party kicked things off, so I knocked out all five beta tests. Here are my thoughts about the experience. I went in completely blind. I did not study, (but the blueprint is here for you) and I did not do the prep work to get my device ready for testing. I did pre-register for tests #3 - #5. When I arrived at the room, the cert team did a great job helping me get the tools set up on my laptop. The test environment downloads a secure browsing session, and there are some known issues with company laptops that lock things down, so you might be best suited to test from a personal laptop. To my knowledge in discussions with them, tablets are not supported. The certiverse delivery was great. Strong improvement from what I recall for the previous versions. Seeing the questions and the diagrams and being able to reference back and forth was far easier to assess the challenges. I always try to use the flagging system for review and that worked great. As this was a beta, I took extra time to provide feedback. For the betas, I had a range of questions from I think 39 to 58 across the five tests and an hour to complete each. For production tests, I believe that will be 30/30. None of them concerned me on time. I really liked the breakdown in the new format. This allows you to progress through the material when studying without having to keep it all upstairs for one test. BIG-IP Administration Install, Initial Configuration, and Upgrade BIG-IP Administration Data Plane Concepts BIG-IP Administration Data Plane Configuration BIG-IP Administration Control Plane Administration BIG-IP Administration Support and Troubleshooting I felt pretty good about the analysis questions, that stuff is pretty cemented in my brain. I work mostly with the BIG-IP APIs now, so I'm less solid on specific tmsh commands or tmui click paths. I put myself in the cone of shame on a few questions because I filmed lightboard lessons for them but I wasn't confident in the right answer. All that said, I have no idea if I passed them, but I think I hit minimally viable candidate on four of them? As they were betas, there were some questions that probably need to be removed, and some questions might need to be refined a little. This is where the always fascinating psychometrics come into play. But for the most part, I though they were a good summary of the knowledge one should have for basic administration. I got the first three tests completed quickly enough to take the other two. Registering for them on-site and jumping into them was painless. The cert team is the bomb-diggity. They're so helpful, friendly, encouraging, and super eager to make everyone successful. It's always a pleasure to cross paths with them! The downside of betas is they are not scored immediately, so I have to wait. Jason does not like waiting... How about you, community? Anyone else take the betas for the refreshed BIG-IP Certified Administrator (or the recertifying exam) and want to share your experience?
F5 Certifications Mega Meta Series: How to take the stress out of the F5 exams
F5's certification exams are awesome; a good way to test and prove your skills and worldwide recognized. But they are not easy! And neither should they be. Unfortunately, because of their structure and time limits, many people struggle to pass them or simply don't want to take them. There are many people out there that are brilliant with F5's, but don’t have anything to show for it. Not to say that everyone should have the certification, but if you know your stuff and you want to show it, there shouldn't be anything stopping you. In this series of articles, I will go into the details of how the exams are developed (...as far as I know at least), and how I think you can improve your chances of passing them. With some preparation and the right mind set, everyone can have a better chance of passing these exams and show them off to the world! After all, the exams should not be a test to see if you can work under pressure (you can leave that to your boss), but instead to prove that you know your F5's! Guest Author: Alex Tijhuis An evangelist for anything software designed and security, and a self-described massive network geek, Alex is an F5 trainer and consultant at ABCT.net. While certified and highly skilled and interested in all things F5, he's just as happy pulling cables in a data center and designing scalable systems as he is messing around with the latest cool kids toys our fine industry has to offer. ...and why should I listen to you? After saying bye to the railways in 2009, I picked up my old hobby of networking, by studying for Cisco’s CCNP and CCDP exams. I loved every minute of it, and loved the technology, but unfortunately, as this was the height of the financial crisis, nobody was looking for Cisco engineers that couldn’t prove they have practical experience. More than once did recruiters hang up on me mid-sentence; “Well, I can’t prove my experience, but I do have the certific….”