What’s Inside:
1 KeyBenefits
2 GloballyAvailableApplications
4 SimpleManagement
5 SecureApplications
6 NetworkIntegration
6 Architecture
7 BIG‑IPGTMPlatforms
8 ProfessionalServicesandSupport
8 MoreInformation
DATASHEET
OptimizeApplicationDeliveryAcrossYourGloballyDistributedDataCentersDeployingmultipledatacentersisabigsteptowardprotectingyourbusinessfromsiteoutagesandimprovingapplicationperformance.Buttofullyachievethesegoals,yourorganizationneedsanefficientwaytomonitorinfrastructureandapplicationhealth,andtocontrolthisdistributedinfrastructureaccordingto yourbusinessneeds.
BIG‑IP®GlobalTrafficManager™(GTM)providesamoreintelligentwaytorespondtoDNSqueriesthansimpleloadbalancingamongmultipledatacenters.BIG‑IP GTMdistributesend‑userapplicationrequestsbasedonbusinesspolicies,datacenterconditions,networkconditions,andapplicationperformance.Thisgivesyouholisticcontrolofyourglobaltraffictoensurehighavailabilityandmaximumperformanceforapplicationsrunningacrossmultipledisperseddatacenters.Theresultisbetterapplicationperformance,lessdowntime,andsimplifiedmanagement.
BIG‑IPGlobalTrafficManager
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Key benefits
Ensure application availability across multiple data centersByensuringthatusersareconnectedtothebestsite,BIG‑IPGTMcanhelpyoucreateastrongdisasterrecoveryandbusinesscontinuityplan.
Take control of global app deliveryRouteusersbasedonbusiness,application,andnetworkrequirements,givingyouflexibilityandcontroloverapplicationdelivery.
Improve application performance Senduserstothesitewiththebestapplicationperformancebasedonapplicationandnetworkconditions.
Manage your complex distributed network simply and efficientlyMultiplemanagementtools,includingastreamlinedGUIandpowerfulcommandlineinterface,giveyoucompletevisibilityandasinglepointofcontrolforallofyourresources.
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Globally Available Applications
Organizationsrelyonapplicationstostaycompetitive,soensuringavailabilityiscritical.BIG‑IP GTMofferssophisticatedhealthmonitoringthatsupportsawidevarietyofapplicationtypes,givingyourorganizationtheflexibilitytoadaptquicklyandstaycompetitive.
Global load balancing
Userexperiencesufferswhenorganizationswithdistributeddatacentersareunabletoallocateglobaltrafficbyroutingtheusertothebestandclosestdatacenterbasedonspecificbusinesspolicies.Changingnetworkanduserconditionscanoverwhelmadatacenterduringpeaktraffictimes.BIG‑IPGTMprovidescomprehensiveapplicationmanagementservicesthatsupportevolvingapplicationrequirements.
Dynamic ratio load balancing
BIG‑IPGTMroutesuserstothebestglobalresourcebasedoncomprehensivesiteandnetworkmetrics.Forexample,theQoSloadbalancingmodeincludesahopscoefficient,basedonthenumberofhopsbetweentheclientandthelocalDNS.Managerscanusehopratetosendtheusertothedatacenterthatrequiresthefewesthops,ensuringmorerapidaccess.DynamicRatioloadbalancingmodesolvestheproblemof“winnertakesall”commontootherglobaltrafficmanagementsystems.DynamicRatiosendsaportionoftraffictothebestperformingsite,secondbestperformingsite,andsoon—inproportiontothehealthandperformanceofnetworkandserverresources.
Wide area persistence
Userconnectionscanpersistacrossapplicationsanddatacentersandbeautomaticallyroutedtotheappropriatedatacenterorserver,basedonapplicationstate.BIG‑IPGTMsynchronizespersistenceinformationacrossalldevices,ensuringthatusersaredirectedbacktothesamesiteregardlessoftheirentrypoint.Finally,itpropagatesthedesiredpersistenceinformationtolocalDNSservers,reducingtherequiredfrequencyofsynchronizingback‑enddatabases.Sessionintegrityisalwaysmaintained,withnomorebrokensessionsorlostorcorrupteddata.Theresultisimprovedapplicationperformanceandmoreefficientuseofyourinfrastructure.
Geographic load balancing
Determiningthelocationofusersiscriticaltoensuringtheyareconnectedtothebestdatacenterandservedtherightcontent.BIG‑IPGTMincludesanIPgeolocationdatabasefromindustryleaderQuovatoaccuratelyidentifyexactlywhereauserislocated.EachIPcanbelocatedatthecontinent,country,andstate/provinceleveltoenableverygranulartrafficpoliciesandimproveapplicationperformance.
