F5 BIG-IP DNS Reviews

My use case includes load balance swaps and mostly exposing web applications to the Internet.

We have different use cases for different clients. For example, for one of our clients, F5 improved global server load balancing with an active-active site configuration for Disaster Recovery.

Most benefits are for disaster recovery and having a spare data center for business continuity. 

From the perspective of global server load balancing, this feature has helped business continuity.

DNSSEC feature contributes to enhancing network security posture. 

The global load balancer is mainly for availability, allowing for more data center options, but for strict security reasons, not so much beyond DNS security.

We faced challenges while integrating DNS into the existing network infrastructure. Integrating with actual customers' DNS solutions and migrating them from local servers to F5.

The IP intelligent services are good for mitigating threats, but there are also false positives.  So, it's not a standalone solution that can cover everything.

F5 can consider enhancing the security profiles.

Another area of improvement is documentation. 

I have been using it for four years now. 

The hardware version and the cloud edition have been stable.

It is a scalable solution , especially in the cloud. The licensing is manageable and satisfactory.

The quality of customer service and support varies. Cloud-related issues have been challenging, but they handle common issues for virtual and physical editions competently.

Positive

The initial setup is complex, and the documentation could be improved. It is not very well documented. 

It is not very easy to learn. 

Just one person can handle it. The deployment process involves analyzing the current architecture and determining how F5 can benefit the existing setup. Documentation and analysis are key steps.

The hardware version takes longer due to the need for on-site work. The virtual edition is easier to install but lacks the throughput of the physical version. Typically, it takes about five days.

It is not difficult to maintain, especially if you have an active-passive cluster.

You cannot do much around DDoS protection without an additional license from F5 for full DDoS protection. 

Since it is WAF, you can implement some solutions, but for a comprehensive DDoS solution, other licenses are more effective with their cloud-based or web-based services.

I would definitely recommend using this solution. 

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. 

We use it for data center (DC) operations. We have a three-tier, eight-site DNS configuration: one DC and two "DR." It's used for the failover of our applications and resolving hosts for applications.

It intelligently works at release time to load balance traffic and applications. It also provides an intelligent solution to resolve their (application) hosts securely.

BIG-IP DNS effectively handled a traffic surge. For example, we have application forms replicated across our DCs. If our primary application becomes unavailable, BIG-IP automatically fails over to a client-unaware secondary application.

We primarily rely on our GTM, not a full BIG-IP DNS bundle implementation. In a disaster scenario, we leverage our DR solutions and a dedicated LTLF line connecting all three geographically dispersed recovery (GDR) sites. When a blackout occurs, it automatically fails over to the DR site, ensuring our applications remain managed by the DR solution.

Global availability is a key feature for me. Additionally, DNS Security Zones (DSZ) within DNS Check is a good feature.

It is cost-effective as well.

Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) functionality within BIG-IP DNS enhanced our DNS resolution efficiency.

It's the GSLB component that handles load-balancing applications across different locations. Through GSLB, if you have one location in India and another in the US, for instance, you can set up priority-based or cost-based IT services.

When a user requests support, the system checks if they are coming from a location associated with a specific service level. If the user is in the US,  GSLB automatically resolves them to US-based DCs, and vice versa for India. This ensures users are directed to the appropriate applications based on their location.

The monitoring capabilities of F5 BIG-IP DNS could be improved. Sometimes, it requires additional work to monitor details effectively.

I have been using it for six years. Currently, we're using version 16.1.2. The latest version is 16.1.0.

I would rate the stability an eight out of ten. 

I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten. 

Since it's used in an Indian government ministry department, it's used across all of India.

The customer service and support is very helpful and responsive. 

Positive

We have multiple technologies in our infrastructure, including Cisco routers, HP routers, F5 products, FortiGate firewalls, NPLs, and IPS solutions like McAfee.

We use F5 primarily for DNS, while other technologies like firewalls and routers are used based on specific needs and licensing models.

So we have dedicated specialists for each solution, and I personally focus only on F5 BIG-IP DNS.

The implementation wasn't always easy. There were situations where the hardware DNS server wasn't readily available.

It's an on-premises hardware solution. 

I would rate the pricing a three out of ten, with ten being a low price. 

There are additional costs to the standard license. 

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. I would recommend using this solution. 

We use F5 BIG-IP DNS to handle traffic from multiple servers. 

The solution is easy to configure and deploy. It is scalable and works without any downtime. F5 BIG-IP DNS is a flexible solution. 

The tool needs to improve its UI. 

I have been working with the solution for two years.

F5 BIG-IP DNS is scalable, and we have around 5000 users. We plan to increase the number of users. 

F5 BIG-IP DNS' installation is straightforward and can be completed in 10 minutes. You need to deploy the virtual servers with the right interfaces. 

I rate the tool's stability a nine out of ten. 

This is a DNS solution.

The security is pretty good. It helps protect against DDoS. 

The management is very easy. 

Overall, it works well and is effective. 

The pricing is reasonable.

It is stable.

We can scale the solution. 

it is pretty secure. It's a good environment. 

The costs could always be a bit lower. 

I've been using the solution for about a year and a half. 

It's a very stable, reliable solution. I'd rate the stability ten out of ten. There are no bugs or glitches, and it doesn't crash or freeze. 

The product scales well. I'd rate scalability ten out of ten. It's easy to expand. 

While I've never used technical support, the company has reached out to support in the past. Support is managed by a third party. They manage the troubleshooting as well. 

