F5 BIG-IP DNS Reviews

My main use case for F5 BIG-IP DNS is creating an active-active setup. With two data centers, if I want to make them active-standby or active-active, my major use case is to redirect traffic from or distribute traffic between the two data centers.

Global service load balancing is a major use case for F5 BIG-IP DNS. It allows my organization to route user traffic to the most optimal data center based on factors including server health, geographical proximity, network latency, and application availability topology. Key benefits include high availability, improved application performance, disaster recovery, and intelligent traffic streaming.

In my organization, I have used F5 BIG-IP DNS for global service load balancing by having two data centers, and for a few of the applications, it works as active-active, and a few of them are active-standby. For example, if I have www.example.com, data center one might be active for one application and the second is standby. If the application is working in data center one perfectly fine, then it functions as expected. If something goes down in data center one, traffic automatically switches to data center two. That is the major use case of this. For a few of the applications, we also have an active-active scenario.

For most of the applications, we are using the global availability feature in F5 BIG-IP DNS, and for a few of the applications, we are using round-robin.

The best feature of F5 BIG-IP DNS is global server load balancing. It intelligently directs user DNS requests to the most optimal data center based on server health and geographical location, and it enhances performance. It ensures high availability, improved application performance, and automatic failover if a data center becomes unavailable. Intelligent traffic steering means considering server health status, network latency, and data center availability. For example, automatic failover occurs when one data center goes down, and the second will work. It has definitely improved the user experience.

The benefits of intelligent traffic steering and automatic failover with F5 BIG-IP DNS for my organization are significant. For automatic failover, as I mentioned, we have two data centers, and an application is available in both data centers. But somehow, if due to a power failure or some issue a server went down, or if a BIG-IP went down in data center one, GSLB will redirect the traffic to data center two, where traffic is working correctly. This is the main best feature. For intelligent traffic steering, suppose it is topology-based. If we have two data centers in two different countries, for a US user, it will send the traffic to the US data center, and for a UK user, it will send the traffic to the UK data center based on the latency. That has definitely improved performance a lot for the organization.

F5 BIG-IP DNS has positively impacted my organization through high availability. F5 BIG-IP DNS continuously monitors application health and redirects traffic to the server of a data center. Improved application performance results from directing users to the nearest, fastest data center, and disaster recovery support helps in case of a data center failure, so traffic can automatically fail over to another site. Intelligent traffic steering uses methods including round-robin, ratio, and global availability topology-based routing. These are the major features that have positively impacted our organization and enhanced the user experience.

While F5 BIG-IP DNS is a very powerful solution, some improvements could enhance the overall experience. For example, the user interface could be more modern and simplified. The reporting and analytics features can be improved. Simplified deployment for cloud-native environments could be improved. Overall, F5 BIG-IP DNS is a robust and reliable solution for global traffic management and application availability. With its advanced traffic steering capability, we are definitely getting great benefits from that. However, the user interface is the major thing I think can be improved. The cost also can be reduced. Those are the two or three points that need to be improved.

There is some scope for improvement, including the user interface and pricing. That is why I gave it a nine.

I have been using F5 BIG-IP DNS for the last five years.

F5 BIG-IP DNS is very stable.

F5 BIG-IP DNS is definitely efficient at handling a large volume of DNS queries and distributing traffic across multiple data centers or a cloud environment. This definitely ensures the application remains highly available. It supports multiple data centers, hybrid cloud, and multiple cloud environments. More servers can be added, and new data centers can be integrated. I do not see any challenge with this one. The core idea of F5 BIG-IP DNS is scalability, enabling organizations to handle massive DNS traffic and distribute application requests across multiple infrastructures. It is very scalable.

Since the beginning, I have only been using F5 BIG-IP DNS.

F5 BIG-IP DNS provides a strong return on investment by minimizing downtime, improving application availability, preventing outages, and ensuring reliable service. This helps the organization avoid revenue loss, maintain customer trust, and reduce operational risk. That is the major benefit we are getting from F5 BIG-IP DNS.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing was good. We got great support from the F5 sales team. They helped us to deploy it in our organization.

We did not analyze other options because we got a great benefit from F5 BIG-IP DNS only. We were using other products from F5, so that is why we went for F5 BIG-IP DNS only.

