F5 LTM and tcp timeouts

I got this request that stated

Increase the tcp timeout client  to 7 mins.

This is out of the norm for requests so I figured I would share my findings in the event anyone else might run into this same thing.

So if you don't do anything and just apply the standard tcp protocol profile the timeout is 5 minutes.  Do I trust that the user knows that they need exactly 7 minutes for a timeout?  No so I utilize an existing tcp protocol profile called tcp.15.minutes which just increases the timeout to 900 seconds (or 15min)

Now you apply it to your Virtual Server..  if its not standard you probably won't be able to apply the profile

Set persistence timeout to slightly higher than the tcp timeout (if tcp timeout = 15 min, set LB persistence timeout to 20 minutes). This will ensure that user requests are pinned to the same app server for the duration of the session.