. Even to recruiters it was clear that having the certificates on their own is not good enough. Anyway, luckily I got employed in a small town of rural England on a European wide helpdesk that looked after basically all vendors similar to Cisco, apart from Cisco itself. And as the company had to have a certain level of certified engineers in various technologies, the deal with my manager was simple; he will keep sending me on training courses, as long as I keep passing the exams. Oh, and those Cisco certs? “Yeah, they’re nice, but only tells me that you have an interest in the technology, not that you actually know your stuff…” So, over the next couple of years I turned in to a certification monkey; Juniper JNCIS-Sec, JNCIS-Ent, JNCIS-SSL, PaloAlto ACE, BlueCoat BCCPP, Checkpoint CCSA, VMware VCP-NV, Ruckus WiseGuy, I’ve done them all… With varying levels of success and enjoyment, but one thing clear between all of them; as long as I read the book and followed the standard course, I could pass them! So when F5 brought out their new certification program, there was one sucker in particular that was kindly but firmly asked to pass the exams. Gmbmglrmlbn… stupid F5’s, I don’t like that stuff… bgmbmrrn…. Ok… (Ross, if you are reading this, I still owe you my gratitude for “forcing” me into F5… ;) When starting to get stuck into this technology, one thing became clear early on; just sitting on training courses and reading the books didn’t make me pass them! Hmm, that’s a new one! Although to be fair, the 101 I passed roughly based on all my previous knowledge and hardly picking up a book – that already showed me the opposite is true as well; if you know your stuff, you don’t have to study! Moving through the exams and the structure, I also started to enjoy working with the kit and now I can’t leave it alone. This prompted me to move from helpdesk to presales, to training and consultancies. From someone who hated F5 to someone who’s just a massive fanboy – that’s my life… Having passed 401 and 402 and all intermediate exams (including the elusive 202!), I look back at these exams and compare them to all the other ones I’ve done, I can honestly say that these are the best structured and most worthwhile exams out there. There are exams out there that are purely paper exercises, some that are nothing more than a checkbox exercise and some that are purely there to generate cash. Not to say there are no other worthwhile exams out there, but the F5 program is definitely one of the better ones! …so what’s your idea? I’d like to tell you about my experiences running through all kinds of exams, and in particular F5 exams and how to best prepare yourself for them, and give yourself the best opportunity to make sure that your technical knowledge prevails during your actual exam, rather than your fears, stress and other distractions. With my lovely wife now having been infected with the F5 bug as well, and having started her own certification path – or maybe she just does it so I may finally shut up about it… - I thought I might as well write all this down. Dr. Ken Says... The only comment I have here is in regard to the statement, “the exams should not be a test to see if you can work under pressure”. While I believe the sentiment was well-founded, it is not entirely correct. Time constraint is absolutely an element of our assessment process; thus, some amount of “work[ing] under pressure” is inherently present. “Expert” practitioners generally require less time to evaluate and apply their knowledge; they require less “input” in order to identify the scope of the problem, the key aspects affecting the problem, and the likely causes. As such, we have intentionally limited the amount of time on our exams to better identify those that can consistently perform within an “average” amount of time, versus those that get stuck. This is a key element of the assessment process. At the end of the day, when an employer sees someone with an F5 certification, they should know that the individual can consistently solve problems in an efficient manner, saving time/money in the long-run. We think this adds significant value in having our certifications. Over the next weeks, I’ll be highlighting the best ways to prepare yourself for the exam, how the exam development process works, how this helps you better understand the exam, and how to deal with time pressure. I will keep my technical recommendations to a minimum, simply because there are lots of good resources available out there that can help with that, and I rather focus on various areas of the “softer” side of the exam. Of course, if anyone DOES want to talk more about the technical side of it, I’m all ears! I hope these articles are useful, and just as a disclaimer; all notes and opinions in these articles are mine and mine alone. Hopefully you (and F5?) agree with them, but if not, please do not hesitate to let me know. May the 401 be with you!What's New with F5 Certification?