Custom topology mapping
BIG‑IPGTMoffersorganizationsdeployingintranetapplicationstheabilitytosetupcustomtopologymappings.Bydefiningandsavingcustomregiongroupings,youcanconfiguretopologybasedontrafficdistributionpoliciesthatmatchyourinternalinfrastructure.
Infrastructure monitoring
BIG‑IPGTMchecksthehealthoftheentireinfrastructure,eliminatingsinglepointsoffailureandroutingtrafficawayfrompoorlyperformingsites.Bycollectingperformanceand
Advanced global load balancing
BIG-IP GTM includes the industry’s most advanced traffic distribution capabilities to match the needs of any organization or globally deployed application.
· Round robin
· Global availability
· LDNS persistence
· Application availability
· Geography
· Virtual server capacity
· Least connections
· Packets per second
· Round trip time
· Hops
· Packet completion rate
· User-defined QoS
· Dynamic ratio
· LDNS
· Ratio
· Kilobytes per second
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availabilitymetricsfromdatacenters,ISPconnections,servers,caches,andevenusercontent,BIG‑IPGTMensureshighavailabilityandadequatecapacitypriortodirectingtraffictoasite.
Application health monitoring
Today’ssophisticatedapplicationsrequireintelligenthealthcheckingtodetermineavailability.Insteadofrelyingonasinglehealthcheck,BIG‑IPGTMaggregatesmultiplemonitorssoyoucanchecktheapplicationstateatmultiplelevels.Thisresultsinhighestavailability,improvedreliability,andtheeliminationoffalsepositivestoreducemanagementoverhead.BIG‑IPGTMprovidespre‑defined,out‑of‑the‑boxhealthmonitoringsupportformorethan18differentapplications,includingSAP,Oracle,LDAP,mySQL,andmore.BIG‑IPGTMperformstargetedmonitoringoftheseapplicationstoaccuratelydeterminetheirhealth,reducedowntime,andimprovetheuserexperience.Itwillalsoallowyoutogrouprelatedobjectssothatifoneapplicationfails,otherappsthatdependonitwillbemarkedoutofservice.Thisenablesyoutoalignandmonitorapplicationobjectsaccordingtobusinesslogicandprofitability,buildscalabletrafficdistributionpolicies,andbettermanageapplicationdependencies.
Disaster recovery/business continuity planning
Inadditiontoperformingcomprehensivesiteavailabilitychecks,youcandefinetheconditionsforshiftingalltraffictoabackupdatacenter,failingoveranentiresite,orcontrollingonlytheaffectedapplications.
BIG-IPGlobal Traffic Manager
BIG-IP LTM
BIG-IP LTM
BIG-IP LTM
BIG-IPGlobal Traffic Manager
User Seattle
Site 2 – New York
Site 2 – Milan
Site 1 – San Francisco
BIG-IPGlobal Traffic Manager
Router
Router
Router
Corporate Servers
Corporate Servers
Corporate Servers
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BIG-IP GTM ensures users are always connected to the best site (See illustration).
(1) User queries local DNS to resolve domain, and local DNS queries BIG-IP GTM.
(2) BIG-IP GTM uses metrics collected for each site and identifies the best server.
(3) BIG-IP GTM responds to local DNS with IP address.
(4) User is connected to site.
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Simple Management
Managingadistributed,multiple‑sitenetworkfromasinglepointisanenormouschallenge.BIG‑IPGTMprovidestoolsthatgiveyouaglobalviewofyourinfrastructurewiththemeanstomanagethenetworkandaddpolicestoensurethehighestavailabilityforyourbusiness‑criticalapplications.
Web-based user interface
BIG‑IPGTMprovidesasimplewayforyourorganizationtomanageitsglobalinfrastructurefromacentralizedlocation:
•Efficientlistandobjectmanagementforcompletevisibilityofglobalresources
•Uniquenamingofglobalobjectstoreduceadministrationandbuildtheinfrastructurearoundbusinesspolicies
•Sortingandsearchingforfastaccesstoglobalobjects
•Streamlinedsetupandobjectcreationtoreduceconfigurationtimes
•Enhancedmanagementofdistributedapplicationsaspartofonecollectivegroup
•Context‑sensitivehelpforinformationonobjects,commands,andconfigurationexamples
Powerful command line interface
TMSH,atree‑basedcommandlineinterfaceforBIG‑IPGTMhasintegratedsearch,context‑sensitivehelp,andbatch‑modetransactions.Byprovidingashellthatissimpletonavigateandenablingyoutoscriptcomplexcommands,TMSHcansignificantlyreducemanagementtime.
