F5CAB2

BIG-IP Administration Data Plane Concepts

Part of F5 Certified Administrator, BIG-IP

Targets: Product version not specified in the blueprint
Blueprint source: F5 Certification blueprint F5-CAB.0425 (official, relayed by PRIME 2026-07-21) ↗

Independent study aid built from the public exam blueprint. Not affiliated with, authorized by, or endorsed by F5. Objectives are transcribed and mapped by hand, so this page may contain mistakes or may have fallen behind the vendor's current material: exam objectives, versions, numbering and availability all change without notice. Treat F5's own certification portal as the source of truth and verify against it before you book anything.

F5CAB2: BIG-IP Administration Data Plane Concepts

F5CAB2.01 Explain the relationship between interfaces, trunks, VLANs, self-IPs, routes and their status/statistics
What to know:
- Illustrate the use of a trunk in a BIG-IP solution
- Demonstrate ability to assign VLAN to interface and/or trunk
- Identify, based on traffic, which VLAN/route/egress IP would be used
- Distinguish between tagged vs untagged VLAN
- Compare Interface status (Up/Down)
- Explain the dependencies of interfaces/trunks, VLANs, self-IPs
On this site: From Interface to Self-IP: BIG-IP Layer 2 and 3 Dependencies
Tools: cidr
F5CAB2.02 Define ADC application objects
What to know:
- Define load balancing including intelligent load balancing and server selection
- Explain features of an application delivery controller
- Explain benefits of an application delivery controller
On this site: BIG-IP Pools and Load-Balancing Methods, Where Do the Requests Go? Simulating BIG-IP LTM Distribution
F5CAB2.03 Determine expected traffic behavior based on configuration
What to know:
- Identify traffic diverted due to persistence
- Consider the packet and/or virtual server processing order (wildcard vips)
- Identify traffic diverted due to status of traffic objects (vs, pool, pool member)
- Determine the egress source IP based on configuration
- Identify when connection/rate limits are reached
On this site: Where Do the Requests Go? Simulating BIG-IP LTM Distribution, BIG-IP Persistence Methods, and What Each Keys On, SNAT and the Return-Traffic Problem
Tools: bigip-ltm-lb-simulator
F5CAB2.04 Identify the different virtual server types
What to know:
- Standard, Forwarding, Stateless, Reject
- Performance (Layer 4) and Performance (HTTP)
On this site: BIG-IP Virtual Server Types, and What Each One Actually Does
F5CAB2.05 Explain high availability (HA) concepts
What to know:
- Explain methods of providing HA integrity
- Explain methods of providing HA
- Explain advantages of HA
On this site: BIG-IP High Availability: Device Trust, Device Groups, and Traffic Groups

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