We did previously use a different Windows solution. F5 is better for bigger companies. I changed solutions when I changed companies. 

You do need a team to manage the setup process. 

The solution was deployed by the time I got to the company. I'm not sure if there was outside assistance. 

You do need a license to use the solution and do need to renew it periodically if you decide to continue to use it. 

While I do not know what the exact price of the solution is, my understanding is that it is pretty cheap. 

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten. 

We use F5 for load balancing, reverse processing, and for web applications.

There is room for improvement in pricing. It is very pricey. So we don't have a performance problem at this stage. Because the appliances that we use are not the virtual edition. We know that NGINX started using the virtual edition for containers. But, from a performance perspective, we're happy. And from just the price perspective, it's very expensive.

I have been using this solution for ten years.  

It's very stable.

It is scalable to a certain extent, but that's why we're starting to look at the virtual deployed editions like NGINX because you have limitations, and it's easier to scale in any environment you have on-prem cloud deployment as well. 

Two engineers are required for the deployment of the solution. We also have certain vendors who work with us during the implementation. 

We saw a return on investment. 

We need pay for the license. It is an expensive solution. 

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. I would recommend using the solution.

We are using the latest version of FS BIG-IP. We use the solution for classic reverse proxy authentication. We have approximately 800 internal staff and 2,000 external customers using the solution.

F5 BIG-IP DNS is useful, depending on how you use it. Once you write to it, you can do anything you want from it, making it a very powerful solution.

The solution is complicated to use. It is difficult to write to. F5 BIG-IP DNS is powerful but challenging to use.

I would like to see the login facilities improved, as well as more troubleshooting.

I have been working with F5 BIG-IP DNS for two and a half years.

The solution is stable.

I have not scaled F5 BIG-IP, it is only a single-box solution.

Prior to using F5 BIG-IP, we used PMG. We switched because PMG was at end of life.

The initial set up of F5 BIG-IP DNS is complex. It took approximately six months to deploy.

We implemented the solution through consultants. We are still using the consultants, so we will need to add someone to our team to handle future deployment and maintenance.

Anyone deciding to implement F5 BIG-IP DNS should be aware that it is a complex and powerful product.

I would rate this solution an 8 out of 10.

F5 BIG-IP DNS is used for global load balancing.

F5 provides us with a mechanism to accomplish complex product balancing.

Hand management and working with rules are two areas that need to be improved.

It would be beneficial to have information and categorize it for licensing, features, and what is included in which license. I would like to see more marketing documentation, rather than technical documentation.

I have been working with F5 BIG-IP DNS for five years.

F5 BIG-IP DNS is more stable than Loadbalancer and Citrix.

F5 BIG-IP DNS is easy to scale. I don't have any issues with the scalability of F5 BIG-IP DNS.

If I am not mistaken, I don't have any support cases.

I have experience with Citrix, Kemp, Barracuda, Cisco, Loadbalancer.org, and NGINX.

I  use LTM, and my colleagues have set up an access manager, DNS, and other security features. LTM is used for local load balancing.

In most cases, I work with ADC and my colleagues work with the security, we divide the work.

The initial setup varies depending on the scenario. Generally, it requires some knowledge.

In some cases, it is expensive. F5 BIG-IP DNS doesn't provide the best prices for new or small customers.

We recommend it for customers who have complex product balancing requirements. For example, if a customer needs to parse network packets and needs to change them. 

We are partners with both F5 BIG-IP and Loadbalancer.org.

I would rate F5 BIG-IP DNS an eight out of ten.

We are a solution provider and F5 DNS Delivery is one of the products that we implement for our customers. This product is normally deployed for high application availability. That means we use the local traffic manager module the most. The DNS module is used for global server load-balancing and fail-over across data centers.

The messaging between NGINX and F5 should be simplified. When I do presentations to customers, they sometimes are confused about this issue. It is not clear where NGINX gets into the network.

I would like to see deeper integration with VMware in the sense that F5 compliments VMware, in the context of application availability. VMware has the Site Recovery Manager that looks at the virtual machine side of things. If there's deep integration with VMware, where F5 is able to figure out that an application is impaired and it wants to failover, it should be able to tell VMware to trigger that process.

Better pricing for this product would make it more competitive on the market.

We have been using F5 DNS Delivery for three years.

This product is highly scalable, especially given the fact that you are not confined to one particular port speed. You can upgrade as your traffic grows using different transceivers.

We have customers in several countries. In Botswana, we have between 27 and 35 clients. In Zimbabwe, we have close to 60, and in Zambia, there are fewer than 15.

F5 technical support is quite good and they follow up if there are any issues. F5 support is available even before the deployment, right from the pre-sales stage to the deployment itself, as well as after-sales support.

I have also worked with Kemp load balancers and they don't even come close to F5.

The initial setup is straightforward. Once I have all of the information required in order to deploy, it takes one day to complete.

For my customers, I am deploying the current version, which is 16. For others, we haven't upgraded them. I'm simply patching the areas necessarily as identified by F5. 

We are the system integrator and handle the deployment for our customers.

This product is quite pricey but if you compare the feature set and its compatibility with similar products on the market, you would understand why it's that price. Licensing is either perpetual or subscription-based, depending on the modules that you want.

We're doing a campaign now to question our customers about business resilience using the F5 product. Most customers have invested in business continuity but sometimes they find that what they have done doesn't conform to their own business continuity plans. We go into this type of environment and introduce F5 to ensure that their continuity plans are on point.

In summary, this is a good product and I recommend it. That said, no product is perfect.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.