In this 2-day course, students are provided with a functional understanding of how to deploy, test and maintain F5 SSL Orchestrator to optimize the SSL infrastructure, provide security devices with visibility of SSL/TLS encrypted traffic, and maximize efficient use of that existing security investment.

The course includes lecture, hands-on labs, and discussion about the importance of SSL visibility, how F5 SSL Orchestrator supports policy-based management, steering of traffic flows to existing security devices and centralizes the SSL decrypt/encrypt function through multi-layered security, dynamic service chaining, topology selections and security policies.

• Understand basic use cases for decryption and re-encryption of inbound and outbound SSL/TLS network traffic
• Create dynamic service chains of multiple security services
• Configure security policies to enable policy-based traffic steering
• Add SSL visibility to existing applications
• Deploy SSL Orchestrator configurations based on topology templates
• Troubleshoot an SSL Orchestrator deployment

Course Topics

• Compare F5 SSL Orchestration to manual "daisy chaining" of security services
• Learn essentials of PKI and certificates, how to create a certificate signing request, and how to import certificates and private keys into BIG-IP
• Implement certificate forging in an SSL Forward Proxy deployment
• Understand HTTP, ICAP, L3/L2, and TAP security services
• Configure traffic classification and URL bypass within a security policy
• Define security services to include in a dynamic service chain
• Use the Guided Configuration to deploy an outbound Layer 3 transparent forward proxy
• Use the Guided Configuration to deploy an outbound Layer 3 explicit forward proxy
• Use the Guided Configuration to deploy an inbound Layer 3 reverse proxy
• Use the Guided Configuration to deploy an SSL Orchestration for an existing application
• Configure High Availability for SSLO devices
• Troubleshoot SSLO and traffic flow issues

This course is intended for network administrators and Security Operations responsible for installation, setup, configuration, and administration of the F5 SSL Orchestrator system.

The following free web-based training courses, although optional, will be very helpful for any student with limited BIG-IP administration and configuration experience.

• Getting Started with BIG-IP web-based training
• Getting Started with SSL Orchestrator (SSLO) web-based training

The following general network technology knowledge and experience are recommended before attending any F5 Global Training Services instructor-led course:

• OSI model encapsulation
• Routing and switching
• Ethernet and ARP
• TCP/IP concepts
• IP addressing and subnetting
• NAT and private IP addressing
• Default gateway

The following course-specific knowledge and experience is suggested before attending this course:

• HTTP, HTTPS protocols
• TLS/SSL

Security services such as malware detection, data loss/leak prevention (DLP), next-generation firewalls (NGFW), intrusion prevention systems (IPS), and Internet Content Adaptation Protocol (ICAP)

Chapter 1: Introducing SSL Orchestrator

• Internet Security and SSL Visibility
• Introducing SSL Orchestrator and its role in network security
• SSL Orchestrator Placement on the Network
• Platform and Licensing Requirements

Chapter 2: Certificate Fundamentals

• Overview of Internet Security Model
• Understanding Certificate Use
• Managing Certificates on SSL Orchestrator (BIG-IP)

Chapter 3: Architecture Overview

• Inbound and outbound inspection
• Cipher diversity
• Broad topology and inspection device support
• Dynamic service chaining and policy-based traffic steering
• Advanced monitoring
• Dynamic scaling and evaluation

Chapter 4: Guided Configuration

• Reviewing the Landing Page
• Selecting a Topology
• Making SSL Certificate Configurations
• Creating Services and Service Handling
• Constructing a Service Chain
• Building a Security Policy
• Defining an Interception Rule
• Examining Egress settings
• Reviewing the Summary Page and Deployment
• Exploring the SSL Orchestrator Dashboard

Chapter 5: Services

• Relationship of devices to services
• Inline layer 2, layer 3 and HTTP inspection services
• ICAP and TAP passive inspection services

Chapter 6: Topologies

• Selecting the appropriate topology
• Benefits and limitations of topologies
• Existing application integration
• Layer 2 virtual wire concepts

Chapter 7: Components

• Initial and subsequent forward proxy flow
• Flow and header based signaling
• Access components
• Appropriate naming of service objects
• Authentication
• Tee connector design and flow

Chapter 8: Managing Security Policy

• Creating security policies
• Reviewing per-request policy for an outbound topology
• Navigating Visual Policy Editor

Chapter 9: Solving SSL Orchestrator Problems

• Collecting system information
• Solving traffic flow issues
• Guided Configuration and iAppLX issues
• Troubleshooting with cURL
• Traffic captures with tcpdump
• Cleanup and deleting configurations

Chapter 10: SSL Orchestrator High Availability

• Review BIG-IP High Availability
• SSL Orchestrator High Availability (HA) Requirements
• Installation and Upgrade Cautions
• SSL Orchestrator in Scaled Mode
• Troubleshooting SSL Orchestrator HA

F5N_BIG-LTM-CFG-3, Configuring BIG-IP LTM: Local Traffic Manager v.16.1
F5N_BIG-DNS-I, Configuring BIG-IP DNS (formerly GTM) v.16.1
F5N_BIG-AWF-CFG, Configuring F5 Advanced WAF (previously licensed as ASM) v16.1
F5N_BIG-EGW-APM, Configuring BIG-IP APM: Access Policy Manager v.16.1

F5N_BIG-IRULE-CFG, Developing iRules for BIG-IP v.16.1
F5N_BIG-TRBL-INT2, Troubleshooting BIG-IP v.16.1

Course Changes since v15

• Changes to the presentation and student guide materials reflect feature updates and new software SSL Orchestrator version v8.3.
• Key feature updates include Improved HA behavior, Remediation Dashboard, Strictness Improvements and Data group security policy support.
• Content for Topologies, Services and Components are separated out, placed into dedicated lessons and additional labs created for each lesson.
• The Troubleshooting lesson is re-organized and received additional content. Local Traffic Management review chapter has been removed.