Big changes are coming to F5 Certification, and we’re here to break it all down! On this episode of DevCentral Connects, Jason welcomes back Dr. Ken Salchow to discuss the education services portal and exciting changes to the certification exam structure and how this shift will benefit you. Join us live Feb 13th at 8am pacific with your questions!F5 Certifications Mega Meta Series: Flag your way through the exam without raising the white one
In this series of articles, I will go into the details of how the exams are developed (...as far as I know at least), and how I think you can improve your chances of passing them. In this article, I will share with you a tool of the gods: the flag. It's such a simple function; put a little flag on the screen to keep your place. Knowing how you can get the most out of it can make the difference between you stressing all the way through and sitting there relaxed as if you were filling in a questionnaire about the sandwich you just had. Guest Author: Alex Tijhuis An evangelist for anything software designed and security, and a self-described massive network geek, Alex is an F5 trainer and consultant at ABCT.net. While certified and highly skilled and interested in all things F5, he's just as happy pulling cables in a data center and designing scalable systems as he is messing around with the latest cool kids toys our fine industry has to offer. Let’s back up a bit first Many moons ago when I was working through my Cisco exams, there used to be as multiple choice questions as well as “Simlets” – small simulation items that were checking if you knew the procedure for configuring certain items. I don’t know if Cisco exams still have them, but I used to dread them. You would have about 3 or 4 of them in an exam, and you would have to configure something in a simulation, or fix a problem. You wouldn’t know at which question they would pop up and because they were supposedly quite heavily scored, it means that missing one will already reduce your chances of passing. Missing two and you’d better be REALLY good at the rest. One fateful day, sitting one of the CCNP module exams, I believe I got 3 of them within my first 5 questions! Oh bugger… Of my 90 minutes, I think I only had 45 or so minutes left when I got passed them; I didn’t want to skip them because of their importance, but I also didn’t want to spend too much time on them. Oh, did I mention you can’t go back to questions in these exams once you have answered them? I wasn’t looking like a happy bunny when I finally got passed those first 5 questions. I might as well have given up right there and then as there was no chance of keeping my stress levels under control after that – what a waste… To be fair to the exams, I did pass this test a few weeks later, and this particular scenario only happened to me once, but it almost felt like being cheated out of a “pass”. This is one of the reasons why I appreciate the option to go back to previous questions in F5 exams so much more. If you have a difficult question, or don’t want to spend the time on reading something right now, no problem! Flag the item, select an answer if you wish, and move on! At the end of the exam, you get a review screen where you get a chance to revisit all your questions and see how many you have answered, how many you have flagged and how much time you have left. The only thing that’s missing here is an overview of how many questions you have right – wouldn’t that be helpful! Let’s talk strategy! So, here is my plan; when I start the exam, I answer all the short and simple questions. Any large question with exhibits or large pieces of text, I just flag and move on. Any short question that I have read and THINK I may know, I answer and also flag. After about half the exam time, I then end up on the final review screen. There is something serene about this screen for some reason – seeing it drops my stress levels and gives me a moment to breathe. This might also be a good moment to indeed take a deep breath; congratulations on not failing so far! My review screen should now roughly be filled with 20-30% of questions unanswered, and 40-50% of questions flagged. First, let’s have a look at the unanswered questions – if anything, those are you easy points. Now is the time to read them properly and pick a sensible answer. If you still can’t figure out the right answer, no problem! At least pick the best suiting answer, but leave the flag. Get back to the review screen and pick another one. Remember, there is no penalty for going back to the same question again and again – other than a small time penalty when you find out you’ve already tried that one. Work your way through these unanswered questions and remove the flags of any answers you are happy with. Of that 30% unanswered questions, you should now have all of them answered, and most of them will no longer be flagged. So, all the flagged questions you have left now - probably still about 25% of all questions - are questions you have seen before, have taken the time to read them and given it your best shot. Let’s now revisit this lot, one by one and review the questions again. This is where you may want to make a bit of a judgement call depending on how much time you have left. If you have lots of time left (i.e. more than 10 minutes), take your time to read through these questions again and see if you can come up with a better answer. If you only have a few minutes left, unflag any question that you