Automated setup and synchronization
AutosyncautomatessetupandsecuresynchronizationofmultipleBIG‑IPGTMdevices.WithAutosync,youcanmakeconfigurationchangesfromanyBIG‑IPGTMdeviceinthenetwork,eliminatingdifficulthierarchicalmanagementcommontoDNS.
Configuration retrieval
AutoDiscoveryenablesBIG‑IPGTMretrieveconfigurationsfromanynumberofdistributedBIG‑IPsystems,removingtheneedtorepeatconfigurationsacrossdevices.
Data center and sync groups
BIG‑IPGTMallowsforthecreationoflogicalgroupsofnetworkequipmenttoensuretheefficientuseofmonitoringandmetricscollection.TheresultisahighlyoptimizedsolutionthatcansupporttheInternet’sbusiestsitesbyintelligentlysharingtheinformationwithmembersinthelogicalgroup.
Distributed application management
Organizationsoftenstruggletoaligntheirapplicationsandinfrastructurewiththeirbusinessgoalsandpolicies.BIG‑IPGTMgivesyoutheabilitytodefinedependenciesbetweenapplicationservicesandmanagethemasagroup.Withdistributedapplicationmanagement,youcanbuildscalabletrafficdistributionpoliciesandimproveefficiencywithgranularcontrolofdatacenterobjects.
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iRules
UsingF5’sevent‑driveniRules,™youcancustomizethedynamicdistributionofglobaltraffic.BIG‑IPGTMlooksdeepinsideDNSmessagestodistributeapplicationtraffictothedesireddatacenter,pool,orvirtualserver.Thiscapabilityreduceslatency,increasesprotectionagainstmaliciousattacks,andimprovesapplicationperformance.BecauseiRulesisbasedonaneasy‑to‑use,TCL‑basedscriptinglanguage,administrativecostsarenominal.
ZoneRunner
ZoneRunner™isanintegratedzonefilemanagementtoolthatsimplifiesDNSzonefilemanagementandreducestheriskofmisconfiguration.ItprovidesasecureenvironmenttomanageyourDNSinfrastructurewhilevalidatinganderror‑checkingzonefiles.BuiltonthelatestversionofBIND,ZoneRunnerprovides:
•Autopopulationofcommonlyusedprotocols
•Validation/errorcheckingforzonefileentries
•Rollbackforthelasttransaction
•Commandlineversionsofzonemanagement
•Zoneimportationfromanexternalserverorafile
•Automaticreverselookups
•Easycreation,editing,andsearchingofallrecords
F5 Enterprise Manager
EnterpriseManager™canhelpyousignificantlyreducethecostandcomplexityofmanagingmultipleF5devices.Yougainasingle‑paneviewofyourentireapplicationdeliveryinfrastructureandthetoolsyouneedtoreducedeploymenttimes,eliminateredundanttasks,andefficientlyscaleyourinfrastructuretomeetyourbusinessneeds.
Secure Applications
DNSdenial‑of‑serviceattacks,cachepoisoning,andDNShijackingthreatentheavailabilityandsecurityofyourapplications.BIG‑IPGTMprotectsagainstDNSattacksandenablesyoutocreatepolicesthatprovideanaddedlayerofprotectionforyourapplicationsanddata.
Hardened device
BIG‑IPGTMisdesignedtoresistcommonattacksbythwartingteardropattacks,byprotectingitselfandserversfromICMPattacks,andbynotrunningSMTPd,FTPd,Telnetd,oranyotherattackabledaemons.
Handles DNS attacks
BIG‑IPGTM’sunmatchedDNSperformancecantoleratehighlevelsofDNSattacks,protectingyourorganizationwhilestillmaintainingmaximumandcontinuousavailabilityforapplicationsandservices.
DNS load balancing
BIG‑IPGTMcanbeusedtofront‑endapoolofstaticDNSservers.IftheDNSrequestisforanamecontrolledbyBIG‑IPGTM,BIG‑IPGTMwillanswertherequest.Ifnot,BIG‑IP GTM
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canloadbalancetherequesttoapoolofDNSservers,providingveryhighDNSqueryperformanceforstaticDNS.
Security control
StrengthensitesecurityanddiffuseattacksbeforetheycanstartwithBIG‑IPGTM.iRulescanhelpyoucreatepoliciesthatblockDNSrequestsfromroguesitesorknownsourcesofattacksbeforetheycandodamage.