Faster response time is one of the major outcomes, and the second one is definitely the availability of the application. Earlier, we had one data center, so when something went wrong in the data center, whether it was related to a firewall, router, or switches, there was an outage. Now, since we have two data centers, if something goes wrong in one data center, the second data center will handle the traffic. That is the major improvement and major benefit we are getting. We have reduced downtime to almost zero percent now. There is no downtime for any application.

If you are looking for a GSLB kind of solution, you should definitely go for F5 BIG-IP DNS. It is giving great help to an organization in achieving their goal of making applications available twenty-four seven, three hundred sixty-five days a year. I gave this product a rating of nine out of ten.

I use F5 BIG-IP DNS for DNS protection, focusing mainly on DNS security, which is the primary use case, along with GSLB and load balancing as well.

F5 BIG-IP DNS stands out as they are number one when it comes to WAF and load balancing technologies, and they have plenty of add-on features such as APM and AFM to handle DDoS attacks, DNS security, and GSLB.

BIG-IP handles global and local server load balancing, although local server load balancing is not via DNS, but that's fine; it manages both.

When it comes to denial of service or DNS security, F5 is not the best vendor as dedicated vendors such as Arbor for denial of service and Infoblox for DNS security offer more comprehensive solutions.

The main features such as WAF and load balancing do not generate complaints.

F5 BIG-IP DNS is not the best for DNS denial of service because they handle it as part of BIG-IP features, mainly used for GSLB, while other vendors provide complete DDI solutions, including DHCP, DNS, and IP address management, along with specialized DNS security, offering much more than just GSLB and basic recursive DNS security.

The two main concerns are DNS related and denial of service, areas where F5 BIG-IP DNS could improve, and they could do better as they are not the best vendor, indicating ample room for improvement especially since those are not their main specialties.

I have been dealing with F5 BIG-IP DNS for one year.

I consider the performance and stability of F5 BIG-IP DNS to be very stable unless there is incorrect sizing. If everything is set up correctly, it maintains stability.

I find it easy to scale F5 BIG-IP DNS as you can cluster them, so there are no limitations.

Regarding technical support from the vendor, I would rate it as good, even above average. No one complains about them too much, so it seems they are doing their job correctly.

Positive

I left Cisco totally and now work with something different, but I still might work with Nozomi as I'm working in a distributor of cybersecurity now, dealing with other vendors.

As a solution architect, I deal with F5, Palo Alto, Forcepoint, Kaspersky, Trend Micro, Trellix, and around twenty more vendors, as we are a distributor for them.

I find the installation of F5 BIG-IP DNS to be above average. It's not very simple due to its handling of different features and functionalities, so awareness is necessary. It's not just a very easy solution.

I find the pricing for F5 BIG-IP DNS to be above average but with a very high ROI, as it is always utilized in any DMZ zone for customers with web applications or published services.

F5 will be there to protect those services, and the risk of not having them is substantial; it affects a company's reputation if a service is compromised, especially since it is typically a published service, not internal.

The performance improvement from being a load balancer enhances user experience, contributing to a good reputation that translates into ROI based on the industry.

F5 BIG-IP DNS features advanced analytics and reporting capabilities.

Regarding threat detection and mitigation capabilities, they have features for dealing with DDoS protection, detection, and even mitigation, which includes redirecting traffic.

It's a broad question as they have numerous features including the WAF for HTTP and web application attack detection and mitigation, handling it from multiple vectors.

I'm not into deep details in implementation of health monitoring and automated failover capabilities because I work as a solution architect and didn't do it myself, even as a pre-sales, so I might not know those details.

I was working as a pre-sales, not research into these products.

I see no disadvantages or areas for improvement. It functions correctly, and I'm not deep technical, as I'm selling it, so there's not much competition; no one complains about the main function which is load balancing and web application firewall.

On a scale of one to ten, I would give F5 BIG-IP DNS a rating of eight.

The customer had two data centers, one northbound and one southbound. So both are physically in different locations. The customer's requirement was to load balance the traffic originating from any source. 

The primary data center should respond to every query. In the event of a disaster, server unavailability, or any other issues, the traffic should automatically redirect to the alternate data center. This sums up the scenario. 

The GTM feature is very good, It's very useful, especially if we have multiple data centers. If we want to load balance traffic from multiple data centers, the GTM feature is very useful.  

F5 is working on improving its identity management features. This is an important area for improvement, as it is a key component of Zero Trust architecture. 

