TMOS, TMM, MCPD and SOD

TMOS (Traffic Management Operating System), TMM (Traffic Management Microkernel), MCPD (Master Control Program Daemon) and SOD.
In the previous article of the “F5 Networks terminology” series we have discussed the BIG-IP System and some of the modules that can be provisioned in the platform. In t...
TMOS, TMM, MCPD and SOD

F5 Networks BIG-IP. What is it?

BIG-IP 4200v

F5 Networks BIG-IP

This is the first article in the “F5 Networks Terminology” series, where you will learn the terminology and basic concepts related to the F5 Networks’ products and modules.

According to the official definition from F5 Networks, a BIG-IP® system is a set of application delivery products that work together to ensure high availability, improved performance, application security, and access control. Usually people associate F5 Networks with “Load Balancer”, but the company provides different modules, the one related to Load balancing is LTM (Local Traffic Manager), however there are other modules with different functions as GTM (Global Load Balancing), ASM (Application Security Manager), APM (Access Policy Manager) and others. We can think of the BIG-IP system as the logical container of these modules. Although, not officially stated, usually the BIG-IP system also refers to the hardware type, i.e. BIG-IP 4200. F5 Networks also provides a chassis based hardware called VIPRION which can run the same modules that run on a BIG-IP system. To add to the mix, some people also confuse BIG-IP with the operating system, although the basis of the BIG-IP system from a software perspective is the Traffic Management Operation System® (TMOS). TMOS is a real-time, event-driven operating system designed specifically for application delivery networking. On top of TMOS runs the independent modules mentioned before.

When you configure a brand new BIG-IP system (or VIPRION), you will be able to select what modules you want to activate in the platform (provided you have the license). This is what is called “Resource Provisioning”. The modules you can provision on a BIG-IP system (or VIPRION) are:

BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager

Also refer as LTM, it is the first product the company created. It started its life as a Load Balancer but it has evolved into a powerful Application Delivery Controller.

BIG-IP Global Traffic Manager

GTM provides intelligent traffic management to your globally available network resources. When you use LTM, you usually load balance resources within a datacenter or to servers which are logically close to the BIG-IP system. GTM extends this idea and allows a company to load balance traffic among datacenters, which is known as Global Server Load Balancing.

BIG-IP Application Security Manager

ASM for short, is a Web Application Firewall. Application Security Manager protects Web applications from both generalized and targeted application layer attacks including buffer overflow, SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and parameter tampering.

BIG-IP Protocol Security Module

PSM for short extends the idea of ASM but to protocols different to HTTP/HTTPS. It provides security checks for other traffic like FTP and SMTP.

BIG-IP Access Policy Manager

APM was created as a replacement of the Firepass product, which was a SSL VPN solution. Although APM provides SSL VPN functionality, it has evolved as a flexible, high-performance access and security solution. With Access Policy Manager, you can manage access to networks and applications by implementing security policies in the network. Policies are set to allow access based on context, including user identity and group membership.

BIG-IP Application Acceleration Manager

Application Acceleration Manager (AAM) is a combination of the retired modules known as WebAccelerator and WOM (Wan Optimization Module). It overcomes network, protocol, and application issues to help you meet application performance, data replication, and disaster recovery requirements.

The modules mentioned above are what we would say the main products in the BIG-IP family. There are a few others, less known as CGN (Carrier Grade NAT) and PEM (Policy Enforcement Manager) but are products specifically designed for Service Providers, so we won’t get into them yet.

Last but not least, you also need to know F5 Networks do provide a few others products which are not part of the BIG-IP system. For example, Traffix (Signaling Delivery Controller) for Service Providers and LineRate (Low cost and high-volume lightweight virtual load balancer).

We hope this article helps you to understand the BIG-IP family and all the cool stuff you can do with it.

F5 Networks BIG-IP. What is it?