Packet filtering
BIG‑IPGTMusespacketfilteringtolimitordenyaccesstoandfromwebsitesbasedonmonitoringthetrafficsource,destination,orport.
DNSSEC (option)
WiththeBIG‑IPGTMDNSSECoption,youcandigitallysignyourDNSanswers.Thisenablestheresolvertodeterminetheauthenticityoftheresponse,preventingDNShijackingandcachepoisoning.ThesesignedDNSresponsescanbeusedinconjunctionwiththeBIG‑IP GTMdynamicDNSsystemtoenableyoutogetallthebenefitsofglobalserverloadbalancingwhilealsosecuringyourinfrastructure.Alternatively,youcanuseBIG‑IPGTMinfrontoftraditionalDNSserverstoeasilydeployandloadbalanceDNSSECwithinyourexistinginfrastructure.
Network Integration
BIG‑IPGTMisdesignedtofitintoyourcurrentnetworkandintoyourplansforthefuture.
SNMP management application support
BIG‑IPGTMintegratesitsMIBsandaSNMPagentwithDNS.ThisenablesSNMPmanagementapplicationstoreadstatisticaldataaboutthecurrentperformanceofBIG‑IPGTM.SNMPmanagementpackageshaveanexactviewofwhatBIG‑IPGTMisdoing,whilekeepinganeyeonstandardDNSinformation.
Third-party integration
BIG‑IPGTMcommunicatesandintegrateswithabroadarrayofnetworkdevices.Thisincludessupportforvarioustypesofremotehosts,includingSNMPagents:UCD,snmpd,SolsticeEnterprise,andtheNT/4.0SNMPagent.BIG‑IPGTMalsotalkstothird‑partycaches,servers,routers,andloadbalancerstoaccuratelydiagnosethehealthofyournetworkendpointsandprovideaheterogeneoussolutionforglobaltrafficmanagement.
IPv6 support
BIG‑IPGTMsupportsnextgenerationIPv6networks,resolvingAAAAquerieswithoutrequiringwholesalenetworkandapplicationupgrades.
Architecture
TheadvancedarchitectureofBIG‑IPgivesyoutotalflexibilitytocontrolapplicationdeliverywithoutcreatingtrafficbottlenecks.
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TMOS
AttheheartofBIG‑IPGTMistheF5architecture,TMOS®,thatprovidesaunifiedsystemforoptimalapplicationdelivery,givingyoutotalvisibility,flexibility,andcontrolacrossallservices.TMOSempowersBIG‑IPGTMtointegratewithotherF5productsandintelligentlyadapttothediverseandevolvingrequirementsofapplicationsandnetworks.
Unmatched DNS performance
BIG‑IPGTMdeliversDNSperformancecapableofhandlingeventhebusiestsites.ThishelpsyourorganizationprovidethebestQualityofServiceforyouruserswhileeliminatingpoorapplicationperformance.
BIG-IP GTM Platforms
BIG‑IPGlobalTrafficManagerisavailableasastandaloneapplianceontheBIG‑IP1600,3600,and3900platforms.Itisavailableasanadd‑onmoduleforBIG‑IP®LocalTrafficManager™onanyBIG‑IPplatform.Fordetailedspecifications,refertotheBIG‑IPSystemHardwareDatasheet.
3900 Series 3600 Series
1600 Series
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DATASHEET BIG-IP Global Traffic Manager
F5 Networks, Inc.Corporate [email protected]
F5 Networks, Inc. 401 Elliott Avenue West, Seattle, WA 98119 888-882-4447 www.f5.com
F5 Networks Ltd.Europe/Middle-East/[email protected]
F5 NetworksJapan [email protected]
© 2010 F5 Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. F5, F5 Networks, the F5 logo, BIG-IP, FirePass, iControl, TMOS, and VIPRION are trademarks or registered trademarks of F5 Networks, Inc. in the U.S. and in certain other countries. CS00-00006 0410
Professional Services and Support
F5isdedicatedtohelpingyougetthemostfromyourF5products.TofindouthowF5supportservicescanhelpyouimproveyourROI,reduceadministrativetimeandexpense,andoptimizetheperformanceandreliabilityofyourITinfrastructure,[email protected].
More Information
TolearnmoreaboutBIG‑IPGTM,usethesearchfunctiononF5.comtofindtheseandotherresources.
Datasheets
BIG-IP System Hardware Datasheet
White paper
Disaster Recovery: Not Just Planning for the Worst
Case studies
American Imaging Management
DNSstuff.com
