Introduction: Accessing F5 Distributed Cloud Console ==================================================== **Narrative:** Congratulations! You are an Application Security Engineer at ACME Corp. ACME’s Application Team supports a mix of modern web applications, APIs, and SaaS-based services that are continuously evolving. New features are deployed frequently, traffic patterns shift across regions, and security threats are constantly adapting. With multiple application versions, public exposure, and global users, controlling how traffic flows through the environment has become a top priority. ACME leadership has made it clear: security cannot slow innovation but it must be built into the traffic flow itself. The team needs the ability to intelligently steer traffic for blue/green testing, apply granular security controls at specific application paths, and maintain real-time visibility into both security events and performance metrics. As the Application Security Engineer, you are tasked with designing and validating this data plane. You need to enforce access through Service Policies, steer traffic through intelligent routing, apply WAF protections where they matter most, and ensure everything can be monitored and investigated through centralized dashboards. Rather than stitching together tools across environments, you turn to F5 Distributed Cloud to secure, steer, and observe application traffic from a unified platform. Because SaaS happens. Your job is to control the flow. Task 1: Lab Environment ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | The image below represents an overview of the lab environment. F5 Distributed Cloud Services | | | | will be configured as a SaaS Edge delivery and security service tier to a publicly hosted web| | | | application. The key elements lab attendees will interact with are as follows: | | | | * **F5 Distributed Cloud Console** | | * **F5 Distributed Cloud Global Network / Application Delivery Network (ADN)** | | * **Publicly hosted application (Public Cloud)** | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | |intro000| | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Task 2: Accessing F5 Distributed Cloud Console ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The following tasks will guide you through the initial access requirements for the associated lab environment. Lab attendees should have received an invitation email to the lab environment based on the submitted registration email. Please check email and spam folders if it has not been received. If you have not received an email, please contact a member of the lab team. F5 Distributed Cloud Console, where this lab will be conducted, is a SaaS control-plane for services that provides a UI and API for managing network, security, and compute services. The F5 Distributed Cloud Console can manage "sites" in existing on-premises data centers and sites in AWS, Azure, and GCP cloud environments. Course/Lab Invitation ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Course/Lab Attendees will receive an email similar to the graphic displayed in this section. | | The email will come from courses@notify.udf.f5.com. | | | | As attendees maybe registered for several lab/courses, ensure the correctly identified course| | is selected. Use either the first or second link position (indicated by arrows) based on | | the attendee's F5 UDF (Unified Demo Framework) Account Status. | | | | #. **New UDF Users** | | #. **Returning UDF Users going directly to Course** | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | |intro001| | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Accessing UDF (F5 Unified Demo Framework) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | The following will guide attendees through the initial Lab environment access within F5 UDF. | | Following the instructions from the Course/Lab invitation above, attendees will be prompted | | to login at https://udf.f5.com | | | | .. note:: | | *The steps for new UDF Users or the steps for resetting UDF User account passwords are* | | *not shown. Please contact a member of the lab team if further assistance is needed.* | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | |intro002| | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Attendees will be prompted to enter their UDF account, password and complete MFA as shown. | | MFA must be completed by either selecting **Send Push** or **Enter Code**. | | | | .. note:: | | *MFA process will very based on the MFA integration selected for the UDF Account. OKTA* | | *Verify is shown.* | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | |intro003| | | | | |intro004| | | | | |intro005| | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Attendees will then be presented their scheduled course sessions. Locate the course/lab with | | the appropriate **Date**, **Time** and **Name** and then click **Launch**. | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | |intro006| | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Once redirected to the selected Course/Lab, click the **Join** button. | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | |intro007| | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | The Lab environment window will now be displayed. Click on the **Documentation** tab in the | | horizontal navigation links. Locate and observe the state of **Client** system. | | | | In approximately 5-7 minutes the associated **yellow gear** starting icon will change to a | | **green arrow** (running) icon and attendees will proceed to the next section of steps. | | | | .. note:: | | *Your specific lab environment may vary from the graphics shown below. The **Client*** | | *will, however, be consistent.* | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | |intro008| | | | | |intro009| | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Accessing F5 Distributed Cloud ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Following the state change of the **Client System** to a **green arrow** (running) icon, | | attendees will receive a second email. This email will come from no-reply@cloud.f5.com. | | Click the **Accept invitation** with in the email. | | | | .. note:: | | *This link should be accessed in the same browser session as UDF was accessed for* | | *seamless experience.* | | | | .. warning:: | | *Attendess should not attempt access to F5 Distributed Cloud tenant prior to receiving* | | *email. Lab permissions may need to be re-applied.* | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | |intro010| | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | The initial logon prompt will be presented. Click **Sign on with Okta** to proceed. SSO | | will process and onboarding to the tenant will proceed. | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | |intro011| | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Next the **Terms of Service and Privacy Policy** will display, check the box and then click | | **Accept and Agree**. | | | | In the following screen, Select all persona roles and click **Next**. This allows attendees | | to see all the various configurations. Personas can be changed anytime later within the | | console if desired. | | | | In the next screen, click **Advanced** to expose more menu options and then **Get Started** | | to begin. You can change this setting after logging in as well. | | | | .. note:: | | *Several Guidance ToolTips or Notices may appear. Attendees can safely close these out* | | *in order to begin the lab.* | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | |intro012| | | | | |intro013| | | | | |intro014| | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Attendees will now be presented the Home page of the F5 Distributed Cloud Console with all | | the workspaces, features and services available. | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | |intro015| | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | **Beginning of Lab:** You are now ready to begin the lab, Enjoy! 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