---
title: "How to migrate ADC services from F5 Big-IP to RELIANOID"
description: "# Overview As web applications scale, the need for a reliable Delivery controller is paramount. Deploying RELIANOID ADC ensures that one is able to monitor the entire network both on and off-premise. High-speed delivery of an application is essential if…"
url: "https://www.relianoid.com/resources/knowledge-base/howtos/how-to-migrate-adc-services-from-f5-big-ip-to-relianoid-adc/"
updated: "2025-07-14"
category: "Howto's"
---

# How to migrate ADC services from F5 Big-IP to RELIANOID

# Overview

As web applications scale, the need for a reliable Delivery controller is paramount. Deploying RELIANOID ADC ensures that one is able to monitor the entire network both on and off-premise. High-speed delivery of an application is essential if a company website is a lead generation machine. When using F5’s Big IP, you've most certainly got frustrated about the delivery speeds and how complex it is to navigate the user interface.

If you’re looking for an alternative, look no further than RELIANOID ADC. In this article, we will discuss the basic concepts in F5’s BIG IP and what they translate to when using RELIANOID ADC.

# Prerequisites

To follow this guide, you must:

1. Have an active instance of RELIANOID ADC on your workstation or a cloud platform. If an instance is not installed, request an evaluation.
2. Be familiar with F5 Big-IP concepts, especially the LTM module.
3. Have access to RELIANOID web panel. If you don’t, follow this quick [installation guide](https://www.relianoid.com/knowledge-base_category/enterprise-edition/).
4. Have knowledge about creating a Virtual server in RELIANOID ADC. Follow this guide: [Layer 4 and layer 7 virtual server configuration](https://www.relianoid.com/knowledge-base/howtos/layer-7-and-layer-4-load-balancing-with-zevenet-e-e-v6-2/).

# Basic concepts

**Node:** A node in F5’s Big-IP is a server that hosts an application and processes the traffic sent to it by the load balancer. RELIANOID uses the term Backend to mean a node or a host server.

**Health Monitors:** The health of nodes needs regular monitoring within a specified interval. The **Health Monitors** option checks whether a backend server is up or down and reports that information to system admins. It also monitors whether a specific service is functioning as expected or not. RELIANOID uses a set of plugins called Farmguardian.

**Pool:** A pool is a cluster of nodes serving the same application through known ports like 25 for SMTP, 80 for HTTP, or 443 for HTTPS. A pool is the same as a Service when using an instance of RELIANOID load balancer.

**Connection Limit:** This limit refers to the maximum number of connections a single backend server can hold. RELIANOID uses the term Max. Conns to define a limit of concurrent connection a host server holds.

**Ratio:** Use ratio when some nodes have more resources and higher potential than others in the same node list. RELIANOID uses the metric of Weights to distribute more traffic to backend servers with more resources.

**Pool Member:** A member refers to an active node in a pool delivering a service through a known port. A node cannot be a pool member if it does not have a port. All RELIANOID Backends are Pool members since you define them with separate backend ports.

**Destination Address/Mask:** The destination address refers to a virtual IP (**VIP**). This IP address will listen for all incoming web traffic and distribute it equally to the pool members. RELIANOID uses the term Virtual IP for a destination address.

**Service port:** Service port refers to a port of a virtual server that listens for incoming traffic and forwards it to a suitable service. RELIANOID uses the term Virtual Port for a service port.

**Virtual server:** A virtual server is a device where all web traffic or packets from external networks is forwarded. A virtual server in RELIANOID is called a Farm.

**LTM:** The LTM (Local Traffic Manager) is a module that manages the traffic of a local network. RELIANOID uses an LSLB module for managing the traffic of a local network.

**AFM:** The AFM (Advanced Firewall Manager) is a layer 7 security feature. RELIANOID uses the WAF package for monitoring the security of a layer 7 application.

**ASM:** The ASM (Advanced Security Manager) is a module that monitors the overall security of a load balancer. RELIANOID uses the IPDS module. This module includes blacklist rules, RBL, a WAF, and DoS protection.

**SSL Profile Option:** The SSL profile option is a set of additional settings you add to a secure service like HTTPS or FTPS. With RELIANOID ADC, use the HTTPS Parameters to change the versions of **TLS/SSL** protocols. An admin may also change the ciphers using the HTTPS Parameters.

**LTM HTTP Policy:** The LTM policy offers conditional redirection based on client headers or behavior. RELIANOID ADC uses Header rules instead of LTM HTTP Policy.

# Example configuration: Conditional Redirection

Redirect rules are instructions that determine how a web server should respond when a user requests a specific URL. The action might be to forward traffic to a different URL if the resources from that link have been shifted. The common use for url redirects include, forwarding logged out users to a login page, redirecting users from unsecured HTTP to HTTPS, redirecting users to a new domain, etc. Redirect rules have status codes associated.

