F5 Certified Administrator Blueprint

Exam: Management

1.1 Given a scenario identify when to use NGINX

• Describe NGINX as a web server
• Describe NGINX as a reverse proxy
• Describe NGINX as a load balancer
• Describe NGINX as a caching solution
• Describe NGINX as an API gateway

1.2 Explain the NGINX configuration directory structure

• Identify the default NGINX core config file
• Identify the included directories/files
• Describe the order of how the included files will be ‘merged’ into the running configuration
• Describe directive inheritance and overriding properties

1.3 Demonstrate how to manage user permissions

• Identify user context (i.e. using the configuration file)
• Describe how and when to give read/write/execute access
• Describe how to run NGINX as a specific user type
• Describe the relationship between NGINX processes and users

1.4 Manage shared memory zones

• Describe how and why NGINX uses shared memory zones
• Describe why directives use a shared memory zone

Exam: Configuration - Knowledge

1.1 Configure NGINX as a Load Balancer

• Define the load-balancing pools/systems
• Explain the different load-balancing algorithms
• Describe the process used to remove a server from the pool
• Describe what happens when a pool server goes down
• Explain what is unique to NGINX as a load balancer
• Describe how to configure security
• Modify or tune a memory zone configuration
• Describe how to configure NGINX as a mirroring server
• Describe how to configure NGINX as a Layer 4 load balancer
• Describe how to configure NGINX as an API Gateway

1.2 Configure NGINX as a content cache server

• Define a minimum retention policy
• Describe how to configure path regex routing
• Describe the why and how of caching in NGINX
• Define the cache in the http context
• Enable the cache
• Specify the content that should be cached
• Describe different types of caching
• Explain what is unique to NGINX as a cache server

1.3 Configure NGINX as a web server

• Demonstrate how to securely serve content (HTTP/HTTPS)
• Describe the difference between serving static content and dynamic content (regex and variables)
• Describe how server and location directives work
• Explain what is unique to NGINX as a web server

1.4 Configure NGINX as a reverse proxy

• Explain how traffic routing is handled in NGINX as a reverse proxy
• Explain what is unique to NGINX as a reverse proxy
• Configure encryption
• Demonstrate how to manipulate headers
• Describe the difference between proxy_set_header and add_header
• Modify or tune a memory zone configuration
• Describe how to configure NGINX as a socket-reserve proxy
• Describe how open-source NGINX handles health checks in different situations

Exam: Configuration - Demonstrate

1.1 Demonstrate how to manage connections and bandwidth

• Describe the difference between rate limiting and bandwidth throttling
• Demonstrate how to limit the number of connections to the NGINX server and its upstreams
• Demonstrate how to set a bandwidth limit
• Understand how to enable and optimize keep-alives for the NGINX server and its upstreams

1.2 Demonstrate how to restrict access

• Demonstrate how to restrict access to NGINX based on IP address
• Demonstrate how to restrict access to NGINX based on HTTP method
• Demonstrate how to authenticate (auth_basic / auth_request)
• Demonstrate how to restrict URIs

1.3 Demonstrate how to configure logging

• Demonstrate how to customize the format of log files
• Demonstrate how to customize the location of log files
• Demonstrate how to set log levels (severity)
• Describe the difference between an error log and an access log

1.4 Demonstrate how to configure certificates

• Define the difference between a server certificate and a client certificate
• Describe the components necessary to use an SSL certificate
• Describe how to protect the SSL certificate and key

1.5 Demonstrate how to enable HTTPS and associated security settings

• Compare the advantages of TLS termination, end-to-end encryption, and TLS passthrough
• Demonstrate how to enable TLS encryption
• Enable/disable ciphers and TLS version
• Describe how to force all traffic to redirect to HTTPS

Exam: Troubleshooting

1.1 Demonstrate how to stop, start, and reload NGINX binary

• Describe how to send signals to the NGINX process
• Describe the difference between a reload and a stop/start
• Describe how to test a new configuration before applying it

1.2 Troubleshoot basic use cases

• Interpret logs
• Identify startup failures
• Describe how to deal with HTTP error codes
• Describe how to troubleshoot various responses
• Describe how to troubleshoot use cases with multiple virtual hosts, multiple ports, and default servers
• Describe how to troubleshoot location precedence and add_header inheritance
• Describe how to troubleshoot client and server connections
• Describe basic SELinux use cases

1.3 Troubleshoot TLS security settings

• Identify TLS connection errors
• Describe how to troubleshoot invalid certificates