know you are struggling with and are unlikely to improve in any way and use the time you have left on the questions that you DO have a chance with. Of course, also keep in mind that often when you revisit a question and don’t quite read the whole question, you may end up misreading it and changing the answer to the WRONG answer… - so don’t rush! All questions already have an answer and you should already have passed, so whatever you are doing now, is purely for bonus points. Lastly, with this strategy, I also don’t expect to be able revisit all flagged items. During my last recertification – I believe it was the 402 again, I ran out of time with still about 10-20 questions flagged for review. I was absolutely knackered, but I passed! Remember, they are not testing if you can have everything right, they are testing if you are good enough to call yourself an F5 specialist! Flagging for Professionals Here is a tip for anyone going for the 400-level exams; how to deal with Case Studies! Case studies are sets of questions that are all based around the same company/scenario. You need to read the scenario first, then read the questions and pick an answer. As I understand it, F5 has tried to put all case study questions at the same spot in the exam, but apparently the exam software doesn’t allow for this. As such, you may get case study questions dotted around the exam, which means you need to read the whole case before you are able to remember the details you need and answer the questions – quite a waste of time. How about you try this; the moment I find one of these, I put them on my notes paper (you should get a few pages before entering the exam room), and make a note of the exam question number, and which case study it is for. Flag and move on, don’t try to read it, remember it or glance at it – LEAVE IT! Once you are at the review screen, you can then pick up all questions from a specific case study at once; you take your time to read through the text and “easily” answer all the questions. Doing it in this way, will also make it less likely that you start confusing the different case studies and scenarios. So, that’s it. If you now come to the end of this article and were expecting some grand finale, my apologies. None of these tips are really shocking or brilliantly thought out. But at least in my experience, these little things can make the difference between dreading the process and just waiting for the exam to be over and being comfortable and having a good chance in making it. Let’s see who can use the most flags! Dr. Ken Says... I have suggested many of these strategies over the years based on my own test-taking experiences, so I’m glad that at least one person also finds them useful. One thing I will point out is that, at least in the current exam structure, all the questions are equal in value, and the passing score is determined by the overall number of correct questions. That is to say, you need to correctly answer a certain number of questions, but it doesn’t really matter which questions they are, or that you have to even answer all of the questions in order to pass the exam. I point this out because, when it comes to time management, it can help ease the tension (and improve the score) if you follow some of these tips. By answering all the “easy” questions first, you not only save up extra time for the harder/longer questions, but you increase the likelihood of maximizing the number of correct “easy” items. Then, with the extra time you have, you can knock out the rest. If you run out of time … you’ve at least answered the bulk of the questions and may not even need the remaining ones. While this may seem like “gaming the system”, we: a) know many of our candidates will do everything they can to do so anyway (it’ kind of our nature); and, b) our exams are designed in such a way that it shouldn’t make any difference in terms of passing someone who isn’t qualified. We only care about how you do on the assessment “overall”, not how you approach it.F5 Certifications Mega Meta Series: Congratulations, you have failed!
In this series of articles, I will go into the details of how the exams are developed (...as far as I know at least), and how I think you can improve your chances of passing them. Everyone fails an exam every now and then - my exam history is a definite testament to that. If you never fail an exam, I suspect you spend more time on preparing for an exam than you really should. Let’s have a look at some of things you can do so that it doesn’t happen too often though. Guest Author: Alex Tijhuis An evangelist for anything software designed and security, and a self-described massive network geek, Alex is an F5 trainer and consultant at ABCT.net. While certified and highly skilled and interested in all things F5, he's just as happy pulling cables in a data center and designing scalable systems as he is messing around with the latest cool kids toys our fine industry has to offer. Let’s try again! F5’s exam policy (https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K90101564) stipulates when you are allowed to retake exams again; wait 15 days after first fail, 30 days after second, 45 after third and a year after fourth. This has been done to ensure that nobody will keep doing the exam in the hope of memorizing questions and passing by accident. I quite agree with that. Still, everyone can have a bad day, and everyone will fail every now and then – as I said, my own exam history is a