F5 Operations Guide for Big IPs
We’re in Seattle at F5’s offices right by the water close to the beautiful Myrtle Edwards Park.
We’re working with a diverse group from all over the country, technical trainers, network engineers, mentors, tech support and trouble shooters. Our shared task is to co-create an Operations Guide for two Big-IP modules, GTM (Global Traffic Manager) and LTM (Local Traffic Manager). The GTM makes load balancing decisions for systems all over the US and the World. You could say it tells the internet traffic where to go, but doesn’t handle traffic. The LTM manages network traffic coming into and out of a local area network including the intranet.
Initial conversation with the group
The idea to create this guide came from a wish to better support F5 customers in understanding what these two Big IP modules are, how they work and what is needed for a solid Big IP integration with other system components, such as firewalls. The main target reader of this guide will be customers, but we also discussed that it can be a tool for new recruits to understand the product.
Brainstorming and collective clustering to create the basic structure
During a vivid group conversation we quickly came to a shared understanding and went right into creating the basic structure of the guide and the first few sections are being written up, all on the first day.
Small team presenting first outlines to the whole group
This Book Sprint is facilitated by Laia Ros and Simone Tiesinga-Poutnik.
More photos here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/101584348@N06/sets/72157649274575250/