At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead a full platform migration from legacy F5 appliances to the rSeries r5600 platform.
- Company: Join a dynamic tech environment with a focus on innovation and collaboration.
- Benefits: Short-term contract with competitive pay and remote work flexibility.
- Other info: Opportunity for knowledge transfer and professional growth in a fast-paced setting.
- Why this job: Make a significant impact in a high-stakes migration project with cutting-edge technology.
- Qualifications: Proven F5 BIG-IP migration experience and strong knowledge of F5OS.
A short, high-impact 21-day contract for an experienced F5 engineer ready to own a full platform migration from legacy i5800 appliances to the rSeries r5600 platform. The engagement is due to commence at the end of August and is expected to be outside IR35. Our client is migrating four F5 BIG-IP appliances across two data centres, transitioning vCMP guest configurations to F5OS tenants. The environment runs BIG-IP v17.1+ across HA pairs provisioned with LTM, DNS, APM, and ASM. This is a like-for-like migration with a clear scope, structured cutover windows, and a well-defined architecture. The equipment is procured and the project is ready for execution.
What You’ll Own
- Planning & Preparation: Review the existing F5 configuration (including QKView analysis), identify migration risks, and produce the migration plan, runbook with rollback steps, and testing plan for stakeholder sign-off.
- Platform Setup: Prepare UCS files, establish management access on the r5600 devices, activate F5 cloud licensing, upgrade F5OS, create BIG-IP tenants, and provision all modules. Import and adapt the base configuration offline to ensure zero production impact. Configure HA failover, SYSLOG/SNMP monitoring, and remote authentication (LDAP/AD/TACACS/RADIUS).
- Component Testing: Execute cold testing, cold commissioning, and hot failover testing on each HA pair. Produce test evidence for customer witness sign-off.
- Configuration Migration: Like-for-like migration of LTM, ASM, and APM configurations. Integrate new DNS BIG-IPs into the existing sync-group. Validate connectivity, pool member availability, application monitoring, and licensing.
- Cutover: Lead two out-of-hours change windows (4 hours each, one per DC), including failover, verification, and post-cutover testing.
- Post-Cutover Support: Up to 4 hours of next-business-day support after each cutover.
- Knowledge Transfer: Deliver a 4-hour session covering operations, administration, backup/restore, and troubleshooting. Update the As-Built documentation to reflect the migrated deployment.
Requirements
Essential:
- Proven F5 BIG-IP migration experience, ideally iSeries to rSeries or equivalent hardware refresh.
- Strong working knowledge of F5OS: tenant creation, licensing, platform management.
- Hands-on experience with LTM, DNS (GTM), APM, and ASM.
- Experience migrating vCMP guest configurations to F5OS tenants.
- Solid understanding of HA failover configuration and testing.
- Ability to produce professional migration runbooks, rollback plans, and test documentation.
- Comfortable managing out-of-hours cutover windows independently.
- Strong knowledge of TCP/IP, HTTP/S, DNS, and routing.
Desirable:
- F5 certifications (F5-CA, F5-CTS, or F5 Certified Administrator).
- Experience with F5 cloud-based licensing.
- Familiarity with QKView analysis and iHealth diagnostics.
- Scripting and automation: iRules, iControl, tmsh, Ansible, or similar.
F5 Engineer | BIG-IP rSeries Migration | 21-Day Contract (Remote) in Manchester employer: C-Serv
Join a dynamic team as an F5 Engineer, where your expertise will drive a critical migration project in a supportive and collaborative remote environment. We prioritise employee growth through continuous learning opportunities and offer a flexible work culture that values your contributions, ensuring you can thrive while making a meaningful impact on our client's infrastructure. With a clear project scope and structured support, this role provides a unique chance to enhance your skills while working on cutting-edge technology.