perfect example of that. But when you fail, don’t let that keep you from trying again! Here is how I look at the number of tries: First time failed? Meh, nobody cares, everyone fails now and then. Brush up on what you think may be missing and see if you can find some other sources of material. Second time failed? Not to worry, hope you have recognised the areas that you need to focus on and you better rebuild some of the scenarios in your lab or find some more study material for those areas. Third time failed? Okay, you really need to straighten up now and prove that you are actually trying! Fourth fail? You may want to rethink your career plans. I will leave it up to you to decide when is a good time to try again, but don’t put it off too far, or it will be “conveniently” forgotten about. If it was worth doing it a first time, it’s worth trying again. “It is better to have tried and failed, than to have never tried at all” Wait, is that how that saying goes? But it is right. I’m not saying waste your tries, but don’t hold back either, failing isn’t such a bad thing! Learn from your mistakes Although your initial result at the exam centre doesn’t tell you your score, once the results have been uploaded to F5, you should find your exam score in the Exam History section of the Certification portal (https://certification.f5.com/). I believe that nowadays the exam score runs from 100-350 points with 245 (or in hex…F5!) being the passing mark. It’s not much consolation, but knowing how close you are to the passing mark, gives you an indication of how much extra work you should be putting into preparing for the next time. If you were close to the pass mark, you should have a good feeling of which questions you were struggling with and what topics you didn’t know enough about. If you can’t remember, it's likely that everything was difficult and you are best off starting from the beginning again. Remember, these exams are designed to distinguish between those who can and those who cannot. So if you were just “wingin’ it”, you'll get beaten up by the exam. Go back to the blueprint and see if you can match up those topics you were struggling with. That’s your starting point for the next phase. What to change? When you are going back to your study material to find out what you have missed, don’t stick with just the same material. My daughter being a prime example who keeps doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. “But I’m trying!” No you’re not, you are just too stubborn to stand back for a few seconds and think about what you are trying to do, and changing it if needed – oh how I recognise my younger self in her... Just like the hackers that are trying to attack your F5 really. If they notice that an attack doesn’t work, they will change their approach – no point in trying something that doesn’t work. So should you change tack too. The material you may be using might not be of the level you require. Maybe you are just not understanding what the material is trying say, or the material is simply not covering the topics that you need. Find some other resources to study, ask some other people for help and build out some more scenarios in your lab. If you do this right, I am certain that there will be a few times that you say “aaahhh, of course, that’s what I missed” when you go through it. Of course there is no guarantee that you will get the same questions again next time around, but you have at least covered off yet another gap in your knowledge, and have gone on to improve yourself – and isn’t that what the whole certification program is for anyway? A few years ago, I coached someone for the 401 exam. He had a great background in networking and security, but limited knowledge of F5’s. He managed to pass most of the 300-level exams in a few months’ time! By the time we met, he was ready for the 401. After spending a day with him talking about a variety of topics, and letting him lab up various scenarios for a week, he sat the 401 exam…. And failed. Meh, no real problem, we had another chat afterwards, discussed some of the topics he recognised he was struggling with, spend another week in the lab, …and passed! Well done and well deserved for sure! Before you ask, no, I do not suspect any foul play. I have never seen such a feat repeated again and am still in awe of this guy’s brilliance. (If you read this, you know who you are...) For most of us, that's not the case though and we actually have to make an effort... ;) Long story short, for me that was a perfect example of someone used to passing, but still failing from time to time. Meh, it happens, brush yourself off, learn from your mistakes, try again and succeed! Dr. Ken Says... Many will know that I spent many years pursuing certifications when I worked as an engineer. In the many, many exams I took, I only ever failed two exams. The first one was Novell 4.0 print services (yes, that dates me a bit), which I took a second time and passed. The other was F5’s 201: TMOS Administration exam. For context, I have been with F5 for over 21-years now and my original role was as a field systems/sales engineer: I sold, designed, installed, and provided support on F5 systems around the globe. My second role was as one of the first “Security Architects” at F5, working with TrafficShield and FirePass (again, dating me a bit if you recognize the product names). I was, I believe anyway, a fairly well-respected F5 engineer. The point being … I’m no novice when