**301** status code will inform the browser that the page they were looking for was permanently transferred.
 **302** and **307** status codes will inform the browser that the page they were looking for was temporarily transferred. As of late, status code **307** is prefered.

In this section, we will describe F5’s LTM redirect policies and how to use these policies to make simpler configurations with RELIANOID to achieve a similar result. For test purposes, we will redirect traffic from **www.zenlb.net** to **www.relianoid.com**. Ensure you have your own test environment.

## BIG-IP configurations

1. Click **Local Traffic >> Policies >> Policy List**.
2. Click the **Create** button.
3. Enter a **Name** to identify the policy. A description for the policy is optional.
4. Click the **Create Policy** button.
5. Within the **General properties** section, assign a **Name**.
6. Within the policy **Rules** section, click the **Create** button.
7. Besides the **Match all of the following conditions** field, click the **+** button.
8. Within the first field, select **HTTP host**, 2nd field, select **host**, 3rd field, select **contains**, 4th field, select **any of**, 5th field, add **zenlb.net**, 6th field, select **request**.
9. Within the **Do the following when the traffic is matched** section, click the **+** button.
10. Within the first field, select **Redirect**, 2nd field, enter the url you want to redirect to, and in the 3rd field, select **response**.
11. Click the **Save** button to save the rule.
12. Within the policy section, click the **Save and Publish Policy** drop down option.
13. After creating these rules, one must add them to a virtual server receiving zenlb.net traffic. Assuming you have already configured a Virtual server with LTM.
14. Click **Local Traffic >> Virtual Servers >> Virtual Server List**.
15. Click on the virtual server you configured.
16. Click on the **Resources** Tab.
17. Under the **Policies** section, click the **Manage** button.
18. Shift the policy from the **Available** to the **Enabled** box.
19. Click the **Finish** button to enable the redirect rule on that virtual server.

## RELIANOID configurations

1. Click on LSLB >> Farms.
2. Click on a Layer 7 Farm with either an **HTTP** or **HTTPS** listener that you already configured.
3. Click on the Services tab.
4. Click on the Service you configured earlier on. If you didn’t, refer to this article: [Layer 4 and Layer 7 virtual server configurations.](https://www.relianoid.com/knowledge-base/howtos/layer-7-and-layer-4-load-balancing-with-zevenet-e-e-v6-2/)
5. Scroll and click on the Enable redirect toggle button.
6. Enter the URL you want to redirect to, and for this example, it will be **https://www.relianoid.com**. The assumption is that the Farm is already configured to server **zenlb.net**
7. Select the Redirect code, for this example, we will select **301**.
8. Select the Redirect type as **Append**.
9. Click the Apply button to save the configurations.

In the browser, enter the test URL, the path will be changed to the other path you configured.

# Example configuration: DNS load balancing

GSLB enables distributing network traffic across multiple servers in different geographic locations to ensure high availability, performance, and scalability of services. The goal is to redirect client requests to the closest, most available server, while reducing latency and improving service availability.

In this section, we will discuss how one may use Big-IP DNS to set up a GSLB Farm with RELIANOID.

## BIG-IP configurations

One is expected to have at least 2 nodes for managing 2 data centers and Wide-IPs. For this example, we will consider one node, but the configurations apply to the other.

### Configure listeners.

1. Click on **DNS >> Delivery Listeners >> Listener List**.
2. Click the **Create** button in the section that shows up.
3. Enter a suitable **Name**, for example **dns_listener**.
4. Within the **Type** section, select **Host** and enter the host **IP Address** in IPV4.
5. Scroll till the bottom of the page and click the **Finish** button.

### Configure Your data centers.

1. Click on **DNS >> GSLB >> Data Centers >> Data Center List**
2. Click the **Create** button.
3. Enter a suitable Data Center **Name**, for example **AU_datacenter**
4. Click the **Repeat** button to create another data center.
5. Give it a suitable **Name** too, for example **East_coast_datacenter**.
6. Click the **Finish** button to add the Data centers.

### Configure Servers

1. Click on **DNS >> GSLB >> Servers >> Server List**.
2. Click the **Create** button.
3. Enter a suitable **Name** to identify a server.
4. Within the **Data Center** field, select a data center from your list.
5. Scroll and click the **Add** button within the **Devices** section.
6. Enter the **Device Name** and its **Address** in IPV4 format.
7. Click the **Add** button followed by the **OK** button.
8. Scroll and click the **Repeat** button to add another server.
9. When done with the configurations, click the **Finish** button.

### Configure a Virtual Server

To configure a Virtual server in DNS, we will assume you have already configured an application virtual server within the Local traffic manager.