So, when I was working on the zero-trust architecture, I noticed that there was a lack of documentation.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published some documentation and frameworks for ZTA implementation.

In the NIST framework, multiple vendors can be used for different components of the architecture. For example, for identity management, common vendors include Azure, Intune, AWS, Cisco Duo, and Zscaler. I remember reading about F5 mentioned in the context of the ZTA framework. 

So, it's encouraging to read that F5 is being considered for ZTA implementations. Netskope is also using F5 for their ZTA solutions.

I would also like to see all of F5's features integrated into a single box, as it would be the most beneficial for end customers. F5 is already enhancing its security capabilities. 

Initially, load balancing and security required separate devices, but now F5 offers solutions that combine both functionalities in a single device.

I worked on it six months ago.

It's a very stable product. Whenever new features are coming up, and plan to upgrade but never face issues like unresponsiveness, server failures, or a decline in load balancing. Such problems were not reported by anyone in my network.

I have seen around 10 to 15 companies using F5.

The customer service and support are good. 

For the load balancing feature, F5 provides unique features and services that no other company offers. As an MSP, when customers demand specific features that F5 provides, we suggest it. For example, when customers ask for load-balancing servers or data centers, F5 is the go-to product that comes to our minds.

The initial setup is a step-by-step process, so it can be a bit complicated for someone who's using it for the first time. However, following the guidelines and documentation should make it easier to deploy.

It was deployed on-premises. It was a virtual machine on a web VM.

The configuration was very easy for our use case. We configured the main features to load balance local traffic, and then we set up the GTM feature for external traffic entering the data center. 

To achieve this, we bound both public IPs, one from the northbound and one from the southbound, to a single URL used to access the server within the data center. Inside the GTM configuration, we included both IP addresses. 

Additionally, we configured the geographical availability feature. For example, if a southbound user needs access to the same data available in the northbound, even though the northbound is the primary, the responsibility falls on the southbound data center to manage that traffic, instead of routing it all through the northbound.

This is how we configured the setup, and it was successfully implemented.

I deployed it. I deployed F5 BIG-IP DNS, GTM, and RPM. There are a lot of technical terms and concepts to grasp, especially for those unfamiliar with F5's terminology.

For instance, the term "virtual server" in the context of F5 BIG-IP DNS is different from the standard concept of a virtual server. In standard terms, a virtual server is a software emulation of a physical server. However, in F5 BIG-IP DNS, a virtual server can represent a group of physical servers that provide the same service.

This can be confusing as the users may not understand why they need to create a virtual server when they already have physical servers available.

The documentation explains that the virtual server acts as a traffic distribution point, directing incoming requests to the most appropriate available physical server.

I would recommend using the solution. But keep in mind that you should have some basic understanding of F5 technology. With the basic knowledge of F5, it will be easily manageable. It will not take a longer time if you are following the guide. So it will not take a long time to configure. 

Overall, I will rate F5 an eight out of ten because it's a very stable and good product for load balancing. When we talk about load balancing, there may be other products, but F5 is more stable and easily available everywhere.

We use F5 BIG-IP DNS for internal and global DNS services for distributing content across our environment.

One of the most effective feature of F5 BIG-IP DNS is its robustness and integration with our existing F5 infrastructure. It helps us to geographically connect and form an internal topology network with our clients.

The analysis services needs improvement. 

I have been using F5 BIG-IP DNS for the past twenty years.

It's quite stable and meets our expectations in terms of stability.

It is scalable since our deployment with F5 BIG-IP DNS is well-suited to handle our current capacity and scalability needs.

The support is satisfactory but it needs to work on their analysis services

Positive

The setup is straightforward.

We have seen measurable benefits and cost savings from using F5 BIG-IP DNS. Our company has gained benefits from redundancy and minimizing disruptions, especially when making changes or updates.

While we haven't explored AI-driven features yet, it's part of our roadmap for future versions.

We use the solution for the JPMC Logistics site. In our data center, we have deployed a couple of GTM devices to manage multiple sites across the globe. 

I sometimes encounter issues with the porting of F5 BIG-IP DNS. The porting functionality is not up to the mark when troubleshooting or attempting to access logs or connections. Additional attention is needed to ensure smooth operation. 

I have been using F5 BIG-IP DNS for 2 years.

F5 BIG-IP DNS is stable.

The solution offers good scalability.