it comes to F5 equipment. So, why did I fail 201? I failed 201 because it I took it nearly a decade after I quit working as a full-time F5 engineer. Not only had many things changed, but knowledge and skill are perishable; they decline over time. While I didn’t fail 201 by much (and I didn’t study for it at all), the assessment correctly determined that I was no longer capable of doing the job. Yes, it hurt my ego a little, but I’ll have to admit it was a fair assessment. I wouldn’t hire me to do the job anymore either. As the author intimates, failing an exam doesn’t make you a failure, it just means you need to work a bit more to pass the exam; it’s not personal. In case you’re wondering, no I haven’t retaken exam 201. Primarily, it is because I don’t do the job and having the F5-CA, BIG-IP doesn’t have much value in my current role. At the same time, I will admit that I like to tell this story because it underscores the validity of the assessment, and why we have some of the policies we have. 2-year renewal; knowledge is perishable. Complain to me that you can’t pass an exam even though you’ve worked with F5 gear for 10-years; you and me both!! Note: For another perspective on pushing through, check out Peter Silva's successful failure with the 201 exam .Help F5 Transform the BIG-IP Administrator Certification
Many of you received a copy of the BIG-IP Administrator Certification beta exam email announcement earlier this week. We hope you can carve out some time to participate in the beta exams. For anyone who missed this F5 Certified message sent to candidates earlier this week, you can check it out below. If you’re seeing this for the first time, it probably means you’re not a part of the F5 Certified community yet. Now is an ideal time to join! The How do I enroll in the F5 Certified Professionals program? article will guide you through the process. And finally, for those of you who wrote and reviewed items for the new BIG-IP Administrator exams— THANK YOU! You did an incredible job. Thanks to your contributions, we can confidently say that the certifications our candidates attain are in line with the high standards and integrity on which our certification program was established. Please let me know if you have any questions or if you would like to volunteer for additional certification exam development activities. We always need SMEs! Cheers! Heidi The F5 Certification team is excited to announce some exciting changes in our program and invite you to help us transform it by participating in the BIG-IP Administrator beta exams. When considering what changes needed to be made, we asked our candidate community, “What could we do to increase the value of being F5 Certified for you?” Your feedback was clear. You value the F5 BIG-IP Administrator certification, but you want updated, more relevant exams. You want the exams to be easier to take while still providing the same quality items that legitimately test the knowledge, skills and abilities of those who achieve certification. You want the same level of quality and integrity in the program with more options to maintain your certifications. We listened, and are excited to share what has changed, and provide you with a glimpse into what will be changing in the future, in the F5 Certified Program Updates article. Here is how you can help us with a vital step in the transformation. Before we can publish the final version of the new BIG-IP Administrator certification exams, we need you to take the beta versions of these exams. Here are the necessary steps and helpful information in the FAQ: F5 Certified Administrator, BIG-IP BETA exams article, to get you started. Existing candidates, login to the new Education Services Portal. If you are new to the program, login using your F5 SSO credentials to complete registration. For detailed login instructions, see How to Log Into the Education Services Portal article. ALL candidates are eligible to take the BIG-IP Administrator beta exams. Even if you have achieved a higher level of F5 certification, you can participate! We want your input. Schedule the BIG-IP Administrator beta exams by following the instructions in the How to Schedule a Beta Exam article. The beta exams are live today through February 28, 2025. Each beta exam is 60-minutes with up to 60 items. The beta exams are delivered exclusively online at Certiverse. The cost is $20 USD for each exam with promo code F5CABBETA There are five beta exams: BIG-IP Administration Install, Initial Configuration, and Upgrade (F5CAB1-B) BIG-IP Administration Data Plane Concepts (F5CAB2-B) BIG-IP Administration Data Plane Configuration (F5CAB3-B) BIG-IP Administration Control Plane Administration (F5CAB4-B) BIG-IP Administration Support and Troubleshooting (F5CAB5-B) To prepare for all five of the beta exams, refer to the Certified Administrator, BIG-IP Certification blueprint. The beta exams will be scored AFTER the beta period closes. Candidates who have passed all five exams, will achieve Certified Administrator, BIG-IP Certification. For more information about these beta exams, see the FAQ: F5 Certified Administrator, BIG-IP BETA exams article. Complete all five of the beta exams and provide us with the data and feedback necessary to create the final version of the BIG-IP Administrator exams. Thank you for being a valued member of the F5 Certified Community! Please email us at support@mail.education.com with any questions or feedback.Zero to F5-CTS LTM Certified!