1. Click on **DNS >> GSLB >> Servers >> Server List**.
2. Click on the Server that was created within the previous section.
3. Click on the **Virtual Servers** tab.
4. Within the **Name** field, select from the List of LTM virtual servers you already created.
5. Enter an **IP address** of this virtual server.
6. Select **Service Port** 80 and enable the **Health Monitor** for HTTP.
7. Click the **Finish** button.

### Create A pool

1. Click on **DNS >> GSLB >> Pool >> Pool List**.
2. Enter a **Name** that easily Identifies the pool.
3. Select the **Type** as **A**.
4. Add the previous virtual server within the **Member List** section.
5. You may select the load balancing Method as **Round Robin**.
6. Click the **Finish** button.

### Configure Wide IP.

1. Click on **DNS >> GSLB >> Wide IPs >> Wide IP List**.
2. Click the **Create** button.
3. Within **General protections**, enter the Name as a domain, e.g www.zenlb.com
4. Select the record **Typ**e as **A**.
5. Within the **Pools** section, select a Pool you just created in the previous section and link it.
6. Select a load balancing method as Round robin.
7. Click the **Add** button to add to the pool list.
8. Click the **Finish** button.

One may allow some time, and test DNS resolution using nslookup.

## RELIANOID configurations

To configure GSLB in RELIANOID, you are expected to have at least 2 nodes deployed in 2 geographical regions for purposes of high availability and fast data center recovery. For example, one could be deployed in Boston, US and the other in a different city of a different country like Sydney, AU.

In this example, we will configure a GSLB Farm for one instance, acting as our primary Name server, **ns1.example-domain.com**. Use the same settings when configuring a secondary Name server, **ns2.example-domain.com**.

### Add a GSLB Farm

1. Click GSLB >> Farms >> Create Farm button
2. Enter a **Name** for that farm, for example, ns1-melbourne.
3. Select a virtual Ip Address from one of the configured Virtual Interfaces.
4. Enter the **Port** number 53.
5. Save the configurations by clicking the Apply button.

### Add a service

1. Click the Services Tab.
2. Click the New Service button to add a service.
3. Enter the service **Name** in the form.
4. Select any of the load balancing algorithms, whether Priority or Round robin.
5. Click the Apply button to create a service.
6. Click the service you just created to open it.
7. Enter the Default TCP port health check.
8. Select the health check for your backends within the Farmguardian section..
9. Click the Apply button to save the configurations.

### Add data centers.

1. Click the **Edit** button when you hover of the IP 127.0.0.1.
2. In the Alias field, leave the field as Custom IP.
3. Enter the IP address of the Data center you want to send traffic.
4. Repeat the process to add other data centers.

### Add DNS zones.

1. Click the Zones tab.
2. Click the New zone button.
3. Enter a **domain** or **subdomain** you intend to use.
4. Click on the domain you just created to edit it. The default name server is ns1. This acts as the Start of Authority(SOA), and the Resources section adds more DNS records.
5. To add a DNS Record for identifying the name servers, click the Create resource button.
6. Enter a Name that identifies a record.
7. Add the TTL value in seconds.
8. Select the Type of the record.
9. Within the **Data** field, enter the value for the record.
10. Click the Apply button to save the configurations.
11. **Restart** the Farm for the DNS load balancer to work.

For more details about GSLB load balancing, read this guide: [How GSLB Works](https://www.relianoid.com/knowledge-base/howtos/how-global-service-load-balancing-gslb-works/)

# Additional Resources

[Using the Let’s encrypt program to autogenerate an SSL certificate.](https://www.relianoid.com/knowledge-base/enterprise-edition/enterprise-edition-v6-2-administration-guide/lslb-lets-encrypt/)
 [Datalink/Uplink load balancing With RELIANOID ADC.](https://www.relianoid.com/knowledge-base/enterprise-edition/enterprise-edition-v6-2-administration-guide/enterprise-edition-v6-2-administration-guide-dslb-farms/)
 [Web application protection from DDoS attacks.](https://www.relianoid.com/knowledge-base/enterprise-edition/enterprise-edition-v6-2-administration-guide/enterprise-edition-v6-2-administration-guide-ipds-dos/)
 [Application, Health and Network Monitoring in RELIANOID ADC.](https://www.relianoid.com/knowledge-base/enterprise-edition/enterprise-edition-v6-2-administration-guide/enterprise-edition-v6-2-administration-guide-monitoring-stats/)
 [Configuring SSL certificates for the load balancer.](https://www.relianoid.com/knowledge-base/enterprise-edition/enterprise-edition-v6-2-administration-guide/enterprise-edition-v6-2-administration-guide-lslb-ssl-certificates/)
 [Web Application Firewall configuration.](https://www.relianoid.com/knowledge-base/enterprise-edition/enterprise-edition-v6-2-administration-guide/enterprise-edition-v6-2-administration-guide-ipds-waf/)

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