F5 BIG-IP DNS is excellent. Whenever we encounter any issues and reach out to their support, they are always ready to assist. They promptly address any severity level of the problem and often call us to troubleshoot and resolve issues effectively. I would rate their support a solid 9.5 out of 10. It's truly awesome.

Positive

We opted for Citrix NetScaler, too. F5 BIG-IP DNS has better load-balancing features than Citrix NetScaler. It stands as the top leader in the market, renowned for its unmatched performance, scalability, and advanced features. Its dominance is evidenced by its widespread adoption and proven track record in delivering seamless and reliable application solutions. 

The initial setup is quite simple. First, we need to understand the customer requirements. If it is simple, and we have an expert network team. We need to deploy the F5 BIG-IP DNS in one data center. If the architect understands the traffic flow, the traffic will hit the DNS directly. After DNS resolution, the traffic will be routed accordingly. If they know the complete flow, then it's a straightforward process.

I rate the solution's pricing a five out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.

The configuration process is straightforward, making it easy to set up wide IPs and distribute traffic across local US sites and data centers via VPN. Overall, my experience with F5 BIG-IP DNS has been positive.

Overall, I rate the F5 BIG-IP DNS a nine out of ten.

I am using F5 BIG-IP for various modules such as LTM (Local Traffic Manager), ASM (Advanced Security Manager), ABM (Application Policy Manager), and DNS. It helps in achieving scalability and high availability for applications, load balancing traffic, protecting applications from outside attacks, application security management, and DNS solutions for data center communication.

I have not worked on operational improvements directly since I am part of a partner team. Our role is to implement the solution for companies and then leave. However, F5 BIG-IP has helped achieve high availability, scalability, and protection from attacks.

The main features valued in F5 BIG-IP include high availability, scalability, and protection of applications from attacks. These are the primary targets it achieves.

The support response time could use improvement. In critical cases, such as in the big environment projects, faster support is needed to address critical issues promptly.

I have been using F5 BIG-IP for seven years.

F5 BIG-IP is highly stable, and there are no major stability issues noted.

F5 BIG-IP is highly scalable. I would rate its scalability as ten out of ten.

The technical support is quite good, but there is room for improvement. I would rate it as eight out of ten.

Positive

I have not specifically worked with other solutions. I know there are others like Citrix and Fortinet that offer similar capabilities.

The initial setup varies based on the project requirements. For a medium-sized project, it can be completed in two days. In the case of a cooperative project with the Ministry of Finance, it took around three days.

The deployment is usually done by only one person from our company.

In terms of pricing, F5 BIG-IP is not cheaper compared to other solutions like Fortinet or Citrix. The cost can be high due to its comprehensive modules.

I have evaluated other solutions such as Citrix and Fortinet, which provide features like load balancing and ADC.

I recommend F5 BIG-IP based on the specific environment and application protection needs. For example, F5 offers separate products for DDoS attacks. Understanding specific company needs is crucial.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten.

For caching purposes, we use F5 BIG-IP DNS.

The security features, DDoS mitigation facilities, and SQL configuration are the most valuable aspects of this solution.

The data mitigation is very good.

They only have a few sub-vendors, but competition for the reduced-price listing has increased. 

This one requires a few more vendors who can join the F5 network. 

In my opinion, brand recognition can be increased. I would like them to focus on marketing and brand awareness.

In India, for example, the product is not well known, and it is difficult to find F5 partners or vendors.

It's not widely known.

The weakness is that extensive training is required to hire the people who need to work on the project. Training is only part of it, the other is marketing, where and whom to approach.

I would like them to concentrate on training sessions or educational webinars to educate the users and customers.

We are only trained after we have installed it. The training was provided during the deployment.

The main point is that intelligence will be infused into this panel. The product server is prevented from accessing a malicious server site. CNC (control and command) communication would be beneficial.

We would like to have control and command blocking to prevent visiting malicious websites.

We would like them to have a prevention feature included, to prevent them from visiting these websites.

We have been using F5 BIG-IP DNS for three or four years.

F5 BIG-IP DNS is a stable solution.

F5 BIG-IP DNS is a scalable product.

Technical support is quick to respond and knowledgeable.

I would rate the technical support a three or four out of five.

We are not using any other products. We are only using F5 BIG-IP DNS.

The initial setup was straightforward.

I would rate the initial setup a three or four out of five.