It’s been nearly a year since the DevCentral team wrestled the 101 exam to the mat at Agility 2016. This last week, I finished the road to the F5 Certified Technology Specialist Local Traffic Manager (F5-CTS LTM) certification, with a passing score on the 301B exam! I don’t usually get test anxiety, but I had that in spades in the days leading up to the 301B. I’m not sure if I felt I hadn’t prepared well enough or if it was the thought of the merciless mocking from my peers that was sure to come should I walk out with the cone of shame. BUT...once in the examination room, there was no time to worry, I had to get on with it! Rather than recap all the exams necessary to get here, I’d like to focus on a few areas that might help you in your own journey to LTM certification. Test Taking Strategies All the exams are 80 questions and 90 minutes in length, with time exceptions for ESL examinees. This means you have roughly 1 minute and 8 seconds per question. If you look at the blueprints for each test, you’ll see the Cognitive Complexity Key in play for each objective, each bullet requiring more brain power and thus time to accomplish: R - Remember A/E - Analyze/Evaluate U/A - Understand/Apply Create For knowledge questions, this is plenty of time, you know it or you don’t. But for the analysis/application type questions, you will need more time than that, and sometimes, a lot more time than that. So I would suggest on knowledge questions, answer quickly and flag for review where necessary. This serves the dual purpose of a) preserving time and b) allowing future questions to perhaps inform your answer on previous questions that you might change. One thing that wastes precious seconds is not viewing the entirety of a diagram or config shown in the pop up dialogs. Make sure you slide the vertical and horizontal sliders to their full highth and width before closing them to answer the question, otherwise, you’ll have to open the diagrams again and do so before you can move on. Also, use the booklet the test center gives you! I use it primarily for the following three purposes: Drawings. I find it cumbersome to go back/forth from diagrams to the questions and answers, so where it makes sense, I recreate the drawings and configs with enough detail to evaluate the answers. The question numbers I flagged for review and the issue covered. Sometimes when it is fresh, I like to go back before review if I am clued into the right answer for that question, so knowing exactly where to go is useful. To write down concepts I’d like to review after the test that I’m less clear on. You can’t take this with you afterward, but by writing it down, I’m able to recall most of it when I leave the test center, and I sit in my car and write as much of the list down as possible, expanding on any ideas I might explore (or write about!) for future study. General Test Information Obviously, the blue prints and study guides are your friends, and should be the starting point for preparation. But past the 101, if you don’t get your hands on at least a virtual edition of the BIG-IP, you are seriously hindering your chances at passing the exams. Make sure you are doing your CLI/GUI prep work on the TMOS version covered by the test! There are some nuances in TMOS behaviors between versions that might impact your working knowledge of the product as it relates to the test. Profiles are a big part of the 301A/B tests, and there are many changes to where some features might be, or changes in default behaviors for these profiles. This is true for monitors, virtual server precedence/flow, and many other features as well, so be on guard for version-dependent information. All of the blueprint information is important and shows up on the tests, but If I were to encourage you to focus in a handful of primary areas of study it would be: Virtual servers - From types, protocols and profile management, to SNATs and pools, the virtual server is THE system object that moves data through the box. It is critical to have deep understanding in this area. Profiles - Virtual servers allow things to move, but the power to make things move securely, effectively, and efficiently resides in your profiles. Knowing not only what individual profiles perform what functions, but how to customize, and how to combine with other profiles is necessary. Pool Members & Monitors - How pool ratios and available members work, what “disabled” really means, how monitors work, how they impact pool member status, pool status, and virtual server status. How to debug monitors. All important stuff. Load Balancing Algorithms - Application delivery is a slightly important feature in the F5 product line, so this knowledge is a must. System Stuff - Backups, High Availability options, Self-IPs and port lockdown, differences between TMM & Host. For the 301B Specifically - In addition to knowing all the BIG-IP stuff as it relates to the LTM module, you really need to know the HTTP protocol fairly well, and be very comfortable with the operation and analysis of the tcpdump utility. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to know these things well. Make no mistake, these are not easy tests! Kudos to the certification team for creating a certification path that requires a lot more than memorization skills. I’m nowhere near as familiar with the nuances of the BIG-IP as I was when I was operationally responsible for them, but that said, if you study diligently and put the time in on the command line and the web interface, you should have the tools to achieve certification as well!