We have preventive maintenance every six months. We have a team of two people to maintain this solution.

We had assistance from a third-party consultant.

They are competitively priced.

I would rate the price a four out of five. I don't have any issues with the pricing.

I would rate F5 BIG-IP DNS a nine 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 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. 

F5 can completely close all issues in infrastructure about application delivery control because these solutions have all the instruments to close these issues.

Speaking about F5 BIG-IP DNS Global Traffic Manager, at a worldwide level, we get the opportunity to secure DNS records. Also, we have the opportunity to secure if customers have opted into DNS in the local area. You can make all DNS requests through only F5 BIG-IP DNS. Also, you can do any manipulation or modification with this traffic. In just one year, I can't know what F5 could do because there are a lot of things and a lot of instruments to push any task, especially because of the killer feature in F5 firewall. It also has a scripting language in which you can do whatever you want. If you know the TECO language, it's based on the TECO language. You can write, so we use something else to work with traffic, like an SAP application with APM and DNS, with which you can create some custom rules. So, if some feature doesn't have something in advance, you can create that feature. I think it's some of the best features of the solution.

I don't know precisely how it improved the functioning of my organization since, from my experience, I can say that it can close all issues in infrastructure, especially application publishing.

The killer feature is a very flexible script language. Also, it's really good in balancing at a worldwide level, good security for DNS records, and security for after DNS for customers. So, the aforementioned details are regarding the best features in F5 BIG-IP DNS.

For me, F5 is a great solution. I think all the features we have in the solution now are good.

In the product, one of the shortcomings is related to its configuration part. So, F5 issues certificates, and one needs to be a certified engineer to understand the product. Though you can find some manuals or F5 documents, in real life, it's very hard to understand this product. Documentation is an aspect that can be considered for improvement.

I have experience and a partnership with F5 BIG-IP DNS. So, almost for a couple of months, I worked on the solution. Also, I am using the solution's latest version.

It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten. I never experienced any bugs or glitches in the solution.

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten because it has no limits. You can scale, and you don't have limits in scaling up the solution. If we need to add some new applications, we may use them for a month, especially for publishing a patent application.

F5 offers very good support. With F5, people can check the solution themselves if there is an issue since they are provided with the opportunity to generate some files. So, you can download this file and put it in the support portal. It has an automatic system to analyze this file and understand what issue one has, based on which F5 gives some recommendations to solve the issue. If you cannot solve the issue, you can open a case. After that, it depends on the level case. So, it's very fast to solve issues. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten.

Positive

Previously, I used Cloudflare. However, I don't know if it is correct to compare a cloud solution like Cloudflare with an on-premise solution like F5 BIG-IP DNS. In a cloud solution, you don't have this flexibility, like, in F5 BIG-IP DNS or an on-premises solution.

The initial setup is very easy. However, F5 doesn't care if someone needs to publish applications or needs a security policy. Additionally, it doesn't care how many DyNet records one needs. So, it's all about sizing since F5 can close a large telecommunication company. If we're talking about setup, it is very easy, and it's not hard. However, if we are talking about ten or twenty F5 BIG-IP DNS, then I think the vendor completely looks after it since we are talking about architecture, and we need to understand what we need to do with a lot of F5 solutions deployed. Regarding the time taken for the deployment, if you know what to do, then it takes an hour. If you do it for the first time by opening data sheet manuals and YouTube, it may take a little bit longer, especially considering that you have never worked with LTM or ADC. The one that can be deployed on the cloud is named F5 Distributed Cloud.

I only read reviews mostly of Radware and A10. Though all the solutions are trying to copy F5 since all features are almost the same, F5 wins in flexibility.

Everything is good and perfect with F5 BIG-IP DNS. It's a very hard system, and you really need a lot of time to understand how it works. After you understand this, you can do whatever you want.

I have experience with Local Traffic Manager (LTM), with which you have a lot of opportunities to modify your traffic.

If you need to publish a very simple and a couple of site or web applications, you can go and find another solution. If you have a very difficult infrastructure and a very difficult application with IP, and you need a couple of DNS and global balancing, F5 can solve the problem.

It is a good solution that provides unlimited filing to its users. Also, you can add other solutions or modules to F5 BIG-IP DNS.

Also, you have good support and product. I never see some difficulties working with this product. I didn't see bugs or some other problems with this product.

I rate the overall product a ten out of ten.